Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Page Turning via Pedal

I'm sure most here are aware of the AirTurn by Hugh Sung however for those of you that like to get your hands dirty with a bit of DIY, I've made a small application that will allow you to use a foot pedal via the serial port to turn pages.

The below image shows the Foot Pedal with 1/4 inch jack along with the serial port connection cable and copious amounts of electrical tape



Next up we have the application itself (normally minimised to the notification tray) which allows comm port selection and will send PAGE DOWN events to whatever the active application is with each pedal press. It also includes a short debounce delay to help avoid double contacts occuring.



More information can be found on my blog or you can download the instructions (PDF)

The application (incl instructions) is available for download here. You will need .NET installed in order to run the application (Might run on non Windows OS under mono, but I haven't tried)

Unlike the AirTurn this is a wired device and also requires a serial port. You may be able to use a USB RS232 convertor or even a bluetooth adapter though. It's also DIY, if soldering doesn't appeal to you, there's always the AirTurn.

Finally, I want to give a quick thank you to Hugh Sung for his youtube videos on Tablet PCs and MusicReader which put me onto the idea of using a pedal to turn pages and banish my paper based scores

Nifty job, Gary001! I really envy those folks who can work a soldering iron - this looks like a great DIY project for handy musicians!

By the way, the AirTurn is plug and play - no drivers or software to install
I used to use wired pedals of all makes and models, and the software installations were always somewhat frustrating - then, of course, there was the awkwardness of carrying cables on stage and stuffing them behind the piano while trying to look 'cool' :P
If anyone's interested, we're running a summer special where getting MusicReader, an AirTurn, and our basic DP-2 single pedal package saves enough money so that it's like getting the pedal for free!

AirTurn Starter Package

In addition, we're also offering a special back-to-school coupon, saving $10 off of our Pedagogy Package, which features the FS-6 dual pedal together with MusicReader and an AirTurn.

AirTurn Pedagogy Package

PM me and I'll send you the coupon code, but it's only good until the end of this month.

Good luck with the DIY pedal projects!

I was toying between making a wireless version, but in the end decided to keep costs low as this will be attached to my desktop PC and not be used as a portable pedal in any way. I can imagine how annoying a wired solution would be when you're after portability though.

At some future date I wouldn't mind getting a Tablet PC in which case I might add a bluetooth adapter to provide wireless opperation, but as mentioned, I'm not too concerned about portability at this time, so an LCD monitor and desktop PC is making a nice substitute until then

Having to run the software is unfortunatly a neccesary evil with it been a simple serial connection. With a little more hardware it could be made to emulate a serial mouse, or a USB version made to do the same, but I decided to keep it simple to get a pedal working quickly.

Having spent a little time today with the Pedal and Music Reader I'm getting a little more used to turning the pages now, although I still find myself breaking the flow of the music each time I press the pedal. I'm sure that'll go with practice though, the same happened when I first started to use the sustain pedal in pieces.

BTW Is the AirTurn available from a EU supplier yet? I read something on the MusicReader forum about them possibly supplying it at some point this year, but haven't heard if thats gone ahead or not? Having been stung a couple of times for import duty (and then again for the "clearance" fee) I tend to avoid ordering items direct from the US beyond books due to their 0% rating.

Hi Gary001
Our software partner, MusicReader, is based in the Netherlands and offers our AirTurn page turning pedal systems for sale on its website:

MusicReader Accessories Page

I don't think you can avoid VAT taxes, but it might save some money with regard to shipping costs. Let me know if this helps.
Take care!
Hugh

VAT isn't really an issue, so long as the item comes from an EU store that's already included in the cost at time of sale and no further duties apply for items entering the UK from EU countries (afaik).

It's items bought and shipped from the US where import duty + Vat ends up having to be paid on entry into the UK which in turn results in the delivery company charging an additional clearance fee, I've had from £12 to £25 "clearance" (plus the known duty+vat) needing to be paid on deliveries in the past. This wasn't too bad when we had $2 to the pound though

Good to see you have a EU based supplier, I'll keep that in mind for the future should I ever get around to a portable setup I'm going to buy MusicReader later this week though, really pleased with how useful the demo has proved.

Glad to hear you enjoy MusicReader! It's really a terrific program, especially when you take advantage of all the page turning options, page order settings, and playlist creation capabilities! If you need help using MusicReader, be sure to check out some of our video tutorials:

http://airturn.com/musicreader/3

Take care!