How to chat and play at the same time

[Yuperdo]

http://joep.herejezus.nl/laptop%20op%20keyboard.jpg

Right, this might look like it's some ubercool controller and a laptop with 28351243812 soft synths, but did I fool you guys there! This is the one and only 61 key Technics kn750 PCM Keyboard and since I have no printer here, I have to check all my sheet music digitally. I also don't have a fancy stand with additional stand to put a laptop on, or even own a Musicpad Pro.
So I figured I might as well just balance my laptop on the sheet stand. It stands surprisingly stable. And in addition, plug in my networkcable and I can also chat, browse, etcetera while playing!
The only downside of this lowbudget (I'm just a poor student -_- ) solution is that I can't see the display of my keyboard anymore and that some buttons are inaccesible.

At the moment I'm working on creating a footcontroller out of an old computerkeyboard (got it for free, lowbudget!!!), so I can scroll through sheet music without taking my hands of the keyboard.

Cheers from the lowbudget showoff student

[-=AnatomiC=-]

If you don't need this laptop anymore, I think it's possible to detach the screen from the keyboard, and extend cables. Than visibility won't be a problem anymore.
I would use a mouse, to make a footswitch. You may even build it in a real pedal :smile:

But I don't have all this high-tech mambo-jambo...
I'm using my head to memorize my music.... - like you said, "got it for free" :biggrin:

[Yuperdo]

If you don't need this laptop anymore, I think it's possible to detach the screen from the keyboard, and extend cables. Than visibility won't be a problem anymore.
I would use a mouse, to make a footswitch. You may even build it in a real pedal :smile:

But I don't have all this high-tech mambo-jambo...
I'm using my head to memorize my music.... - like you said, "got it for free" :biggrin:

Detaching the screen would be a great solution, be it not that that laptop, as old as it looks and is (5 years old) still works perfectly and is my main computer :p
I have been considering new laptops / computers and my main requirement is that I can hook my board up on it, so I can get a bit more into soundsynthesis and be able to use some different stuff then the 200 presets.

Supercool would be those new HP laptops with turnable touch screen. You can turn the screen and fold it onto the laptop so it is a closed laptop, but with a touchscreen on the topside. Really neat and I think pretty useful for soft synth control.

Ah yes my own memory, I keep on forgetting the strings score towards the end of Erotomania while I been playing that song once in a while for the last 1,5 years... It are like 10 chords to remember and I keep on forgetting them >.<

[raj4music]

Can the new HP touchscreen laptops be used in live gigs for softsynths ?? many people said that its not good for music as the touchscreen eats up a lot of RAM

[Grey Loki]

You probably -could-, but I would much rather get a more stable standard laptop and then assign softsynth functions to controllers on my keyboard - even though a touchscreen might be nice, i'm still not sure i'd trust one in a live environment.

Good show on the laptop - I use a laptop running linux above my own keyboard for exactly the same function :D

[-=AnatomiC=-]

Ah yes my own memory, I keep on forgetting the strings score towards the end of Erotomania while I been playing that song once in a while for the last 1,5 years... It are like 10 chords to remember and I keep on forgetting them >.<

That happens because you play with sheet music. The best thing to do IMO is to take a good look at a sheet music, try to memorize the chords and everything, than put it away and play it - and never look again! Try to understand it, and don't be afraid to improvise, if you forget something :biggrin:
Jordan for example, don't have to memorize his solo's - every time he gigs, he makes entirely new ones :cool:

Sheet music is bad for memory and musical development, I know it from some experience I have.

[Yuperdo]

Hmm most of those laptops are only 13 inch and have crappy performance, onboard graphic and sound cards. It won't take a lot of RAM, but a lot of processorcycle (cpu).

[Grey Loki]

You'd be surprised just how much RAM some VST instruments take. Especially those that play back samples rather than pure synthesis.

I wouldn't get anything with a crap specification without the intention of upgrading it ASAP - it's common to buy laptops with the minimum amount of RAM available, and then add your own for much cheaper than what the OEM would charge.

You definately don't ever want to use any onboard sound cards. Ever. At all. I've never actually come across one that sounds good, or even works adequately enough for any kind of audio work - not only are 3.5mm jacks not standard for pro audio, but the electronics inside them are often of a very low quality.

[Yuperdo]

as the touchscreen eats up a lot of RAM

Was referring to that :p

Grey loki, what program do you display sheet music? Grab them from a midi with an editor? I do this with NoteWorthy composer under Windows, though it ignores some midi stuff like bends. I can export it to PDF files so I can use page up page down to scroll through it.

[jeebustrain]

Touchscreens themselves don't eat up any ram. Windows just sees it as an additional pointing device. I have one on my Panasonic Toughbook and it just uses standard mouse drivers inside XP.

the only thing that would eat up RAM is that if you were running a handwriting to text program (which you don't need to use unless you were using it as a notepad).


BTW - a touchscreen is awesome with Ableton Live. Especially using this VST:
http://www.monotouchlive.com/

[Grey Loki]

Grey loki, what program do you display sheet music? Grab them from a midi with an editor?

It depends entirely on what sort of sheet music I want to look at - if it's preproduced, obviously I just open it up in its respective editor.

If i'm taking notes from a MIDI file, I tend to import it to Logic and then either print out the score, take screenshots of the score window (which is tedious), or print it out using a PDF image writer.

[Yuperdo]

Picked up a second hand 15 inch TFT screen today for 60 euro. Unscrewed it from it's stand and it fits on the sheet music thingy of my piano. Flip Windows 90 degrees and you can reun everything vertical. Or if it are sheets in PDF I can flip them in Acrobat.

Gotta fix something now to attach it to my keyboard stand. And maybe get a trackball mouse.

Pictures:
http://joep.herejezus.nl/piano%20met%20digitale%20sheet%20music%201.jpg
http://joep.herejezus.nl/piano%20met%20digitale%20sheet%20music%202.jpg

[gylfih]

that looks brilliant. atm I just use my laptop on a music stand, and I've been thinking of making a foot pedal for page down function on Acrobat to see my music...

maybe I should try to get a screen like that.. I have so much to buy - new keyboard, new softsynths, maybe this screen, ticket to hong kong for a music tour...
:rolleyes:

btw, as we're being cheapskates in this thread, I'm soon gonna invest in a Wacom graphics tablet (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?WAC-BAMBO1), and control it through Ableton using this Tablet2MIDI software (http://www.livelab.dk/tablet2midi.php) from LiveLab. This will be my cheap continuum:tongue:

[jeebustrain]

Can the new HP touchscreen laptops be used in live gigs for softsynths ?? many people said that its not good for music as the touchscreen eats up a lot of RAM


Where did you get that? Anyone saying something like that is relying on hearsay and has no clue what they're talking about. I have had a Toughbook w/ a touchscreen for 2 years and have used it live extensively. The touchscreen doesn't take up any ram - no more than a mouse. That's basically what Windows sees it as, an extra mouse. The handwriting->text conversion software might use some ram (though I never noticed it on mine) because it relies on a screen overlay to capture all input, but it's no more than your average anti-virus software would use. I actually gigged with an XP Pro install with only 512MB of ram and it worked fine. I've since brought it up to 1.5GB and haven't had any problems with it. And this was all running 8-10 softsynths and multiple audio tracks simultaneously in Ableton Live.

BTW, if you're using Live and have a touchscreen laptop, this is an awesome piece of freeware.
http://www.monotouchlive.com/

[Yuperdo]

Update!, the result of my and my dad DIY-ing this afternoon:

http://joep.herejezus.nl/tftstand1.jpg
Tada!

http://joep.herejezus.nl/tftstand2.jpg
Ain't it just beautiful?! The numpad thing has a trackball on it, useful for operating the pc from behind the Fusion.

http://joep.herejezus.nl/tftstand3.jpg
But all those cables.... To the left, on the righthandside of the Fusion, is a rubber waterproof keyboard, for hitting ctrl+l in Adobe to go full screen etc.

http://joep.herejezus.nl/tftstand4.jpg
Little closeup of how we made it. 2 tubes go into the keyboard stand, we screwed 2 aluminium pipes on it, and screwed a part of the original foot of the screen onto those.



I LOVE IT!

[gylfih]

Beautiful. As soon as I get back from my holidays I'm gonna try something like that.

[jeebustrain]

the pics aren't loading for me

[Yuperdo]

the pics aren't loading for me

Apparently, my host has some power problems. Please have some patience for them to get the servers back online.

[jeebustrain]

Apparently, my host has some power problems. Please have some patience for them to get the servers back online.


that sucks! I'll await patiently :tongue:

[Yuperdo]

that sucks! I'll await patiently :tongue:

There you are!

EDIT: Or not! It went down again.......... -_____-

[Yuperdo]

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/4887/tftstand1cg4.jpg
Tada!

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6075/tftstand2oy0.jpg
Ain't it just beautiful?! The numpad thing has a trackball on it, useful for operating the pc from behind the Fusion.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/73/tftstand3ik9.jpg
But all those cables.... To the left, on the righthandside of the Fusion, is a rubber waterproof keyboard, for hitting ctrl+l in Adobe to go full screen etc.

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/4444/tftstand4ps9.jpg
Little closeup of how we made it. 2 tubes go into the keyboard stand, we screwed 2 aluminium pipes on it, and screwed a part of the original foot of the screen onto those.

[jeebustrain]

wow, that's impressive. Very good job!

[jenius_92000]

Supercool would be those new HP laptops with turnable touch screen. You can turn the screen and fold it onto the laptop so it is a closed laptop, but with a touchscreen on the topside. Really neat and I think pretty useful for soft synth control.

I believe they're called "tablet PCs"? I'm pursuing one myself, for sheet music puropses.