Synchronised Page Turning with Windows PCs

Questions about synchronised page turning in Power Music are something that pop-up from time to time on our Support Desk or in the Cambron Forum.

Of course if you are using the Power Music App or Power Music Reader on iPads then this feature is built into iOS and setting it up in Power Music is a trivial matter – see this Support Article

However, setting up synchronised page turning on Windows PCs is not a trivial matter. We don’t implement it in Power Music Professional but I decided to give myself a challenge recently when a user asked the question again. And guess what?  I succeeded! Read the rest of this blog if you are interested in how I did it – but be warned you need to be a bit “techie” and it’s not really a solution I would recommend people to use.

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Guest Blog – Richard Teare – Gospel Bell

Here at Cambron we are always interested to hear from our Power Music users and last year we ran a series of blogs entitled “Musician of the Month” see the Featured Musician page on our website. The musicians included a harpists, two organists, an Austrian party band, a big band conductor and several worship leaders – quite a mix!

I would like to introduce to you another featured musician Richard Teare – here’s his story…

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Windows 10 Hints and Tips for Performing Musicians.

As more and more musicians are using digital music display for performing, it is vitally important that nothing untoward happens on-screen during performance. The last thing you want to happen is for a message to pop up on screen saying “Restarting. Installing updates in 10, 9, 8… seconds”. AARRGGHHH!!!

In this article I will be looking at ways to avoid this type of scenario when running Windows 10 and also some general hints and tips.

Microsoft have been very “helpful” in the latest versions of their operating systems by “forcing” the installation of updates, so trying to avoid the situation where users fail to install critical updates or virus definitions and as a result have major issues with their PC. Microsoft also use ways of extending battery life, in particularly on tablet PCs by blanking the screen or putting the PC to sleep after a period of inactivity, both of which are definitely not desirable when performing.

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Marathon organ recital – Kevin Bowyer plays Sorabji’s Second Organ Symphony – lasting 8.5 hours

On February 10th, the University of Iowa Organ Department hosted an amazing feat of organ playing by Kevin Bowyer of Glasgow University. Kevin played the entire Sorabji’s Second Organ Symphony as the inaugural performance on the university’s new Klais organ. Kevin played using Power Music from Cambron Software and said afterwards – “Power Music performed flawlessly throughout, as I knew it would.”

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Chord Sheets for Worship Songs from WeAreWorship.com

One of the most common questions we get asked on our support desk and at exhibitions is “What is a good source of worship song chord sheets?”

There are many websites out there that let you download chord sheets, but people tell us that quite often there are errors in the lyrics and the chords used are not the original ones. Also it is important that the websites pay royalties to the copyright holders of the songs you download – not all websites do!!

Recently we worked with Integrity Music Ltd, AKA WeAreWorship to create a free songbook of chord sheets that we were giving away at Mission Worship 2016. Integrity Music let you download chord sheets from their website WeAreWorship.com. All you need to do is open a free account with them. I have created a short tutorial video on importing chord sheets from WeAreWorship.

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Exhibitions and Shows – Have they a future?

A couple of weeks ago we headed off to Eastbourne to exhibit at the 2016 Mission Worship Conference.

exhibitions-2016

While preparing for this exhibition I started reflecting on the exhibitions Cambron have attended over the last 9 years and the exhibitions I went to back in the 1980’s when I had a small computer company specialising in hardware and software for the Acorn BBC Micro computer. How life has changed!

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Farewell to CDs

Power Music: No longer supplied on CD

cd-proSince the launch of Power Music many years ago (actually way back in 2007) Cambron have always offered users who purchase the software the option of download or buying it as a physical copy on CD.

As from  Friday 23rd September, we will no longer be supplying CD copies of Power Music Professional or Power Music Mac.

Of course, the important thing is not the CD but the Product Key which is used to register and activate Power Music.

There are several reasons why we are doing this:

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Music Austria 2016

Cambron Software at Music Austria with Tom Innovations

For the second time Cambron Software will be exhibiting at the huge Music Austria exhibition in Messe Ried in Upper Austria.  This 2-yearlymusicaustria event brings together musicians of all styles from all over Austria, southern Germany and other parts of Europe to see the latest instruments and music technology, attend concerts, as well as take part in competitions and of course drink beer, eat sausages and socialise!

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USB Button – For page turning and many other things!

Kevin new organSome time ago, we got an interesting request from one of our long-time Power Music users.  Kevin Bowyer is a world famous organist and now an author with six novels under his belt (find out more). He uses Power Music on a number of organs and turned the pages by tapping the touchscreen. He recently has got an impressive new 4 manual organ installed in his house.

His problem is that his arms are too short!!

The distance to the touchscreen is 35 inches so he was looking for an alternative page turner – obviously not a foot pedal as his feet are very busy on the organ pedals!

So after a bit of research we have found a company that produces a USB button which works perfectly with Power Music and hundreds of other apps.usbbutton-34 (1)

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Windows 10 Anniversary Update

What are the implications for Power Music Users?

win10At the start of August, Microsoft began to offer users what they are calling the “Windows 10 Anniversary Update”. The name comes from the fact the Windows 10 was released on 29th July last year.

The Anniversary Update updates Windows 10 from version 1511 to 1607. This is the second major update for Windows 10 since its launch. The previous update to 1511, known as the “November Update” was like a reinstall of Windows 10 on your PC. The “Anniversary Update” is the same. It appears to basically install a new version of Windows 10 on your PC. The previous version is still available to roll-back to if you “don’t like” 1607.

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