StaffPad

Staffpad is a beautiful app. Very streamlined and a nice design. Very intuitive workflow. Excellent for creative composing. But the handwriting recognition is frustrating: - it’s very picky and unintelligent - when it can’t recognise an element you’ll have to rewrite the whole bar What could be improved? - indication of non-recognised elements in the bar (so you only have to delete that element and rewrite it) - an alternative way to enter notes - improved, more intelligent handwriting recognition Be aware that handwriting is at the moment the only way to enter notes! Update 28/07/21 Yesterday I bought Staffpad on my Surface Pro 7. The recognition is much better on the Surface. Less picky. Update 16/04/24 Handwriting recognition isn’t improved in StaffPad. Presonus Notion has a much better handwriting recognition from MyWrite.

I’ve been using StaffPad for several years now. There’s usually 1 update per year, maybe 2. Which is exceptionally slow compared to other apps. But the updates are mostly well thought through and contain exceptional features, unlike the weekly bug fixes you get for other apps. The sound quality of the professional sound libraries are fantastic and definitely good enough for demo’s, often or even for end mixes. Many kudos to the dedicated team. I would appreciate more frequent communication about what’s up, though.

I really want to like this app but it can be insanely frustrating. I get that you have to get used to the way of notating some things to make it register correctly and I’m fine with that, but when the program sometimes just decides to not do what it otherwise would do without a problem, that frustrates me to no end and immediately kills any creativity or productivity. In my case sometimes I just cannot select a specific note to drag it up or down. I press on it deadcenter or a little left or right and it just does not want to work. Other notes are fine. And when I want to erase a little mistake I made in a bar it sometimes removes the chord I wrote on top of the bar. I’m a pretty patient guy but I feel like this app is going to be dangerous to the health of my iPad if I use it any longer…

Staffpad is a beautiful app. Very streamlined and a nice design. Very intuitive workflow. Excellent for creative composing. But the handwriting recognition is frustrating: - it’s very picky and unintelligent - when it can’t recognise an element you’ll have to rewrite the whole bar What could be improved? - indication of non-recognised elements in the bar (so you only have to delete that element and rewrite it) - an alternative way to enter notes - improved, more intelligent handwriting recognition Be aware that handwriting is at the moment the only way to enter notes! Update 28/07/21 Yesterday I bought Staffpad on my Surface Pro 7. The recognition is much better on the Surface. Less picky.

For me the StaffPad app is the dream of every composer (at least of classical music): it provides a kind of “living sheet music”. You can literally write music with a stylus and can directly hear a most realistic playback. StaffPad allows to write for a full orchestra, also for people who would otherwise never have an orchestra to play their music. Highly recommended!

Hi everyone, I downloaded with hight expectations. Good: -Layout is great. -Awesome playback with exemptions ( I got, Berline: strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion) Not that great: -Entry and recognition of notes are limited. -I payed for the Berliner sound pack. In some parts there are weird ecos of a man voice.. really? I was really impressed by that one. Update: fixed after talking with support. -difficult to insert double dotted notes. -percussion - shakers, when doing playback does the accents where he likes. -when doing playback, seams like the tempo line goes before than the sound. Just for a little bit. -Palm rejection is not that awesome.. -undo button requires to much of an effort. You have to switch the main menu and there it is. You find yourself switching menus all the time. Overall, waste of time. -no midi support. Among other things. I have hope.. perhaps they will address things in the future, but. 100e for the app plus sounds, you can spend over 540e easily. All the best, Alejandro ——- Update: Support is helpful and is working on improving the user experience. They take in consideration the feedback given. Top in that matter!

The concept of this app is amazing and the layout is amazing. But the most prominent feature is not that great. The handwriting recognition for notes is god awful. I can’t change any values unless a I change them manually. I would like to write them instead. I can’t even writing articulation correctly. Does an accent look like a staccato? Because StaffPad sure does think that. I draw obvious notes and articulations and StaffPad makes something completely different. This app desperately needs an update to make handwriting recognition better, and make it do what it was built to do: RECOGNIZE OUR HANDWRITING.

So far, I have really been liking staff pad. I’ve never liked notation softwares so I have always relied on paper. However, though it is intuitive and easy to use there are a few things missing for me that I bet if added could be perfect for A LOT of composers. Overall I just find it bit too traditional. As someone interested in experimenting and in avant-garde techniques, I find myself unable to use certain types of notation that are not even that uncommon in today’s age. Since I’ve never been interested in notation softwares for listening to my own music, I would love if microtonal accidentals could be added as an option even if it doesn’t change the audio. Another thing that would be great for me is being able to just write the note heads or neumes for the musician to improvise. Something else that I really wish would be added is cross staff notation and being able to hide time signatures and barlines. Or just be able to select no time signature as an option. As I said, this could make it perfect for more modern composers like me. Who are not too interested in listening back to their music but need these kinds of notation. One more suggestion would be being able to “format the score” my way. Not always trying to fit 4, 6, or 8 bars into each system. But to be able to really customize the end product of your score. I really hope these can soon be integrated! it would make it the best for me and many other composers and I think it doesn’t need too many changes. Keep up the good work

Writing music in this app is impossible. Flats, natural signs, triplets are extremely temperamental and will not read even when written clearly. I want a refund

Staffpad used to be a dream to work with because it was easy to use. Out of nowhere, the app started to crash everytime I tried to edit any score. I emailed them for help to which they used to respond. Then they left me high and dry for no reason after contiguous back and forth emails. The issue still hasnt been fixed. Horrible sevice and broken app.