Touch Notation vs Air Synth
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Handwritten notation input
- 30 built-in instrument voices
- Tempo and dynamics control
- Page layout functions
- Transpose feature
- Multiple export formats (PDF, SMF, MusicXML)
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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.
Air Synth
Transform your phone into a motion-controlled musical instrument. Explore a simplified mode for younger users or dive into advanced synthesis features. Experience expressive soundscapes controlled by your movements.
- Motion-controlled pitch and effects
- Camera, gyroscope, and accelerometer tracking
- Adjustable sensitivity settings
- Diverse expressive presets
- Advanced synthesis parameters (oscillators, LFO, filters)
- Simplified mode for kids
- Save custom presets
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Air Synth transforms your phone into a motion-controlled instrument. It offers a fun, simplified mode for kids and an advanced mode for synthesizer enthusiasts. Note: This app requires good lighting for optimal motion tracking. FEATURES * Motion tracking based on camera, gyroscope and accelerometer * Movement-controlled pitch, effects controlled by tilt * Sensitivity settings for both movement and tilt * A diverse range of expressive presets * 4 oscillators * LFO, filter, envelopes, tremolo, reverb and delay * Free pitch and a wide range of scales * Save your presets * Simplified mode for kids
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Air Synth at 5.0 against Touch Notation's 2.9. Air Synth also leads on price ($1.99 vs $9.99) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). Touch Notation's advantage is ratings volume (21 vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). On update cadence, ads 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
Touch Notation costs $9.99 and Air Synth $1.99 up front. Touch Notation sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Air Synth asks for nothing beyond the download.
Air Synth holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Touch Notation has 21 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Touch Notation ships an update every 3 months, Air Synth every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Touch Notation | Air Synth |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 2.9 (21 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 44.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 21 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 112 MB | 43 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | Air Dev |
Customer experience
Touch Notation
Air Synth
In-app purchases
Touch Notation
- Sound Set: Piano$0.49
- Sound Set: Guitar/Bass 1$0.49
- Sound Set: Strings$0.49
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- 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
Air Synth
No in-app purchases









