StaffPad 4+
Music Notation and Composition
StaffPad Ltd.
Designed for iPad
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- £49.99
- Offers In-App Purchases
iPad Screenshots
Description
MADE FOR COMPOSERS
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StaffPad is designed for composers who want to write music effortlessly, using music notation and audio. Write your music using Apple Pencil, and the app will transform your writing into beautifully typeset notation that can be edited, played back, printed and shared. Record or import audio directly onto your score and edit it intuitively with Apple Pencil. Magically convert your real piano playing or existing recordings into notation using advanced on-device machine learning. Add video, smart symbols and use world leading sample libraries and mix your score with a suite of studio effects. From basic idea to a full film score; StaffPad is the easiest, most powerful and most intuitive way to compose music on iPad.
WRITE NATURALLY
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Write your score with the fluidity of natural handwriting. Use touch and Apple Pencil to quickly edit your notation. Transpose, repeat and structure your score with intuitive gestures and tools. Customise the tempo with a unique tempo staff (or import a tempo map from a MIDI file), add chords either manually or automatically with the chord staff. You can even copy music written in StaffPad into other apps, simply using the normal copy and paste functions.
HEAR YOUR MASTERPIECE
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With a groundbreaking playback engine and over 55 included instruments, StaffPad is ready to perform your written piece instantly. Add industry-standard sample libraries, adapted and customised for StaffPad, from some of the world's leading sample developers. This is a leap forward for composers working at the highest levels.
SHARE WITH SCORESYNC
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Once you're ready to perform or record your work, tap the ScoreSync button in StaffPad and your score is instantly shared across a Wi-Fi network to any device running the free StaffPad Reader app (available in the App Store). The Readers present each individual musical part beautifully formatted, update in realtime with any changes you make to your score, handle automatic page turns, and play back in perfect time with a synchronised metronome, for capturing the perfect recording every time.
IMPORT AND EXPORT
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StaffPad imports and exports MusicXML and MIDI files for easily working with other music apps. You can also export your playback as WAV, AAC or MP3. You can import audio files into your score, with support for most major audio formats.
WORK WITH AUDIO AND VIDEO
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For the first time, you can seamlessly mix audio with your notated score. Record directly onto the score canvas using your device's in-built microphones, or import loops, Tempo map freeform/rubato performances using the tempo staff. Add shine to your production with a suite of studio quality DSP effects, and polish with precise automation.
PIANO AND MIDI CAPTURE
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Record your real piano and convert it into notation. Don't have a real piano? Don't worry - you can connect a USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard and record your performance in realtime, converting to notation as you play.
PRINT / PDF
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As well as digital parts via ScoreSync, StaffPad will automatically format and print parts or export PDFs for you. Customise the paper size, bar number styles, number of bars per line, scaling, margins, multi-bar consolidation and more. StaffPad automatically formats the score for consistent presentation.
What’s New
Version 1.6.4
This update contains fixes and enhancements
- Fixes a problem with display of tuplets when using Piano Capture
- Fixes an issue with the Muse Solo Cello
- Fixes an issue that could affect playback if a tempo point was created at the very end of the score
- Eliminates clicks/artifacts that could sometimes be present in score audio export.
- Fixes an issue with symbol placement above the stave in certain situations.
- Improved the way that instrument changes are represented in the "ghost staff" - i.e when scrolling past the initial instrument name
- Fixed an issue that can cause the score to continue playing even after the document has been closed
- Fixed some silent notes that could occur when using the built-in Oboe sound
Ratings and Reviews
Fantastic app
Ignore the naysayers, this is one of the best iPad apps I’ve used, let alone the best musical notation app by far. It’s a pure pleasure to use and now very much part of my workflow.
I’ve had absolutely no issue with mark recognition or the pencil, the way the app handle when I do make unrecognisable marks is perfect. Yes it’s expensive and I did think twice before biting the bullet and purchasing but I’m so glad I did. The built in sounds are excellent when compared to something like Sibelius’ built in sounds, perhaps not as good as Note Performer however the add on sample libraries are outstanding and exceptional value when you consider the price of the equivalent desktop price. For example Spitfire Chamber Strings is £99 vs paying £599 for the Kontakt version.
You can export audio, MusicXML or midi so I use it generally as a starting point then export what I need into both my DAW to create a full mock up and/or Sibelius to finalise formatting etc. What I’d love to see is the ability to export audio at 48hz, the ability to import an audio track to score to, for example when I’ve started with more sound design and electronic elements to bounce that out of logic and import in as an Utility > Audio track would be perfect. Other than that I’d also quite like to see `Simile` added to the pedal.
Really outstanding app and can’t wait to see what the future brings for this app.
Good in parts
Staff Pad is a really good idea. However, it is not so good in the realisation. At the current development stage, as a 'tool for composers', it doesn't fulfil some of the most basic requirements of music notation. These are: Accidentals: you cannot place a natural sign before a note in a cautionary way in an atonal score, or where it contradicts a sharp or flat in a different octave. Also, hairpins are placed on one line so they drift far below the notes when a low note in a different place in the score displaces them. Plus very many other items that I would expect a notation programme to get right. At the moment, this app is too immature to be a replacement for other well-known notation programmes, despite the many 'features' it provides. My concern, as always with these tools, is that the software 'whizzbang' ideas get in the way of the important basics, as has happened here. This tool is still not usable for the modern composer writing in an extended tonal or non-tonal style. Update: Oct 2023 - there has been an update, but many of the issues I've raised are still not resolved.
The no-man’s sky of notation apps
After a slightly underwhelming start, StaffPad, with each major yearly update, has become truly like nothing else out there.
Ok the handwriting recognition still isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough to get a huge amount done fairly quickly. Ok, it doesn’t deal with highly complex music very well, but sometimes working within some limitations can be interesting in itself. But what it does do, and what they have now included - scoring to video, transcribing from real piano recordings, adding surprisingly high quality free libraries, harmonising and more…as well as the previous audio track and tempo mapping updates…all conspire to make StaffPad basically like nothing else on the market. On any platform, (except of course for StaffPad on windows).
Am fascinated already to know what next years update might bring!
App Privacy
The developer, StaffPad Ltd., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Diagnostics
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Information
- Provider
- StaffPad Ltd
- Size
- 1.1 GB
- Category
- Music
- Compatibility
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- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 14.5 or later.
- Mac
- Requires macOS 11.3 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- Apple Vision
- Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- Languages
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English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © StaffPad Ltd
- Price
- £49.99
- In-App Purchases
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- StaffPad Essential Guitars £0.00
- Muse Keys £0.00
- Muse Choir £0.00
- Muse Strings £0.00
- Muse Woodwinds £0.00
- Muse Brass £0.00
- Muse Harp £0.00
- Toy Glockenspiel £0.00
- Muse Percussion £0.00
- Retro Keyboards £0.00
Supports
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Family Sharing
Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.