VirtMus vs MusicPad Pro vs estand vs ?

In doing my research on which direction to go if I go digital with my sheet music I decided to check out SourceForge.net, which is a community of tech's from around the world who work together using free technology information and have a zillion projects going right now. One of them being Audacity which is a free program pretty much the likes of Sound Forge.

I decided to do a search on something similar to MusicPad Pro or estand and found a free program in the making called VirtMus. The annotation window is not yet operable along with some drag and drop function. For what is working so far it seems like another option that would be worth noting as we all check out these possibilities.

Other's are invited to assist in it's creation. It make's me wonder if our software guru Michael Bedesem would have any input on this.

I'm curious to hear input on this from other's that already have MusicPad Pro, estand or some other way they have managed to go this direction, or are just researching this concept like me.
http://virtmus.sourceforge.net/

Scott http://ScottLMusic.com

Scott, thanks a lot for providing this link. It looks like a very cool alternative ... and you can't beat the price.

Good information Scott, plus a good link to a reasonably priced USB footswitch that could be used to trigger changes in lyrics sheets as well.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Scott: The thing that has always turned me off about MusicPad Pro is that it can only see one page at a time. As a pianist I'm used to seeing two pages and my eyes scan accordingly as to what is coming next. Band-in-a-box does this split-screen thing (top and bottom) so when you are looking at the bottom half the top half scrolls to the next section. It kind of works OK but it wouldn't work when the computer is not playing the music and doesn't allow for hand notations.

Never heard about eStand before. Their hardware looks cool, but expensive. $5,900 for the two-page solution.

In your research did you find that either eStand software or vitmus would suport a laptop with a wide screen (19+") or two 15" small bezel screens that would visually support two side-by-side pages and do the page turns correctly?

I wasn't really looking for a 2 screen solution. I didn't notice anything like that as of yet. I see no reason why a 19+ screen wouldn't work. The inventor's email address is in this link.

What I have considered is laying the laptop on it's side and using a forward backward footswitch. While maybe not as handy as the MusicPad Pro it does give a good solution for those who already have a laptop or who what to pick up a used one for a couple hundred bucks.

It would also allow you to used ALL the other possible things you would on any computer rather than just having something that does lead sheet's and mp3's.

Here'a a link showing using a laptop on it's side for music.
http://estand.believetech.com/shop/Software/?u=&g=1&o=80573&c=3&b=33

Scott

You can do a landscape 2 page view with the MPP

Robert, there's also a page preview feature with the MPP that gives what immediately follows what you're currently looking at



[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 04-06-2007).]

The MPP is a 12.1 screen at 1024 x 768 resolution. Landscape with two pages may be possible but it will be REALLLLLLLY small. Like reading on a page that your are used to seeing 8.5"x11" as a 4"x5". I can see the migraine coming now from all the squinting.

Robert

I've only had a few minutes to play around with VirtMus, but I noticed in landscape mode I am getting one page and about 3/4 of the next page. I don't know exactly how that work's yet. I imagine that can be adjusted to get 2 full pages.

Right now I am just experimenting rotating the music 90 degrees.

Also until the annotate function becomes operable I found this free program on cnet.com that will easily erase anything. You can with a writing tool add your own markings but would take a little practice until it was really smooth.

I imagine there are other free image editor's out there that are better than this one, but I just spent a few minutes searching for it.

It will alter the original but not the converted VirtMus image, so you'd have to do your annotations 1st.
http://www.download.com/Free-Image-Editor/3000-2192_4-10623588.html?tag=lst-0-1

Scott

Also, I noticed in the Thumbs Window that you can easily drag and drop the images anywhere you want to easily set up an order of songs for a set.

I had been in communication with estand. They are supposed to have a demo download for their products, but I dare anyone to figure out how to do it. All I could find was an add to cart button. 'Course at this stage, I see no point in checking into estand with this free VirtMus program.

It seem's to me that MusicPad Pro is still the top choice of anything I'm aware of, with VirtMus being the free alternative.

Have been doing a little more experimenting with VirtMus. I used Free Image Editor to easily erase a note, a note stem and to add a different note with stem and create 2 eighth notes connected together with a bar.

Then rather than use the sketch tool to write in some new chord changes, I found and downloaded Foto Tagger, another free program that allows you to type in text, in this case some chord symbols.
http://www.download.com/FotoTagger/3000-12511_4-10658231.html?tag=lst-0-6

This works pretty slick. I'm trying to figure out what more would one need/want.

Scott

Scott,

In order to display the two pages side by side, you will have to change the screen resolution and make it high. Unfortunately, this will reduce the size of the file to the point where you really need great eyesight in order to read it.


Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy