At the Jam this year some folks from California, as I remember, had a MusicPad tablet with them and were kind enough to give me a brief demo. Tooo brief. Would like to catch up with them to ask some specific questions focusing on file format and capacity issues. Thanks.

Tim

Hi Tim,

Bob Hendershot is an eaxpert with the Pad. Scott Yee, if he is reading, may also have your answers.

Bob is undergoing knee surgery so it may be a while for him to reply.

Fran in SC

Scott Yee, abandoned the Synthzone forums some time back and I don't know if he ever looks in anymore as I never see any posts from him.
I do see him posting now and then in this forum: http://www.smallgig.com/forums/index.php
so you might want to try there.
best to all Technicers
Bebop

I have one, although I don't consider myself an expert. Also, the Freehand forum is here. http://www.freehandsystems.com/phpBB2/

Bernie

Hello Everyone,

I too am still very much interested in the MusicPad (just waiting until my savings grow a bit more).

Meanwhile, Johnny Barr has been very kind to me these past few months and I know he has one. However, my last email to him was unanswered so come on Johnny - let's hear from you. I know you think it is great and use it a lot so must know more than the rest of us do. Please get in touch.

Audrey

I may not be an expert, but can answer most questions. What do you want to know ?
Bernie

The Pad I saw at the Jam had an entire Fake Book (maybe two) loaded onto it. My questions are: What file format is used by the Pad and can you load data from a variety of sources? For instance, if I were to scan a Fake Book page and save it as ???, is it possible to load that page onto the Pad.
Thanks
Tim

Hi Tim
I'll give you short rundown.

First of all, don't worry about capacity. I have a 2GB Sandisk inserted into mine that will hold thousands of songs. You can swap out sticks at will. The formats are many, including Jpeg,PDF,Lime etc. The best one depends on clarity achieved by your system.

The procedure goes like this: With the software provided,scan any page containg the score or lyrics to a file area in your PC from any scanner. You can categorize them into subfolders any you like. Once you get enough, you bring up the remote Musicpad(enabled by the same software you have installed) and import these songs to your Musicpad. The files are then converted to Freehand format. It is quite easy once you get ahold of the procedure.

Once you load the songs to the MPP, you can arrange them in playlists where you can bring them onto the screen sequentially with the tap of your pedal, or tapping the forward arrow. If the song is more than one page, you can "append" them together so that tapping page one will bring you to two etc. There are other things you can do like writing eraseable notes on the score. I use this to connect my score to a location on my keyboard.

I would not be without mine and I paid $1200 plus stand and case, and pedal. They are now about $900, with a recent price drop.

Bob Hendershot is my mentor on this machine, but this will give you a laymen's perspective.

Bernie

Thank you for your detailed reply Bernie. My questions are:-

1) can it be positioned on the music stand?2) if so, can it been seen clearly - how
large is the type?
3) Is the foot pedal you have a dedicated
one or could I programme it to the 'Foot
Controller' I already have?

I am more than a little interested in this piece of gear as the last PC count showed more than 14,000 songs I have on it which causes me a headache on what to take with me each time I'm preparing for a 'gig. It is obvious there are great advantages to having a Music Pad, so will follow this thread closely.

Audrey