Airturn- solution to the iPad page turning problem

Having an iPad to read PDF charts on gigs has been incredibly useful for me. No more frantic last minute printing and no more hauling fake books to the gig. Now I have access to every obscure tune I might feel like playing on a whim. It is a new era in gigging, except for one problem, the tunes I read on the iPad can only be one pagers because it is too difficult to reach down and change pages in the middle of a tune. This has been a huge stumbling block....until now.

I just got the new Bluetooth Airturn for the iPad. The Airturn has solved the one major problem that has kept the iPad from it's full potential as a digital score reading tool. Every musician who reads musical scores with their iPad MUST buy one of these devices, it's not even an option as far as I'm concerned.

The Airturn BT-105 is just a small black box the size of a large pack of gum.You plug two small pedals into the BT-105 and it is able to control page turns on your score reading app (such as Unreal Book, Four Score, Gigbook, ect). The iPad sees the Airturn as a bluetooth keyboard and receives page up and down signals from it. I had a bit of trouble getting my Airturn setup to work with Unreal Book, but after Hugh Sung of Airturn talked me through the setup process it worked within about three minutes.

Hugh told me that the first batch of Airturn units sold out of the first day, which is quite understandable considering how much of a game changer these things are for any iPad toting musician. The pedals that came with the full package I bought are smallish simple looking and made from black plexi-glass. You can also use pedals made by other manufacturers like Boss, but I would reccomend the Airturn pedals because they are inconspicuous and are designed with a low profile so your foot can rest comfortably on them. The Airturn BT-105 with two Airturn foot pedals will set you back $109 and the BT-105 alone costs $69.

Here is the manufacturer's product description:

More and more musicians are discovering the ease and convenience of being able to carry their entire sheet music collections in digital music reading devices like the iPad and forgoing the bulk of paper scores. The AirTurn BT-105 finally makes the iPad a practical sheet music reading tool for musicians who need to keep their hands on their instruments and their focus on the music.

The BT-105 is perfect for musicians who need to keep both hands on their instrument while using apps for reading sheet music and guitar tabs. The BT-105 is super compact and can connect to one or two foot switches. A simple tap on the right foot switch will turn pages forwards, and a tap on the left foot switch will turn pages backwards.

The BT-105 works with a growing number of iPad apps, including  forScore,  MusicReader, and unrealBook. It can also be configured to work with programs running on Bluetooth-equipped Mac and PC computers that can accept Page Down and Page Up keyboard commands, such as Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Keynote, and most other document and presentation programs.

The BT-105 features a power switch, status indicator light, and an internal rechargeable battery with a mini USB recharging port. Battery life will vary, but users can expect up to 100 hours of standby usage. The BT-105 also features automatic Bluetooth pairing with the iPad for easy connections and fast page turns, as well as a built-in debounce filter to prevent multiple page turns for each foot switch press.

Click to order Bluetooth Airturn for iPad