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Music Reading Software

Buying or building computers for Hauptwerk, recommendations, troubleshooting computer hardware issues.
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GDay

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Music Reading Software

PostSat Jan 20, 2018 1:56 pm

Hello all,
I've pretty much had it with sheet music falling off my rack, and failed page turning - too bad Hauptwerk doesn't include a page turn assistant, mine never wants to stand there for hours while I practice music she can't stand.
Any advice on a good platform and software? I don't need an annotator, just something that loads, sorts,reads and 'turns' pdfs easily.
Any advice or experience welcomed.

Thanks, G'Day
G'Day

I still have a few small chickens for sale . . .
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smfrank

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Re: Music Reading Software

PostSun Jan 21, 2018 4:36 am

GDay wrote:just something that loads, sorts,reads and 'turns' pdfs easily.

I really like Music Reader http://www.musicreader.net It allows you to assign midi notes to turn forward and back. That way, it doesn't matter which program is "in focus". They are currently working on a major upgrade. Works on Mac and PC.
Steve
Steven Frank
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Erzahler

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Re: Music Reading Software

PostMon Jan 22, 2018 7:28 pm

I asked an associated question above.
As I only need basic scanning and editing, is there a program that does both so that I can scan piano music and then arrange it onto 3 staves for the organ?
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UndaMaris

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Re: Music Reading Software

PostSat Jan 27, 2018 12:19 pm

I use the ForScore app with my 12” iPad Pro for music scores. Annotating scores with an Apple Pencil is so much easier and you can make a different version for each organ you play on. You can buy an Airturn remote device which works via Bluetooth to turn pages, either with your hands or with a footpedal. Obviously a foot pedal is useful for many musicians, but is not much use to an organist, but you can buy a further device (which connects to your Airturn remote) made for parachutists to control cameras, which you place in your mouth and bite every time you want to turn a page. It’s especially useful if you are recording at home, but uncomfortable for long sessions. I use it quite often.

At an organ recital I attended in St Eustache in Paris last year, Baptiste-Florian Marle-Ouvrard used an iPad throughout without mishap. He had built page turning into his routine - he was able to turn a page by touching the edge of the screen in a darting movement which he seemed to carry out in a millisecond. I can only describe it as virtuoso page turning, but if you think about it, it makes sense to train yourself to do this.

There are hazards though, which I have discovered! If you have a connected Apple Pencil nearby and its battery is running low, a warning message pops up on the screen and you can’t turn the page until you have cancelled the message. How is it that the world’s brightest minds so often fail to think of such little details? I’m glad this kind of thing doesn’t happen when I’m driving my car - you know, you can’t brake until you cancelled a message which says your car battery is low.
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Erzahler

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Re: Music Reading Software

PostSun Jan 28, 2018 5:49 pm

Thanks UndaMaris. Do you have a suggestion for me as I do not need page turning software. I just want to scan and edit. Thanks
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UndaMaris

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Re: Music Reading Software

PostSun Jan 28, 2018 6:36 pm

There are software programs on the market for scanning music (they are expensive). However, they are not very accurate (in spite of their claims) and you have to spend a lot of time correcting the errors. You can then edit the score in a programme such as MuseScore (which is free and very good). I find the whole business a nightmare and prefer to write the music out by hand using my Apple Pencil on my iPad in an app like Penultimate which has “manuscript paper”. I find typing music into a computer programme extremely laborious, complicated and unpleasant, whereas actually writing music out neatly by hand is so much more enjoyable. If it was good enough for Bach.....!
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Erzahler

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Re: Music Reading Software

PostMon Jan 29, 2018 5:13 pm

Thanks. I'm giving MuseScore a go.
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Organorak

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Re: Music Reading Software

PostFri Feb 09, 2018 8:04 am

I have a digital music desk and use Foxit pdf reader as it's very versatile, free, I can display two pages at a time and can open to fullscreen. I also had issues a while ago with Acrobat causing random static noises when I turned the page, which does not happen with Foxit.

For page turning I press a foot or thumb piston which generates a MIDI signal which is converted (via Bome's MIDI converter and Autohotkey) to a pageturn command. The trick is that you need to use a MIDI signal to trigger your pdf reader to momentarily become the Windows program "in focus" rather than Hauptwerk. Of course as soon as you've executed your pageturn you can click any MIDI key, stop or whatever and Hauptwerk goes back into focus, and it will still continue to play notes whilst doing the page turn.

See here for the exact scrips I use, all the software you need is free to download.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16262

Regarding scanning music, I've not tried it for a few years but understood that it's very difficult computationally to "read" music so wouldn't set your hopes too high unless things have radically improved.

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