paperless

[bloke]

I went from physical maps to using Google maps, and can do either equally comfortably.

Whenever I cross a state line on a freeway during the daytime, I pick up a PAPER state map.

Mapping on my phone offers "instructions"...in addition to having to zoom in/out and (all too easily) losing track of what I'm looking at.

Paper maps offer "mapping".

If I don't have a paper map, I go to google maps on my desktop computer and print out some paper maps prior to a new-areas journey...OK, or (if really simple) I just memorize it. (On my recent trip to Reelfoot Lake, I just looked at the trip on my desktop computer, remembered it and drove with the phone in my pocket...not complicated, even through hours-long and boondocks-y.)

Phone stuff is OK as a supplement, but tends to offer a "mole's" (tunnels) perspective, whereas I prefer an "eagle's" (from above, rather than "as I pass through tunnels") perspective.

WARNING: EVEN MORE OFF-TOPIC/ EVEN MORE OF A SIDEBAR !!!
I'm sure it's due to my personality, but (for some of the same reasons) I reject iPhones in favor of Android phones, as iPhones (their snooty-poot pricing aside) tend to boss me around, whereas Android phones seem more ready to allow me to boss them around. I need a tool, and not a boss.

bloke "whose entire 3-person cell phone plan costs around $12/mo., and who finds a $225 Android phone to be just dandy."

[tadawson]

Phones do many things, but very few well. For Nav, a dedicated GPS is the best.. Same for kusic players, etc. etc., What they *DO* offer is many things in the same device . . . period . . .

And the best choice is quite often not the most expensive . . . . I find plenty of tablets in the $200 range than can display music largernthan full size paper media.

It all comes down to preferences . .

[bloke]

also notice: The charts the band's scheduled to play are RIGHT HERE on the MAIN PAGE for this concert...and even program notes.

https://www.thejacksonsymphony.org/2024 ... the-fringe

[MiBrassFS]

After quickly scanning this three-page thread I'll say it's nice to think I am not the only person who is absolutely bat-Shirt crazy lately. Thanks guys!

I especially enjoyed the “I demand you respond/how dare you respond” parts. They’re funny.

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

After quickly scanning this three-page thread I'll say it's nice to think I am not the only person who is absolutely bat-Shirt crazy lately. Thanks guys!

I especially enjoyed the “I demand you respond/how dare you respond” parts. They’re funny.

I enjoy it when people respond to questions to clarify a claim they've made. It means I don't have to make uninformed assumptions about their opinion, and if they provide actual evidence and sources, I can better understand their position.

[bloke]

Trolling requires all sorts of techniques.
Posting four phone inches of blather is considered worth it in the trolling game if you can get someone else to post two inches of argument.

The original post was about a freeway philharmonic going paperless - as far as tickets and programs are concerned. I chuckled because the orchestra announced that they were going to mail postcards to announce this.

Another freeway philharmonic orchestra librarian apparently was triggered - even though I originally wasn't even talking about sheet music, but - since they seemed rarin' to go, and I had time on my hands between people responding with purchase orders, as well as decisions on other things that I was waiting for text and email responses (stuck at the computer) - I decided to go ahead and play this little online video game.

To this day, I still can't really think of a thread - in which they've become active - which actually discusses playing the tuba

[Mary Ann]

Phones do many things, but very few well. For Nav, a dedicated GPS is the best.. Same for kusic players, etc. etc., What they *DO* offer is many things in the same device . . . period . . .

And the best choice is quite often not the most expensive . . . . I find plenty of tablets in the $200 range than can display music largernthan full size paper media.

It all comes down to preferences . .

I have an elderly friend whose eyesight is starting to give him trouble reading the music; if he can see it, he can definitely still play it, but seeing is becoming quite a problem. More than one stand light, and some of the music we get, you really do need excellent vision to read it. So what cheap tablet/system could he get that would help out? He's a retired engineer and wouldn't have trouble figuring it out, but also, like me, he does not have (or want) a smart phone, so there is that. Nothing that isn't a stand alone system. I have no idea how people get the music "into" those devices.

[peterbas]

If you have a tablet with a camera, you can simply take a picture of the part and it will be stored on the tablet.
Mind you, I'm only talking how Mobilesheetspro works.
If you have a computer with a scanner, you can scan the parts and save them on the computer and after connecting the tablet to the computer (usb but wifi works also).

Did he try to print the parts to A3 size? That would be the cheapest way.

A second hand 12 to 13 inch (best 4:3 or 3:2 ratio) tablet in landscape mode can work but hell need to use a bluetooth button for scrolling. (auto scrolling is also possible).

A chromebook is also useable, but I know nothing about them.
Maybe over the top but you could connect (wireless hdmi) a big monitor or tv as a second screen. Mobility while be an issue but at home this can quite nice. I use my old TV the same way at work to display drawings at meetings with 3 or 4 people.

Sometimes useful things get posted.

[kingrob76]

I have no idea how people get the music "into" those devices.

As @peterbas said, a photo from the tablet if it has a camera is sufficient. I use ForScore and have done this many, many times. There's a lot of ways to do this - time permitting I scan them and make PDFs because that's the best quality, but there have been times when I've had to grab a part and take a photo as it was being called up next in rehearsal.

Backlighting is an underrated bonus of tablets, when I had my cataract it made a big difference and as I age I know I am getting less efficient with my low-light vision.

[tadawson]

Phones do many things, but very few well. For Nav, a dedicated GPS is the best.. Same for kusic players, etc. etc., What they *DO* offer is many things in the same device . . . period . . .

And the best choice is quite often not the most expensive . . . . I find plenty of tablets in the $200 range than can display music largernthan full size paper media.

It all comes down to preferences . .

I have an elderly friend whose eyesight is starting to give him trouble reading the music; if he can see it, he can definitely still play it, but seeing is becoming quite a problem. More than one stand light, and some of the music we get, you really do need excellent vision to read it. So what cheap tablet/system could he get that would help out? He's a retired engineer and wouldn't have trouble figuring it out, but also, like me, he does not have (or want) a smart phone, so there is that. Nothing that isn't a stand alone system. I have no idea how people get the music "into" those devices.

I bought the absolute top of the line, previous generation Samsung for about $250. Hi res OLED screen that can get stupid bright abd contrasty, and orders of magnitude more processor than will ever be needed for this task, and about 13", so in landscqpe, wider than paper, and 512GB of storage. I also see some offshore specials in this price rand that are, iirc 17" (have not gone there), and for the most paper-like experience, there are the Boox e-ink tablets that are not cheap, but likely give the best contrast outdoors (butne-ink tends to not work well in low light . . .

My reader runs pdf files (and a few other formats) so I simply upload via WiFi on my home network from my computer. . . If all I have is paper, I scan to pdf, and can remove yellowed color from old paper (a lot of what I have is 45 years old, and pretty discolored) and can also increase contrast if desired. (Also on MobileSheets Pro)

I can't speak to Apple stuff, since I can't stand it . . .

[bloke]

I'm often the outlier, but - previous post and quote as an example - I can read the quoted portion more easily than the blue-background portion, and (while I'm typing this post with the white temporary background) it's even more difficult for me to see (ie. to see what I'm typing...as "typist" who looks at the paper/screen while typing, and not down at my fingers).

I suspect that the yellowish/"eggshell"/whatever background (or old yellowed and large 10x14 sheet music) allows my pupils to stay more open, and - thus - my older eyes can read the print more easily.

again: With the tiny (so-called "march size") little march music (even if photocopied), I can read those, because all of those old marches are already in my head, and I can play all those by ear, and - if not a familiar march, yet a typical march - I can see the directions of the notes, and offer educated guesses as to what notes those tiny little marks are supposed to represent.

bloke "Not every post in a thread is a troll."

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

I've been wondering about the white vs. off-white paper color lately. We print parts on off-white, which our paper supplier helpfully describes as "natural", but many publishers (not all) print on solid white. My first thought was that the high contrast between white and black would make it generally easier to discern the ink, but I could see the opposite being true. The white paper would reflect more light than the off-white paper, but we don't need to see the white; we need to see the black. So maybe it puts more strain on our eyes because we are getting too much light from the part of the paper we NOT trying to read?

I wonder how dark/cursed mode would do for readability. Obviously this would pertain more to screen reading, since it would be rather...wasteful to color entire pages black except for the music. Putting aside how strange it would be to have everything inverted, I wonder if it would be easier in the long run.

[tadawson]

I'm often the outlier, but - previous post and quote as an example - I can read the quoted portion more easily than the blue-background portion, and (while I'm typing this post with the white temporary background) it's even more difficult for me to see (ie. to see what I'm typing...as "typist" who looks at the paper/screen while typing, and not down at my fingers).

I suspect that the yellowish/"eggshell"/whatever background (or old yellowed and large 10x14 sheet music) allows my pupils to stay more open, and - thus - my older eyes can read the print more easily.

again: With the tiny (so-called "march size") little march music (even if photocopied), I can read those, because all of those old marches are already in my head, and I can play all those by ear, and - if not a familiar march, yet a typical march - I can see the directions of the notes, and offer educated guesses as to what notes those tiny little marks are supposed to represent.

bloke "Not every post in a thread is a troll."

Someone else apparently thought of that as well. FWIW, the reader I use lets you set background colors for just that reason . . . (again FWIW).

[peterbas]

CAD user (like autocad) seem to mostly make their drawings with black as background colour.
I don't frequently draw stuff and I prefer a white background.

On my tablets I try to adjust the colour of the background lighting to the colour of the lighting of the venue, find that to make reading easier.

[bloke]

10th (??) time (same replies)...

I'd use someone's else tablet, particular if it's at least 17" diagonal (10x14 - the traditional size of orchestral music part music).

I'm not going to upload the music, and nor am I going to recharge the tablet nor be responsible for it (sure: unless I were to take one home...but I likely would not. If an ensemble-owned tablet went kaput, I wouldn't want to be accused of dropping it on the floor - something which doesn't harm paper).

I've noticed that conductors typically don't use tablets (paper scores are often extremely tall, and wouldn't even fit on my imaginary 17"-diagonal tablet).

Even this live-to-film movie gig: two huge paper conductor's scores (intermission), and some other screen to simultaneously watch for the real-time synchronized pulse.

This technology reminds me (somewhat, and I admit that it's not anywhere close to as extreme as this) of some complicated website, whereby the person interacting with it needs someone (at the other end) coaching them through the website in real time, rather than the person at the other end - simply - taking down the information that the hapless person is struggling to enter electronically.
In other words, the paper is already there...yet the paper is scanned onto a device (or - even worse - someone completely hand-re-engraves the piece of music from the paper score - via some music writing program), the device must be maintained, fed power, handled gingerly, etc...yet the paper was completely ready for interaction without any additional steps.

All of that having been repeated so many times (yet I don't mind re-trolling, as long as I'm here at my desk waiting for critical emails to be answered), just...

...Let me be clear: I will always put the middle class and working families first. I know where I came from.

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

@bloke Good grief, stop being such a baby. You stated a concern you had (page color) and @tadawson replied with how tablets can address that issue. That's the end of the story. No response needed, it's just good information to have for anyone interested who might have the same concern.

You do realize other people read this forum, right? People who maybe would like to find tablet related information without sifting through mountains of trolling?

And honestly, it's just good information for YOU to have too for when you show up to a gig and they hand you a tablet to use. Now you know you might not have to worry about page color.

[Mary Ann]

All of our music is paper, and some of it has remarkably tiny music font. I wouldn't know how to get the font bigger -- or is this just part of the learning curve?

[bloke]

@Colby Fahrenbacher
You DO realize how much more food humans must eat in order to power bicycles (all of that natural gas fracking, in order to create fertilizer, etc.) and - once at the gig - how much more coal, natural gas, or fuel oil must be burned in order to charge and power all of those tablets, yes?...and the child labor involved in harvesting the materials required to manufacture the batteries for all those tablets...

Further, converting trees into paper prevents those trees from dying and rotting and - were they to die and rot - those trees would be expelling untold amounts of carbon into the atmosphere...so paper - unquestionably - is THE environmentally responsible choice.

Besides all of the pitfalls I've listed in tablet use, I just can't imagine myself being that environmentally irresponsible.

OK...You called me out, and I'll admit it: I am a baby. I've never served in the armed forces nor fearlessly defended Europe...but I was a street captain on the safety patrol.

[peterbas]

All new band music can be bought as a digital set.
The conductor scores are almost always A4 format.

[peterbas]

All of our music is paper, and some of it has remarkably tiny music font. I wouldn't know how to get the font bigger -- or is this just part of the learning curve?

Is it just age, but I also seem to notice that the fonts used are getting smaller, saving off ink (very expensive)?