What are the advantages of these pad things versus using a small laptop? Just sayin..

Well Scott uses one sitting in front of his Tyros screen so he can view it clearly while he plays. You sure wouldn't be able to do that with a laptop. Because it has a touch sensitive screen it doesn't require all that extra real estate for a qwerty keyboard.

Because a picture can be worth a thousand words, here again are the pics I posted on My Tyros2/iPad Setup thread back in November 2010.

Yep Scott, you came to mind straight away when Donny asked that question. And thanks for the photos to show what you are doing. You really have integrated the iPad into your keyboard setup very nicely.

With UnReal Book able to associate a backing track (audio or MIDI) or a Performance load (via sys-ex) to each and every chart, I can see that memory going faster than you might think... especially if you use high bitrate MP3's that sound almost identical to CD quality (or even full .wav's if you want the ultimate sound quality)

My fakebook pdf collection is only about 1 GB so far, but I haven't been collecting for very long (any help will be appreciated!).

Scott... do you actually PLAY with the iPad like that? How do you get to the T4's screen, or see what is going on?

I think, with these displays obviously very affordable now, that it is time for the arranger manufacturers to start to incorporate them into the keyboard itself. Yes, Korg, Yamaha, Ketron, and Roland back in the day all have nice color screens, usually touch sensitive (time for Yamaha to jump on board, IMO), but none of them were this kind of size. What we currently have is just too darn SMALL to be as useful for chart and lyric display without a lot of restrictions.

Imagine an iPad that pops up, hinged at the back (a la Korg) on your arranger... wow! Just what the doctor ordered!

Yes Diki, that is why I said "...if just loading pdf's.." Note that I did go on to say we all do get tempted to load other things. A LOT more

And if you can actually tell the difference between a 256 mp3, and a 320 mp3 you are better than 90% of the population And I reckon the other 10% only THINK they can hear a difference

If I did a blind test you would NOT pick the difference!! For backing tracks why on earth would you want to use a wav file for goodness sake!!!! Way too big for no discernible benefit.

And as for midis, sheesh you could fit a gazzillion into 16 gig!

My iTunes collection is at 9 days worth of continuous music(about 14GIG) and I have ALL of that on my iPad, together with all the MP3 backing tracks I use, all the midi files I need, my PDF book collection (as in novels etc) all my PDF manuals, all my PDF charts and scans, two dozen apps with associated data files......

AND Angy Angry Birds!!

I still have nearly 35% storage left. Mine is a 32gig model.

If I was buying now, after careful consideration of exactly what I use my iPad for, I would definitely go for one of the deals for an iPad 1 64gig...Much better value. I would also make sure I got 3g as well.

Dennis

YES! Of course I do. I don't need to see the T4's LCD screen while playing a song because the song's settings are accessed via REG (1-8) buttons.
I'm able to, whenever I want, simply pick the iPad up with one hand and set it next to me between songs, or simply leave it sitting next me until I need it again. It's very convenient and handy to call upon if/when needed.

In addition to the iPad, when I don't require a lead sheet music, I've also got 100's of lyric/chord files (.txt)I that I've got linked to song REGS (1-8) which automatically appear on the T4 LCD screen when performing those songs. All the while, from the audience vantage point, there's no onstage music stand or laptop to distract from the performance.

Afraid my iTunes collection is already about 55GB (and most of it is just ripped at 192kbps or 256kbps) and growing daily...