Crescendo Music vs Autograph Notation
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Crescendo Music
Compose and arrange music with a free-form sheet music layout. Easily add notes, change musical elements like key and time signatures, and export your compositions in various formats. Supports VSTi instruments for playback.
- Free-form sheet music layout
- Adjust clef, time, and key signatures
- Add various note durations and rests
- Edit notes with accidentals, slurs, and more
- Write guitar tabs and lyrics
- Supports VSTi instruments for MIDI playback
- Print or save to MIDI, PDF
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Crescendo Music Notation is the perfect software to start composing your music today. Using a free form sheet music layout, you can write your song, score, or composition your way. Create your arrangements with a variety of notation tools, where you can change the Dynamics, Clef, Key Signature, Time Signature, and more. Notes are easy to add and can quickly be transposed by key or by interval. Once finished, you can easily print your sheet music or save your score to MIDI, PDF, and more. Music Writing Features include: • Change the cleft, time signature, and key signature on your sheet music • Add whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and thirty-second notes and rests (semibreve to demisemiquaver) • Edit your notes with sharps, flats, accidentals, slurs and more • Write your own guitar tabs • Use text to specify tempo or dynamics, write lyrics, and create a title • Supports VSTi instruments for MIDI playback • Write percussion notation
Autograph Notation
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Autograph turns handwriting into engraved music notation. Write a note with Apple Pencil and it becomes a properly engraved note right where you wrote it: on the staff, at the right pitch, in the right place in the bar. WRITE THE WAY YOU THINK • Handwrite notes, rests and more with Apple Pencil • Or tap to place notes, type with the number keys, or play them in from a MIDI keyboard. Every method makes the same edits. • Pencil writes, finger scrolls and zooms, so the page never gets in your way NOTATION THAT LOOKS PUBLISHED • Engraved with the Bravura music font • Automatic beaming, spacing, accidentals and page layout • Multiple voices, chords, ties, slurs, tuplets, grace notes and rolled chords • Time and key signatures, clefs, dynamics, articulations and repeats • Lyrics, including multiple verses, and chord symbols • Piano and multi-staff scores HEAR IT AND SHARE IT • Play your score back and follow along bar by bar • Export to PDF for printing • Import and export MusicXML and MEI, to work with other notation software PAY ONCE Autograph is free to download. Every feature is unlocked for 28 days. After that, a single one-time purchase keeps editing unlocked for good, with no subscription. Reading, playback and export stay free forever, so your scores are never locked away. Autograph works on iPad, and supports the first-generation Apple Pencil.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Autograph Notation at every 2 days against Crescendo Music's every 5 weeks. Crescendo Music's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Crescendo Music sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Autograph Notation sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Crescendo Music ships an update every 5 weeks, Autograph Notation every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Crescendo Music | Autograph Notation |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (15 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 28.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 15 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | NCH Software | Timothy Williams |
In-app purchases
Crescendo Music
- Access All Features (Monthly)$2.991 Month
- Access Transpose Feature$2.99
- All Current Features$9.99
Autograph Notation
- Unlock Editing$29.99
Questions
Is Crescendo Music free?
Is Autograph Notation free?
Do Crescendo Music or Autograph Notation have ads?
Which is updated more often, Crescendo Music or Autograph Notation?
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