Electronic device to display scores ?

kwtc · Post by **kwtc** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:33 am

Greetings all,

I am a happy new owner of an electronic piano and I just discovered IMSLP. I was wondering if any of you is using some sort of computer screen to display PDF files while playing rather than having to print them.

I found http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx which basically does everything I would want but which is a little bit small for displaying scores.

I can put a laptop computer on the piano top but the laptop screen is in "paysage" orientation rather than "portrait".

Any ideas are welcomed !

Post by **Yagan Kiely** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:34 am

I've heard of some orchestras using them but I very much doubt that many do. They were pretty much touch flat screens.

Deinonychus · Post by **Deinonychus** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:03 pm

There are two methods I use to do this with a normal laptop

first - Acrobat Reader allows you to rotate the images 90° and most music scores when viewed in full screen (ctrl+L) in this way take up most of a non-widescreen display. Provided your laptop screen can fold out flat you could try placing the laptop on its side on the piano stand. I guess a tablet PC would be better for this.

Second (though this is more time-consuming) - If you retype the score it is possible to change the page size so that it be identical to the screen size (I know lilypond allows you do output to user-defined page sizes, and assume you could do something similar with Finale or Sibelius). The result is interesting from a historical point of view as much older piano music - Beethoven's piano sonatas included - was indeed printed landscape rather than portrait

But most of the time I just resort to good old-fashioned paper

kwtc · Post by **kwtc** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 3:45 pm

I would not have tought at rotating the laptop ! Probably because my wife's one can't open enough to have the screen lie flat.

I've looked at Telefunken digital photo displays (there's one with a 14 inch diagonal). This would require converting the pdf files to jpeg but there does not seem to be an easy way to flip pages; I think such a device would be too limited.

I'll have a look at tabletPCs.

Post by **Peter** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:59 pm

You should find a post somewhere on this forum about this topic were an electronic pupiter (music stand) was presented. I vaguely remember it was very expensive for the technology that's behind it - nothing more than a tablet pc with some custom software. And a pedal for page turning, which is nice.

Generoso · Post by **Generoso** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:31 pm

I believe I am the one who mentioned the electronic stands before... I found the post... Here is the info..

Quote:
Another thought - most of the works on IMSLP are scans. Does anyone know of an "electronic music stand" - a MUSICKINDLE (tm) - you saw it here first - to replace the paper we use? Hmmm... maybe with automatic repeat recognition... or with automatic advancing pages as you play ... just a dream?

Actually there are some solutions for computerized music stands already in use. Here is one..

http://www.musicreader.net/?gclid=CKGvt ... ugodczK0CQ
There is a Youtube demo here:
http://www.youtube.com/v/4_wljkm7ZHM

---------

Here is another one:
The Computerized music notebook (Mac and PC compatible)

http://www.freehandsystems.com/news/bendavis.html

It is interesting isn't it?

kwtc · Post by **kwtc** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 6:18 am

Indeed, I did not knew exactly what was a tablet PC and it turns out that this is what I had in mind.

For example : http://www.fujitsu-siemens.fr/products/ ... ic_st.html It is possible to find models from previous generations on eBay at a reasonnable cost, as I certainly don't need a Core 2 Duo to display a pdf file !

The MusicPad Pro from Freehand System that generoso points to is nice at first glance but is a completely closed (proprietary) system, it can display and annotate scores but that's all it will do.

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