Author: Gordon Cameron

Bringing Back the Joy of Playing Music

By Gordon Cameron 9 Oct, 2019 Leave a comment

When someone sends you an email saying this, you realise that you are doing something worthwhile:

“I have Power Music up and running and can, once again, see to play my cello. Thank you so much for your patience with talking me through my many queries!
I am thrilled to have found the solution to what was making me very sad. “

The above email was from Mary Hall. She had been playing the cello for many years but had to stop playing due to the deterioration of her eyesight making it impossible for her to read paper music scores. Having to stop playing the instrument you love can be very depressing. However Mary was determined to play again and with our help and many hours of concentration she succeeded.

Here’s her story in her own words…

Read more...

Talking about Tablets (the new MusicOne 13)

By Gordon Cameron 20 Aug, 2019 2 Comments

Here at Power Music Software (and previously as Cambron Software) we have been selling MusicOne digital music stands since December 2011 – almost 8 years! All of these music stands have run Power Music – initially Power Music 4 then Power Music Professional.

The basic features of a digital music stand are:

  • Touch screen display
  • Solid state hard drive
  • Fanless or silent
  • Adjustable floor stand
  • Foot pedal page turning
  • Power Music Professional

Our current range of MusicOnes have screen sizes from 10″ to 27″. This week we have launched a new 13.3″ MusicOne which I am very impressed with. This blog goes into some detail about the new MusicOne 13 – if you don’t want to read the details have a look at this short video – sorry about the quality! It’s down to the very bright screen on this tablet – more about that later.

Read more...

Music Designed for iPads and Tablets

By Gordon Cameron 14 Nov, 2018 4 Comments

Special arrangements of music for single page display.

We pride ourselves in the quality of chord sheets and sheet music scores we offer in the Power Music Store. But we realise that with many worship musicians now using iPads or Windows tablets, it is normal to display one page of music on the screen. This can be a big issue with music engraved for printed books, and this is where most music PDF files come from. Here’s a classic example…

Read more...

Music Scanning – How to get the best results.

By Gordon Cameron 22 Feb, 2018 2 Comments

Article Updated February 2018

Recently Cambron launched a new USB portable document scanner called the MusicOne scanner. This short article (based on a previous blog post) gives users of this and similar scanners some hints and tips on getting the best results in Power Music.

Camera technology has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years and the results you can achieve from this scanner are quite amazing. The MusicOne scanner can be used with the built-in software in Power Music Professional or simply as a stand-alone scanner using either the free software that comes with the scanner or the supplied TWAIN driver along with your favourite image editing software. I will cover all this in the blog.

Read more...

Importing Your Music – ChordPro and MusicPad Files

By Gordon Cameron 25 Jan, 2018 2 Comments

Pianist? Organist? Guitarist? Band Leader? Worship Musician?

Where do you get your digital music?

With Power Music your options are:
– Import PDF files – music scores or chord sheets
– Scan your paper music
– Type or copy and paste chord sheets
– Download songbooks from Power Music Store
– Import from ChordPro or MusicPad files

In this post I want to have a look at two particular sources of digital music:
– ChordPro files including OnSong files
– MusicPad .fh (FreeHand) files

UPDATE: Power Music App for iPad now imports ChordPro (OnSong) files.

Read more...

Windows 10 “Creators Update”

By Gordon Cameron 5 Jan, 2018 2 Comments

Microsoft are at it again! Another major update to Window 10.

UPDATE 5/1/2018: I have added a new section on the “Fall Creators Update” 1709 – scroll to the end to read.

Over the (short) life of Windows 10 we have seen these versions:

  • The original 1507 (July 2015)
  • 1511 (November 2015) AKA “November Update”
  • 1607 (August 2016) AKA “Anniversary Update”
  • 1703 (April 2017) AKA “Creators Update”

And of course there has been a myriad of other minor updates and hotfixes in between.

I would be the first to advise anyone to keep their Windows PC up-to date, so here are my observations on the latest “Creators Update”.

Read more...

Custom Built Bluetooth Pedals

By Gordon Cameron 15 Nov, 2017 1 Comment

It is fascinating the snippets of information you pick up when dealing with a support request for Power Music. One such example was when David Castator contacted us about deactivating some old Power Music installations. This led on to a discussion about other music display software where he casually mentioned that he build his own Bluetooth page turner pedals – interesting I thought!

He then said that he had built a pedal that can control several tablets or PCs from one pedal – VERY interesting!

After further communication with David I asked him to write an article about the pedals he has built. So here it is, in David’s own words.

Any active musician that utilizes a Laptop, tablet, All-in-One and a digital (music) software package understands the need for a foot pedal to turn pages forward and backwards. I have used many of the wired and wireless models on the market. All of which turn sheet music pages forward or backwards on the computer to which they are attached.

My needs be Read more...

Interview with Jim Diack – Worship leader

By Gordon Cameron 25 Oct, 2017 Leave a comment

For the last 6 years, East Mains Baptist Church in East Kilbride has been using Power Music with their worship band at every service.

We asked the worship leader at East Mains – Jim Diack – for an interview about his experiences with using Power Music over the years.

We hope you find a “real world” user’s comments helpful.

Here’s the interview…

Read more...

HD Video Recording – on a budget

By Gordon Cameron 4 Oct, 2017 13 Comments

This post is a bit different – it has nothing to do with Power Music (my day job at Cambron Software) and looks at a project I am involved with in my spare time – setting up an HD video recording system in my church.

I am a member of Westwoodhill Church, a local independent church in East Kilbride. My “job” in the church is to look after the AV side of things – equipment, software and people. You know the people that sit up the back of the church and get the blame when anything goes wrong! As well as managing song projection, sound desk, PowerPoints and DVDs, we video record most services in the church so that members and others who can not attend church due to ill health or other commitments can view the Sunday services.
This article is about how we moved from an outdated and pretty ropey analogue recording system to a modern digital HD system – on a very low budget.

Read more...

What Screens Size for Displaying Music?

By Gordon Cameron 29 Aug, 2017 2 Comments

We are often asked about what “size” of screen on tablets or all-in-one PCs is best for displaying music. When talking about screens there are really 4 things to consider:

  • Size
  • Aspect Ratio
  • Resolution
  • Pixels per inch

In this short article I am going to look at each of these, particularly in relation to displaying sheet music. So to get us started here is a diagram showing the relative sizes of the screen on a number of common devices.

Size

For some historical reason screen sizes are still measured in inches – possibly because of the influence of the USA in technology and it’s use of imperial units.

I am reminded of my visits to a timber supplier where I asked for “two meters of two by inch white pine” – we rea Read more...