Samba Pad vs Staff Notebooks
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Samba Pad
This app provides a collection of 36 authentic Brazilian and Latin drum beats for music production and live performance. It features independent track control, tempo adjustment, and intro/ending options for creative mixing.
- 36 Brazilian and Latin beats
- 8 independent instrument tracks
- Independent pan and volume control
- Intro and ending playback
- Mute track function
- Adjustable BPM slider
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Welcome to the envolving Brazilian music scene! This app is a drum machine application as an easy way to play 36 of our favorite and exotic beats from Brazilloops website. It comes with several variations of Samba, Bossa Nova, Muzenza, Maracatu, Capoeira, Afro-Brazilian beats and some Latin as well, ready to mix with your music in your studio or live performance. It’s a high quality sample player* with 8 instrument tracks, each one with independent pan and volume. It plays the factory loops previously downloaded in the player. Features an “intro” and “ending” playing and mute track function. Also you can change the speed in the bpm slider. Try it with your own settings of volume and panning, mute some instruments and you will find a new world of possibilities to mix in your project! It’s a loop player (pre-recorded audio) and not a sequencer machine, so it enables original Brazilian rhythms style and human touch in the project. A very handy application to play exotic Brazilian beats in the iPad for live performance or even for studio recording! *At the first launch, the synchronization slider is adjusted to 1/4. Different iPads/phones devices may need to adjust the sync slider for perfect synchronization between tracks. Adjust when the player is stopped.
Staff Notebooks
Create and manage handwritten music sheets digitally. This app allows musicians to compose, edit, and organize their musical ideas with ease. Perfect for songwriters and composers on the go.
- Handwritten music sheet creation
- Digital composition
- Editing tools
- Organization of musical ideas
- Mobile composing
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This is a music sheet note app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Staff Notebooks at Free against Samba Pad's $19.99. Staff Notebooks also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and rating (4.4 vs 4.0). Samba Pad's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.0). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Staff Notebooks is free to download; Samba Pad costs $19.99 up front. Staff Notebooks sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Samba Pad asks for nothing beyond the download.
Staff Notebooks holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Staff Notebooks has 47 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Samba Pad ships an update every 2 months, Staff Notebooks weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Samba Pad | Staff Notebooks |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (1 ratings) | 4.4 (47 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 57.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 47 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 63 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Eduardo Sallada | Jumpei Adachi |
Customer experience
Samba Pad
Staff Notebooks
In-app purchases
Samba Pad
No in-app purchases
Staff Notebooks
- Paid Version$5.99









