ScoreCloud Express vs Melody Scanner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ScoreCloud Express
Transform melodies played, sung, or whistled into standard music notation instantly. Edit your scores, change playback sounds, and share your creations. Synchronize with desktop software for further arrangement and editing.
- Monophonic melody to notation conversion
- Score editing and playback sound change
- Cloud storage and synchronization
- Supports various instruments and styles
- Share via email, Twitter, Facebook
- Intelligent audio analysis
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Straight from musical idea to music notation - wherever you are! • EuroBest 2013 Gold winner for best user experience (UX) • Cannes Lions Gold winner 2013 "Media, Entertainment & Leisure" • Cannes Lions Silver medalist 2013 "Other Technology for Mobile" With this app you can: • Play, sing or whistle any monophonic melody and instantly turn it into music notation. • Edit score and change playback sound. • Share results with your friends and synchronize it with ScoreCloud Studio on your computer in order to arrange or edit it further. Features: • Displays your monophonic input in standard notation. • Intelligent interpretation of pitch, time signature, rhythm & meter, and tempo directly from monophonic audio input. • In-App and cloud-based storage of your songs. • Works with a wide range of musical instruments. • Playback with a number of different sounds or the original recording. • Designed for recording also in noisy environments. • No limitations with regards to musical style – ScoreCloud Express can track composite meters, syncopation, free rhythm etc. • Share your song with your friends by email, Twitter or Facebook (iOS 6 or higher) for anyone to view and listen to in a web browser. • Synchronize your songs with ScoreCloud Studio on your computer in order to edit and arrange them. ScoreCloud Express requires a free account and an Internet connection, since the analysis of your recordings is performed in the cloud.
Melody Scanner
Convert audio recordings and YouTube videos into musical scores. View transcriptions as classical scores, piano rolls, or guitar tabs, and play them back. Download your creations in various formats or share them with friends.
- Transcribe audio to sheet music
- Support for piano, flute, violin, and guitar
- Multiple transcription views (score, piano roll, tab)
- Playback functionality
- Download sheet music (PDF, MIDI, MusicXML)
- Share compositions
- Desktop version synchronization
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Transcribe piano music recordings to scores and edit them online. SUPPORTED INSTRUMENTS: Piano, Flute, Violin (beta), Accoustic Guitar (beta) Currently only solo instruments are supported, no bands or orchestras. FUNCTIONS » Transcribe YouTube song covers, microphone recordings and audio files to sheet music » View the transcribed music as classical score, piano roll or guitar tab » Playback the sheet music and listen to the result » Download sheet as PDF, MIDI, or MusicXML » Share your compositions with your friends » Synchronize with the desktop version WHAT THIS APP DOESN'T OFFER » Separation of multiple instruments: The note recognition can't separate multiple instruments. If you record multiple instruments playing simultaneously you will get bad transcription results! » Live note recognition: This app is not able to show you live note recognition results. Instead, it will take some time to perform the frequency analysis and show you the results. » 100% match percentage: This app won't detect 100% of the played notes and there will also be wrong detections. But depending on the quality of the input signal, it will give you useful suggests! WHY DO I NEED AN ACCOUNT? You create an account to ensure that only you can access your created sheet music! A lot of computing power is necessary to generate the scores from the audio, so it needs to run on a powerful server in the cloud. Also, you can access your sheets from the desktop version, too, by signing in using the same account. FREE AND PREMIUM » Transcribing audio to sheet music is a computation expensive process and needs to be run on a powerful server in the cloud. Your PREMIUM purchase supports us paying our checks and developing new features for the app. » The FREE version of this app covers Microphone and YouTube transcriptions. Uploading your own files is a PREMIUM feature. » In the FREE version sheets are limited to 40 bars (about 2 minutes). Upgrading to PREMIUM will unlock the full sheet. » PREMIUM subscriptions can be cancelled at any time and you will continue to use PREMIUM features until the end of the subscription period. » All with PREMIUM transcribed songs will stay unlocked forever. REQUIREMENTS » Internet: active internet connection for server connectivity » Microphone (optional) DESKTOP VERSION » There is a desktop version of this app available, which you can access in your browser. » The desktop version covers even more features like editing your sheets, since there is more space available on a bigger screen » You can login with the same account and synchronize your scores between multiple devices Give music your personal note! SUMMARY Transcribe music recordings from YouTube, MP3 or microphone to sheet music and edit them online. With the Melody Scanner App you can create on-the-go recordings of your instrument. Those are uploaded to your personal cloud songbook and transcribed to score. You can record your instrument, import YouTube videos or upload MP3 files. It has never been so easy to create sheet music! CONTACT US We're always happy to hear from you. No matter what comes to your mind, we want to hear it. Would you like another feature? Does something not work as expected? Send us an e-mail at: support@melodyscanner.com This app is actively developed and there are updates on a regular base The Apple Terms of Use apply: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Melody Scanner at Free against ScoreCloud Express's $2.99. Melody Scanner also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months). ScoreCloud Express's advantage is rating (2.0 vs 1.7) and chart position (#197 vs unranked). On review sentiment, 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
Melody Scanner is free to download; ScoreCloud Express costs $2.99 up front. ScoreCloud Express sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Melody Scanner sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
ScoreCloud Express holds the better App Store score, 2.0 against 1.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ScoreCloud Express has 256 ratings behind it against 35, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 25% of ScoreCloud Express's written reviews are positive against 28% of Melody Scanner's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
ScoreCloud Express ships an update every 4 months, Melody Scanner fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ScoreCloud Express | Melody Scanner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 2.0 (256 ratings) — better | 1.7 (35 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 25.3% of reviews | 27.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 256 — better | 35 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #197 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 13.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 27 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | DoReMIR Music Research AB | Klangio GmbH |
Customer experience
ScoreCloud Express
Melody Scanner
Bugs and requests
ScoreCloud Express
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Melody Scanner
Reported bugs
20 issues- Upload function not working
- App doesn't recognize stave lines/notation
- App gives too many notes at once or notes octaves apart
- Errors when generating sheet music
- Premium features not unlocked after payment
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- No sound from transcriptions
- App jams on recording
- White screen when uploading from YouTube
- Cannot log back in after first use
- Transcription errors
- App doesn't detect volume/sound
- Cannot open YouTube to transpose
- Transcription not accurate
- App doesn't work after payment
- Record function jams
- Errors prevent music creation
- Doesn't transcribe music correctly
- Doesn't work at all
- App doesn't recognize simple melodies
- Audio quality is lousy and scratchy
Requested features
10 requests- Single instrument mode on app
- Full song transcription (not just 1 min)
- Ability to export full transcriptions
- More accurate transcription for complex music
- Improved MIDI playback accuracy
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- Ability to add YouTube songs
- More instrument options (e.g., drums)
- Better sound quality for transcriptions
- Full song playback without blocking
- Option for one-time purchase instead of subscription
In-app purchases
ScoreCloud Express
- month of PLUS$4.99
Melody Scanner
- Melody Scanner Premium Monthly$5.991 Month
- Melody Scanner Premium Yearly$44.991 Year
Questions
Is ScoreCloud Express free?
Is Melody Scanner free?
Which has better reviews, ScoreCloud Express or Melody Scanner?
Do ScoreCloud Express or Melody Scanner have ads?
Which is updated more often, ScoreCloud Express or Melody Scanner?
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