If you’re a musician, you’ll soon have a new chance to expand your digital lifestyle. The folks at FreeHand Systems will introduce a “new revolutionary product that takes the place of sheet music” at the Anaheim, CA, NAMM show in January. NAMM is the International Music Products Association. The winter show runs Jan. 17-20.
“You will never see sheet music the same way again,” Curt Walton, FreeHand Systems’ director of marketing, told MacCentral. “For decades musicians have struggled with printed sheet music. At key passages the musician would have to turn the page, interrupting the flow and emotion of the music. We’re changing that with FreeHandPro, an electronic sheet music display.”
FreeHandPro is a 16MB standalone device that can store 300 pages of sheet music. The FreeHandPro is able to download and view sheet music on a 12.1-inch TFT active matrix color display. Page turns can be accomplished by merely touching the screen, pressing a remote foot pedal or switch.
Plus, a musician can “markup” or annotate his music electronically using the FreeHandPro stylus by means of the touch screen display and save those edits for further reference. FreeHand will also included a program that operates on a Mac or PC that will input music from various sources such as scanners, the Internet and music composition programs, and then translate them into a format that the FreeHand Pro can view.
“Musicians who have been introduced to this concept and product are extremely enthusiastic,” Walton said. “In fact Jon Anderson, lead singer of the progressive band, Yes, used a version of this product on their latest world tour. FreeHand believes that this product will revolutionize the way sheet music is viewed.”
System requirements for the Mac are Mac 8.6 or greater. A Mac OS X version is in the planning stages, but not the immediate future.
“However, it shouldn’t be too long,” Walton said.