Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display 

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

I upgraded to the new Apple operating system "Lion". The Music Management software that came with the pad no longer works. This means you can't connect the pad to the computer which is required to transfer music. Contacted the company and they simply said they are no longer supporting the pad. Now the pad is useless to me.

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

Ever since the FreeHand came out, people always compared it to a laptop (or a notebook, or a tablet PC) and the argument was ?well, my laptop can display music - plus I can do a whole bunch of other stuff with my laptop, like eMail..... so the FreeHand is a waste of money.?As a FreeHand owner and user, I?d like to say that comparing the Freehand to a laptop is comparing apples to oranges. It?s like saying ?I have an acoustic guitar and if I just put a mic in front of it, then I have an electric guitar. Plus I can do a whole bunch of other stuff with my acoustic, like play it on the street corner..... so buying an electric guitar is a waste of money.? YES, you can display music on a laptop. But when the singer says ?that key is too high, you need to play in a lower key? with a couple pen taps on the FreeHand and the sheet music is transposed. When the horn section tells me ?hey man, my sax is Eb? with the Freehand, it?s no problem - you can't do that on your iPad. During performance, turning the virtual pages on a laptop (even with a wireless mouse) is a hassle ? been there, done that. The FreeHand turns pages with a foot pedal. But the biggest difference between the FreeHand and a laptop is also the MOST IMPORTANT -> the FreeHand NEVER crashes. Windoze always hangs at the worst possible moment (like right in the middle of a performance). And if you?ve never had that happen to you, consider yourself lucky indeed.Yes, there are apps for the iPad like forscore that will display pdf files ? but it can?t transpose them when the singer wants to change the key (at the last minute). The iPad won?t go back to the beginning page when it comes to ?dc al cappo?. The iPad won?t flip three pages back automatically when you get to the repeat sign or go to the coda. You?re stuck flipping through pdf pages on the iPad while the music goes on. Like one reviewer on Apple said ?cute idea, but is it really gig-worthy??Yeah, the FreeHand is spendy. Yeah, it only does one thing ? but it does it flawlessly. And when it comes time for the show, a flawless performance is priceless.

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

Anyone that buys this clearly doesn't understand that the IPAD is cheaper, and that the ipad has apps for sheet music (like "forescore"). side by side the ipad is superior to this for sheet music. but when you factor in the 10,000 other things u can do with an ipad that this can't it's comical that this thing is far more expensive.

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

Been useing the Music Pad Pro for about four years. It sure makes life a lot more fun and easy to use ( once you get the hang of it ). The company gives GREAT support and willing to help me with my most recent questions about USB drive song storage. They have always been a big help to me and make sure I understand how to use it. Great product and Great Support !!!

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

Pages turn slowly when using music purchased from freehandmusic.com. These charts are transposable and this may be the reason for the slow speed. Solution: use the look-ahead feature or buy charts from other digital music sites. If you have multiple MusicPads as I do, please note that freehandmusic charts can only be assigned to one MusicPad. Charts from other sites may be loaded onto any MusicPad via the File Manager. When downloading a digital music file, always select the MusicPad as a printer which will enable importing to the MusicPad. If you need a paper copy, print from the MusicPad application. For musicians needing chord charts or lyric sheets, simply print a Word document to the MusicPad. Finale and Sibelius charts can be imported to the MusicPad. PDF documents can also be printed to the MusicPad. It is worthwhile to buy the full Adobe Acrobat product to convert non-Word/Finale/Sibelius files into PDF documents without scanning. If you want to optimize the display for MusicPad files, select all Import Options except automatically crop pages, hide the Toolbar and select the view at 100%. When you use this product correctly, you will realize that nothing else comes close.

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

I have been using this product for 2 years now. And although it has been functional, it has had It's share of bugs and incompatibilty issues with oeprating systems. it cannot support snow leopard, and 64 bit systems. On the company's support forum there has been considerable time since any news regarding updates and sofware releases.The toll free number has been disconnected and it seems as though all they want to do is sell off remaining stock. If you choose to buy, make sure you can return it because the company seems to ignoring anyone who tries to contact them.Go to their support forum and read up on what's going on by those who have purchased and use this product!

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

well - these days you can buy a lpatop for under $1000 which is much better than the musicpad pro. Why this thing sucks?... 2 big reasons. All my music is already in PDF format - I tested about 50 sheets and I would say only about 30% of them were readible once they were converted to .fh (Freehand format which is very old technology). You also can only convert one file at a time - consiedring I have over 1000 sheets in PDF format - thisd conversion process would have been unbearable. I got my money back and now just used my laptop on the piano stand using Acrobat Reader in portrait view. Works way better!!!

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

Given the option of carrying around a bucket load of music to all our gigs vs. the Music Pad Pro...no brainer....it is the best !!!! Very simple to use for anyone with some basic computer scanning knowledge....most copiers offer this feature now adays.......even our 80+ year old members like it. I will never go back to sheet music...everyone who plays in our group trios/quartets (near 20 members, playing cocktail/dinner music...some nights double booked which is why we own multiple units) agree that it is a cool tool and makes life way easier. Many plus features....which even without would still be worth the money.......unless you have a hard time following directions....tech support has always been very helpful to a courteous call..

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

I'm a professional musician who has lived in several countries over the past 16 years. I am weary of lugging around five cabinets of music, so last year I started scanning my music to my computer. When my husband surprised me with the gift of a MusicPad Pro, I was already set with my music PDFs. MP Pro is very user friendly, so you can start using it right away, though I did read the manual to take advantage of all the features. I recommend reading the tips for converting your files to the FreeHand format to get the most legible scores (see the "freehandsystems" support page). This is a wonderful product with excellent support.

Comments about Freehand MusicPad Pro Plus Version 4.0 Electronic Sheet Music Display:

I've owned the Music Pad for about 4 months now. It is a great tool, especially if you're like me and like to learn stuff from sheet music or books. I have tons and tons of books containing sheet music that after a while become cumbersome to use as a reference. The Music Pad makes everything so much easier and more accessible and user friendly than a book. Its fairly easy to use, I highly recommend you read the tips on freehand's website to help make scanning and converting files easier. Downloaded music from freehand's website look great and are easy to read. Scanned music looks great too, although time consuming to scan. Converted files from other formats may be too small to read and look terrible when enlarged. I'd recommend printing these and scanning instead. Don't buy freehand's foot pedal, instead buy a 2 button non-latching footswitch (I use a boss) and the appropriate cable and you can get reverse and forward page turning as opposed to freehand's forward only footswitch. I use a 1gb flash memory and it works fine with plenty of storage space. The internal battery is not reliable at all. After only 4 months, it will no longer hold a charge, something I will write to freehand about. Fits just fine on a regular music stand - no need to buy freehand's. My favorite feature is the ability to program the page sequence and creating playlists. Making notes is just as easy as using a pen, and looks neater too. Overall, a great product and has really made my life easier and learning new songs a breeze.