OT: Another kind of keyboard

[Wheat Williams]

This one is for Finale users, and possibly Sibelius users.

In Finale, you can enter musical notation into a score using only the computer keyboard in a mode called "Speedy Entry" which relies on the numeric keypad to input the duration of each note.

I'm learning Finale on my desktop Macintosh, which has a full keyboard. But I had to go out of town for a week.

To take on the road, I installed my second license for Finale on my wife's Dell laptop running Windows XP. However, the Dell, like almost all laptops, does not have a separate numeric keypad next to the QWERTY keys.

So how to do Speedy Entry on a laptop?

I went to a local computer store and found an Inland USB full-sized external numeric keypad (http://www.inland-products.com/singleproduct.asp?search=input+devices&partnum=70113) for only $10. You just plug it in and it works--no drivers, no external power supply, no fuss.

http://www.inland-products.com/photo_big/70113_big.jpg

The Inland design has full-sized keys on a base that is rather thick, which means it lines up very well next to the regular keyboard built into your laptop. There are other models that are smaller, thinner, and more expensive, but the Inland was a perfect fit for me.

This is the best $10 I ever spent on a computer gadget.

[Jeanne W]

Thanks for sharing that info. I'll remember this. I'm shopping for notation software right now and think I'm probably going to go for Finale.

Jeanne W

[MikeLocke]

Just a hint: you may want to invest in a piano type keyboard and move to using the numbers at the top of the keyboard. It open up using the alpha-keys for different shortcuts and, most people find, it's much quicker to enter pitch with the piano. I just purchased (it's in the mail) a roll-up rubber keyboard to go with my laptop. It was well mentioned on the Finale forum as being a good piece of gear so i thought I'd give it a try.

Mike

[JamesIII]

Just a hint: you may want to invest in a piano type keyboard and move to using the numbers at the top of the keyboard. It open up using the alpha-keys for different shortcuts and, most people find, it's much quicker to enter pitch with the piano. I just purchased (it's in the mail) a roll-up rubber keyboard to go with my laptop. It was well mentioned on the Finale forum as being a good piece of gear so i thought I'd give it a try.

Mike

Hello Mike,

Would you mind sharing the name of the "roll-up" rubber keyboard with us? That sounds like a great match for laptop notation projects. Thanks!

[Wheat Williams]

Just a hint: you may want to invest in a piano type keyboard
Of course! I have an M-Audio Ozonic for that. It has three octaves of keys, loads of knobs and sliders, and is also a multi-channel audio interface over FireWire.

I agree that using a MIDI keyboard in conjunction with the computer keyboard is the best way to go, but I maintain that a separate external keypad is useful. I wanted the flexibility of having both.

[Wheat Williams]

Would you mind sharing the name of the "roll-up" rubber keyboard with us? Adesso markets one that only costs $20.00.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0230453

[MikeLocke]

The (piano) keyboard I have comming is an iSmart from Ta Horng. I ordered it from PG Music. The link should be

http://www.pgmusic.com/th_ismart.htm


I'll let you know what I think of it soon. Here's a link to the thread at the Finale forum where I heard about it:

http://forum.makemusic.com/default.aspx?f=5&m=160080


Mike

[Wheat Williams]

The (piano) keyboard I have comming is an iSmart from Ta Horng. MikeNow THAT looks like something new!

[Dargason]

I trained myself to use the top row numbers when I first started with Finale back in the mid 90's. It's second nature now and there's no change required when using a laptop...

[C J Pro]

Wait, I thought Dell included a number pad on their laptops. On my laptop, it is in purple letters towards the right of the keyboard. To use it, I have to hold the Fn key and press the numbers.

[Wheat Williams]

Wait, I thought Dell included a number pad on their laptops. On my laptop, it is in purple letters towards the right of the keyboard. To use it, I have to hold the Fn key and press the numbers.And that's exactly the problem. Additional keypresses slow you down.

On a laptop you can access the keypad arrangement by the additional operations of pressing the Fn key with a finger from the left hand, and selecting the number with a finger on the right hand. So it takes both hands and two fingers to do something you could do on a full keyboard with one hand and one finger.

The whole point of Speedy Entry is to become proficient enough at it to enable entering notes into the program rapidly. You use the left hand for pitches and the right hand for note durations and accidentals.

Having to use the Fn key slows you down too much. Thus the advantage of a separate numeric keypad.

Finale's Speedy Entry seems foreign at first, but like learning to touch-type or learning to play scales on a piano keyboard, you can achieve acceptable speed if you practice enough.

Sibelius' note entry scheme on the QWERTY keyboard actually seems to be faster than Finale's. But given that they are two separate programs by two separate developers, they feel obligated to devise different methods and stick to them. It's kinda like Apple doggedly insisting on a single-button mouse while the Windows two-button mouse seems to work better. At least Apple has finally relented and is making a two-button design after all these years.

[DanielR]

The (piano) keyboard I have comming is an iSmart from Ta Horng. I ordered it from PG Music.

Mike, thanks for the link. Let us know if it works the way you expect it to.

Dan