Does anyone have one and any tips for scanning etc

Regards

Tony

Hi Tony
Some owners go to great lengths to custom scan their music. Personally, I just scan to PDF as is. There are many options and maybe Scott Yee and others will chime in with additional advice.

Bernie

Tony, the most important thing to do when you are formatting scans for the MPP is to be certain that the size of the image is exactly 766 by 1022 pixels. If your initial scan isn't close to that aspect ratio, sometimes it helps to add white areas to the top and/or bottom so the image is not distorted. You can size the image with most graphics software. Paint can do the job. I prefer to save the files as PNG files and then import them into the MPP. But several methods work OK.

Hi Tony, first of all, congratulations on getting a Music Pad Pro. Since I've purchased an Apple iPad, I don't use my Music Pad Pro unit as often as I now primarily utilize lead sheets and/or lyrics & chords. That said, there are a couple
of distinct advantages about the Music Pad Pro that I prefer over the iPad. These include the larger screen size for far better 'full page' view (large Fakebooks) & classical score readability. The other is The Music Pad's useful note & musical symbol annotation and editing feature. Ok, here's my initial review of the Music Pad Pro in 2005.

Re: Scanning, I concur with Bob Hendershot (hi Bob ) that for optimal image quality, it's important to scale the size of the image to 766 x 1022. I also recommend saving the image to PNG before converting to Freehand (.fh) format. Tony, if you wish, I'm open to chatting on Skype with you to share more details. Feel free to PM me.

I’ve used the MPP for several years, and then went to a 10” VGA monitor since the Ketron has a 15 pin out. With the monitor, I liked the idea of not having to search for lyrics and worrying about the MPP freezing up etc. But, I found that I missed having the dots for some tunes. After reading this discussion, I dusted off the MPP and since, over the past couple of weeks, many of my gigs have been cancelled due to weather, I started to update the MPP and hope to use it for the next couple of gigs. I’m just not looking forward to paging through playlists etc.
I normally take my lyrics to word, increase the font size and make any needed edits, then print to freehand.
I hope you will share some of your tips here rather than only using private mail.
Ciao,
Jerry

Jerry, I have used MPP's from the very earliest days and have never had any of them "freeze up". I've even dropped a couple of them and they just keep on "keepin' on". I use the edit and annotation functions extensively to put notes on my lead sheets, etc, and can change them at will. Feel free to post any questions here and we will do our best to help.

Playlists with the MPP work great, especially if you can pre-determine the list of songs that you plan to play. All you have to do is touch the right side of the display to call up the next song.

jmo, but the iPad and the appropriate app is a far FAR better solution than the MPP, both in ease of use and in pure graphics quality.

And in the near future any of the about to be released Windows 7 Tablets!!

Really, all the bells and whistles are not really needed on stage!!

All the setup work is done at home. So create your doc file, or paint file or whatever, print it to a PDF file...and believe me, it is the EASIEST way to get crystal clear charts without having to stuff around with this pixel setting or that pixel setting, or that res or that res...

MPP is WAY to awkward..not too mention no further support either, and it is really a very poor, graphically speaking, option for onstage performance.

I went from a 12" tablet laptop to the iPad @ just under 10", but because of the superb crystal clear graphics Apple do, after about 20 minutes I did not notice the difference.

In fact I even went back to the laptop before finally selling it, JUST to see, and my reaction was "uggh, how did I EVER use that!!!"

Just my 2c worth here

Dennis

You are right, Dennis. The setup work is done at home. And, you are right about new software development. The software development staff at Freehand has been closed down. But hardware support is still there. And, it is true that new technology has passed the MPP by. It is an old piece of hardware.

But, if you have seen poor quality displays on a MPP something must have been done terribly wrong. I don't know what I would do with more graphic detail.

I thought we were talking about Jerry's thinking about dusting off the MPP he already has . . .

Hey Bob, yes I know , but as I said it's just my thoughts...The only dusting I would do with an MPP would be the dustbin!!

I had no problems in either using the MPP, or achieving the highest possible clarity that was available. I went into it in great detail with several other MPP experts at the time.

All I am saying is the current stuff is far better, and unlike most instruments that seem to get better with age (if looked after), old tech gear does not...

Why waste time TRYING to get something "reasonable" on an old bit of kit like the MPP, when soon, for a few hundred dollars you can get EXCELLENT!!!

Anyhoo, again m8, it's only my opinion not criticising people, I am criticising gear.

MPP "COULD" have been still the trend-setter, but for whatever reason the company did not improve it's hardware.

D

I'm also ready to take the leap to some type of e-reader for sheet music display. To me, the MPP is overpriced when compared to an Ipad or similar E-readers. However many of those same E-readers, while lower in price, have a smaller display, probably because their main purpose is for reading books... paperback books.

I would think I would need more than a paperback style display while reading sheetmusic, so a larger display is probably needed (at least for these older eyes). I've only ever used 8.5" x 11" sheets to read, so an 8" e- display seems too small.

So given that, other than the Music Pad Pro, does anyone have a good, easy to see, and read alternative to old fashion sheet music? Will an Ipad give you a large enough display to replace what we grew up with?