MusicPad Pro

[Duane Solley]

I have had a Musicpad pro tablet for about 6 years and found it satisfactory but then my computer crashed and I have had to reload everything I had onto a new computer. When trying to load the Musicpad information I discovered the company is no longer in existence! There was a website where I was able to load some things but I am still missing a driver. Can anyone that knows about computers tell me how I can get a driver for my Musicpad pro?

[Walter Killam]

Hi Duane,

I use one of the older MusicPad Pro units with the 3.X software.

I googled out the following url:

http://www.musicpadpro.com/downloads/

I have not tried the download, so use whatever caution you would apply to unknown software providers.

I have been concerned about the day when Freehand went under and have been trying to backwards engineer their proprietary file format. I have done some research in the past, the Freehand.fh format files appear to be standard .png files with proprietary metadata, so far I have been able to get the system to recognize the files when I add their header info to the metatdata in a hex editor, but have not been able to get images to display, so I'm missing something.

if anyone knows or has the ability to dig a little deeper, any info would be greatly appreciated, these units were expensive, and I'm sure that the MPP community at large would benefit from not being shackled to a program that is no longer supported!

[Duane Solley]

Thanks for the info Walter, I downloaded the info but still cannot get a driver to work.

[Jack Stoner]

I assume the new PC has Windows 7 on it. Have you tried installing (and running) it in a compatibility mode? e.g. compatibility model for Windows XP, SP2, etc.

[Duane Solley]

Thanks Jack, when my grandaughter comes over tomorrow I will ask her to try that. For me I am not sure what it all means!

[Walter Killam]

Hey Y'all

I have been running Ubuntu Linux on my desktop machine for a few years now, and finally got around to loading WINE (it lets you run some windows applications in *nix OS environments)and successfully loaded the old Freehand app on my linux machine.

I haven't tried connecting the Music Pad to my desktop, but I have been able to convert .PNG files to .FH and transfer them to the MusicPad via USB Flash Drive.

This is pretty much the giant killer for me, now I can kill my final remaining Windows Machine & give Microsoft the boot.

Duane, this may not be the solution for you, but if you have an oldish PC lying around & a computer geek handy, Ubuntu is free, along with WINE, and now that the Freehand File Manager is free, your only cost is time and and hardware.

That said, I think my next move is to set up a slide show in Open Office (also free), and move beyond the MusicPad. The main reason I've kept the MusicPad is for the simple footswitch, and the ability to connect multiple Monitors for stage use. Setting up monitors for everyone on stage really cuts down on dead air between songs, we can open the next song in the setlist as we finsh the song we're on take a second to count off and go! All I need is the footswitch!

[Duane Solley]

I really appreciate that advice. As soon as my grandaughter is able to get over here I will put her to work and let you know if it is successful. Sounds like a great idea!