Category: FAQ

3 Ways to “Going Digital” with your music

By Gordon Cameron 25 Jul, 2023 2 Comments

Updated 25/7/2023

“Going Digital” has so many advantages over paper but one of the most common questions we are asked is “How do I get my music into a digital display system?” “I want to use Power Music on my iPad, tablet or laptop, so how do I get my music?” This article describes three ways to get your music into Power Music and start taking advantage of using electronic music display.

In the blog post, we will take a look at:

  • PDF files
  • Scanning paper music
  • Power Music virtual songbooks

As always we welcome your comments and feedback on articles.

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What is Power Music Box?

By Brenda Cameron 18 Nov, 2021 2 Comments

Power Music Box Banner3Power Music Box is cloud storage which is used for integrating all editions of Power Music.

It is unique in that it does not simply store files, like DropBox and others, but instead stores the content and metadata (authors, categories, titles, etc) of each ‘song’ in Power Music.

We get many questions about the Box, so this article will put together the information from the Power Music Box website to give a comprehensive explanation of what the Box is and how to use it.

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Microsoft Windows – Updates

By Gordon Cameron 15 Oct, 2021 4 Comments

Upgrading to Windows 11

This ongoing blog has been running since the 1803 update in 2018. I have been giving some Hints and Tips for the various Microsoft Windows Feature updates since then. Now we have a new edition of Windows – Windows 11.

In this addition to the blog, I will say a little about my experience of Windows 11 so far.

So after Microsoft saying Windows 10 would be the “last” version of Windows we have – drum roll – Windows 11!

The elephant in the room is of course the dreaded “every second version of Windows was terrible” theory.

Some would say – this has been the pattern for over 20 years: 98 was good, ME was garbage, XP was great, Vista sucked, 7 was good, 8 was rubbish, 10 is great – so if the pattern works where does that put 11? Lets hope it breaks the rule!

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Using an ultra W – I – D – E Screen Monitor

By Gordon Cameron 10 Sep, 2021 Leave a comment

Recently a long-time user of Power Music (Ed from Texas) contacted us with an interesting problem. His set-up for creating and editing his music was a Windows PC running 2 x 24inch monitors. On one monitor he had Power Music in full screen mode so he could annotate his music and on the other he was running an audio player and some other apps he wanted to use at the same time.

Then he changed from 2 x 24inch screens to a single 48inch curved wide screen, and here was the issue – when going into Full Screen mode in Power Music it did just that – filled the whole screen. He could no longer see his other app at the same time as annotating the music!

He asked if we knew of any solution…

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Going freemium with Power Music App – discontinuing Power Music Reader

By Colin Cameron 6 Feb, 2020 4 Comments

Update 11th Feb 10:00 GMT: the update to Power Music App should now be available.

Note 7th Feb 18:00 GMT: unfortunately the update to Power Music Reader was released early before the Power Music App update was approved by Apple. Please keep checking and we will update as soon as the updated Power Music App becomes available.

If you are a user of Power Music Reader you may have seen the notice that the app is now discontinued, and we are asking all users to move over to Power Music App, which is now free to download.

So what does this mean for existing and new users of Power Music on iPad and iPhone? Read more...

So what’s so great about Power Music?

By Gordon Cameron 11 Dec, 2019 8 Comments

With an increasing number of music display apps coming onto the market, we thought it was time to talk about why our users think Power Music is great! All the points below are taken from comments we have received from our users over the years by email, phone and face-to-face at exhibitions.

We always welcome feedback about Power Music so feel free to send us your comments and suggestions, especially ones like this recent comment from Jeroen Jacobs – a German pianist…

Your software is best in the world. I have not seen better, more stable, more versatile, more easy to use software. It’s just great. Never need anything else.
I use it together with a Microsoft Surface Pro.
It’s super stable.

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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.

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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.

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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”.

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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 really need to get our imperial and metric units sorted out!

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