Comparison

Touch Notation vs トランスノート

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

トランスノート

Features
Read full description

記譜音と実音の変換、楽器間の移調計算を瞬時に行えます。 また転調にも対応し、状況に応じた音の変化が一目でわかります。 フルート・クラリネット・サックス・トランペット・ホルンなど33種類の楽器に対応。 【主な機能】 ・音名選択パネルで直感的に操作 ・全楽器への一覧表示(Pro) ・調号・転調設定に対応 ・資料室:移調楽器の仕組みを解説

Screenshots

Touch Notation4 screens
トランスノート3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: トランスノート at Free against Touch Notation's $9.99. トランスノート also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 months). Touch Notation's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.0). On ads and in-app purchases 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

トランスノート is free to download; Touch Notation costs $9.99 up front. Touch Notation sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and トランスノート sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Touch Notation ships an update every 3 months, トランスノート every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Touch Notation versus トランスノート: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTouch Notationトランスノート
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating2.9 (21 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews44.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings21 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS11.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size112 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd.Mina Iwabuchi

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
1 purchases

トランスノート

One-time1
  • トランスノート Pro$2.99

Questions

Is Touch Notation free?
Touch Notation costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is トランスノート free?
トランスノート is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Touch Notation or トランスノート have ads?
Neither Touch Notation nor トランスノート shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Touch Notation or トランスノート?
Touch Notation ships an update every 3 months, and トランスノート every 4 days. Most recently, Touch Notation was updated on October 15, 2026 and トランスノート on October 9, 2026.

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