Comparison

Touch Notation vs Vinyl Record

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Touch Notation

Create musical scores with intuitive touch gestures. Draw notes, add expressions, and play back your compositions with 30 instrument voices. Export your work in various formats.

Highlights
  • Handwritten notation input
  • 30 built-in instrument voices
  • Tempo and dynamics control
  • Page layout functions
  • Transpose feature
  • Multiple export formats (PDF, SMF, MusicXML)
Read full description

Touch Notation is a powerful musical score creation app that allows anyone to enjoy writing music using touch gestures. In Japan, Touch Notation was selected as one of the ‘App Store Best of 2014’ apps, and held the No.1 spot in the iPad Paid App index for music apps for over two weeks. Up until now, musical score creation software has relied upon dragging individual notes from a palette onto staves. By contrast, Touch Notation allows musicians to draw directly onto the score using a finger or touch pen, and have their work immediately appear as beautifully written notation, then played back using the app’s 30 built-in instrument voices. - A wide-range of functions accessible from a cleanly designed, intuitive user interface. - Ability to enter musical expressions for adjusting tempo and dynamics. - Layout functions such as page breaks. - Convenient transpose feature for raising/lowering the pitch of the entire score. - Output scores using Air Print, or save to Dropbox in PDF, SMF, MusicXML, and ScoreMaker formats. Touch Notation allows the following musical symbols to be entered by hand: - Note, Rest (including dotted and double-dotted), Long Rest, Beam, Tuplet (Triplet) - Grace Note - Accidental, Tie, Slur - Accent, Staccato, Tenuto, Fermata - Trill, sfz, Arpeggio, Pedal, Senza - Metronome symbol - Crescendo, Decrescendo - Dynamics symbols (ppp~fff) - Octave symbol - Repeat brackets - Repeat marks (D.C./Fine/D.S./Segno/Coda/to Coda) - Clefs (Treble Clef/Bass Clef/C Clef/Percussion Clef) - Key signature - Time signature - Bar lines (repeat marks) - Abbreviation Lyrics and other musical expressions (‘Dolce’, ‘Tranquillo’, etc.) can be added using text input, while comments and memos can also be written freehand directly onto the score. * Drum notation is supported, but other types such as rhythm notation and tab notation are not supported. * Older devices may experience stuttering when playing complicated scores with many simultaneous notes.

About

Vinyl Record

Experience your music library with a visual vinyl player emulator. Choose from various record patterns and colors to personalize your listening experience. This app requires music to be present in your Apple Music library.

Highlights
  • Plays music from Apple Music
  • Animated vinyl record display
  • Customizable record patterns
  • Color customization for records
  • No advertising
  • No in-app purchases
  • No tracking
Features
Read full description

Vinyl records are back Vinyl Record is a vinyl player emulator for vinyl lovers It plays your music from the Apple Music app and shows an animated vinyl record. You have all your songs from your iPhone in the library ready. You have countless records with many patterns, for each pattern you can set any color no advertising! no in app purchases! no tracking! Have fun with the App! THIS APP ONLY WORKS IF YOU HAVE MUSIC IN THE APPLE MUSIC APP!!!

Screenshots

Touch Notation4 screens
Vinyl Record4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Vinyl Record at 100% against Touch Notation's 45%. Vinyl Record also leads on rating (4.5 vs 2.9) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). Touch Notation's advantage is ratings volume (21 vs 2) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.2). On ads, monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Touch Notation costs $9.99 and Vinyl Record $3.99 up front. Touch Notation sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Vinyl Record asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Vinyl Record holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Touch Notation has 21 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 45% of Touch Notation's written reviews are positive against 100% of Vinyl Record's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Touch Notation ships an update every 3 months, Vinyl Record fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Touch Notation versus Vinyl Record: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTouch NotationVinyl Record
Price$9.99$3.99 — better
Rating2.9 (21 ratings)4.5 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews44.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings21 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better15.2
Further details — not scored
Size112 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd.Alexander Rutkowskij

Customer experience

Touch Notation

All ratings21 ratings
Positive38.1%
Neutral19.0%
Negative42.9%
Written reviews83 reviews
Positive44.6%
Neutral26.5%
Negative28.9%

Vinyl Record

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Touch Notation

One-time10
  • Sound Set: Piano$0.49
  • Sound Set: Guitar/Bass 1$0.49
  • Sound Set: Strings$0.49
Show 7 more
  • Sound Set: Brass/Woodwind$0.49
  • Sound Set: Bell/Mallet$0.49
  • Sound Set: Vocal/Others$0.49
  • Core MIDI Output$1.99
  • Handwritten Font$1.99
  • Sound Set: Full$2.99
  • Chord Name & Automatic Accompaniment$3.99
None

Vinyl Record

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Touch Notation free?
Touch Notation costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Vinyl Record free?
Vinyl Record costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Touch Notation or Vinyl Record?
Vinyl Record is rated higher. Touch Notation averages 2.9 out of 5 from 21 ratings, while Vinyl Record averages 4.5 from 2 ratings.
Do Touch Notation or Vinyl Record have ads?
Neither Touch Notation nor Vinyl Record shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Touch Notation or Vinyl Record?
Touch Notation ships an update every 3 months, and Vinyl Record fortnightly. Most recently, Touch Notation was updated on September 28, 2026 and Vinyl Record on September 24, 2026.

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