Computing Wish Lists

[fragger]

  >:D They say you can't fight City Hall, but you can always try to firebomb it...

Thanks mandru :)

[mandru]

I've had one of my long standing Computer Wish List desires fulfilled.  8)

For at least twelve years I've wanted an over sized touch screen computer tablet that would allow me to easily organize my band's sheet music.  After almost 24 years of playing rehearsals and Sunday morning services I wanted to scrap the rat's nest of paper sheet music and have the functionality of a computer with an alphabetically arranged list of song Title Files along with the ability to select and save those songs to a current Set List in the order that the songs would be performed.  Additionally I wanted the screen large enough to display the music in the standard page size 8 1/2in x 11in format and wide enough for songs with two pages to allow me to view both pages side by side so there would not be a need to flip back and forth between pages on screen in the middle of wrestling with my bass while trying to play a song.

It was about a year and a half ago I located the first system that came close to what I wanted.  It was an industrial over sized touch screen tablet that had the processing power and functional access to run the programs I needed to be able to meet my stringent demands for my dream set up.  It also clocked in at $12,000 USD per unit and that did not include the cost of software.  Close but no cookie.  :'(

Then with in the last year I hit a Bingo!  Let's just say for the record that I hate Sony Vaio.  Fifteen years ago and four computers back a Sony Vaio 10 GB desktop (my first PC) turned out to be so proprietorially constructed that it was impossible to upgrade with better memory and graphics cards.  It was so bad of a clunker that I vowed that I would never again buy a Vaio.  Well...  Never say never, right?

What I had found was the Sony Vaio Tap 20 all-in-one with touch screen.  It's a Win8 64bit system that has a battery (2.5 hr run time) and is a functional 20 in diagonal tablet with 2 full sized USB3 ports and an Ethernet socket.  In the horizontal format it came so close to what I've been wanting (should I say lusting after) it almost made me weep with frustration over my loathing of the brand association.  So I followed it from its launch to until recently really hoping that some other musician would tweak to what it was that system represented  and review it giving me either a thumbs up or down.  That never came.  It seems that musicians have completely missed what this system can do for them.

Finally at the point where the major big box store I was using to track online reviews of the Tap 20 began to drop their prices and appeared to be positioning to discontinue this computer from their inventory I decided it was time to act.  I went to the Windows kiosk at a local mall and told them which system I wanted and what I wanted to do with it then pitched them with the big box store price and asked if they could w@&k with me on sweetening the deal.  I really caught the right guy on the right day.  He checked with his inventory and found that there was indeed a couple models of the Tap 20 available in town at their warehouse and the haggling began.

All said and done I bought a clean install of Win8 that scrubbed out all the Vaio bloatware garbage, the upgraded and slightly faster Intel i5 model (over the base line i3) with pumped up 8 GB memory and a 750 GB hard drive.  For the same cost of the kiosk's offered price of the 3 yr extended System Warranty (and just the program PowerPoint which I needed) I could instead install the full Professional Office Suit that coincidentally when purchased and installed through the Windows kiosk included for free that pesky 3yr system warranty.  ^-^  :-X

My Nikon shoots JPEGs so I mounted it on a tripod and set up a copy stand.  With my music sorted out separating the 2 page songs from the single page songs because of the difference of framing the shots with the help of Mrs. mandru who swapped pages for me I was able to stay behind the camera and photograph 300 or so songs in a little over an hour.  Then I fed the files on the camera card to a desk top master file on the Tap 20.  From there it was pretty short w@&k to preview each song and rename the file and let Windows do the job of sorting everything into alphabetical order.

Because I've always used an acquisitional filing system with my music (where the most recently played songs are closest to the top of the 8 lb stack of pages) that auto function of alphabetizing songs as I renamed their photo files literally saved me hours and hours of tedious manual sorting.  In my opinion that alone went a long ways towards justifying the $1,200 it paid for the Tap 20.

I've now used this new rig for three weeks and it's sweet.  Instead of spending several minutes sorting through physical sheet music that had to be hauled along to pull the set order it now takes two minutes max (including power up) with the touch screen.  I can drag/drop and copy to a permanent desktop PowerPoint folder and when we're done with the set I delete the set pages and I'm ready for the next week.

Our lead guitarist who's one of the dedicated Apple sheeple uses a 10 in iPad for basically the same job I've applied my tablet towards.  He's almost green with envy.  I've noticed he from time to time will float back to glance at my screen because an upcoming passage is difficult to read on his iPad.

He brags up how his iPad has the highest screen resolution of any tablet available and I agree but ask if he uses binoculars when he wants to watch a movie.

He brags up his iPad's battery life and I agree but point out I can bring extra charged batteries in my carry case then ask him about swapping a bad iPad battery should it go out.

He points out lack of Windows Apps and I agree saying "Yeah but I'm more of a desktop user and prefer real programs."

When he compared prices I pointed out 16Gig vs 750Gig USB ports and hardwired Ethernet connection.


Oh I can see the added value of Entertainment Factor of this will go on and on.  >:D

[PZ]

Sounds like you really did your homework, mandru  :-X

Do you know if the screen technology is Wacom-based?  I'm in the market for a new slate style, or some kind of write-on for w@&k.  I need rather precision pen capability, which the iPad claims to have, but is extremely clunky for my needs.

[mandru]

PZ, I honestly don't know sorry.  That wasn't a direction I was investigating while following out reviews on it.  I know that the Tap can be used to host a Wacom pad and software.  It's a PC with as much power and  functionality as Mrs. mandru's desktop which is considerable considering it's mostly patched together from the functioning guts of my last gaming system (minus the GTX 295) but to draw directly on the Tap screen with the Wacom stylus... I suspect exceeds its limitations.

I did a quick search for Tap 20 plus the word Wacom and came up with this link which has a fairly good review but the only mention of Wacom was by one of the people posting a comment about it being a shame that there wasn't a Wacom style functional pen with the Tap 20 adjustable stand's ability to emulate positions that would be good for easel drawing.

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/sony-vaio-tap-20/4505-3118_7-35477655.html

[PZ]

Thanks mandru; I think you're correct - the Wacom stylus would likely not w@&k on the touch screen.  My current slate has a Wacom screen, but you cannot do anything without the pen, i.e., no touch screen per se

[Art Blade]

very entertaining read, mandru  :) You did a good job, then, and please keep teasing that guy  :-X

[fragger]

Great stuff mandru, and cool read :-X Isn't wish-fulfillment a sweet thing?

Not being a muso, the concept of using a tablet as a substitute for paper sheet music never occurred to me. My Dad is though, I'm going to have to rag him a bit about it >:D (This is a guy who didn't own a PC until he was 82 - I already know what the response will be - classic :-())

[mandru]

Art, as long as he keeps trying to impress me with his iPad it's like shooting fish in a barrel.  :-D


fragger, most real musicians (at least at the level of performance garage bands up through concert pianists) have the ability to not only learn and commit a song to memory with just a couple times playing through in rehearsals but also have a developed ear to be able to improvise or straight out jam and groove.  Your dad probably falls in that category.  It's a talent I admire and would really like to possess but music's foundations (the structure of scales and keys) is in mathematics and I'm a math illiterate.  Sheet music with the guitar chords which I can translate on the fly into fingering patterns for the bass are like a command line edit cheat that allows me to appear to actually be a musician.

The musicians I've played with over the years love me because I'm always musically right on my marks where I need to be and not off in left field trying to be flashy or improvise some esoteric ego driven bassist theme that has nothing to do with the song being played.  Most of them have never had a clue of my limitations and I strongly identify with the Styx album title The Grand Illusion.    (  :-[ )

This rig allows me to hide some of the additional on stage fumbling I go through.  With a simple right or left swipe on the screen I'm able to page forwards or backwards through the set list and if we're playing outdoors as we will be on 8-24 with possibly as many as a several hundred listeners there's no worries about a stray gust of wind scattering my sheet music across the stage.


I've been looking at the Ableton and Akai touch pads that allow a sampled sound to be triggered by tapping a button and are computer driven now that I have one on stage but I need to wait to see if they are going to be compatible with with Win8.  I've got a bunch of old Acid Loop audio sample discs and I'd like to introduce some easily recognizable industrial sounds like the sharp percussive spike of a heavy hammer blow on an anvil, a rusty iron gate slamming or a jet squadron making a fast low pass into our music.  We've got an old favorite that I'd like to liven up by knocking everyone out of their chairs with an explosively close thunderclap.  :-D

The touch pads are used heavily in dubstep creation and can be considered a full instrument on their own demanding a musician's complete attention but I'd just be using it as an additional gadget to interject sound effects.

I'm not planning on dropping the bass (in either sense of the phrase) anytime soon.  ;)

[Art Blade]

 :)

[Binnatics]

Good read Mandru! Lovely how you found just what fits your needs with a creative solution. Funny how your buddy struggles with the iPad ^-^ :-X

Kudo for your inventiveness and another for being such an übercool musician :-X 8)

[Binnatics]

lol, consider you have me waiting for an hour to give you the double slap on the back :-D :)

Edit: Done!! ^-^

[mandru]

 Thanks for the kudos Binn. :-D

[fragger]

I'm not planning on dropping the bass (in either sense of the phrase) anytime soon.  ;)

:-D :-X 8)

[mandru]

Artificial dishpan hands?

Spoiler

http://www.wimp.com/screensurface/

They'll do this for hours on end but if it comes to trying to get one of these guys to actually do the dishes...  Forget it!

[Art Blade]

 :-D

Spoiler

Interesting vid.. I'm trying to imagine something on a bigger scale, like Olympic games. Training for a swimming competition, the sensors register any movements.. if swimming too slow, some electroshocks combined with the water turning all glowing red and some bass booster audible signals.. "sorry, still too little effort and still too slow.. electrifying pool edge.. you will be dead on leaving the pool. A good day and.. enjoy your stay."

[Binnatics]

A somewhat cruel, GlaDOS imagination mr Blade  ::)

Indeed interesting toy. I like the speaker part.

[Art Blade]

GlaDOS learned a trick or three from me  :-D

[fragger]

 ???

All that's needed now is a virtual towel.