iWriteMusic SE vs DrillStudioViewer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
iWriteMusic SE
Create professional-quality sheet music efficiently, even on small screens. This app offers intuitive interfaces and powerful tools for musicians of all levels, from beginners to professionals. Easily compose, edit, and share your musical ideas.
- Intuitive and simple user interface
- Highly efficient input systems (One-Flick & Traditional)
- Professional quality sheet music creation
- Supports major notation elements
- Useful playback options for practice
- Data and sheet music sharing (PDF, JPG, MIDI)
Read full descriptionHide full description
Music Writing is easy and fun when you use iWriteMusic! Ever wished you could quickly create sheet music in your small free time? Ever thought smartphones were too small to create sheet music? iWriteMusic enables efficient sheet music creation even on small smartphone screens. Unlike other cramped and cumbersome apps, it is designed meticulously for small screens,comprehensive suite of essential tools for concerts, lessons, and music classes! Best fit for professional musicians, music teachers and students. For songwriters, composers and arrangers. For both singers and instrumentalists (piano, violin, cello, guitar, flute, saxophone, trumpet, drums, etc.). Great for writing down ideas, creating lesson materials, creating lead sheets, or creating scores and parts for chorus groups, choirs, chamber orchestras, jazz bands, Latin bands, orchestras, and more. For daily practice, rehearsals, concerts, iWriteMusic will help you enrich your musical life! Check out 8 reasons to choose iWriteMusic SE (Special Edition) 1. You can understand this app almost instantly! Because of Truly Intuitive and Extremely Simple user interface, you barely need to read pages of manuals nor watching numbers of instruction videos. Unlike Finale, Sibelius and other similar apps, you just have a few things to learn to be able to use this app pretty well. 2.Double your productivity with our Highly Efficient Input System. If you’re already familiar with notation apps and looking for faster & more efficient entry system, try our innovative One-Flick Entry System along with Traditional Entry System to get your job done in no time! What is Traditional Entry System? - The choices will appear with ToolBox. - Select a value and the location separately. - Recommended to those who are not yet familiar with any music notation apps. What is OneFlick Entry System? - The choices will appear when you touch the screen. - Select a location and the value at once. - The selection will change as you slide your finger to left/right. - Recommended to those who are familiar with music notation apps and looking for faster and more efficient entry system. 3. Creates beautiful sheet music - absolutely professional quality! - rich options for page layout adjustment - easy parts creation - easy score/parts management - direct print-out via AirPrint 4. Supports most of major notation elements - multi-track writing - multi-voice writing - percussion/drums notation - chord symbols and lyrics - multi-bar rest - time change - key change - clef change - tempo change - grace note - articulations and dynamics marks - easy song transpose - partial transpose and many more! 5. Useful playback options for practice - mixer with solo, mute and voice select - loop and swing options 6. Data & sheet music sharing - exports/Imports iWriteMusic data file - exports PDF or JPG - exports Standard MIDI file which can be imported by other apps such as GarageBand 7. Extremely Compact Size (15 MB) You can save your device storage space for photos and other apps. 8. Best of all, it's Free! Yes, it's Free and Over 1.4 Million people all over the world has created music with this app family. Let's get started now! Note: This is for iPhone (iPad version sold separately) ATTENTION: Latency during playback and drawing may occur by device capacity or number of tracks and background applications. Limitations on SE (Special Edition): 1. Water mark appears on page views and printouts. 2. Can’t save more than 5 songs. 3. Can't play more than 30 seconds at a time. 4. Can't import iWriteMusic data file. (export only) 5. Can't export Standard MIDI file.
DrillStudioViewer
View marching band drill storyboards created with Drill Studio. This viewer allows real-time checking of movement direction, stride length, and individual performer actions in 3D. Playback can be synchronized with sound sources and adjusted by tempo.
- 3D realistic reproduction
- Playback sync with sound source
- Adjustable tempo playback
- Display trajectory and stride length
- Tracking display with zoom
- Swap storyboard top/bottom
Read full descriptionHide full description
This is a viewer application that can read dsm files created by App "Drill Studio" for creating drill storyboards for marching bands. This app has no editing features. By uploading the dsm file (DrillStudio file) created in advance by the storyboard creator to the server and entering the information into the app, you can download and load it into the app. You can check the movement direction from your own point, the stride length, etc. in real time, and you can check the movement of the individual. ・Realistic reproduction in 3D display ・Play back in sync with the sound source ・Specify the tempo and play ・Play at the tapped tempo ・Display trajectory, stride length, direction of travel, etc. ・Swap the top and bottom of the storyboard ・Tracking display even when enlarged Equipped with various functions that are useful for various exercises.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: iWriteMusic SE at every 2 months against DrillStudioViewer's every 5 months. iWriteMusic SE also leads on review sentiment (57% vs 43%). DrillStudioViewer's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
iWriteMusic SE ships an update every 2 months, DrillStudioViewer every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iWriteMusic SE | DrillStudioViewer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (144 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 56.8% of reviews — better | 42.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 144 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 173 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | iWriteMusicProject | Shinya Hattori |
Customer experience
iWriteMusic SE
DrillStudioViewer
Bugs and requests
iWriteMusic SE
Reported bugs
20 issues- App crashes when adding rests at beginning of measure
- App crashes when adding/removing notation
- App freezes when entering notes on certain pitches
- App randomly quits during composition
- Note placement inaccuracy on iPhone with retina display
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Notes appear in wrong location despite correct placement
- Playback cuts off after 30 seconds
- Playback audio not working despite phone not being muted
- Incorrect note playback (different octave than entered)
- Lyric input not functioning
- Crashes after large file operations
- Data loss when closing without saving
- Crashes when using multiple staves
- Crashes during save operation
- Crashes when reinstalling after purchase
- Watermark reappears after reinstall
- App becomes laggy over time
- Staccatos, crescendos, and accents not played back
- Ritards and accelerandos ignored in playback
- Trill notation not functioning properly
Requested features
20 requests- Auto-save functionality
- MusicXML file transfer support
- Guitar tablature (TAB) notation
- Ability to change time signature mid-composition
- Better grace note controls
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Slur and tie playback support
- Crescendo and diminuendo playback
- More instrument templates (duets, trios)
- Audio sharing/export capability
- Arpeggio playback support
- Individual grace note value assignment
- Pianissimo (ppp) dynamic marking
- Bracket notation for grouped instruments
- More percussion instruments (Baritone, Euphonium, Mellophone)
- Text formatting (bold, italic)
- Customizable bottom navigation bar
- iPad-native version
- MIDI export to Logic Pro and Sibelius
- Searchable help guide with index
- Ability to extend bar lines across measures
DrillStudioViewer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
iWriteMusic SE
No in-app purchases
DrillStudioViewer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is iWriteMusic SE free?
Is DrillStudioViewer free?
Do iWriteMusic SE or DrillStudioViewer have ads?
Which is updated more often, iWriteMusic SE or DrillStudioViewer?
Other comparisons















