Leave a Review Symphony Pro
Best bang for buck! Works!
I’ve been using this for a few years and really, I can do fairly complex scores with bowings, handling staff additions and deletions, etc. and other score edits like the big editors without the complexity or price. I think is is not perfect, has quite a get-to-know it curve but it’s OUTSTANDING VALUE!Show lessJorisInCanada
Not too complicated
It takes a while to learn where all the functions are hidden, but once learn’t it does a great job. I have written and rewritten 100’s of tunes with this app. with lyrics for piano and keyboard in various formats (lead sheets, two clefs etc). It has many other standard formats which can be adjusted to suit. It has many functions I have not used. The print function is good and I can send a pdf copy to other apps. Symphony Pro has a great transposing function. It has a good playback function. The app is continually improving and if you don’t need too many strange requirements then this is a great app.Show lessOldjumpy
Overall good, but…..
This is a great app, but it has two major problems. Because of these two problem, I almost want to give it three stars, but I’m going to give it four because it DOES have potential to be outstanding. A lot of thought went into this app, so it has potential.
The first problem is that it’s glitchy. Things disappear, get moved around, etc. This is extraordinarily infuriating when you spend hours working on a project only to come back the next day and a bunch of parts of the project are moved or resized or something equally obnoxious.
The second problem is that entering text is an absolute NIGHTMARE. If you only enter LIGHT text here and there, it will probably work for you just fine. But, if you’re using this particular app to write educational material (like for lessons or classroom), it’s just awful. I did manage to write an entire guitar method book with it, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience to deal with the text aspect of it. Text gets resized, moved around and the worst part - when you export the project, sometimes the text is a jumbled mess.
If they fix these two issues (especially the text issue), I’ll give this five stars.Show lessJimmy_Kershaw
Paper Replacement
I’m an old cello guy who has all his music in SP. The program allows playback customization to meet my declining skills. Adding accompaniment parts allows me to use Bluetooth to play accompaniment via an external device while using a pedal to start, stop, and repeat the score or parts of it. These features are a real help in practicing.
I’d say, however, the program has some "quirky" faults: 1) It will not back-up my scores to the iCloud. Apple support showed me how to manually copy/paste scores to the Cloud. I finally had to creat a spread sheet to track changes and a date when it was manually backed up.
2) The Apple pencil does provide better a selection technique than a fat finger, but the pencil isn’t always recognized by the program especially if the pedal is active.
3) The User Manual needs an update. I’ve spend lots of time trying to figure out a complex program. Sometimes the explanations are vague or don’t address the searched issue.
I am very appreciative of the Lab’s continued work on improving a remarkable software program. Thank you.Show lessJimmy Jam G
Unusable. Look elsewhere if you’re going to pay $25
This is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write a review for an app, but after dropping $25, it seems worth the time. Bought the main app along with the $10 add-on for handwriting recognition and it just simply doesn’t work.
Maybe it’s user error, but I literally cannot select the correct bar and staff I want to write in with the display going wonky and zooming in and out. Once I finally get the correct staff selected, when I go to write (you know the thing you have to pay an extra $10 for), it lets me write one note and then fails to allow me to write any other notes for a chord and fails to recognize a sharp symbol. I tried five times just now to write a simple D and F# in the bass clef and every single time without fail, it got the D, interpreted the # as a staccato marking and didn’t even let me write the F.
All I’m trying to do is write down some basic ideas and the user experience SEVERELY limits the usability for such a simple action. Not gonna lie, feeling pretty ripped off right now. Hopefully someone else can avoid the mistake I made.Show lessAnaloguemarty
great app
takes some work to get familiar with all the options but the help menu is a good tool to keep handy. Made scoring parts easy and interfaces with other music software with ease via airdrop. Glad I found it.revwez
Finally updated Jan. ‘24
I have not yet had time to put the latest version of this app through its paces, but I wanted to make sure to adjust my review in light of the fact that it has not been abandoned.
Earlier review:
This application certainly had great potential, but I noticed it hasn’t been updated in quite a few years, and there has been no activity from anyone at the company on the forums or on the Facebook group, etc. At this point why would I want to expand the effort just to see the app crash or suddenly quit, and my work gone? Time to move on. it should not be offered for sale at the App Store at this point.Show lesspseudonym58
Developer Response
We're sorry that we didn't respond to you sooner. However, we have NOT abandoned the app. We've dedicated our responsibility and hard work to this app for over 13 years, and it will continue to be our responsibility to maintain it well. We will continue serving new and existing customers alike. Please keep in mind the following: 1. We will never abandon SP. At minimum, we will do our best to quickly provide updates to SP that ensure that the app and its features continue to work reliably. 2. For the foreseeable future, our main priority is to ensure that SP’s existing features and core functionality stay in working condition after iOS updates. 3. We acknowledge that we’ve received more emails and forum posts from customers than we could respond to on time. For in-depth customer support, we don't yet have a large enough team and budget to provide this. However, we will work harder to get back to most (if not all) of our support questions on time. 4. If there is any question, we nevertheless recommend customers in general to visit forums.symphonypro.net to search existing questions and answers first, before emailing us. In summary, we will continue to emphasize updates that maintain the app and its existing features. This includes updates that are needed in response to iOS releases. Also, please keep in mind that all of our previous app versions, like SP 4, have been made available for free. We've designed the app to stay reliable across new iOS versions, so that the app doesn’t have to be as frequently updated. We will do our best to provide the following to our customers for free. In order of priority, these things are: a. Continued updates that keep the app reliable and usable after new updates to iOS/iPadOS. This is a commitment that we will never abandon. b. Continued updates that fix major issues, as they are discovered, with key features. This is a commitment that we will never abandon. c. We make the commitment to return to more of our customer and (if applicable) beta tester emails and forum posts (at forums.symphonypro.net) on time. d. Provide new features and respond to major feature requests. However, the above items will be things that you can expect, whereas we can no longer promise that new features arrive soon. We hope to eventually expand our team in order to provide new capabilities and significant new improvements to the app.Good but big bug
Once on score view, unable to go back to project view, or save or duplicate, etc.
The menu ‘Return to projects window’ (close; save as; duplicate; revert to) pops a fraction of a second and disappear.
Pro version 6 (updated 4/21)
ipad pro 12.9 5th gen
ipadOS 16.5.1Not spanish
Pretty good
This app is really great,but could you add more orchestral percussion. Like gong and castanets… Also,could you add stops on the organ?BabouinL
Symphony Pro Review
A really great app.
I'm 71
I've wanted to write music since I was 4.
Especially orchestral music.
Now I can not only write but hear what it might sound like being performed.
Also I'm learning a lot by getting in and having a go.
Huge thank you to everyone concerned with Symphony Pro.
Please keep up the good work.
Cheers.Show lessPainted Elephant
