E-Book reader for music play usage

[t-mies]

I was wondering if anybody could help me. I have searched also this forum, but couldn't find the information I need.

I have waited couple years now right product to appear to the market to support my needs. Around 30 years I have used papers for music playing (chords, notes, tabs, lyrics, etc.). What I have done for years is that I have put each song to one A4-size format, so that none of the songs would be more than one A4-paper size; horizontally or vertically. This is mainly to avoid need to turn pages while playing.

Instead of paper, I would like to use e-reader. Tablet PC is another possibility, but I don't like slow start ups and other PC features. I would also use the e-reader for books and documents, not only for music, but the music usage is the reason to acquire it.

It's a standard to use 'Courier New' -font (size 10) on music documents. This is due to the font's ability to keep the position (in proportion to other lines) when changing the size of the font, etc.

Well, if wee look at the following, we see we don't have so much possibilities for the music purpose (big screen):
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

The problem:

Since it is almost impossible to test this without having the device to my home first, I did yesterday a small test. I cut to the A4-paper 6 inch rectangle to test on PC could this 6" size "screen" manage to zoom those 'Courier New'-font music documents, when changing the font size so that all text on A4-size document would be visible. So, I held this paper against the computer screen while changing the font size on Word document. It was possible, but the font size was really small on this 6" area.

Of course I don't know now does the e-reader do it in a similar way, or does it process text somehow. So, my problems is now that I don't know if the 6" e-reader is big enough for my purpose. Particularly I'm interested on Sony PRS-700 because of its functionalities in zooming, etc.

I was wondering could anybody advice me on this or do even a test with following. Copy following (trad.) song to Word document on your PC with 'Courier New' -font size 10. Transfer it to your e-reader and see if it is possible to have whole song in readable format on 6" screen. Another possibility is also 10,2" iRex screen.

======

C Am Whiskey in the jar
As I was going over the far famed Kerry mountains,
F C
I met with Captain Farrell and his money he was count'n.
Am
I first produced me pistol, and then produced me rapier,
F C
Saying stand and deliver for you are the bold deceiver.
G
With me ring am a do ama dah
C
Whack fol the daddy o
F
Whack fol the daddy o
C G C
There's whiskey in the jar

C Am
I counted out his money and it made a pretty penny,
F C
I put it in me pocket and I took it home to Jenny.
Am
She sighed and she swore that she never would deceave me,
F C
But the devil take the women for they never can be easy.

Chorus
C Am
I went up to me chamber all for to take a slumber
F C
I dreamt of gold and jewels and sure it was no wonder,
Am
But Jenny drew me charges and she filled them up with water,
F C
And sent for Captain Farrel, to be ready for the slaughter.

Chorus
C Am
'Twas early in the morning before I rose to travel,
F C
Up comes a band of footmen and likewise Captain Farrell;
Am
I first produce my pistol, for she stole away my rapier
F C
But I couldn't shoot the water, so a prisoner I was taken.

Chorus
C Am
And if anyone can aid me, 'tis my brother in the army,
F C
If I could learn his station in Cork or in Killarney.
Am
And if he'd come and join me we'd go roving through Kilkenny,
F C
I'm sure he'd treat me fairer than my own sporting Jenny.

Chorus
C Am
There's some takes delight in the carriages a rolling,
F C
Some takes delight in the hurley or the bowlin'.
Am
But I takes delight in the juice of the barley,
F C
And courting pretty fair maids in the morning bright and early.

Chorus x 2

======

You may noticed that here the song's text lines didn't keep the position in proportion to other lines, meaning the chords are not in the right place according to lyrics.

Sorry for the long the post. Thanks a million in advance for any comments that can help me - and others as well - on this.

[AlfonsVH]

Originally Posted by t-mies

I was wondering could anybody advice me on this or do even a test with following. Copy following (trad.) song to Word document on your PC with 'Courier New' -font size 10. Transfer it to your e-reader and see if it is possible to have whole song in readable format on 6" screen. Another possibility is also 10,2" iRex screen.

It's not even possible to fit the whole song on a single A4 page in the Word document, let alone that it would fit on the screen of a 6" reader.
Can't help with the larger screen, though.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Your title is a bit misleading. I thought you wanted an e-book with a good MP3 player and I was going to tell you just to go grab a cheap Sansadisk player or something.

[t-mies]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Your title is a bit misleading.

--> Sorry about that, I see your point. I tried to be as clear as possible.

Originally Posted by AlfonsVH

It's not even possible to fit the whole song on a single A4 page in the Word document,...

--> Oh boy, if you read my text completely, you would've notice that I descibe 'What I have done for years is that I have put each song to one A4-size format, so that none of the songs would be more than one A4-paper size; horizontally or vertically....'

If you can't define you Word document orientation to landscape, put a table with two columns on it and copy the text there so that the whole song would be visible on one page on both columns - then you better take a MS Word -course somewhere.

However, that's not the point here. Obviously you would copy just the text that you can fit portrait and do the test if you want....

[Catire]

I´d say wait for the kindle DX to be released and then ask someone in the kindle forums if they could test out a file with the song.

The bigger screen might help you get the whole song on the screen at one time and with native PDF support you might format the song however you want and have it stay that way.

[AlfonsVH]

Originally Posted by t-mies

Oh boy, if you read my text completely, you would've notice that I descibe [...]

Right, I must've missed that part...

Originally Posted by t-mies

If you can't define you Word document orientation to landscape [...] then you better take a MS Word -course somewhere.

... but that's still no reason to become unfriendly.
It's not a question about what kind of Word-document I can create, obviously it has to be something that the device is capable of displaying.

Originally Posted by t-mies

However, that's not the point here. Obviously you would copy just the text that you can fit portrait and do the test if you want....

The pdf-oi.jpg file is a picture of a PDF-file generated from the word-document with small margins, Courier New, 10pts viewed on a BeBook running OpenInkpot pre-0.2-20090508.

It is readable, but barely so. Certainly not comfortable.

A PDF created from a 2-column landscape document gets displayed in portrait by default, so that's of no use.

OI cannot read .doc documents at the moment, so that's the reason why I created a PDF. Other formats may (will) be better, but I haven't got the time to convert right now.

Then, the other photo, the .doc-file viewed under the newest BeBook-beta. Since there's a progress bar at the bottom, the page gets split so the song does not fit on 1 page anymore. Also, the font gets changed automatically.

The 2-column landscape-file likewise gets displayed in 1 column & portrait mode, so there's no difference.

PDF display under this firmware is exactly the same as under OI.

[t-mies]

Thanks a lot with your BeBook test. This is what I was looking for.

Hopefully there will others who can benefit from this information.

Thanks again, I'll look for other options.

[vishcompany]

I am a musician and got a cybook gen3. (6' screen device, like the BeBook). It came with a number of demo files, one of them was a pdf with some J.S.Bach piece.

Forget about playing music from eInk, at least at the moment:
The screen is way too small. To my feeling even A4 can be on the small side. It has a reason, that many publishers pubish in formats larger than A4.
Pageturning takes almost one second. While this does not disturb me when reading, it certainly would when playing.
And most important: I write fingerings and all kinds of signs about interpretation into the sheet-music. This is not possible with most readers around (I know the Iliad can do that), so what's the point.

I also thought about this technical approach, but honestly, it would feel really weird to walk on stage with an Iliad, place it on a stand and then play from that. Eventually the thing freezes and I need to tell the audience "oh, sorry, please hang on a moment, I just need to reboot my device..." (I could use the time to tune the instrument as well). No no, not for me. Paper is maybe extremely oldfashioned (although I do use music-editing software), but it's so safe.

[jgray]

I thought I read months ago that the iLiad (I think) was being used by someone to replace paper music. The iLiad has a larger screen than most eInk readers.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by vishcompany

I also thought about this technical approach, but honestly, it would feel really weird to walk on stage with an Iliad, place it on a stand and then play from that. Eventually the thing freezes and I need to tell the audience "oh, sorry, please hang on a moment, I just need to reboot my device..." (I could use the time to tune the instrument as well). No no, not for me. Paper is maybe extremely oldfashioned (although I do use music-editing software), but it's so safe.

I think it would look awesome

[alilxmas]

even thou it is not an ebook maybe the Archos 9 would suit your needs, the screen look long enough to read what was pasted above.

Only thing is that it wont be out until the release of WIN 7 as that is the op system it uses.