One way of organising files? Or is there more broken than I can think of?

[MaxG]

I have been playing around with keyboards, on and off, for 40 years now... more for family members than myself I may add.

I understand proprietary software, and the restrictions is poses... it simply does what it does; changing this means back doors, short cuts, and more 'proprietary' ways around it. Add the number of operating systems and today's numerous devices (desktop, surface, pads), multiply it with the software available, plus the workflow needed as a performer, domestic, or commercial player... it ends up being mind-boggling.

My wife had a T2, and a T4 for the last six years... she sight-reads very well, and after playing keyboard for 20 plus years, she has reached a dead end of sort... (bored?).
The same music, the same sounds, some were better on the T2

Now what...?

Well, she has fake books, played these many times, developing a preference for some books over others, most contain double-ups; some songs are not played at all.
Some styles and voice do not sound right; there is a trumpet somewhere that does not fit; the volume is not quire right, etc.
So, why not looking at changing it?
Why not use something like SoundBook? Makes it easier and faster to change genre or book, etc.
OK.
We have the iPad; need a holder; how to connect it?
Need registrations to control it. Hmm.
These need to be sorted; why?
Control the T4 from the iPad or the other way around?

And here we go again: file management...

A few years back, I tired to develop a MusicFinder (MF) program; all FakeBook titles in a database, then generate MF file; either based on FakeBook or genre, etc.
Added a style translation for the different Yammy keyboards; yes, similar to what Joergen and Michael did or had done.
I eventually gave up on it (due to the proprietary nature of it all).

So, file management...

With sheet music in PDFs, and applications with limited capabilities, the old question comes up again... how do I manage these files?

Do I split a FakeBook into many titles?
Can MusicFinder fit thousands? No...
Registration files: how to best manage them?
How to name these?
Limits in numbers (500 per folder), then what?

Why isn't there a way to select a song and have the T4:
a) show the score on its display
b) digest a registration
c) select the right style
d) or send a MIDI to the PC to display a page (but then how to turn it?)
?

Others use Excel spreadsheets to generate MIDI sequences to control the Tyros...
And online tools to split PDFs...

Whichever way I look, it seems to hard or another dead end road if I decide to start or develop something.

While this story seems disjointed, there is a link:
a) play an instrument out of the box, and it gets boring eventually
b) want to change this; add, modify, etc. and the issues pop up like mushrooms.

I have spent the last few days researching better ways for (insert music, fun, spice) ...

As always, this forum has shed a lot of light on my many issues...
I figured which software to use, but already see its limitations.
I found an iPad holder
Understand how to control the T4 <> iPad connection
Read up on registrations...

... but already sense the limitations of whatever approach I take.

And why is the (proprietary) PDF workflow favoured over (open standard) MIDI files?

Am I getting too old?
Unable to keep up with the world?
Or is it choice making life hell? Which it does anyway... long live consumerism, etc.

Na, I am not depressed, I simply wonder why the past decades did not produce a universal way of exchanging and collaborating in music.
And why I hit the same snags looking back over the past decades, when the whole thing should have progressed to something better...

In a brief moment I was thinking a software system that has all the voices plus a generic MIDI keyboard where I could imagine virtual instruments to be bought (samples), and expanded, adding new styles...

Or am I too technology focused, and an old upright should just do the trick

[alanclare]

For a start, forget about the holder for your iPad. Get an iPad Pro with its dramatically bigger screen. Be comfortable.

Alan