StaffPad, a stunning Windows music writing app, is now available on iPad

StaffPad launched as a truly unique app for Windows-based tablets nearly five years ago, allowing composers to scribble notes on a screen and convert the handwritten music into a typeset score. At its launch, StaffPad was described as “groundbreaking” by professionals that had been waiting for such an app, but it was only available on Windows. That’s all changing today, as StaffPad debuts on the iPad with some big improvements. Handwriting recognition for music notation is the big selling point of StaffPad.

That’s now being complemented with new sound libraries that let you play your score with the realism of a full orchestra, and a separate free Reader app that anyone can use to play a score on Windows tablets and the iPad. StaffPad has partnered with Spitfire Audio, Orchestral Tools, and Cinesamples to offer these sound libraries as in-app purchases that range from $19. 99 for steel drums all the way up to $99. 99 for percussion, strings, and brass.

That means you can have your score sound like a full orchestra is playing it, if you want. “Previously this would have been so complicated to try and achieve,” explains David William Hearn, co-founder of StaffPad, in an interview with The Verge. “You’d need Logic Pro or Pro Tools, a sampler like Kontakt, a MIDI keyboard, an audio interface, and all of this expertise. All of that is too complicated, I want to press play and hear my flute part and it sound like a real flute.

” While the new sound libraries will undoubtedly wow musicians, another big change to StaffPad is the new Reader app. It’s a free app that’s designed more for musicians rather than composers, and connects back to StaffPad to display the individual parts of a StaffPad score in real-time across multiple iPads and Windows tablets. Imagine an orchestra replacing their paper scores with tablets that automatically follow the conductor’s score.

“This new Reader app is available on iPad or Windows, and also includes a $12.”

99 in-app purchase that will enable the playback of StaffPad’s built-in sound libraries. So, if you’re a musician that wants to practice their individual role as part of a bigger orchestra then that’s now possible. It opens StaffPad up to many more uses cases, especially in education and even the potential for composers to share scores they have written for others to download and play. StaffPad’s iPad app is identical to the Windows version, and the company has rewritten it entirely to be cross-platform for iPadOS and Windows.