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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One Organist’s DIY Page Turning Solution – Gavin Bateman

By Gordon Cameron 15 Nov, 2019 6 Comments

About Gavin

Back in September 2018 Gavin contacted us about wanting a suitable page turner pedal for use at the organ. Unfortunately, there was really nothing available off-the-shelf. He was willing to do a bit of soldering and carpentry so I suggested the AirTurn BT200 was a suitable “donor” pedal for his project. Gavin has been busy and this post, written by him, explains the project. Gavin started working life as a BBC Sound Engineer then after 20yrs changed tack to be a music teacher. Now retired early. He has played the organ since he was 11 and got his ABRSM performance diploma in 2013.

25 Sept 2019 – An update to this post has been added at the end…
15th November – Update and new photos – The Mk III pedal added at end…

This is his story…

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Multi-instrumentalist Ralph Hirs on Power Music

By Gordon Cameron 5 Nov, 2019 1 Comment

One of the things I love about working at Power Music is talking to musicians from all over the world.

Ralph lives in Switzerland and Germany and has been a Power Music user for many years.  He makes use of the Parts feature of Power Music Professional which is one of the lesser known features. Parts lets you store as one song, different instrument scores of a piece of music (eg guitar, bass, drums, keys)  or versions of the music in different keys.

I asked Ralph to write a short piece about his use of Power Music, so here is what Ralph says…

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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…

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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.

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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…

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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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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...