Why isn’t StaffPad a revolution?

[@thyrellsmith]

Ive been using staff pad for years and i absolutely Love it! The new update is great as well. There are new free instrument packs that sound incredible. Staff Pad is my preferred method of writing. I have some songs I've written with it on my channel too!

[@scoringbits]

Thank you Thyrell appreciate sharing your music too

[@glennroberts1852]

Other thoughts: You can’t use a MIDI keyboard for note entry, unlike much less expensive music notation apps. The handwriting is much more finicky than apps costing far less. The sound patches are EXPENSIVE. ($99) And you can’t use them as VST’s with other apps. It’s strictly pencil entry. That’s it. One method of getting your thoughts in. For the price of this app, it should do far more than it does.

[@scoringbits]

Some good points here I do believe that they did go above and beyond in making the seemless composition process possible for a new generation. I’m hoping that the company that bought them can work on the VST side of things and some of the glitches.

[@LeftyPencil]

Midi entry recently dropped but csnt deny the weird handwriting, and lurking forums to find gestures for copying some notes :/

[@glennroberts1852]

So I have tried MIDI entry on the latest version, and it’s pretty good. I am not a pianist, and haven’t tried the new live transcription feature on piano. Since my main go to has been abandoned (Symphony Pro), I might start using this more.

[@MiloPaulus]

I ask myself this everyday when using this incredible app!

[@scoringbits]

Would love to hang out and chat about your composition process if you’d have the time

[@MiloPaulus]

@@scoringbits Sure thing! I'd love to. In which medium would you like to talk? Email, discord, some social media? All fine by me

[@scoringbits]

I see you have your information on your website I’ll reach out. Thank you for being open to chatting about composing.

[@wenshah1986]

Your composition is truly wonderful. Is the new update patches improve the handwriting recognition?

[@scoringbits]

Definitely improving a lot either it improves or I am getting more used to what it expects

[@glennroberts1852]

I really wish handwriting recognition was better. Symphony Pro has that down. But there are some quirks with that. After buying this, I do have regrets. And for the price I should not.

[@noahjackson8149]

What are your regrets other than not having a good handwriting recognition in staffpad. Trying to decide what scoring app to use..

[@glennroberts1852]

@@noahjackson8149 It’s been a while since I’ve used StaffPad, so it’s difficult for me to remember. I don’t like not being able to see the full page view, for one. It makes it difficult to know if the layout of bars per line is correct. Getting to some of the options is a bit awkward as well. You can’t use MIDI input for step or real time entry of notes, so it’s basically just a handwriting app. And it doesn’t do that as well as other apps that do accept midi input like Notion or Symphony Pro. I will say the sound libraries are really really good- but at almost $100 each they had better be. It’s way overpriced for a notation app that doesn’t do the things that Finale or Sibelius would do on a computer. But for me the biggest thing was the fussiness of the handwriting recognition. For $90 it should be the best there is.

[@noahjackson8149]

@@glennroberts1852 thanks for the response! Yeah, the cost made me spit up a little so I’m looking into others. Also, the fact that they don’t offer a trial while charging a premium like that seems like a scam, even if it’s a great tool. Haven’t quite seen the interface of my dreams available for IPad and I really don’t like the changes I’ve seen to MuseScore which is what I used to use.

[@willa9476]

What do you recommend instead for handwriting instead ? Symphony pro ?

[@glennroberts1852]

@@willa9476 Yes. There is an odd bug that sometimes causes the close menu to disappear. It can be frustrating when that happens. But otherwise, SP’s handwriting recognition is unparalleled.

[@jeannedarc1566]

Because files disappear without a trace. I want to love this but it’s happened too often.

[@scoringbits]

I’ve had some issues of crashing recently but mostly the files reappear when I go to the library section. There are some stability issues that StaffPad needs to work on.

[@MiloPaulus]

I've been using StaffPad on my iPad for about 2 years now and I've never had this happen once?

[@christopherknox]

I’ve never lost a song in the years I’ve been using StaffPad, and since it has exporting capabilities for Staffpad and other file types for storing elsewhere, you have no excuse for losing them.

[@janruscoe7905]

I had written 75 bars of a 12 part piece. Went to edit the title and the whole thing disappeared. 'You have no excuse for losing them' implies it's my fault that several pieces have disappeared from my library. It's not.

[@christopherknox]

@@janruscoe7905 Nowhere did I imply that it was your fault that the pieces were missing. I am saying that frequent saves or exports into dropbox or whatever storage app you prefer would have prevented the shortcomings of StaffPad from ruining your music. Meaning, that you have no excuse for losing 75 bars. I dabble in various art forms in many fields, and what I have found is that it is possible that you will lose your word document, it is possible for you to lose your Photoshop file it is possible you’ll lose all of this, and it is on you to make frequent back ups. Also I believe StaffPad is defaulting on the iPad to the iCloud folder for back ups, Apple was having a really hard time for a while there syncing properly. This is why I use Dropbox whenever I can.

[@jazzrat2000]

the problem with it for me is I started too late, after I started to have tremor. I cannot stop it and so making a straight line is impossible or even a note head is impossible.

[@scoringbits]

Sorry to hear this. The new audio transcription function may be of use

[@darcivieira8298]

Perfeito! Comprei surface e staffpad, chegará semana que vem.

[@Thediegmyster]

Sounds great bro.

[@scoringbits]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@saifalhuttaitawi5567]

sotis when the sample finishes playing it will play over itself and you get tNice tutorials echo effect.

[@scoringbits]

Could you explain this, sounds interesting!

[@robinorbitamusic7456]

nice video. Do you think staffpad can be an all-in-one software for film scoring?

[@scoringbits]

I love Staffad and can’t see why it shouldn’t get better with time I can see some people using it already I believe it has a movie import function. What do you think on the future of scoring and film? It’s not a strong point for me as a layman.

[@kennethjackson4858]

Hello there, just saw this and subscribed. I have an iMac, but StaffPad looks great, but what iPad should I get, ram, tbs, size: 11 or 12 inches? What libraries are best for StaffPad? What cost to prepare for in getting an iPad? Can you Tranfer scoring or setting your piece to another Mac? Lots of questions, sorry, but hope I hear from you. Thanks for the info🎼🙏🏾

[@scoringbits]

Hi Kenneth 👋 StaffPad at the moment is iPad only. I recommend buying the strongest iPad with the largest ssd, largest screen. More screen size = more staves viewable and less pinching to zoom.

[@user-xm1jd9qn2x]

@@scoringbits Good afternoon, why do you need a large ssd volume?

[@jons2614]

@@scoringbits - Sorry to correct you, but your information is wrong. StaffPad was created in 2015 exclusively for the Windows platform (intended for use with Microsoft Surface products, although these days just about ANY Windows touch screen device like a 2 in 1 convertible will work - I currently use a HP Envy X360 and it works fine with StaffPad). The iPad version was released in 2020, but you need either a iPad pro or a later generation iPad/mini/air. Furthermore, some recent update info - the Sept. 2023 update now features the option for live Piano capture (using the internal mic), as well as MIDI capture with a USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard (the MIDI capture is especially cool, I'm already using it and it works pretty darn good). Of course, using a pen to write music is still a core feature of StaffPad (and the handwriting engine is improved as well) and the 2023 update ALSO features all new sound libraries from Musescore (Muse group bought StaffPad in 2021) which are FREE to download. The 2022 update also added the ability to import audio files, you can now write soundtracks with video playback embedded on the screen, and there are still optional libraries available for purchase from the Berlin series, Cinesamples and Spitfire. Overall, I continue to be amazed with the features of StaffPad compared to the price (I bought it in 2017 and still get all free updates as well as the new sound libraries). PLEASE make sure your viewers/subscribers understand that it's available for iPad AND Windows - your channel is great and has valuable content as long as it's the correct info! Thanks, keep up the great work!

[@thebentleycobb.music2240]

I have so many issues with writing DrumSet with this app…

[@scoringbits]

What kind of problems are you getting

[@johnstephen7610]

For me, unfortunately StaffPad isn't a revolution. It is unnatural for me to write music along one continuous line that keeps scrolling leftward across the screen, rather than populating the page with one line, then a line below that, etc. If I want to go back a bunch of measures to see how I wrote something say 16 measures earlier, I have a difficult time finding it and then going back to where I was. I also found out (the hard way) that StaffPad only works with stylus pens that are rechargeable USB. I had no idea the stylus I bought had to be recharged -- the packaging said nothing about it. So I didn't recharge it for several weeks and it died.

[@scoringbits]

I understand this totally I wish sometimes that they would include vertical layouts. Symphony pro is better in this use case. As well as reading the note inputs more seemlessly. It might be worth checking out

[@johnstephen7610]

@@scoringbitsthanks for the tip about Symphony Pro. I will check it out.

[@JULIOAIS]

$89.99 ?

[@scoringbits]

It is expensive but I believe cheaper than Sibelius for the initial purchase

[@stevenj9970]

What happened to the ios app version? Doesn't show any longer on the app store

[@MiloPaulus]

What do you mean? it's in the app store for me. (but I have it downloaded already)

[@stevenj9970]

@@MiloPaulus OOPS, found it! I used it on a Microsoft tablet few years ago but it didn't work very well, not sure Ill spend more to use it on iPad, thanks though.

[@scoringbits]

Thanks @Milo Paulus

[@jaimeflores4683]

Can you open musescore files?

[@scoringbits]

XML files should work