Waiting for this!
I am a composer and a student of music. I have been looking for an application like for a long time.
Note To Developer:
-The GUI needs a little more love.
-Score Manager does not update after Save As. One must change the Sort to "manually" update the list.
-The GUI definitely needs a little more love but I love the app' utility and functionality.
-The exporting function needs better implementation with iOS. For example, I would love to be able to export MIDI directly to my iPad (iCloud Drive and the new Files app in iOS 11) or to Cubase for iOS. Currently I have to save the MIDI as a draft email and then go into Mail where I can save the file or Import into Cubase.
-I love the Save As feature but even when I rename a score it creates a new score as a Save As.
-I use this app side by side with iBooks or Notes so I'd love to see better support for Split View and Slide Over. For example, I notice the toolbar disappears when I enter Split View.
Note To Developer:
-The GUI needs a little more love.
-Score Manager does not update after Save As. One must change the Sort to "manually" update the list.
-The GUI definitely needs a little more love but I love the app' utility and functionality.
-The exporting function needs better implementation with iOS. For example, I would love to be able to export MIDI directly to my iPad (iCloud Drive and the new Files app in iOS 11) or to Cubase for iOS. Currently I have to save the MIDI as a draft email and then go into Mail where I can save the file or Import into Cubase.
-I love the Save As feature but even when I rename a score it creates a new score as a Save As.
-I use this app side by side with iBooks or Notes so I'd love to see better support for Split View and Slide Over. For example, I notice the toolbar disappears when I enter Split View.
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So far I hate it.
My go to software for music is still my ancient copy of Finale 2.6.1 or something. Corrupt and full of non working features it still does what I want.
I can't get MusicJot to do what I want. I try to correct something and I wind up adding notes. I use help and it tells me nothing that I need. I try to put in an eighth note and I get a quarter note. I try to erase and I add notes.
I use the pencil in other apps without a problem but this app seems counter intuitive. My needs are simple but so far MusicJot isn't answering them. Thirty bucks wasted.
Pete the Grouch
I can't get MusicJot to do what I want. I try to correct something and I wind up adding notes. I use help and it tells me nothing that I need. I try to put in an eighth note and I get a quarter note. I try to erase and I add notes.
I use the pencil in other apps without a problem but this app seems counter intuitive. My needs are simple but so far MusicJot isn't answering them. Thirty bucks wasted.
Pete the Grouch
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Great app!
This app is actually really good at making music. The two only problems there are is that most of the instruments in here don't even sound like the actual instrument. The other is that there should be more instruments, like drums. There are literally no drums, but I hope the developers will make it sound like it should be and have some more instruments added soon.
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Wasted my money
Had high hopes for this. Notion is a much better app.
pretty good overall
the handwriting isnt bad but the other input method is actually faster for me. I never did figure out how to find where the xml exports are saved but the email XML works fine. sound playback is decent enough for fiddle which is all i use it for but theres lots of composition types built in for many voices at once. Likely sounds fine as wel
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Disappointing.
The app needs a lot more work. It is very slow responding to the Apple Pencil on an iPad Pro in manuscript mode and manual note entry. Previous reviews nailed the issues. The price point at $29 is good if the response was faster and more efficient.
Very buggy as of now
Within 5 minutes of use, exploring the app, got a crash and a freeze. Not ready for prime time. Alpha quality, at best beta quality. I hope this gets fixed asap. Until then I am not going to use. Come on guys, how can you release something with blatant issues like this??
Great start; needs some work
I bought this app with the understanding that it is a brand new release, so I will give the developer time to address the various issues I've run into before I really "lock in my vote".
First, the good - note entry feels extremely smooth and responsive with the Apple Pencil on iPad Pro. The UI is clear and understandable. There are some nice intuitive touches, such as being able to select a note or rest and drag left or right to decrease or increase its duration after entry, or being able to drag staves vertically further apart to allow more workspace for ledger lines.
That said - there is a lot that feels incomplete. Input of transposed music (e.g. input at written pitch for transposed insturments) is (currently) badly broken. As stated in another review above, when features flat out produce erroneous results, it feels like beta software and this product is priced as a full blown pro product, so expectations are naturally higher. When pricing of this goes to full retail, this had better work as advertised, and not feel like beta software…
There are some other little oversights that I'm hoping are just a matter of the developer needing feedback from users - for instance, there is a feature to halve or double the note values of a selected passage. Nice. However, while MusicJOT will prevent the user from entering too many beats in a bar as you enter notes manually; there is no mechanism to prevent too many beats in the bar being created when invoking "double the note values". Ouch. A warning message to prevent a novice user from creating incorrect notation would go a long way here.
Even though the music character shapes themselves are well designed, the Music Spacing is currently overall pretty ugly, and here is why: The clef, key and time signatures are not functionally a static margin as they are in desktop notation programs, rather, they factor into the note spacing of ALL bars. What this means is that as you enter music, there is a very large and unecessary amount of white space before and (especially) after the notes in bars which do not contain a clef, key and time signature at all.
Even if the goal of MusicJOT is to ultimately export via MusicXML to a desktop scoring program, the music spacing within the app needs to be addressed so that the note spacing is more "normal"; e.g. for starters, only considering the note objects entered in each bar, rather than a master container approach to spacing where ANYTHING in the measure, including global objects such as clef, key and time signature also apply to bars that don't have these.
Along the same lines as above, time signatures in a multi-staff score should line up vertically, and don't currently when the score is transposing (e.g. when there are different key signatures for different staves, the time signatures appear in a jagged line down the score).
I have reported several of these issues above and have not received a direct response from the developer to any bug reports, but I will mention that I did receive a very helpful response within half a day to a question I had, which was encouraging.
My hope is that more positive reviews will lead to more income for the developer which will encourage them to really put in the time to fix the things which are currently broken and bring the app up to a professional functional level.
For now, my review is "it's just ok". But I definitely see potential for this to be a 5 star app depending on how far the developer is able to improve things in the next few months.
First, the good - note entry feels extremely smooth and responsive with the Apple Pencil on iPad Pro. The UI is clear and understandable. There are some nice intuitive touches, such as being able to select a note or rest and drag left or right to decrease or increase its duration after entry, or being able to drag staves vertically further apart to allow more workspace for ledger lines.
That said - there is a lot that feels incomplete. Input of transposed music (e.g. input at written pitch for transposed insturments) is (currently) badly broken. As stated in another review above, when features flat out produce erroneous results, it feels like beta software and this product is priced as a full blown pro product, so expectations are naturally higher. When pricing of this goes to full retail, this had better work as advertised, and not feel like beta software…
There are some other little oversights that I'm hoping are just a matter of the developer needing feedback from users - for instance, there is a feature to halve or double the note values of a selected passage. Nice. However, while MusicJOT will prevent the user from entering too many beats in a bar as you enter notes manually; there is no mechanism to prevent too many beats in the bar being created when invoking "double the note values". Ouch. A warning message to prevent a novice user from creating incorrect notation would go a long way here.
Even though the music character shapes themselves are well designed, the Music Spacing is currently overall pretty ugly, and here is why: The clef, key and time signatures are not functionally a static margin as they are in desktop notation programs, rather, they factor into the note spacing of ALL bars. What this means is that as you enter music, there is a very large and unecessary amount of white space before and (especially) after the notes in bars which do not contain a clef, key and time signature at all.
Even if the goal of MusicJOT is to ultimately export via MusicXML to a desktop scoring program, the music spacing within the app needs to be addressed so that the note spacing is more "normal"; e.g. for starters, only considering the note objects entered in each bar, rather than a master container approach to spacing where ANYTHING in the measure, including global objects such as clef, key and time signature also apply to bars that don't have these.
Along the same lines as above, time signatures in a multi-staff score should line up vertically, and don't currently when the score is transposing (e.g. when there are different key signatures for different staves, the time signatures appear in a jagged line down the score).
I have reported several of these issues above and have not received a direct response from the developer to any bug reports, but I will mention that I did receive a very helpful response within half a day to a question I had, which was encouraging.
My hope is that more positive reviews will lead to more income for the developer which will encourage them to really put in the time to fix the things which are currently broken and bring the app up to a professional functional level.
For now, my review is "it's just ok". But I definitely see potential for this to be a 5 star app depending on how far the developer is able to improve things in the next few months.
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MusicJOT <3
Overall, I think this a very excellent app. This is coming from an oboist, harpist, and pianist, and I really enjoy writing music.
I really enjoy the diversity of articulations and dynamics you can add to your music, unlike some other apps which don't have tremolos and such. Another good thing is the handwriting. I myself have rather sloppy handwriting, and this app seems to recognize it completely fine. I use the 9.7 inch iPad Pro and my Apple Pencil, and everything runs (almost) smoothly.
On the downside, I don't know if I'm using it wrong or something, but it's a bit slow. The interface is also a bit on the "outdated style" type look, and takes awhile to get used to. I would also like more percussion instruments such as timpani and drum set for my orchestral compositions. The playback quality of the instruments could also be better quality, but that isn't too important.
This app would be 5 stars if they mostly just added more percussion instruments and cleaned up the interface just a bit! 🌱
I really enjoy the diversity of articulations and dynamics you can add to your music, unlike some other apps which don't have tremolos and such. Another good thing is the handwriting. I myself have rather sloppy handwriting, and this app seems to recognize it completely fine. I use the 9.7 inch iPad Pro and my Apple Pencil, and everything runs (almost) smoothly.
On the downside, I don't know if I'm using it wrong or something, but it's a bit slow. The interface is also a bit on the "outdated style" type look, and takes awhile to get used to. I would also like more percussion instruments such as timpani and drum set for my orchestral compositions. The playback quality of the instruments could also be better quality, but that isn't too important.
This app would be 5 stars if they mostly just added more percussion instruments and cleaned up the interface just a bit! 🌱
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Pretty cool app
This app just being introduced, has a few bugs to work out but it has lots of potential. The $50. Price I think is a bit high right now but with a few improvements it would be well worth it. The customer service is great and and the company seems to be working hard to make things work.
Not having the ability to write layered voices on one staff, is why I rate it only three stars. The customer service guy assured me they will eventually have that feature in which case it would be a five star app and well worth the 50 bucks.
I suggest buying if it's on sale.
Not having the ability to write layered voices on one staff, is why I rate it only three stars. The customer service guy assured me they will eventually have that feature in which case it would be a five star app and well worth the 50 bucks.
I suggest buying if it's on sale.
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