Continuing issues with PC...comments on OCR for music, etc.

[Trapdoor2]

Well, still having problems. The new Laptop is very nice, very fast. I was able to get my old data off of the previous computer's hard drives (a big relief) so nothing was lost...

Except email. It is still there but I've been unable to migrate it over onto the new computer. So, for the time being, I have only the addresses of people who've sent me mail since the new laptop went online...and no access to archived mail.

Also missing is TablEdit, my TAB creating program. The program itself came over fine (or I could just download it from the TablEdit website), problem is, my Serial Number...the one that unlocks the program for 'full' (rather than 'demo') usage was saved as an email...on the old computer. :-( I've sent a query to Keith @ Tabledit but haven't gotten a response as yet.

So, I can't create any TAB until I get the program back running.

Otherwise, the new laptop has some great features that I've been playing with. The built-in video camera is excellent and if I can ever lay down a decent performance, I'll have some new videos up. The microphone isn't so great, it really sounds 'tinny'. However, using the USB mic works quite well.

I've been exploring some additional options for getting the sheet music photographed, post processing, etc. There's an OCR-Sheet Music program out there called "SmartScore" that I demo'd several years ago...well the latest version does a much nicer job and it will even scan photos. The cool thing is that it plays the music back to you and allows it to be saved as (don't look, Rob!) a MIDI file.

That MIDI file is very important to my ongoing Classic TAB project...TablEdit can import MIDI and automatically generate Tablature. Of course, it requires quite a bit of 'cleanup', but it is far faster than doing it the old fashioned way, note-for-note.

Another "plus" for SmartScore is that it is designed to interface directly with "Finale", an industry-standard music publishing software...and does both standard notation and TAB. Pretty cool!

[Jody Stecher]

I've had similar problems after retrieving Nearly Lost data from one computer and trying to get it on to another. Some things migrate happily and some don't. Saved email messages never seem to want to let themselves be imported. even to the same version of the same mail device. But you can probably get your old address book on to a disc and probably import its contents directly to the new address book from there.

You can probably find a way to *read* your old email even though you can't import it. You can retrieve your serial number that way. But maybe having no access to TAB and TAB things is a blessing in disguise. Staff notation is already a bothersome interface between the player and the actual music (sound waves heard and enjoyed). Adding yet another layer with TAB puts the player at a further remove. At least staff notation represents the melody shape graphically. It goes up when the pitch goes higher and down when the pitch goes lower.

Speaking of notation and technical difficulties I'm finding no way to upload a PDF file to this group. Ian Holloway and I have been working (via email between Blackpool and San Francisco) on a transcription of Van Eps' 1950-s recording of Ragtime Oriole. It's done at last and looks great as a PDF file. When I try to convert it to jpg or any other format that Ning will accept I get a rather drab and fuzzy looking poor substitute. Printing and scanning and saving as jpeg gets no better results than direct conversion.

[Trapdoor2]

That .pdf problem is odd, I have had no problem uploading them to the group.

I have not been able to even find my old emails on the old drives. However, I have a good guru at work and he sez it is no problem...and will migrate them for me for free.