scanning and digital music memo

1. Scanning

a) Adrian's Notes

b) Amanda's Notes

2. Digital Music Memo (Tablets)

1 a) Adrian's Notes

1. Make a copy of every part.  Erase pencil markings as best as possible before scanning into pdfs.  Choose the cleanest copies.

2. Set the scanner to 200 DPI, otherwise the files become too large to store.  Set colour to B/W (Black and White).

3. Add a tag at the end of the filename to indicate what instrument the individual scan file is for.  For example: Scan_3739873_29122024_CL3.

4. Make sure not to cut off the title or ends of lines.  Any scans missing notes or lopsided have to be redone.

5. Send all the scans for ONE piece in a single email to the WBP account, with the title of the piece as the subject header.

1 b) Amanda's Notes on Scanning

by Amanda P.

(on behalf of Adrian and the Woodbrass Parley)

Below is some information about how we are tackling scanning - what we are looking to have our volunteer team do, where to send the scanned pages and a bit about how to get nice looking scans.  We appreciate any and all help and thanks again for being a part/considering being a part of the team!

Scanning

When you get your scores, please make a copy of one of each part (whether Woodbrass Parley will have that instrument or not) and the score.  Scanned parts should be saved as .PDF files.  It does not matter if the files are individual pages or scanned together.  I have software and will ensure that these pages get merged/separated appropriately as I sort through them at a later time.

Please upload your .PDF files to [our shared] Google Drive cloud storage location.

There will be a folder there with the title of your score where you can put all of your scans.  If possible, please name the scan files with the instrument that the part belongs to (e.g., FL1, FL2, trumpet 1, CL1 -pg1, CL1-pg 2, etc.).  [You may scan as a set. i.e. Clarinet 1, 2, and 3 all together]  Send an email to me once all the scans for a score have been uploaded.  Please make sure that all parts are there.

Scan Quality

A few things to consider to ensure that we get scans that are nice to read off of.  Before you start please make sure that all major pencil markings have been erased (or find a copy that doesn't have any).  If there are markings that you can't remove (like pen) don't worry - I can try to remove this afterwards through editing. 

When you have scanned a page, please make sure that the scan is: 

-relatively straight and no parts are cut off

-you can read it

-that you have a black and white image

This last point is key to having nice parts to read off of.  Most scanning software have either a "black and white" setting or auto enhancers to make sure you are getting music that has a white background (as opposed to yellow) and enhanced dark markings.  Attached are some examples of a good scan versus a poor scan.  In the good scan, there is a white background and the notes are nicely contrasted (dark).  This will be like reading off actual paper when it is uploaded to a tablet/e-reader and they will also print nicely.  In the bad scan, the background is colored.  This will look the same on a tablet (like reading off a photograph though) but the background will turn grey and dark on an e-reader and be hard to read.  It will also look awful when printed for those who are using the files for physical music.

Most music is a larger than average page size (~9"x12") so if you do not have a flatbed scanner (i.e. you have a portable or rolling feed-style scanner that can't scan bigger than 8.5" x 11") you may not be able to assist with music scanning since the pages will not fit. 

What happens after a score has been uploaded

Once you are done your scanning and all the parts have been uploaded to the Google Drive folder, I will organize your files into the digital library and make sure they also go to the Google Drive folders that will be distributed to the musicians so they can access their music.

300 dpi is standard and all scanners will have it.  400 dpi is much better and I tend to scan on that if I can.  600 would be great but probably overkill.

A Final Note

If you have any questions about your personal home setup/scanner, something I have said above doesn't work for you, or just need any help with anything don't hesitate to reach out.  I am happy to provide any technical assistance with this project! :) 

A warning though - I don't use Apple products so I might not be very useful in this department!

2. Digital Music Memo for Scanners, by Amanda P.

I'm so excited that you are interested in learning more about going digital.  Here's what I've learned:

Tablet vs E-Reader:

I play on a ONYX BOOM Max Lumi 2.  It is technically an e-reader but it has an upgraded processor and operating system to be able to run android apps.  This means I can run MobileSheets and DropBox on it to manage my sheet music.  It is a 13" screen which is recommended so your music does not get any smaller than what would normally print out when reading off paper music (in some cases you can even make it bigger by cropping the page margins).  It is the only e-reader available on the market in this size. 

I debated heavily with this purchase.  The music community is divided as to whether e-readers or tablets are better.  I'm not sure if you know, but tablets use light to create all the things you see on the screen whereas an e-reader uses an "e-ink" screen that does not rely on light to work.  This makes using an e-reader a more similar experience to actual paper than a tablet would be. However they also come with some cons as well.  For 13" screens, both e-readers and tablets are the same level of expensive.  If you go with a tablet though, you have more options and can more easily get one used.

I love my e-reader.  The screen is wonderful to read off of and does look very similar to paper. In some cases I have noticed that the resolution is a bit lower than you would find in a tablet but never so much that it bothers me.  Because the e-ink doesn't rely on light, I can turn on or off the backlight as I please.  It is also a non-blue light, so easier on the eyes than a tablet.  I can make notations on my music easily with the stylus it comes with.  The stylus is magnetic, so it sticks on my music stand.  It is also very light to travel with.  With a tablet I would have gotten a much crisper image however, one of the biggest drawbacks to a tablet screen is glare.  Inside and outside, a tablet screen has huge issues with this.  I have read that some anti-glare screen covers exist but the reviews on how well they work are mixed.  With my e-reader, the glare is minimal and easy to get rid of by adjusting the stand angle when it does happen.

The performance of my e-reader has some pros and cons.  As I mentioned, it can run android apps which means it is much more functional than other e-readers.  However, it does not have the processing power of a tablet.  It is definitely slower and can sometimes even have minor lag issues.  Now I am only using it for music so the speed that it loads and operates is fine.  It is fast in connecting and downloading from Dropbox but it would be awful if I was using it for google searches. I do all of my music editing on my actual computer, convert the music to a PDF and then use the tablet to import the music from Dropbox into Mobilesheets.  If you want something that is fast and has the power to do other things (if you want to use it for more than just music or want to do music editing on the tablet), a tablet is the way to go.  The flip side to this is battery.  E-readers are fantastic for battery life - I charge mine once every week (especially if I turn the wifi off) and it's barely half depleted despite the fact that I use it pretty much every day at least for an hour if not 2.  A tablet you will be charging every other day if not after every use.

The final thing about my e-reader is the availability.  I mentioned that mine is the only 13" e-reader available which means I needed to import it from the US to get it.  If you want something easier to get, a tablet is the way to go.  There are tons of large tablets made by Apple, Samsung etc. on the market and it would be easy to get a refurbished one or one that is a few generations old for much less money than what I paid for mine. 

The other pro that a tablet has over the ONYX BOOM Max Lumi 2 is the compatibility of other products.  With tablets, you will have a large amount of pedals for changing music that will be compatible with your tablet and you can choose the one that works best for you (e.g. how big, how low, what feels best under your foot, etc.).  With the Max Lumi 2 I opted to go with the matching brand of pedal because I had read that the e-reader will not accept alternative brands of pedals.  The pedal I have is not the best functionality.  You need to push it hard to change the music and it is too high for me to actively rest my foot on it.  It means I need to be conscious of when I need to change pages so I can get my foot in position to do it in time.

If I were to do it all over again, I would probably have the same serious debate about what to buy.  There are so many pros and cons to both tablets and e-readers that I don't think there is a clear winner for me.  I love the way a tablet looks with its crisp images and the speed in which it performs.  Tablets have been on the market for a long time, have a lot of apps and resources for you and have been proven to be very reliable.  I'm not sure how mine will perform over time or how long it will last (I'm hopeful for a long time!!).  But at the end of the day, I think the same things would win me over - battery life (I like not having to charge my tablet every time I use it), the ability to turn off the backlight and the minimal glare (especially since we play so much outside these days).  I have a tablet which I use for other things at home and as soon as there is another light source, you end up with a lot of glare on the screen.  I think that would make reading music extremely difficult.  

Getting your music library started

Going digital with your music is easier in the long run but it does take a bit of time to get set up, especially with a group that has tons of music that may not already be in a digital format. It also can take some extra steps for you to stay digital every time you get a new piece, again if it is physical music.

In the past, when the music I was playing was not already digitalized I would take a picture of the music and convert that image to a PDF.  I can then use Dropbox to store the PDF and import it onto my e-reader.  If you crop the edges, you can actually make your music bigger too which is nice.  However, the music still looks like a photograph of physical music and this can bother some people (it bothered me!).  I recently purchased a small scanner which plugs into my computer via USB and the quality of my digital music images has increased 1000% (made up statistics but you get the point!).  I can show you some time at practice how much better it is. 

If you ended up with a tablet (and not an e-reader) you could just use the tablet camera as well.  When I was using the camera, I would have to use my computer to adjust the color setting on the photo to make sure the PDF will not be too dark before uploading it, which also adds extra time to the process.  

If you are lucky and the group you play with has their music already digitized with nice crisp images then this process becomes very easy.  I am talking to Adrian for this for OWP so stay tuned :)

Playing with a tablet - a few things to consider

Most music has been designed to have two pages open at one time.  Sometimes this means I am memorizing the last bar of a page so I have time to do the page turn.  It takes some practice but more and more I find music is arranged with rests where the page ends so it's more tablet-friendly.

You must be very aware of the road map of your music because DS or DC or repeats can mean you are flipping pages and you need to know what direction to go in order to do it in time.  I use arrow markings and some different settings on my e-reader to make this work. 

Anyways, I hope this will be helpful for you.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Amanda