I finally did it. After seeing Scott's at the Florida Jam this spring , I knew I had to have one. For anyone interested , Music 123 has some great option packages.
http://www.music123.com/Sheet-Music-Viewers-d6158.music

Bernie,

This is Mark. Met you at the event earlier this yr>
I'm also interested in getting one since I'm a slave to fake sheets as I have numerous fake books with xerox copies all over the place. I think this is a good tool to get one to wean oneself from music. Also, if a tune comes to mind, you don't have to "dig" for it.
Please give us a report/review.

Thanks,

Mark/Fla.

I've got my sights set on purchasing one too, since I share being a slave to fake books and xerox copies. Most of the copies I have are stored in sheet protectors in binders. I then set up registrations of 8 tunes on my PSR 3000. Each registration has a bit a variety of songs, I've got about 200 stored this way. The music pad pro hopefully will save me some time and be less of a mess.

I previously have spoken to Scott Yee about the music pad pro. I'm sold on it, just a matter of putting some cash together to buy it. Bernie, I'll looking for your feedback too.

We'll compare notes.
I am concerned about how the data is backed up.
Every hand-held organizer I've owned including the the Visor (a copy of the palm) has crashed and burned, even with the back-up chip. How can we be assured that the songs won't dissapear after all that labor?

Mark, all your data can be kept on a USB jump drive that can be backed up with your computer in many ways. The jump drive is plugged directly into the Music Pad. I keep my backups on CD's. I have hundreds of songs in my jump drive for the Music Pad.

Hi All
Not sure if this is going to be relevant but, rather than keep buying music and fake books, buy one of the many books that teach you how to play music by ear, that way you will eventually be in a position that if someone asks you to play a song for a specific function etc, you can search the web for MP3 files to listen to and play straight from there.
The fact that you can already play a hell of a lot of tunes from fake books, means you will only need to go that little bit further to play by ear.
Just a Thought.

Bill

Hi Mark
Good to hear from you again. I will be glad to report my findings when I get it. In the meantime, Scott and Bob H are the Garu's,so to speak. I will be learning from them. They will tell you more , but, they have invited me into their club that communicates through Skype through conferencing.

I am sure Scott Yee will be chiming in ,so stay tuned.

Bernie

Bob
What flavor USB jumpdrive do you have. I had better get one.
Bernie

Thought I'd put my 2 cents worth. I have 2 512 MB SanDisk Cruzer Minis. Both work just fine with the Music Pad. Later, Ray

Bernie, I answered your question in an email answer to your mail. But, maybe I should include it here. So here is a paste of the mail that I sent to you.

HI Bernie,

I have about a dozen jump drives of various sizes and makes. You will probably need about a 512 Meg or 1 gig drive depending on how many books you want to put into your drive. Each music sheet will vary from about 30 K to 150K depending on how busy the sheet is and how it was converted to Freehand format, so you can do some arithmetic and decide what is best for you. I use a 512 Meg drive and Scott uses a 1 gig drive. My drive is about half full with all the stuff I really need on it.

I use Lime notation software. I can directly transfer my sheets from Lime to Microsoft Word and then from Word to the Freehand format. That process is very clean and does not contain the trash (black specks) that you tend to get when you scan a sheet. So the sheets that I make that way are anywhere from about 25 K to 35 K per sheet. Stuff that has been converted from Acrobat (.pdf) files tend to be much larger averaging about a 100K per sheet.

There is a problem with some jump drives working with the MPP. The problem exists even within the same brand and model. So, there is no way to say that a specific model jump drive will work with your MPP. BUT, if you do have a problem, Freehand has a new kernel for the operating system that they will send for you to install that makes most jump drives work OK. I doubt that they have included that software patch in any of the MPP's that are being delivered now. I have installed the patch in my MPP and almost every jump drive that I have works fine. The new kernel is included in the new version 4 software that is soon to be released.

Now, to answer your question, I use a PNY 512Meg Attaché drive that would not work until I installed the software patch. I also have used a Kingston 256Meg that worked without the patch as well as a Lexar 128 Meg and a Kingston 64 Meg that worked without the patch. Scott's 1 gig drive works without the patch but I'm not sure what brand it is.

Feel free to ask for any help you might need.

Bob
******************
Hi Ray, Thanks for your input. If any of you folks want to hear a magnificent Jazz pianist find a way to listen to some of Ray's stuff.

Hi Mark. Like Bob, I have EVERYTHING (all my song charts) 'backed up' on CD/DVD. In my 6 months of ownership, my MusicPad Pro's Operating System (Linux OS) has not crashed a single time.

This has definitelyl become the case for me. No more loose paper floating around the music studio or stage, or heavy fakebooks to carry around for reference to fullfill those obsure song requests.


I agree. Learning to play by ear is most definitely IMPORTANT and I too use your method for picking up tunes that way as well. This method alone works great especially for the simpler pop, rock & country songs with basic easily recognizable chord changes, but most of the tin pan alley era tunes beneifit from playing more complex chords: extensions (9ths, 11ths, 13th), alterations (#11,b9,b13, etc), including tri-tone chord substitions, of which may not be as easily or quickly recognizable (at least for me) attempting to lift it from the audio recording alone. Fakebooks (like those by: Chuck Sher) that include 'professional' sounding chords (and not simply I-IV-V7) will bring your music performance to a much higher level. When I perform with the MusicPad Pro, I don't use it to actually READ the music when performing, but to glance at it when needed.


Bernie, the 1 GB USB Flash Drive (I have 2 of them) I've been using 'with great success on the MusicPad Pro+' is the SanDisk Cruzer mini 1.0GB. You can get it from NewEgg.Com for $67.73.


I concur with Bob. Our Synthzone member buddy Ray is AT THE TOP of my 'jazz pianist' rave list too. Ray is a true FINE musician who has played with many legendary renowned 'jazz artists' in the biz. If any of you are in the Washington DC area this weekend, be sure to catch his act at Kinkeads , Sat 9/10th:
Washington Post Review Go Ray! - Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 09-08-2005).]