Has Potential...
Was excited to see a 'pro' app finally show up for the iPad Pro. Unfortunately, this is not the app you want. The hand writing recognition isn't terrible, but you have to draw out all your notes, then, tap a button before the app will translate your handwriting to notation. Sounds aren't very good either. For $50, I was expecting a lot more from this app. Save yourself a few bucks and check out Notion.
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Response from developer
We have updated the app three times since you tried it. Perhaps you could try again? You don't have to tap a button to render your handwriting - just tap in a new measure or outside of the measure you were working in.
Very laggy... not a fan
This app was Very laggy, the hand-writing ability was also subpar. Glad I only wasted $10 instead of $50
Finally the Void is filled!
Definitely the best full-featured music notation program on the app-store. It fills a spot that has lagged behind for years. Now music notation and composition is just as intuitive as it was meant to be with a whole array of powerful tools to call upon. It's fun, it's powerful and its good looking too. Do yourself a favor and buy this one.
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App has potential
So ... I've been looking forward to this app for well over a year now. Being that the author/creator seems to be an accomplished musician ... it instills faith that this app will be less of a gimmick to use with the Apple Pencil and more of an app for the serious musician.
I know there are several options out already for music notation apps with handwriting recognition … but none are very good. The best of the bunch … Staff Pad … is only available on PC tablets and it’s not perfect. But they continue to update it and it is getting better … only problem is it will never come to the iPad because iPads are app based and Staff Pad is a full program that needs an OS.
So in my weekly google search that I've been doing for the last year ... today I once again typed in "musicjot" ... and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a miniature link and an app finally released!
I can't explain how excited I was. So I downloaded and quickly dove in.
It will take several more days before I form a better opinion ... but my initial thoughts are 50/50. I really want this to be great ... and hopefully the author of the app will continually update with improvements.
For starters ... I tried contacting them several times to try and get on the beta team to help make this app a solid release ... but I never received any response. Not a positive start.
Second thought ... it does show promise that in the help doc it list the things they are planning for future releases ... such as guitar tab and chords. I'm obviously a guitar player (I run a site and utube channel called GuitarBreakdown) ... I do a ton of transcribing and notating. Most of it is jazz/rock/fusion … ala Scott Henderson, Michael Landau and many others as well as transcribing saxophone lines for guitar. We do this in a very meticulous way … so that we notate as much nuance as we can.
The reason I mention this is so there is a little background as to what I’m hoping for in this app. The plan is to do as much quick notation as possible on the iPad with the apple pencil (understanding any limitations) and then export it to the full featured Sibelius for any finessing and for things that this app may not do.
So hopefully when the guitar tab options become available … in the least … bends and slides will notate properly as well as micro tonal bends (slight quarter step bends).
Third thought … my initial feeling about the apple pencil handwriting recognition … it’s very nice. For the things that it recognizes … it recognizes quickly and easily. Unfortunately from what i can tell in my limited time spent with it … it only really recognizes quarter note and 16th notes or anything longer (whole, half, quarter). When writing 32nd or 64th notes … some miss translation begins to occur. This was something I have been seriously concerned about since any of the preview/demo videos (not many out there) never show complex notation occurring. I was also nervous about it’s recognition of anything more complex then a quarter note triplet because again … none of the videos (not many out there) show this occurring. Unfortunately i’m not having an easy time getting it to recognize 32nd note or 64th note triplets.
Now i did see a way to fix some of the triplets or groups of 5’s or 7’s … but it’s a manual fix. What I was hoping for was to simply write five 16th notes then write a quick bracket with the number 5 to make a group of 5 16th notes. But this did not work. Groupings of 5’s or 7’s or even triplets only work on 8th notes or quarter notes. This is seriously disappointing.
And therefore forget about any complex rhythmic notation … for example (and this isn’t even that complex) 6 tuplet (a group made up of six 16th notes) made up of two 16th notes then a 16th note triplet then two more 16th notes. This is a very standard notation for … but somehow a bit complex for this app at the moment.
Now … I am referring to the handwriting recognition … I’m not sure if the manual notation can handle this … but I think for most people we are looking at this app for it’s handwriting capabilities … being that it is only for the iPad and apple pencil platform.
Final thought … I’m hoping this app becomes all that it can be. The iPad and apple pencil are amazing tools. I’m also someone who likes to draw a lot and using procreate on the apple iPad with the apple pencil is by far the best portable tablet experience available (i have a cintiq and i’ve tried the surface pro). So being able to use the amazing apple pencil and iPad experience with handwriting music notation will be awesome … when the app is perfected.
I’m also hoping the musicJot web page as well as it’s uTube channel starts to have more instructional demo videos. There is very little in the documentation currently on “how to’s” … especially for any complex notation.
Also there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to contact with questions or opinions or suggestions.
Here’s to hoping someone at musicJot reads this and starts to interact with it’s user so we can help make this the best music app on the market.
The potential is there for sure … with the hardware/platform of the iPad … to make this an amazing music notation experience with the awesome apple pencil.
If musicJot reads this feel free to contact me a guitarBreakdown … website of utube.
I know there are several options out already for music notation apps with handwriting recognition … but none are very good. The best of the bunch … Staff Pad … is only available on PC tablets and it’s not perfect. But they continue to update it and it is getting better … only problem is it will never come to the iPad because iPads are app based and Staff Pad is a full program that needs an OS.
So in my weekly google search that I've been doing for the last year ... today I once again typed in "musicjot" ... and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a miniature link and an app finally released!
I can't explain how excited I was. So I downloaded and quickly dove in.
It will take several more days before I form a better opinion ... but my initial thoughts are 50/50. I really want this to be great ... and hopefully the author of the app will continually update with improvements.
For starters ... I tried contacting them several times to try and get on the beta team to help make this app a solid release ... but I never received any response. Not a positive start.
Second thought ... it does show promise that in the help doc it list the things they are planning for future releases ... such as guitar tab and chords. I'm obviously a guitar player (I run a site and utube channel called GuitarBreakdown) ... I do a ton of transcribing and notating. Most of it is jazz/rock/fusion … ala Scott Henderson, Michael Landau and many others as well as transcribing saxophone lines for guitar. We do this in a very meticulous way … so that we notate as much nuance as we can.
The reason I mention this is so there is a little background as to what I’m hoping for in this app. The plan is to do as much quick notation as possible on the iPad with the apple pencil (understanding any limitations) and then export it to the full featured Sibelius for any finessing and for things that this app may not do.
So hopefully when the guitar tab options become available … in the least … bends and slides will notate properly as well as micro tonal bends (slight quarter step bends).
Third thought … my initial feeling about the apple pencil handwriting recognition … it’s very nice. For the things that it recognizes … it recognizes quickly and easily. Unfortunately from what i can tell in my limited time spent with it … it only really recognizes quarter note and 16th notes or anything longer (whole, half, quarter). When writing 32nd or 64th notes … some miss translation begins to occur. This was something I have been seriously concerned about since any of the preview/demo videos (not many out there) never show complex notation occurring. I was also nervous about it’s recognition of anything more complex then a quarter note triplet because again … none of the videos (not many out there) show this occurring. Unfortunately i’m not having an easy time getting it to recognize 32nd note or 64th note triplets.
Now i did see a way to fix some of the triplets or groups of 5’s or 7’s … but it’s a manual fix. What I was hoping for was to simply write five 16th notes then write a quick bracket with the number 5 to make a group of 5 16th notes. But this did not work. Groupings of 5’s or 7’s or even triplets only work on 8th notes or quarter notes. This is seriously disappointing.
And therefore forget about any complex rhythmic notation … for example (and this isn’t even that complex) 6 tuplet (a group made up of six 16th notes) made up of two 16th notes then a 16th note triplet then two more 16th notes. This is a very standard notation for … but somehow a bit complex for this app at the moment.
Now … I am referring to the handwriting recognition … I’m not sure if the manual notation can handle this … but I think for most people we are looking at this app for it’s handwriting capabilities … being that it is only for the iPad and apple pencil platform.
Final thought … I’m hoping this app becomes all that it can be. The iPad and apple pencil are amazing tools. I’m also someone who likes to draw a lot and using procreate on the apple iPad with the apple pencil is by far the best portable tablet experience available (i have a cintiq and i’ve tried the surface pro). So being able to use the amazing apple pencil and iPad experience with handwriting music notation will be awesome … when the app is perfected.
I’m also hoping the musicJot web page as well as it’s uTube channel starts to have more instructional demo videos. There is very little in the documentation currently on “how to’s” … especially for any complex notation.
Also there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to contact with questions or opinions or suggestions.
Here’s to hoping someone at musicJot reads this and starts to interact with it’s user so we can help make this the best music app on the market.
The potential is there for sure … with the hardware/platform of the iPad … to make this an amazing music notation experience with the awesome apple pencil.
If musicJot reads this feel free to contact me a guitarBreakdown … website of utube.
Show less
