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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Just took delivery of one of these last week from Al:
FreeHand
It's basically geared for orchestra musicians, students/teachers, school bands, etc.
Basically, I can download ALL of the tunes that I gig with onto it, & scroll thru 'em via a touchscreen (or use a footpedal).
You can buy/download songs/scores thru the company, or scan/import your own in .pdf format.
You can also import various "score composition" program files, like Sibelius.
Touch the right side of the screen, and it turns the page forward, touch the left side, and it turns back a page. You can also annotate the page with a highlighter, pen, musical notes, or text (via an on-board virtual keyboard) and then save the score (you can also go back and "erase" your annotations without affecting the original score . . .).
Another thing that I really like is that I can compose "set lists" prior to a gig by touching on a selection of songs from my repetoire, "save" as a named set ("1st set", "mellow tunes", etc.), select the list, and it'll scroll through the tunes (in order) with each touch of the screen.
It also has an on-board mp3 player, so I can plug the unit into my PA and play music during my "break" and not have to deal with the godawful jukebox . .
I haven't used it "in the field" yet, as I'm still in the process of loading in my tunes. Thankfully, I pretty much keyed-in/saved most of the stuff in AdobeIllustrator and can readily convert everything to .pdf (you can import Word.doc's and graphic formats as well, but .pdf's are pretty "memory efficient". Whatever I can't convert, I can easily scan.
The one thing that this thing ISN'T is "cheap".
I'd wanted one for a while, but could never justify the $. When I got my tax refund, I booked the Scotland tickets first, and the next thing I did was go "shopping". Musician'sFriend/SamAsh "have" them, but I'd rather had seen Al get the money than those schmucks. I gave Al the info, he researched it, and went out and became an "official distributor" of FreeHand for me (Thanks,Al!). Naturally, I'll not go into "pricing" here, but Al DID do me a "solid" on this.
It IS pricey, and (for me) it's a bit "overkill", but for all intents and purposes, I didn't NEED another guitar. The sheer convenience of not having to lug around a 6" 3-ring binder, music stand & light (the unit has it's own stand). . . and then have to FLIP back/forth throughout the night . . .
I can see if you played in an orchestra (like ElginAcres) or in a school/church band, or were a teacher (there's video/out for a big monitor or projector), this thing'd be invaluable & worth the outlay.
I'm just catering to my own laziness & need for a new "toy" . . .
I'll keep you posted as to how it's working out.
THANKS Again, Al for going thru all the trouble for me . . . |
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Posts: 4413
| I was looking at that in al's newsletter. Seems like a very neat idea. Nice mini-review, cliffy. |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Newsletter?? . . .
Well, if I'd GOTTEN mine, I probably would've seen it . . . |
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Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | No need to send you a newsletter....the hook was already set in the Clifford fish! |
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Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Very cool Cliff! I've had my eye on that for a long time. Good luck with it! |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | "....the hook was already set in the Clifford fish! . ."
Actually, I just "jumped into the boat" . . . |
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| Wow that really is nice! Ihave the brief case behind my board opened and a music stand for the music, and I spend all kinds of time keeping this up to date and lately I have had to reprint everything in larger letters because my close up vision is failing by the week. This would be great. Very professional |
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Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Yeah.....I have eyed those for quite a while but still find it hard to justify the cost.
Since I am done buying guitars (wink wink) and am now selling off all the excess, maybe I can afford one down the road.
Good point by Northcountry. Can you change the size of the print? |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . Can you change the size of the print? . ."
Not ON the tablet, you'd have to change it on the "native" file before you import it INTO the tablet (actually, you load/import everything onto your PC/Mac, and then sync it onto the tablet via USB.
It DOES "zoom", but then you'd have t'use the nav bars on the side/bottom to move around on the page.
You can also "flip" the unit 90-degrees on the stand, and view two pages side-by-side, but you'd need the eyesight of a 14-year-old Asian cellist t'be able to read it (but then, reading notes on a staff'd be easier to read than chords/lyrics). |
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Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Congrats Cliff !! :)
..might get one myself..
Vic
..where did I put that sheet again.. :confused: |
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Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Still very cool, Cliff.
I want to hear the report after you gig it a few times. |
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Location: big island | i would need EXTRA LARGE fonts too, so the tablet would have to be twice this size probably. i really liked the concept. |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | The screen is ALMOST the size of an 8.5"x11" sheet . . . |
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Location: big island | i use size 18 to 22 font on my 8.5" X 11" song sheets so i usually need two sheets per song and then i need real good lighting in the evening hours.
does the unit have sufficient backlighting? |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | It's bright as hell (when you select a white background), but the brighter the screen, the shorter the battery life (if your not using AC). The only potential drawback I could see, would be using it in very bright open sunlight.
If you create a two page native document, then convert it to a two-page .pdf (and put the "page break" at say . . . "2nd chorus") . . . you touch the right side of the screen (or hit the footpedal) and it'll go to the 2nd page. |
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Posts: 5576
Location: big island | sounds like a great tool. i'd love to shed the lighted music stand and binders and the 30lb. clips that hold the pages during the inevitable on-shore winds.
so, you can pre-program your sets and all would be smooth until and unless you take requests. but even then scrolling through an alphabetical song list would be so much easier than shuffling pages and feeling foolish. and it would be a "business expense", of course. hmmmm... |
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Posts: 4833
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | ......plug it into a 42" monitor and your good to go! |
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Posts: 5576
Location: big island | but then i'd have to lug the 42" monitor and the "freehand" and the extension cord/junction box to plug 'em in... |
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Location: Central Massachusetts | Pretty whiz-bang stuff, Cliff! It's running Linux under the hood ! |
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Location: closely held secret | Sweet. Don't drop it. |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . Don't drop it . ."
Thanks.
(tool.) |
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Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Yer welcome.
Comes from lots of experience with warehouse monkeys handling notebooks, scanners and tablets. They like to test the "survives 4 feet to concrete" claims. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | If somebody were to make/market one of those slip-on rubberized jackets (like they make for iPods), I'd surely grab one . . . |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | sounds like a winner. would work well at the Frickin Mermaid where it's always dark and we always forget the words. |
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Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | I wonder if you can just load text pages (lead sheets)? |
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Posts: 4833
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Dip it in this stuff.
 |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . I wonder if you can just load text pages (lead sheets)? . ."
Not following you w/that one, Wabb . . .
If you can save it as a .pdf (or any graphic image - .jpg, .tif. .png, .bmp, etc.) you can load it.
I'm NOT loading notation.
In fact, I "dumped" all of the sample scores that came with it t'make room for my stuff . . .
I'm basically just loading it with lyrics that have the chord changes, etc.
(the exact same .pdf-format of my "Wind" tune that I e-mailed you is the format I'm using) |
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Posts: 1889
Location: Central Massachusetts | sounds like they have a printer driver so anything you can print you can send to the device |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . Dip it in this stuff . ."
Oh No! . . . I'm not falling for THAT "old gag", again!! . . . .
. . . oh, . . you meant the Freehand, didn't you? . . .
sorry. |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . sounds like they have a printer driver so anything you can print you can send to the device . ."
Ed Zachary. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Update:
SoFah/SoGood . . .
All of the stuff that I had as native Illustrator files have been loaded in (via .pdf export/import). I've just started scanning-in all of printed pages (& there's a LOT of 'em . . .)
I've found that the most effective way is to scan thru PhotoShop & "cropping" as close as possible to the text (reducing "borders" to the absolute minimum). I then re-size the document (with Proportional Contraints turned "Off") to 766x1022 pixels (which is the optimal screen size of the Freehand) before saving.
When I import the .pdf into FreeHand, it "stretches" the document to FILL the page & keeps the type as big as possible.
Doing this slightly "distorts" the original file that was scanned, but who cares? . . it's just text, not images or graphics. We want "readability" here, not graphic integrity . . .
Haven't done any "field-testing", yet . .
That'll come after the Scotland trip this week.
The Saturday after my return, I've got a Fund-Raiser at a local bar for the American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life". Hopefully, I'll have this thing fully loaded, and (ahem!) the back-ordered stand will be in, so I can try it out then.
Will keep you apprised . . . |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Cliff, what you're doing (loading it with lead sheets/charts) is exactly what I was talking about. An LCD notebook. Excellent.
btw, have a GREAT time in Scotland. Say hi to Temp if you see him. If you can see. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | these are really cool
if interested contact me |
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Posts: 1234
Location: Tidal Mudflats of Virginia | Interested, just tight on funds right now Al... |
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FreeHand