 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-04-11 15:48
Has anyone here had any practical experience with the product featured on the rear cover of the most recent issue of Professional Musician (the AFM newsletter)? It's a $1000 "electronic tablet" that displays a backlit single page of music (kept in the form of a PDF file), with page turning and markup capabilities. It supposedly can keep thousands of pages of music on hand, all available for instant call up and use.
I'm mildly interested (to the tune of wanting to see an evaluation unit) in this, although I already have some reservations (size of the page, structural integrity of the unit, ease of use and so forth). It was listed as being available from Pender Music, but when I stopped by there this Saturday afternoon the staff on hand had never seen one.
Anybody seen one yet?
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2005-04-11 18:29
Is it the Music Pad Pro? The New York Times had an article on this sometime last year. I posted a thread on it, though hardly anyone had any experience with it at the time.
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=147373&t=147373
________________
Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
- Pope John Paul II
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2005-04-12 16:01
I have seen a music-scrolling software system at the NAMM show - that may be the one mentioned in the ad. Page turns could be made with a foot pedal, sort of like the high beam switch on older cars. Of course my first (facetious) question to the salesman was whether you could transpose the orchestra on the fly with a mouse-click... no, the music could be marked but not edited.
I first saw such a system in action on TV, a performance by the Harry Connick Jr. orchestra. HC's site describes how he got started, but I believe his system has gone beyond having a computer for every player: http://www.harryconnickjr.com/connick/pbuild/linkbuilder.cfm?selection=doc.680
John Morton
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-12 16:10
I sure hope it comes by default with a good sturdy stand.
Could you imagine dropping it on a gig?
;)
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-04-12 19:37
Well, that's one of my problems with the "system" as they apparently are selling it. It is sold alone, at the $1,200 price point (more or less) without a carrying case, without the foot pedal to flip the pages, and without the stand accessory.
While I can see skipping the stand (we would use our standard "fronts" for the stand, and place the tablet like music box on the desk of the front, shipping a touch sensitive screen the size of an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper without some means of protecting it when not in use seems (to be sure) a bit optimistic. Shipping it around when it's not in use is a prescription for disaster.
Also, it doesn't seem to be fully functional without the pedal, so why sell it without same?
The Connick group uses Macintosh Powerbooks, if one of my musicians can be believed. Overkill, but not much more pricey than a trunk full of these things would be.
I also have questions about how readable it is under varying light conditions. I'd not worry about playing in a darkened ball room with such devices, but what about during the afternoon with high ambient light levels?
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-04-12 19:39
Terry Stibal wrote:
> Well, that's one of my problems with the "system" as they
> apparently are selling it. It is sold alone, at the $1,200
> price point (more or less) without a carrying case, without the
> foot pedal to flip the pages, and without the stand accessory.
And without the music. Copying the music into the system involves another set of permissions and charges.
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2005-04-12 20:17
The high school at which I rehearse at with both my ensembles is testing these systems. I understand other high schools are as well. What I don't know is their opinion of the system. Should you wish to contact someone at the high school, this web address will give you the e-mail addresses for the full band staff. http://www.wayne.k12.in.us/bdband/staff.htm
Apparently, in an ensemble setting, the systems can be networked, giving the conductor some type of group control.
A question I had was in regard to what would happen during a power failure. Then I realized that, on a stage, you'd lose your lighting as well, making music reading equally difficult with printed music.
A question I do have in regards to Mark's comment on permissions to copy music into the system is, would there actually be a problem if you were copying into your own system music you already owned? Would any publisher care as long as you owned a copy of the music and were not reproducing it for someone else's use? I can see where borrowing someone else's music and copying it into the system would be unethical and illegal.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-12 20:21
I would think that it comes under the beta max "fair use" clause easily.
You are permitted to copy whatever you want if and only if it is for your own use.
I'm not a laywer, but that's my hunch.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-04-12 20:34
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> I would think that it comes under the beta max "fair use"
> clause easily.
It might if you never left your house for a concert, but being a digital copy there might be other laws involved. I don't know.
As soon as you're performing in public all relevant copyright laws come into play.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-12 21:45
However those same copyright laws are being in effect for performing the work in public already (with the sheet music).
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2005-04-12 22:30
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> However those same copyright laws are being in effect for
> performing the work in public already (with the sheet music).
Correct. If you play from the sheet music you're (possibly) OK. If you play from a copy without permission you're not.
You haven't yet secured the performance rights, either. Hopefiully you're not recording it, or you'll need the mechanical rights.
Which means:
You gotta know what you're doing, where you're doing it, and how you're doing it.
We go over this all the time. The best advice I can give anyone is to play out-of-copyright music in public ...
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-04-12 22:47
There certainly are licensing issues with performing "covers" in public.
Hey Mark, ever heard of a Classical piece being called a "cover"  Even with the pre-1923 works there are certain works which are still under copyright such as some of the Russian works.
I remember Eugene Rousseau doing a Sax arrangement of a pre 1923 Russian work which he had to basically recall due to copyright issues.
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