Leave a Review StaffPad
Don’t hesitate. It’s best tablet writer on market
Coming from Sibelius, this is a great option for those who want to do serious music notation on a tablet. I’ve fully transitioned to tablet only writing and it only took a few hours and watching videos. Also, I highly recommend the Facebook StaffPad users group.BandDirectSWG
A strong start
I bought this for my birthday, as I am a young composer who is sometimes frustrated with other composition software. I have a few notes, as I am learning the app currently.
1. You need to practice a bit to get the notes right, and sometimes even after that it sometimes doesn’t show your notes and that’s frustrating.
2. I have yet to have an accidental that shows up. Even with the guides on their website I still have yet to get a single accidental to appear after drawing it.
3. The toolbar is somewhat confusing and should have labels.
4. Occasionally, the eighth notes beamed do not appear without proper fiddling.
5. When there is something wrong in the bar, the whole bar is wrong, leading you to guess and check where the inconsistency is. Everything that the app can see should be put into the bar, and the things the app doesn’t recognize should be highlighted.
6. When things don’t work, there should be a select feature where you can add a sharp or flat where the app doesn’t see one if it was written.Show lessstudentcomposer01
Developer Response
Thanks for the review and the thoughtful feedback. We'd love the opportunity to help you out with some of the accidental recognition/beaming issues you are experiencing. Please feel free to tap the StaffPad logo on the welcome screen and select StaffPad Help. Hope we can connect and thanks again.Just not ready for the lime light
Flashy videos on the StaffPad website made this app look so promising. It couldn’t be further from ready for what it promises. Handwriting to print functionality is a major selling point of this EXPENSIVE app, and it took me about 30 minutes to do one measure of a score reduction. About 80% of the time it does not recognize my gestures. Extremely frustrating. After tinkering with one measure I finally went to export to xml and it crashed every single time. Time for a refund. This app is extremely flawed and it’s unfortunate because this could be a gem.Show lessDelgadoEddy
This is reopening the music composition world to me
Having trained in composition on physical manuscript paper in the 1970’s, I have never been remotely interested in any of the music composition software programs that I have tested over the years -- I dreamed of being able to write with some kind of pencil on a digital manuscript, not dragging notes onto the staff from a sidebar, or anything like that (very dull and uninspiring to me - I couldn’t stand more than 10 minutes of that).
I reviewed Staffpad very carefully before purchasing, because of the higher price - but after training on it for a while (which I expected would be necessary), I have day by day found it to be extremely responsive, intuitive, and fun to use. Worth EVERY PENNY. I started by simply copying out some of my handwritten compositions for practice, and am having such a great time - also improving them as I write and play them back! I have not yet downloaded the store programs (which sound beautiful and will be very useful to me later). This marvelous work-of-art software is opening up the world of music composition to me again, and I am very, very grateful...Show lessW Brunson
Developer Response
So glad to hear you're enjoying StaffPad!Powerful app - just need to learn
This app is powerful.
Will it replace Sibelius for me? Not sure, only time will tell.
It’s such an awesome experience to write/sketch while being “away” from home.
I’m a elementary music teacher, so I use this to arrange songs/pieces for my students.
I presented at a music workshop and hooked this up to the projector and so many were asking about it.
The other libraries that are available are some of the realistic sounds available. Just really pricy if you add multiple ones. But it’s truly an investment.
Just like an other music notation software, it’s going to take time to learn. Especially the handwriting. Don’t get discourage, keep practicing.Show lessBaramy B Vongsurith
So disappointed
I thought this would be just the app I was looking for, however, as it is it’s unusable. No matter how I try to write the note in it only recognizes it about 50% of the time. It seems to work slightly better when I create the notes with upward strokes. I’ve search for input tutorials and still no luck. I hope it is fixed soon. I’ve spent about $200 between the app and the pen. I’m extremely disappointed.
Update: 4/11 a little better but still horrible. The only thing I can think is that StaffPad didn’t use any left handed writers when designing the app. I bought the app to make my life easier, and every time it takes longer than if I wrote it out by hand and then re-entered it into Sibelius. Also, how on earth can this app not have a full score view. The most frustrating part is when you write an entire bar and click outside the bar and NONE OF THE NOTES ENGRAVE so instead of StaffPad telling you which notes it doesn’t recognize you have to erase the entire measure and redo it. It’s completely maddeningShow lessscottpad
Developer Response
Sorry to hear StaffPad has not lived up to expectations. It sounds like the frustration is mostly centered around the handwriting recognition part of things and we would love to help getting you feeling comfortable with writing in StaffPad. Please tap on the StaffPad logo on the welcome screen and tap on "StaffPad Help". You'll see a section there to contact us there. We'd love the opportunity to help!Not Good - At All!!
I have tried to get this app to identify my 8th, 16th & 32nd notes. It will not, and it’s very frustrating! There isn’t anything wrong with my penmanship, either. I am now deeply regretting buying his app. Hopefully, the developers can fix this issue VERY SOON!
I can’t even dive into the apps full potential because I’m fighting with it to identify my notation. For the price I paid, I would want it to be nearly flawless; but it’s not even close.
Potential buyers, wait it out. Let them work out these annoying kinks. Wait for the ratings to get to a 4.0 or higher. As of now, my rating will stay at a 1-star.Show lessZeke1226
Just remove the pending bar feature
It is basically not usable. None of my hand writing is recognized and I literally have to spend like five minute on a single measure. This pending bars design is not only useless, but literally destroying the app. Nobody wants to look at their ‘’original’’ ideas. Seriously, to have a feature like this when your handwriting recognition is not existed, is the most stupid idea.
Either improve the hand writing recognition, or remove the pending bar feature, can make the app much more useful than now.Show lessTreacee-
Simply amazing
A number of updates have been made that have vastly improved this app. I’m now able to literally sit at my piano and write on my iPad with about equal ability to pencil and paper and that is something I’ve been dreaming of for years. I’ve been working with the app for dozens of hours now and the crashes that plagued the original release are gone and input recognition is greatly improved. This has completely changed how I work for the better and I’m updating my old 3 star to a 5 star review. Wonderful job, developers. Truly game changing product.
My only major UI complaint is I wish working with multiple voices was easier. If color coding for voices 2-4 could be added that would help immensely.
Beyond that this is a brilliant sketching tool and I look forward to future updates!Show lessmusica42
Amazing Fluid App
This has been such a great addition to my arsenal of tools for composing. Being a Berklee student I have to write scores all the time and this app is a such a breather from writing scores on bulky, dated computer applications like Finale and Sibelius.
Not entirely sure about the negative comments people are giving here. It works totally fine for me; no bugs or glitches whatsoever. Also the transition has been super smooth. Developers have done an excellent job of designing and making the app intuitive.
I am an avid technology buff and I rate this app as one of the best. Little expensive, but totally worth it. Offcourse for serious musicians only!Show lessHibhardwaj
