More than anything, a tablet resembles a piece of paper. Apple’s iPad rests easily on a music stand, and – while in this generation, it’s a bit small and low-resolution – is at least the beginning of an ideal score reader.
We took a look at Avid’s Scorch, a leading contender for your iPad score-reading needs, when it came out, and followed up with questions for Avid (like how you turn pages on a tablet – hint, it’s easier than on paper):
Not Quite Sibelius for iPad, but Avid Scorch Could Become an iTunes of Notation (“Not Quite” because, while powered by Sibelius’ notation engine, you can read but not create scores)
Tablet Scores: Avid Answers Our Scorch Questions; Bluetooth Page Turners for iPad, Android
Now, there are further developments. Most importantly, in its evolution toward what I predicted would be an iTunes of music, there’s now a huge store of notation – Hal Leonard’s Sheet Music Direct is now available, powered by the Avid Scorch platform. That’s relevant to, erm, about half of our readers, because it’s only available in the USA (or if you have a US iTunes account). But I imagine we’ll see other countries soon, as Sheet Music Direct is an international service.
If you are in the USA, you can grab the app for free and get 15 songs free of charge to get started:
Sheet Music Direct @iTunes
Daniel Spreadbury, a gifted notation and education advocate I’ve had the pleasure to know for some time, details what’s in the new release.
New Sheet Music Direct app for iPad powered by Scorch technology [Sibelius Blog]
The highlights: what differentiates this from, say, a chunk of bleached tree, are features like:
In the favor of the flattened wood pulp with ink marks on it: higher resolution, bigger, easier to see, easier to mark up, the battery never runs out, does not cost US$499. (Not at first, anyway.) Oh, and you don’t have to wait for it to come out on the iTunes store in your country.
But that puts some significant promise on the iPad side of things.
There are also 90 improvements in Scorch 1.1, including better page turning features and page turning, but one of those 90 features to me jumps out: you get PDF support.
With PDF support, wherever you are, and whatever notation program you use to generate scores, you can now easily share your work with someone else with an iPad. Scorch itself has a separate link from the Sheet Music Direct app:
I really want to hear from someone actually using these apps to read scores. What’s the experience like? Are you using it on a regular basis, or did you revert to paper scores?
Years ago dublab hosted a weekly happening at the Temple Bar (now shuttered but still shining in our memories ) in Santa Monica, California. We attempted to present a diverse range of music covering every shade of the future roots spectrum. We hosted a particularly special evening with the band Telefon Tel Aviv. This archive had slipped through the server cracks over the years but we stumbled upon it recently and decided to revive it for you. Charlie Cooper, one half of Telefon Tel Aviv, has since tragically passed away but Josh Eustis continues making music under the TTA moniker. We hope you enjoy this moody musical offering in remembrance of Charlie.
HCR 030 w/ Mamiko Motto x TWIN CITIES [broadcasted on ntslive.co.uk 30.11.2011]
Hepcat Radio – 2011-11-30-20:00:00 by NTS RADIO
TRACKLIST:
01. Ryuichi Sakamoto – Riot In Lagos
02. Ango – 3 Foot Transposed Instrumental
03. Machine Drum ft Dominique Young Unique – Stupid Pretty
04. Lucky Beard – BonaLi
05. 52nd Street – You’re My Last Chance
05. Busta Rhymes – Light Your Ass on Fire
06. Prison Garde – 110 Be Loved
07. Redinho – Stay Together
TWIN CITIES IN THE HOUSE
08. Twin Cities – Anticipation
09. Twin Cities – Heard Some Learned Some
10. Twin Cities – Brand New World
11. Twin Cities ft D’Ablo – Don’t You Want Me Back
12. Twin Cities – Don’t Slow Down
13. Twin Cities – Behind The Door
I recently cleaned the j-wires and re-calibrated my Sequential Circuits Pro-One. I cleaned the j-wires and the contact bar with isopropyl alcohol and cotton swaps, although proper contact cleaner is recommended. I also gently bent a few of the wires to improve the connection to the contact bar.
I knew about the calibration problem prior to any of this maintenance, but I noticed it even more after cleaning the j-wires. I’m not sure why this would be the case, but I resolved to take a stab at the calibration myself having not attempted it before. Looking on the scope I could see that an octave on the keyboard was actually a quarter tone sharp and therefore unplayable. I made the necessary adjustments for both oscillators and now it sounds great.
After the calibration I produced this sequence entirely on the Pro-One in a single take by programming two short sequences into the on-board sequencer. The first sequence was played at several pitches to create a progression. I also switched off the oscillator sync at the same time I switched to the second sequence to create an octave doubling of the melody then re-enabled the sync at 1:41.
