Playback software for a computer technophobe

rob aylestone

Moderator
A friend plays live a lot - he's been playing keys for 30 years, but has rheumatoid arthritis and it's destroying his hands. He doesn't;t want to use tracks, but he just cannot play the twiddly bits any longer so we're trying to get him to consider using tracks for just 5 or 6 of the songs he sings where his hands cannot keep up. Multitrack is out. Computers are out, but something very simple on a pad would do. We could get him a big one, but it would need to be foolproof, and just have the ability to play mp3s out in stereo. So mains power AND stereo output, and ideal have very big on screen 'pads' that he can just prod. Play lists and qlab style features not required. Load the pad with maybe half a dozen songs, and have them visible, so when he wants to suddenly play 'Sherie Baby' - he can just hit something very obvious.

Simple, reliable and repeatable. Price not too important. He's a good friend and we're going to do this for him. The tracks themselves are no problem as we have his playing recorded from a while back, so just a case of preparing the tracks with a click and count in.

Any suggestions, or perhaps more critically, anything NOT to buy keeping in mind his fear of technology and dodgy hands!
 
Sounds like any tablet would work, have the mini din to out converter. But I would make it a tablet size. Anything smaller would be problematic. Heck, you could even do the same thing with a phone, but nice inexpensive table would do the trick. Just make sure it has a plug (you really could do Blue Tooth converters Amazon.com: Wireless Bluetooth 3.5mm AUX Audio Stereo Music Home MP3 Car Receiver Adapter: Cell Phones & Accessories)

If you go that route, find the app you like first and give them a spin. Even if you have to purchase the app, can't be that expensive. 10 best music player apps for Android to get you started)
 
If you've used iTunes on an iPad it's got big icons to pick songs from, and you can create a playlist. An Android tablet/slate would be a lot cheaper, of course, and I'm sure the basic music player app that comes with it behaves about the same way.
 
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