StaffPad Blog

Autumn 2023 Update

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 22:14:08 GMT

Piano Capture, MIDI Capture, Video, Muse Sounds... and more!

Hello StaffPadders!

It's been a while since our last update and, in the interim, we've been working hard on a lot of very interesting challenges and technologies - all designed to make writing music in StaffPad more productive and more flexible than ever.

This has resulted in some major changes under the hood, and a huge amount of R&D. I'm extremely proud of the work the team has done on this release, bringing features out of the research phase and into production use.

As always, this update is free and available in the App Store and Windows Store now. The video below gives a general overview of the update, covering composing using Piano Capture, MIDI Capture, Video Staffs, and more. Let's dive into it!

Piano Capture

Piano Capture is our term for our audio recognition and transcription technology, designed to transcribe real, acoustic piano recordings . We've been working on this technology for a while, and it opens up a whole new way of putting your musical ideas into StaffPad.

This technology uses your device's microphones and on-device machine learning to listen to your piano performance and transcribe it into notation. You can do this in near real-time by enabling record on any instrument staff, pressing record, and then simply playing your (real) piano. As you may expect, this works best in a quiet room, and record with the metronome to ensure the transcription is accurate. On that tip, if you long-press the metronome icon , you'll get some options, including a new click sound - the Digital Click. If you're overdubbing parts (that is, recording on top of existing music), then make sure you connect headphones - otherwise the sound from the speakers will interfere with the transcription!

When recording onto a staff, you'll see that a second or so later, some notes pop on to the staff. The duration of these notes will refine as you continue to record, and may continue to adjust themselves after you've pressed stop. The AI listens as you go, but then has another pass at the full recording once you've pressed stop. On older devices, you may find that the staff lines pulse red for a little while after recording; this is to indicate the AI is still working.

If you'd rather not record in real-time, there is an alternative. You can record your piano performance onto a piano audio staff, tempo map it with the tempo staff, and then enable the Show Notation toggle , found in the Staff Control.

This record-it-first approach lets you refine your performance, either by editing or doing multiple takes, before converting it into notation. Alternatively, you can import an audio file of a piano performance, ensure the tempo Iines up, then toggle the Show Notation view.

Keep in mind the Show Notation toggle lets you flip the audio staff between a waveform and notation view of the audio clip. In reality, it's still an audio staff. You'll hear the audio during playback, and if you edit the audio clips in the waveform view, the notation view will update accordingly.

This is important: if you wish to edit the notation itself, you need to copy and paste it onto an instrument staff first.

Piano Capture is a magical technology, and we are hopeful to release more types of capture technology in the future to go beyond the piano.

MIDI Capture

Piano Capture is amazing if you have access to a real piano. If you don't, we still have you covered. You can connect a USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard and record your performance into instrument staffs.

Be sure to enable your MIDI device in the new MIDI Devices settings page, found in the app settings.

Enabling a MIDI device in the app settings automatically turns off the Piano Capture, i.e., audio transcription features. Therefore, remember to deactivate any MIDI devices in the MIDI Devices panel of the app settings if you want to use Piano Capture. Otherwise, the app will continue listening for MIDI messages rather than audio signals.

Once you've set up your MIDI device, you can record enable any instrument staff from the staff control. The staff will turn red, and you can immediately start playing notes on your MIDI keyboard to hear a preview sound. However, remember that this is genuinely a preview sound, designed to be responsive and useful just for input purposes, and may not reflect the full playback sound.

When you're ready, tap the main record button and start playing! Again, use a metronome for best results.

We've optimized certain elements to make drum input a bit easier — you can play the included drum kit sounds with a "GM" mapping style, and it will automatically assign the notes to the appropriate note-head styles, voice layers, etc.

If you have keyboard skills, MIDI Capture can be a fantastic way to experiment and try ideas quickly.

Video Staff

The Video Staff is a new staff type, found within the Utility category in the Staffs control.

Tapping the staff name brings up the staff control, where you can import a video file, adjust the volume, pan, reverb of the video's audio track, or even add effects to it.

Once you've imported a video, a filmstrip of thumbnails is rendered across the score. You can double-tap this filmstrip to hide or show the video preview window. You can also double-tap on the video window itself to hide it. On iOS , pinch-to-zoom to resize the video preview. On Windows , drag the scale handle in the bottom right corner to resize the video preview.

Imported video files appear as video clips. You can only have one video staff in a score, but you can import multiple video clips onto the same video staff. Just like with audio clips, you can drag the video around using the Pencil or Pen. You can also trim the start and end times by dragging the start and end handles on the video clip with the Pencil or Pen - same as with audio clips.

The Video Staff supports all major video formats . You can even export the video with your music included from the Share screen.

The Video Staff works best in conjunction with the timecode staff and tempo mapping features. It's easy to work out exact cue points, add markers, and make fine adjustments. Together, they provide a formidable set of tools for scoring to picture.

Muse Sounds

We're proud to add the incredible Muse Sounds to the StaffPad Store, available completely free of charge.

The core ethos and mission of Muse Group is to amplify musical talent. As part of this mission, we've been diligently working with our colleagues and friends at MuseScore to bring excellent playback to as many people as possible . The result is Muse Sounds, a new imprint and a collection of playback instruments covering orchestra and choir that can add incredible depth and realism to your score playback. You'll find the Muse Sounds packs available for download in the StaffPad Store; they're free - and I highly recommend that everyone checks them out.

If you're a MuseScore user and would like to use them for use within MuseScore on Desktop, be sure to grab the Muse Hub and download them from there.

Harmoniser

StaffPad is an incredible collection of unique technologies, and sometimes we just can't resist... the new Harmoniser (or Harmonizer, perhaps!) uses information it gathers from the chord staff, or the harmonic content of the score, and applies a vocoder style effect to your vocal audio. You can find the new effect in the Effects section of a vocal audio staff. It's a lot of fun, and definitely a creative and interesting effect!

All the little things

Alongside the major features, there are - as usual - a host of smaller improvements. We've improved the MIDI import engine , so that even unquantised, messy MIDI files give better results. On Windows, the responsiveness of the Welcome Page has been significantly improved. We've heard the feedback about the ordering of instruments in the Add Staffs control, and re-ordered the Staff Category column alphabetically , rather than in score order, so that e.g staffs from specific Sound Partners are easier to find. The new metronome sound, the digital click, is designed to work with our new "Metronome Remover" mixer effect . The Metronome Remover effect suppresses the metronome signal in audio recordings, effectively allowing you to record without headphones whilst also using the click.There's a new Dynamic Mastering slider, which replaces the compression slider in earlier versions. This slider acts as an automatic mastering engineer, applying loudness, spectral enhancement, compression, expansion, limiting, and a few other studio tricks to bring loudness and sparkle to your composition's playback.

As usual, there are also many fixes and enhancements included in this update.

Whew! That's a big update.Until next time, I hope you like the new features, and continue to enjoy composing music with StaffPad!

Best wishes,

DWH & The StaffPad Team

The July 2022 Update

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:26:31 GMT

Summer vibes, timecode, niente hairpins and more!

Summer is my favourite week of the year! Whilst this is a very British joke, it's a relief to see the sun come out and witness a welcome return to live music, concerts and shows.

As usual, we've been continually working on StaffPad to ensure it evolves and improves. There's been quite a lot of work going on under the hood to ensure that StaffPad has full compatibility with Windows 11. Eagle-eyed StaffPadders on Windows may have noticed we've added a 'full screen' option to mourn the loss of Tablet Mode, amongst other tweaks like updated controls and visual styles.

There's been a lot of bug fixing happening behind the scenes since the massive audio update that we released at the start of 2022, which has resulted in a few point updates that I haven't written about in detail. Audio support had been in the works for some time, and it required some huge updates to the file format, and to a lot of StaffPad's internal plumbing. In general, it was a very smooth transition to the new score format and I'm extremely proud of the team and the quality work they did to bring audio to StaffPad in such a seamless and magical way. I've been incredibly inspired by the music that's been created by all of you: I absolutely love hearing what you're composing with these new features, so please do keep sending it in. There's a great selection of pieces, written on StaffPad by very talented composers, to listen to on StaffPad Radio .

We try to make one or two large updates a year, peppered with smaller point-updates in between to fix bugs, add minor features, and update compatibility as OS and hardware changes require. We've also been working hard on all kinds of bigger-picture things. Although today's update may seem relatively subtle on the surface, there is much larger work going on deeper down to light up new features in the future. We look forward to showing more when the time comes!

Without further delay, let's look at what's new in the July 2022 update to StaffPad.

The Time Staff

In preparation for video support, we are introducing the Time Staff as a way of working with multiple time bases. The Time Staff supports "wall clock" hours:mins:secs, and also a variety of SMPTE timecode frame rates such as 24fps, or 23.976 (and drop frame variants).

If you are working to picture, even without video support yet, this will already help. Combined with the new tempo mapping features, it makes precise writing to time stamps or timecode (or conforming scores to EDLs) much easier.

Choose the "Time Staff" from the "Utility" category on the Staffs screen to add it to your score.

The time staff runs across the score, and a live counter/time display follows the playback cursor. By default, the time base is set to 24 frames per second (fps). You can tap (with your finger) on the time base label at the start of the score to change it to a variety of other common formats.

You can "scrub" the cursor by dragging the playhead circle in the bar ruler, to achieve a precise position. You can offset the time on your score (for example, if you wanted bar 12 to hit at a specific moment in time) by long pressing on time staff at the cursor position , and choosing "Set Time".

You can drop time markers at any point and give them a label, which can be a really nice way of marking out structures of songs or leaving comments for collaborators. As with all staffs in StaffPad, you can choose to print them or not by tapping on the staff name, and then toggling the "Do Not Print" switch.

You can drop time markers anywhere on the time staff. This is very useful for marking out sections or drawing attention to hit points, or leaving comments for collaborators. To add a Time Marker, long-press on the Time Staff and choose "Add Time Marker". You can drag markers left and right using the Pencil to fine-tune them, or use pressure erase (or the eraser mode, if you have that enabled in the settings) to delete them.

Combined with the tempo mapping mode of the tempo staff, you can create precise tempo maps that line up perfectly with required timecode hitpoints.

Niente Hairpins

We often want sound to "appear" or "disappear" into nothing, and whilst you can imply this with low dynamic markings, and use the expression layer, sometimes it's better to be concrete about it and use a "niente" (literally a " nothing ") hairpin.

To push a hairpin to niente, drag up or down on the hairpin either whilst inserting it from the symbols palette, or after it's been recognised from ink. StaffPad will add a small circle, and adjust the playback to go either from nothing, or to nothing, as desired.

You can also type an n. text dynamic, or drag a dynamic symbol down to n. as well.

A small improvement, but a welcome one nonetheless.

New Mixer Effects

This one is nice and straight forward: we've enabled "Reduce Treble" and "Reduce Bass" effects so that you can thin out the low-end or high end as you see fit. This can be useful on audio staffs for filtering out noise or rumble, or on instrument staffs to give you more control of where instruments are positioned within your mix.

All the little things...

Dynamics will now render above the staff when there's lyrics present - this happens automatically when you print, export to PDF or view the score in the Reader, so you won't see this change on the main "infinity" score canvas itself.

MusicXML export and import has been improved , so you should see fewer duplicated articulations on chords, and some better matching of instrument names.

We've fixed various issues with audio import and recording , including mono-mic iPad's sometimes recording to a single channel of a stereo file. Audio Staffs will now use their abbreviated names where appropriate; StaffPad will now favour tempo numbers vs words, when a combination is used (e.g "Allegro 150").

There's been a lot of work on stability for this release, plus many fixes and improvements to make the StaffPad experience as enjoyable as possible.

As usual, there's a lot of work happening in the lab, and we'll look forward to updating you about that when the time comes.

Some of you may have been wondering where the audio recognition feature we previewed at Apple's WWDC developer event last year has been. It was an unusual break in step for us to preview something that was still under development. Since all our updates are free, and often installed automatically, we want to make sure we take the time to get features right, rather than release something before it's fully baked. With something as cutting edge as audio-to-score, we're keen to make sure the first impression is great and that it's truly useful in every sense of the word. To do that requires a little more time in the oven.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer. Stay safe, and enjoy writing music with StaffPad.

With best wishes,

DWH

The Audio Update

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 20:32:40 GMT

Audio support, studio effects, open key signatures, new symbols and more!

Happy Holidays, StaffPadders!

Today marks the release of a huge update to StaffPad - one we've been working on for the best part of the year! Audio support is here . This means it's now possible to record, import and edit audio clips seamlessly within your score, opening up new possibilities for compositions.

This update is, as always, free for all existing StaffPad composers and is currently rolling out in the App Stores on both Windows and iPadOS.

There has been a lot of work behind the scenes to make this happen, and I'm incredibly proud of the work the team has done here. To properly support audio, we had to upgrade the score format. This new format stores all your audio files, versions and custom artwork inside it; carefully managed and compressed using state of the art algorithms to avoid any score sizes getting out of hand. This makes sharing StaffPad scores super simple - even with complex audio arrangements. It's just one file!

This new format is not backwards compatible with earlier versions of StaffPad . If you're in the middle of a large project, or you use multiple devices that might not all upgrade simultaneously, you may wish to exercise caution when updating StaffPad - choose the right time for you!

To mark the release of this huge update to StaffPad, we're also giving new customers a holiday discount: a whopping 55% off the retail price for a limited time only... Check the App Stores for details.

There is a lot to talk about. Whilst you're reading about all that's new, you may want to have some background music... We're launching StaffPad Radi o , an internet radio station that showcases some of the best work by StaffPad composers around the world, and includes some interviews with interesting people, as well as the latest news.

StaffPad Radio

You can listen to StaffPad Radio on our website, at http://radio.staffpad.net , on Amazon Alexa and Frontier Radio. All the music on StaffPad Radio is rendered f StaffPad; it's a testament to the incredible playback engine and integrated lib raries that you can actually enjoy these compositions as musical pieces, rather than be distracted by poor s ound quality . Of course, it helps that the composers featured on StaffPad Radio are super talented . If you'd like your c omposition to be featured on StaffPad Radio, get in touch with us at radio@staffpad.net .

We'll be updating StaffPad Radio regularly, so please do tune in when you're in need of some inspiration... or just to relax and enjoy the music with a glass of wine (of course).

Now you've got a soundtrack, let's look at what's new in the app itself...

Audio Staffs

Audio Staffs are much like other staffs in StaffPad, except they hold audio clips . You create an audio staff much like any other staff: there is a new "Audio" category in the Staffs control. From there, you can add different types of audio staffs, for example a "piano" or "guitar" audio staff. This might seem strange, but actually giving StaffPad some idea of the kind of content you'll be recording onto the staff lets StaffPad configure itself smartly behind the scenes. For example, a "vocal" audio staff will configure the microphone array on your device to record with a specific kind of polar pattern; it'll record in mono for a more focused sound; and it'll display a relevant set of tailored studio effects - which we'll talk more about later!

Audio staffs are rendered as a single line staff. You can add as many audio staffs as you like to a score, and each audio staff can hold multiple audio clips - there are no limits .

You can import an audio clip by tapping the Audio Staff name, and choosing the "Import Audio" button. You can also drag and drop audio directly from the iPadOS Files app, or Windows Explorer. All major formats are supported, and StaffPad will conform the audio to the correct sample rate, store it within the score file itself and intelligently compress it to save space.

You can also record an audio clip directly into your score, using your device's built-in microphone array. There is no support for external audio interfaces, but you may be surprised at just how good the microphones in your device are. For example, there is a new demo score , called "Keep Your Light On" , featuring a real string quartet performing from StaffPad Reader and recorded directly onto an audio staff through the iPad Pro's internal mic array.

To record audio, tap the Audio Staff name and press the Record icon in the Staff Mixer to record-enable the staff. A new Record icon will then be displayed in the toolbar; press it to start recording from the playhead position. You can set a count-in from the StaffPad settings, as always.

You can connect headphones to record with StaffPad's metronome; the internal microphones on the device will still be used to capture audio. This makes it super easy to record your guitar or vocals by just putting on your AirPods, pressing record, and singing or playing your part.

You can edit audio clips with Apple Pencil, or your Windows Pen. Tap a waveform to view the clip's container, and drag the editing handles with Apple Pencil to trim, fade, loop and change the gain . You can drag clips around the audio staff, or onto other audio staffs. When you move audio clips left and right, they snap to the beat markers that display as you start dragging. This can help positioning clips in musical time; but if you need to freely position these clips precisely, hold the Pencil/Pen still for a second - the snap markers will disappear and you can freely slip the audio clip around without snapping.

To split a clip in two, slice down through the waveform with Apple Pencil or your Windows Pen. This slicing motion splits the clip into two separate clips. You can move multiple clips together using the lasso tool. Of course, bar selection tools work as well for quickly copy/pasting, deleting, moving, transposing or repeating any audio clips within those bars.

Studio Effects

To complement Audio Staffs, we've included a suite of studio effects that you can add to any staff - not just audio staffs - to enhance and elevate playback. From a simple noise gate, to a de-esser , plate reverb , EQ , sparkler/enhancer , chorus , compressor and more... there's plenty to choose from.

Audio effects are accessed from the new "Effects" tab on the staff mixer. You can toggle the effect on/off using the power button, and adjust the amount slider to increase or decrease the strength.

We've also created several multi-effects, which are tailored to each type of audio staff. For example, on the vocal audio staff, there's a "Pop Vocal" effect, which combines several rounds of compression, a high/low shelf EQ, a tempo sync'd delay, a bright plate reverb, a doubler a some sparkly high end boost to give you that professional pop vocal sheen.

Tempo Mapping

Tempo mapping is the process of synchronising a score's tempo with an audio file, even when it fluctuates over time. If you record something without a click/metronome, then it will likely not be at a steady metronomic tempo - there will be a human aspect to the performance that can be good to protect. Or, perhaps you don't know the tempo of an audio clip, or it's a deliberately free-form performance, and you want to add notation and other elements to it.

In these situations, you can tempo map the audio so that the bars and beats inside StaffPad line up with the audio clip.

To tempo map a clip, first create a tempo staff, then enable tempo mapping mode by tapping the Tempo Staff's name, and toggling the "Tempo Mapping" switch. Top tip: You might want to disable "Adaptive Audio" on the staff which holds your audio clip, so that it doesn't try and change the speed whilst you're tempo mapping!

Once you're in tempo mapping "mode", you can drag the beat and bar markers of the tempo staff freely to match them up with the audio file. Drag the bars to match the transients of the audio file, and you can quickly map even a complex piece.

Adaptive Audio

Adaptive Audio is the name given to StaffPad's time and pitch stretch system. Adaptive Audio is on by default for Audio Staffs, but you can turn if off if you choose, by toggling it in the Staff Mixer.

Adaptive Audio works by applying high quality time and pitch stretching to your audio clips , to match your score's key and tempo. It makes working with audio very easy as you make changes to your score later. For example, you could record your piano into your score at 100bpm, and in Eb major. Later, you may want to speed up the score, or parts of it. You can just change the tempo as you would normally, and your recorded piano will change with it. The same with key - if you decide to transpose your piece, the audio will transpose as well. It's pretty magical - but essentially, it means you can think of audio as being as flexible as the notation you're used to working with in StaffPad.

You can also manually pitch shift audio clips by making a selection and using the usual transpose tools inside StaffPad.

Elements

Elements are royalty-free, production loops and sounds for use your score . There's a new Elements Browser that organises these sounds into categories, and you can search for, browser, preview and drag and drop them onto your score canvas to build up new parts, and augment your compositions.

Elements are adaptive , so will always fit your score's tempo and key. They're smart enough to know if they're unpitched and, if so, won't automatically pitch-shift when you transpose your score. Likewise, some elements aren't time specific, so won't time stretch it it's not relevant.

Elements are fetched on-demand from our new web-service, so you'll need to be connected to the internet to make use of this new feature. We'll be continually adding new Elements from now on.

We hope you enjoy using Elements in your compositions; they're genuinely useful for a lot of things, and a lot of fun too!

All the little things

You can now quickly insert pizz/arco text instructions by using the quick-insert tile from the symbols palette. StaffPad tracks what the last instruction was for a string player, so you can simply tap once to place a "pizz" instruction, then tap again to place an "arco" - no switching needed. Drag up to insert a snap (or "Bartok") pizzicato symbol.

StaffPad now creates new scores in an open key . Previously, all new scores were created in C Major. Do remember to change your key signature if your piece really is in C Major, otherwise transposing instruments won't show their transposed key signature correctly! You'll notice there's now a "No Key" option in the "Change Key Signature" control.

You can now add custom Cover Art to your scores. Choose the Edit Details screen for your score from the Welcome Page, then tap the new camera icon. You can import a photo, take one with the camera or choose an existing one from your camera roll. This will display as a custom thumbnail within StaffPad, and you also get an option to print the Cover Art in that score's print settings. This can be a great way to offer some visual organisation to your score library, as well as give your score that professional finishing touch!

You can now duration-drag rests as well as notation, and choose a specific automation layer view from the long-press menu, in automation view. We've localised the StaffPad Store into more languages.

There's been a lot of fixes and enhancements under the hood in preparation for the previously announced audio transcription features, which are now coming next year. StaffPad Reader has also been updated to support the latest score files, as well as a few layout and engraving fixes.

Whew! That's a lot... this marks another chapter in StaffPad's "full vision" journey, and it's an exciting one for sure. I'll leave you with our teaser trailer for this release: the audio in this video was created entirely within StaffPad, with vocals and drum loops/fx from audio staffs and Elements, with the notation rendered through StaffPad Editions of Berlin Strings, CineWinds, Spitfire Symphonic Percussion, CinePianos, Ambience One and CineBrass - all available in the design-refreshed StaffPad Store . You can hear the full arrangement on our YouTube channel.

I hope you've managed to stay happy and healthy throughout 2021 - another testing year for many of us.

All that's left for me to do is to wish you all a very happy holiday season, wherever you are in the world. We'll look forward to seeing you in 2022 with some more news, updates and music!

All the very best to you and yours,

David, Matt, and the StaffPad Team

Springing Forward

Fri, 07 May 2021 12:00:05 GMT

One small spring for StaffPad, one giant leap for composers!

Hello StaffPadders!

It’s been a very busy first half of 2021 at StaffPad. Firstly, I hope this missive finds you well, healthy and enjoying the renewal of life that spring represents. Although we were able to squeeze in a small update recently, which focused on bug fixes and compatibility, we've been extremely busy working on some larger features that are coming to StaffPad in the near future. We've also been working hard to secure the long term future of the app and open new avenues for growth; as part of that, we have some exciting news to share. Let's dive in!

StaffPad joins Muse Group

StaffPad Ltd is now part of the newly formed Muse Group of brands. This is fantastic news for us - and a healthy sign of growth for StaffPad's future. Muse Group represents some of the most popular and exciting brands for musicians in the world today. Being a part of a larger family means we’re able to enjoy increased resources, support and stability, whilst embarking on even more ambitious features and projects in the future. Matthew and I, and the development team, remain committed to StaffPad - and our ambitious roadmap continues apace.

Speaking of roadmap; eagle-eyed viewers of Apple’s latest “Spring Forward” event may have seen us demonstrating a sneak peek of some of the things we're working on (skip to 00:51:00 to see us!)

Usually, it’s our “MO” to keep features under wraps until they’re ready to go but, in a break from tradition, I thought it might be worth talking a little bit about what we’re doing in the longer term and wider context. Whilst these features are not yet ready for release, I thought it would be fun to unpack a little bit of what we're working on behind the scenes at StaffPad HQ.

For context, it’s important to revisit the full "vision” for StaffPad: to create the ultimate composition app, for composers . That's the high order bit -- the primary design function of StaffPad is to empower composers to compose .

Since it's launch, StaffPad has made strides in meeting the needs of composers working in the field today. With StaffPad and StaffPad Reader, you can go from idea to mockup to live performance, working entirely within notation - the language both composers and musicians read - without leaving the StaffPad ecosystem. This was a Great Leap Forward for us and, if I may be so bold, for notation itself.

Yet, a modern composer often works beyond the walls of notation. These days, the composition process involves working with sound . As composers, we want to work with audio sources like vocals; synths; loops; sound effects or dialogue. It’s useful to be able to capture ideas in their raw form, as and when we have them. However, the problem was that this meant switching tools - and languages - into a DAW world. That brings with it a whole new set of complexities.

To solve this problem, in the coming months, we’re bringing seamless audio support to StaffPad.

Audio Staffs

Audio Staffs unlock an entire world of sounds and possibilities for your compositions. For the first time, you’re able to easily record or import audio files, edit them directly on a score canvas using your Apple Pencil or Windows Pen, and have them play back right alongside your instrument staffs. You can cut, copy, trim, fade, crossfade, overlap, move, snap, and adjust the gain of individual audio clips held on a special audio staff , and create as many audio staffs as you like.

That’s not all. Coming later this year, we’re bringing audio recognition to StaffPad. This magical feature converts the audio you record or import into StaffPad into usable, useful notation. This works for polyphonic audio sources - like a real acoustic piano or guitar - so there's no need to lug around a MIDI keyboard. On more powerful devices, such as the new M1 iPad Pro, you can even record directly onto an instrument staff, and see the notes appear in realtime .

Designed from Day One

The seeds for seamless audio support were planted into StaffPad’s design from the start. It’s why we focus on a continuous "infinity view" layout within StaffPad; it’s why the playhead and the automation layer work in linear time, rather than relative notation time. It’s even why we give such prominence to the metronome icon. Throughout StaffPad, there are countless design touches which mean that when audio comes, it slots in as if it’s been there from the start without any huge workflow changes.

Audio support is one of the most exciting features in StaffPad's continued development, and I can't wait to share more details with you about this incredible new functionality in the near future. We are aiming to release Audio Staffs as part of the next major update to StaffPad, with Audio Recognition coming later in the year.

That's it from me for this update -- we'll see you very soon for the next!

With all best wishes,

David and Matt

December 2020 Update

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 10:42:02 GMT

What a year! We've got one last update for 2020...

Well, where to begin.... 2020 has been a very big year for StaffPad. Back in February, when the world was relatively normal(ish), we launched the biggest update we've ever done; added countless new features such as realtime parts over WiFi; and brought the world of StaffPad to the iPad.

It's amazing to think that a project which started out as an idea in a studio cafe has resulted in a professional tool used on major projects - from films such as Disney/Pixar's "Onward" to spellbinding live events at the Royal Albert Hall. Best of all, it's inspired many of you to pick up your pen (or Pencil) and write some music - which, after all, is the whole point!

StaffPad is still a young product, and there's a lot more to do. We're working hard on some very large features which I think you're going to love, and we'll have more news to share next year.

One of the things I've most enjoyed about this year is the sense community that's blossomed around StaffPad. If there's one thing that 2020 has taught us, it's that having a supportive community around us is incredibly important. For StaffPadders, there's some great places to hang out, like the Facebook StaffPad User's Group , or the StaffPad section of Vi-Control.net .

Many of you have enquired about whether we'll be opening our own StaffPad forum. We've given this some serious thought, but have decided to take a bit more time to make sure we get a truly integrated, useful and valuable addition to the StaffPad community: a place to belong; not just ask questions. We have some big plans in this area, and we'll start on that journey next year.

Whew! With that said, let's take a look at what's new in the December 2020 update to StaffPad...

New Symbols

We've added new symbols to StaffPad's palette.

Breath mark

We've added the breath mark, or comma, to the palette. To insert a breath mark, open the palette and tap the breath mark tile. Tap with the Pencil to add them to a note. Breath marks will shorten the note that they're attached to. In some upcoming instrument libraries, you'll even be able to hear the musician take a breath!

Grace notes

We've always been able to convert notes into grace notes, but now we've added the ability to define whether these grace notes are acciaccaturas or appoggiaturas .

The grace note brush is now direction sensitive: drag up or down with the Pencil to convert between acciaccatura or appoggiatura. An acciaccatura has a small slash through the stem, and these will play back before the note. An appoggiatura looks very similar, but without the slash through the stem, and they'll play back on the main note position itself - we've still got a bit of work to make these sound correct, but we're getting there!

Staccatissimos, Staccatos, Accents, Marcatos, and Tenutos.
These have always been available by drawing them in ink. However, sometimes it's useful to add these articulations to lots of notes in one go. So, we've added brushes for them.

The Staccato tile is direction sensitive. As you brush through the notes to apply the articulation, move your Pencil up or down to change from staccato to staccatissimo.

The same is true for accents; drag up whilst inserting to change the accent to a marcato.

Tenutos are straight forward. Just paint these in, or brush over them again to remove them.

Key commands

Whilst StaffPad is designed for touch and pen, there are some key commands available to use if you wish. These have been available on Windows for a while, but we're bringing them to iPad too. This could be useful if you have a Magic Keyboard for your iPad; an Apple Silicon Mac, or a bluetooth keyboard and mouse connected.

Some highlights - move your cursor over a staff and press "M" to mute the staff under the pointer. Or "S" to solo it. Press "T" to quickly add text at your current pointer position. You can quickly search for scores on the Welcome Page, or staffs in the staff list, just by typing. Press escape to return to the default score and editing mode. One iOS tip: if your keyboard doesn't have an escape key, you can use cmd+period to quickly cancel any mode or screen and get back to your score.

Languages

We've started the process of bringing the StaffPad experience to more languages. So far, we've added some translations for 12 different languages: Arabic, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian and Spanish.

However, this is still a work in progress , and it's definitely new territory for us -- although the languages have been professionally translated, we need your help to improve them. There may be areas in the app where you notice the translation is slightly off given the context, or the UI doesn't quite look right. We hope to rectify these issues as quickly as possible, and have done our best so far - but we would really appreciate your help in making it better.

If you would like to help improve translations for your language, please do get in touch with us at translate@staffpad.ne t and we can provide instructions on how to help.

If, for now, the localisations are a hindrance rather than a help, and you would prefer to return StaffPad to English, you can use the language selector in the StaffPad app settings on Windows, and within the iPadOS Settings app on iPadOS (Settings -> StaffPad -> Preferred Language).

There are still some big parts of the app that need to be translated, and we still need to work on translating the help guide (although we have added the option for Google Translate), the website, captions for the videos and tutorials, and even this blog. In other words, this is very much a first iteration and there's still lots to do, but we're learning a lot!

All the little things

There's several smaller improvements and lots of fixes in this update. MusicXML import is improved, the handwriting recognition is improved, and we've fixed a number of bugs. You can choose how the score view follows the playhead; centred, or per page. There's improvements in layout, and in playback, such as . In the Reader, you can set a maximum number of bars per line, or choose bar numbering for every bar, 2 bars or 5 bars, instead of just every system. You can reset the volume/pan/reverb sliders by double tapping on them.

The sun never sets on the StaffPad team - we span all time zones! Whilst that's not great for my sleep patterns, it does mean we are able to work at a fantastic pace. Behind the scenes, we've been diligently working away on general code health, making great progress on larger features coming up, plus improving some of our bespoke tools which will enable us to move even faster in the future. We've made great progress in 2020, and have some wonderful things coming up in 2021. I'm excited!

We hope that 2020 has been, all things considered, a successful year for you. We have some exciting things to announce next year, and we'll look forward to seeing you for a bigger, brighter 2021.

Happy Holidays and our very best wishes,

The StaffPad team

October 2020 Update

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 21:08:34 GMT

A new season, a new update!

Hello StaffPadders!

I hope you've all had a wonderful summer, and have been staying healthy and busy during this most unusual year.

Over the past months, I've enjoyed hearing from StaffPad users all over the world. There's a fantastic sense of community that's springing up, and I'm so happy that the app is inspiring people to write music. We've been growing here as well, and I'm sure those who email our customer support will be well looked after by Andrew and Steve; our new friendly support agents.

For those interested in r eading more about the finer details of the app, I would highly recommend ordering a copy of Steve Barden's book: Mastering StaffPad . Steve has compiled an excellent compendium of StaffPad's major concepts and features, and it's a pleasure to read.

As the summer turns to autumn, we're happy to announce the release of the StaffPad October 2020 Update . This is a free update , available in the App Stores now. You'll need iPadOS 13.6 or later , and Windows 1909 or later , to receive this update.

Let's take a look at what's new...

Dark Mode

Dark Mode can help with eye strain when working in low light environments, or late at night. To change this appearance setting, open the settings and choose " Dark " under " Interface Appearance ". On iOS, you can also set this to change with the system , so that it automatically switches to Dark Mode when iOS does. It can take a few minutes to adjust seeing music presented in this way, but I've found the more I use it the more natural it seem s. P erhaps inevitably, I' ll admit that I've joined the dark side and use Dark Mode most of the time!

Harp pedals and Glissa ndos

Harps are mysterious things; they can be quite tricky to write for. Often, composers will write for harp as if it were a piano, and harpists a re left to write their own pedalling in to interpret the composers intent as best as possibl e. If you're feeling brave, you may wish to specify the pedal changes in the score yourself . StaffPad now contains a couple of really intuitive features for working with harp pedals .

One of the most common "light touch" use-cases is to specify particular scales for glissandos. Previously, StaffPad would always playba ck a diatonic glissando based on the key signature; however, now you can specify a custom glissando scale for harp staffs via pedals . Write a glissando as you normally would, then l ong touch t he glissando itself , and choose "Edit Glissando" .

A new harp pedal control will show up, and you can slide the pedals into positions with your finger to set a custom scale. The app will write the text representation of the pedals for you automatically, and you can switch this to a diagram/pictogram if you'd prefer; long touch on the harp pedal text and choose "Switch Pedal Style" .

If you want to really get into it, you can also manually specify pedalling at any point on the harp staff. Simply long-touch below the staff and choose " Add harp pedal ".

Finally, if you don't want to worry about manually working out the pedal positioning, but do want pedal changes to be written in your score, you can tell StaffPad to do it for you . Tap the harp's staff name to open the Edit Staff control , and toggle the "Show Pedals" switch on. StaffPad will automatically place harp pedal diagrams for you , and update them in realtime as you change or add notes to the staff. If you've written something that's truly impossible, StaffPad will alert you by colouring those notes in red.

New note head styles

We've long had X note heads in S taffPad, but these are now joined by 5 more styles: triangle , small slash, circled, ghost (parentheses), and diamond. To use these note head styles, write your notation as you would normally do (using regular note heads), then tap on the "Convert note head" tile in the palette. Choose your style from the mini-tiles that slide out, and paint your note heads on using your pen or Pencil. You can convert them back to regular note heads by painting over them again with the tool

Ghost notes have a special property: they will play back much quieter than normal note heads. This can be very useful when writing for drums and percussion.

Chord Slash es

This is a very neat feature; as well as being able to convert note heads into small slashes, you can convert entire chords into single large slashes . This means you can write out your instrument part, e.g for guitar, using the voicing and rhythm you want, then convert and compress into single slash note heads that are easier to read. Behind the scenes, StaffPad still "sees" the full notation, so the playback is unaffected , but on the score you achieve a more readable and less "overt" notation representation, which can be really useful when working with guitarists. You can convert to and from chord slashes at any time using the tool - just tap on a chord with the pen/Pencil to convert back and forth.

Various improvements

Multi-line text

This one is a small tweak, but useful nonetheless. You can now press shift + enter whilst you're inserting text on your score to create multi-line text .

New Downloads & Updates Manager

Our Windows users will notice a new Downloads & Updates manager that can be accessed f rom the bottom of the Store page . This page is where you go to update and manage your installed libraries. On iOS, this screen already existed, but we've updated our download method to be much faster, and with a pipeline that enables us to release updates for the IAP libraries far quicker.

You can also now turn on automatic updates just for the library manager - activating this means you'll get the latest fixes for the IAP libraries without having to lift a finger.

iOS14 improvements

As part of the continued lifecycle of the app, we've worked to improve the performance of StaffPad when using iOS14. You can tap to edit a text field (such as the score title), and use iOS14's new Scribble feature to handwrite your title, for example. We've also improved trackpad and pointer support for iOS14, so you can use your magic keyboard or trackpad with more! Lastly, we've moved to native context menus for long-touch menus. These bring a few benefits - they adjust for light/dark mode and work with a trackpad and keyboard a little better.

Ambience Two

A new sound library for StaffPad; this is a sequel to the popular Ambience One library and extends the tool palette with a variety of sounds and instruments inspired by meditation and sound baths. From singing bowls to wind chimes, rainsticks to gongs, this is a relaxing and creative sound pack perfect for expanding your writing and sonic palette. You can find Ambience Two in the StaffPad Store.

Various little things

We've made improvements to the efficiency of playback on older devices. Importing MIDI files is a bit more robust against invalid/corrupted MIDI files. We now interpret more tempo text markings, such as Allargando and Piu Mosso. We've made sure we always print the tempo marking in the first bar on parts, regardless of whether or not it's a multi-rest. We've improved the casting off, so that you should find fewer cases of a single bar being stretched across the entire last page. There are n umerous updates to the included and IAP sound libraries . Windows users will notice some new "fluent UI" effects in the symbols palette. We've fixed many bugs, including ones that could prevent the proper export of AAC files on iOS or MusicXML files from the library page. Fermatas now insert themselves automatically "down" the entire score, and behave better with tempo markings around them. Chords inserted on the chord staff now "float" up to individual instruments that have "show chords" enabled, making it easier to work with rhythm charts from a primary chord staff.

Whew! That's quite the list. I hope you find the latest improvements to StaffPad enjoyable, and that our continued work helps you achieve your musical goals. We've got a lot more to do, so I'll stop waffling on (as usual), and get back to work.

Stay safe, and w e 'll see you soon!

With all best wishes,

DWH

June 2020 Update

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 13:12:59 GMT

A StaffPad Update, an Apple Design Award, and some reflection...

In mid February, we launched StaffPad and StaffPad Reader. As I write this follow up, just 16 weeks later, I still can't believe the unprecedented level of change the world has gone through - and is still going through. Wherever you are in the world, I hope that you're safe, healthy and staying positive about the future.

I've enjoyed hearing about how StaffPad is being used on projects, both large and small. In 4 short months, I've learned that StaffPad has already been involved in major movie projects, TV shows, live events and album projects. We've received some wonderful reviews and a fantastic community has grown around the app, with Facebook groups and forums to support the growing user base. The current situation has meant we haven't been able to focus on the in-the-room collaboration features offered by the Reader, but we can't wait until we're able to get together again en masse to make music and properly demonstrate the remarkable capabilities of StaffPad and StaffPad Reader working together.

We've won an Apple Design Award!

We're really proud to announce that StaffPad has won an Apple Design Award ! This is a huge honour for us. To receive the prestigious Apple Design Award, just 4 months after releasing on iPad, is truly humbling.

We put design front and centre in everything we do at StaffPad. This doesn't mean just spending time on what the app looks like, but taking the time to think about the entire experience from start to finish, and how to build that in the best way we can. I could muse for days on design (and often do) but, for now, I want to express my biggest thanks to the StaffPad team and, of course, to Apple for the recognition... right, I'm off to open some champagne!

The #OutsideCompetition

Recently we ran a competition, in partnership with the great people at Orchestral Tools , encouraging composers to write a short piece - however they choose to write - capturing their relationship with nature and the great outdoors. We were incredibly moved when more than 500 composers rose to the challenge, and compositions of incredible quality and expressiveness poured in. The talented young composer Cameron Moody took first place in the competition with his fantastic piece "Morning Air", capturing the essence of renewal and opportunity that a new day brings. Cameron has since been enjoying writing with StaffPad, saying:

"StaffPad is wonderful! It's incredibly powerful, efficient, and a real joy to use. The interface is intuitive, and the sound quality is impeccable!"

You can listen to Cameron's piece, and the runners up below. These compositions, and all of the entries to the competition , were an absolute joy and pleasure to listen to. I hope the competition provided some relief and inspiration during the past few months. My biggest thanks and congratulations to all of the wonderfully talented composers who entered.

The June 2020 update to StaffPad

In February, when we relaunched StaffPad, and introduced StaffPad Reader, we were releasing the result of 4 years of hard work into the world. The technical scale of StaffPad is enormous, with a vast codebase that's extraordinarily complex. We use bleeding-edge development techniques but, inevitably on a project at this scale, there's been some challenges along the way. I know it's been a bit of a bumpy road, especially during those initial weeks. We've been working really hard to stabilise the codebase, and fix as many issues as we can as quickly as possible. There's still more to do here, but I wanted to thank you for your patience as we move ahead. We are committed to making StaffPad the best it can be, and there's a bright future in front of us.

On that note; we're excited to announce the latest release of StaffPad - the June 2020 update. This update adds some new features, and contains many fixes and improvements to enhance your experience of writing with StaffPad. The update is now live in both the App Store and the Windows Store, and will roll out gradually over the next week.

Let's dig in and have a look at what's new...

Note Stretch

This is a great feature to quickly change the duration of an existing note . You've always been able to move notes left and right on the staff just by dragging them. Now, you can change their length too. Now, you can simply tap on a note with the Pencil or pen, hold for moment, then drag left and right to adjust the duration . It's a great way of quickly extending a note or chord to cover multiple bars, or to quickly adjust a duration down without having to rewrite the note itself. Have a look at how this works in the video below:

Dynamics Drag

As well as being able to change note durations by dragging left or right, you can now drag up or down on dynamics symbols to change their value. This also works for groups of dynamics you've selected with the lasso. In case you haven't seen it yet, you can also drag hairpins up or down to change their direction.

These improvements mean it should now be easier to write, edit and erase a bar of music without using any additional UI - just the pen or Pencil.

New Sounds

We've introduced new sound packs for StaffPad to help inspire new compositions and take your productions to the next level. These include

Cinesamples Artist Series: Tina Guo Cello StaffPad Edition
Cinesamples Artist Series: Taylor Davis Violin StaffPad Edition
Ambience One
Essential Drummers

For emotional, lyrical cello lines the Tina Guo Cello sings beautifully. Taylor Davis Violin brings a modern sound to melodic writing for violin. Ambience One contains a fantastic array of production sounds and evocative soundscapes. Essential Drummers brings the sound of two of the UK's top session drummers into the app, along with punchy drum machines. Each of these libraries have their own info and demos within the StaffPad Store - definitely check them out when you get a chance. You can hear a quick composition showing some of these new sounds below.

All the little things

Of course, we're constantly working to improve the stability, reliability and performance of the app. Over the past few months we've deployed numerous enhancements to the recognition system. This includes improved recognition , and rolling out a new " report bar " system. Now, if you see an orange/pending bar where you feel one shouldn't be, tap once with your finger on the bar and press "report". This sends the bar to us for further analysis and helps us improve the system in the future - for all of us.

We've added stem export , which lets you export your score as individual WAV files, for further work elsewhere, mixing or backup purposes.

There's a lot of smaller fixes and enhancements too. Take a deep breath; here's just a few:

Copy and paste of chord symbols is now more robust, and now also works with the lasso tool. Chords from the Chord Staff will also show on regular instrument staffs where appropriate. Tuplets are no longer “swung” during swing playback. The transposition dialog now defaults to “off” for the ‘change key signature’ option. Slurs now properly update their direction for parts that transpose when printed. Versions are more robust, and quicker to switch between. Chords are now exported and imported via MusicXML more reliably. Under-filled and over-filled bars no longer appear shaded on printed scores, the Reader, or PDF exports. Tempos can be manually entered to two decimal places (previously, this would only apply to imported tempo maps). You can now copy and paste between scores. We added a custom Downloads & Updates screen for iOS, to make managing purchased sample libraries easier. We've fixed multiple layout issues, as well as made general stability and performance improvements throughout the app. We've made multiple updates to the sound libraries, fixing issues that have been reported.

As always, there's much to do. The team and I are working hard behind the scenes to bring new features, important fixes, and some entirely new concepts to the app. We're also working to bring StaffPad to additional languages , and you'll start to see some of that work in the next update in the coming weeks and months. I'm really excited about the future of StaffPad, and I can't wait to share more with you in the near future.

Until next time, stay well, stay positive and stay healthy. As always, I hope you continue to enjoy writing music with StaffPad!

With very best wishes,

It's here: the StaffPad 2020 Update

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 23:28:42 GMT

The biggest update in StaffPad's history.

Wow. Well, that was a lot of work! Before we begin , I'd like to thank all of you for your patience over the past couple of years. Developing these massive apps takes a huge amount of time, energy and resources. It's been an incredibly busy time for us, the team has been working around the clock, and we haven't had much time to do anything else. This rebuild was a necessary process; it ensures that StaffPad can move forward well into the future.

Today, I'm thrilled to announce a huge update to StaffPad, free for all existing users , and the launch of a totally new free app called StaffPad Reader , for the synchronised, realtime display of parts on multiple devices over Wi-Fi.

And, for the first time, we're bringing StaffPad and StaffPad Reader to iPad.

This is huge news for us. We heard from thousands of people that they wanted the unique StaffPad experience on iPad. It took some time for the stars to align, but I'm really proud to announce that StaffPad is now also available on the App Store.

As you might have guessed, StaffPad requires an Apple Pencil to write music with.

Right, there's a lot to talk about. I'll do my best to keep it brief, but be warned - this post might get quite long. I'd recommend grabbing a coffee (and perhaps a croissant ��), and settle in to read about what's new in StaffPad!

For existing Windows users, the update is gradually rolling out right now. You don't need to do anything to receive the update; it'll install automatically when you get it (unless you've turned off automatic updates).

After updating, the app will upgrade your existing scores to our new format. This process might take some time, especially if you have a lot of scores. Your scores are backed-up before conversion, but remember that the new file format is not backwards compatible with previous versions of StaffPad. As always with big updates, if you are in the middle of a critical project, you may wish to avoid updating until it's safe to do so.

Although we're calling this an "update", it's actually an entirely new codebase . Yep, every single part of the app has been rewritten, and improved, in a different coding language that brings us higher performance, more stability, cross-platform support and our new document format, which enables a lot of the new Reader features. With that said, please do bear with us -- it is an entirely new codebase, and as such you might find there's a couple of fixtures and fittings we still need to polish up.

Towards the end of 2016, 18 months after StaffPad's initial launch (on Windows 8, if you remember that!), Matt and I sat down and reflected on the original goal of the project, the landscape of technology moving forward, and how we could best achieve the full vision of what StaffPad can be.

The initial goal was simple: make writing music easier . I think we went a long way to achieving that with StaffPad, bringing handwriting recognition and a touch-and-pen-first notation experience to mobile devices. Since it's launch, StaffPad has been used in thousands of incredible projects, from Hollywood movies to epic live events, and has also proved incredibly useful in the classroom, as well as inspiring people initially intimidated by the complexity of notation to take up the art of writing music.

The end-goal is just as simple: make creating music easier. We wanted to tackle not just the process of writing the notes down, but also the process of then hearing that composition performed .

And I hope that's what we've done. Let's dive in and see what's new.

ScoreSync and StaffPad Reader

For me, composition is the first important step of a two-step process in making music; the other step is to bring your music to life, off the page, and into reality - only then does it become something everyone can hear and enjoy (well, ideally).

Previously, this required a lot of separate, complex steps. There's the writing, sure, but after that happens there's a whole host of additional steps before it gets heard: the mockup/demo; the tweaks and revisions; the formatting and copying from a master score to individual musician's parts; the printing and taping of each part; and finally the physical distribution of lots of pieces of paper to music stands. It's really a non-linear workflow that makes any kind of collaboration process with musicians very difficult, and nearly impossible.

All those steps add a lot of time, complexity and cost to the process of making music together. Of course, on major projects, where a lot of music is written and recorded in a short space of time (and under ever more pressured deadlines) it becomes imperative that the whole process, from idea to reality, is as seamless and efficient as possible.

So, what if we could simply write the score... press play and hear a world-class mockup/demo of what it'll sound like? Then, with one button, send the parts to all the musicians in the room, with any future changes instantly updated for everyone? What if we could press play in StaffPad and give everyone a synchronised metronome, count-ins, seamless page turns, sync'd annotations, and simple, individual control over how they prefer their parts to look? What if you could do this using any combination of Windows and iOS devices, and with no costs?

Well, you guessed it, that's exactly what we've done. StaffPad now features ScoreSync , a revolutionary feature for sharing parts in realtime amongst as many devices as you like , using the free StaffPad Reader app for iOS and Windows 10.

StaffPad and the Reader make it easier than ever to work with live musicians . Imagine an entire orchestra playing from iPads and Windows devices. The conductor, composer, orchestrator, producer, bandleader or teacher can make a change in StaffPad and the entire ensemble gets updated in the blink of an eye. Try out entirely new ideas, change the key with a couple of taps of the finger. Incorporate ideas and receive feedback from the entire group. Correct any mistakes instantly. It's a dream come true for anyone working regularly with live musicians.

Playback

Of course, not everyone has an orchestra to work with. Even if you do, the likelihood is that you're still called upon to provide a highly realistic "mock-up" or demo to show what the composition sounds like; whether that's for approval from the director, a teacher listening to an assignment, or just for your own pleasure and enjoyment.

StaffPad features great playback out of the box, with a unique interpretation layer taking the notes from the score and spinning it into full audio playback, with a fantastic custom "core" sample library included.

However, today we're proud to announce that we've brought several of the world's leading sample libraries to StaffPad , as unique StaffPad Editions, with more in the pipeline. In collaboration with Cinesamples , Orchestral Tools , Spitfire Audio and others, we've totally reprogrammed flagship sample library collections to work seamlessly with notation and, for the first time ever, on mobile devices like the iPad. There's all kinds of wonderful features in these libraries, from a choir that sings 30 different syllables (controlled via the lyrics!) to rare and unusual antique keyboards, these libraries sound absolutely incredible, are insanely easy to use and available right now in the new StaffPad Store .

So, what does this all sound like? Well, in a word: fantastic .

It was a huge job to bring these libraries to StaffPad, and I'd like to thank the luminaries at Cinesamples, Spitfire Audio and Orchestral Tools for their collaboration, enthusiasm and for creating such fantastic sounds. The fact you can choose if you want your string section from L.A, London or Berlin, and switch between them in an instant -- on an iPad -- completely blows my mind. To do this, we had to reimagine the concept of what a sampler is, and its relationship with notation. We built true-legato concepts directly into core brain of the app, figure out a new compression method to get these vast sample pools to fit on a mobile device, carefully rebuild these libraries from their original source material in our own sampler format, and curate and edit with a sole focus on playback from notation. There's also hundreds of details at play here that I won't bore you with... but, needless to say, all of this is totally bespoke and unique to StaffPad; so we also had to build the entire editing and programming toolchain and workflow behind the scenes that makes all of this possible.

Anyway, enough - let's have a listen to the end result. Below is a realtime video of a demo score, straight from StaffPad, featuring sound libraries from Cinesamples, Spitfire and Orchestral Tools.

For me, this is a clear leap forward for what's possible.

That's not all. In this new update, we've also added an upright bass for everyone , and reprogrammed the entire core library for a clearer, more dynamic sound. We've added a " Dynamic Compression " slider which you can use to make your audio playback sound punchier, bringing out the quieter parts whilst taming the loudest parts. We've even added a Tuning Frequency slider for those of you who don't want to work to A=440Hz. You can now vary the playback tuning between 430Hz and 450Hz to your liking. We've also added a metronome , which you can toggle easily straight from the toolbar. This sounds reminiscent of the beloved UREI click, favoured by studio engineers everywhere. We've also added a count-in feature which will give you either 1, 2 or 4 bars count-in.

Of course, the metronome and count-in are perfectly synchronised with StaffPad Reader. When you press play, everyone hears the same count-in, and the metronome beats in perfect sync. This means the musicians can plug headphones into their devices, and everyone is kept in perfect time. This is essential when performing music to a backing track, or when you need very precise timing for multiple takes, or when working to picture. Having a perfectly sync'd click track distributed to multiple devices over Wi-Fi is an incredible enabler for live performance, studio recording and even live concerts that need precise timings.

We've also redesigned the expression layer. This is now an all-new automation layer . This new feature gives better interpretation of written dynamics, and allows you to draw smoother freehand dynamics curves. You can now also create bezier curves between points, for perfect dynamics ramps. Long press and toggle the view, because you can now also automate volume and pan , as well as dynamics/expression.

We've added a solo button to the Edit Staff dialog, for easier solo'ing of instrument parts.

Lastly, we've introduced the concept of Staff Presets . These give you an easy way of quickly switching between variations of the same instrument, and you can change preset multiple times within a staff , using the Change Preset command, found by long-pressing on the instrument staff (only seen on instruments with presets available, of course). For example, you can choose sticks or mallets for the cymbals staff. There are countless presets available in some of the premium libraries, like loads of different sizes of each percussion instrument within CinePerc , Berlin Percussion and Spitfire Percussion libraries... you can even choose your organ stops in the Union Chapel Organ , or choose your buffers and stops for various harpsichords and other antique instruments in Antique Keys . I felt it important that we provide an easy way of switching these sounds whilst also leaving a useful score marking.

Versions

In the past, StaffPad had a feature that stored backups of your score as it auto-saved. In the new update, we've added true versioning support. Each score can now contain multiple versions of the arrangement , and you can flip between them with a simple tap. There isn't really any limit on what you can change between versions. It was designed for those times when you want to try things out, or create different edits of an arrangement, without losing the original version. Simply tap the Versions icon, create a new version, and you're working in a new "branch" of the score. Make as many changes as you like , and when you're ready, you can always go back to the original version, or split a new version from that and start again. It's a great way of presenting several ideas, keeping several edits within the same score file, or simply tracking snapshots of your score as you progress through the writing process.

Chord Symbols

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this one. We've added chord symbol support , but not just for formatting manually inserted chords above the staff (though of course, it does that)... we've gone one step further and added a couple of new concepts.

As well as inputting chords manually (long-press and choose Insert Chord ), you can now enable an automatic chord analysis for any instrument staff , by simply enabling the Show Chords option from the instrument's Edit Staff control. This prints the chords above the staff, and shows a realtime analysis - if you change the notes on the staff, the chord symbols will update instantly too. Of course, these chords change when you transpose the piece into other keys , and also respect the instrument's natural transposition properties (i.e Trumpet in Bb) when it needs to.

The big concept here is the Chord Staff. This analyses the entire piece, and shows easy to read chords on a bespoke single line staff. You can even change the complexity of the chord symbols by tapping on the the Chord Staff name, and dragging the complexity slider. The chord Staff also generates a chord chart , which is printed in the parts or displayed on the Readers. If the score has no pre-existing notation to analyse, you can quickly insert chords on an empty chord staff by tapping the beat markers that hang below the staff line. Pressing space bar or backspace will move you forward/back through the markers, so you can quickly type out a chord chart in next to no time.

Tempo Staff

Along with the Chord Staff, and the existing Bar Number Staff , we've also added another kind of "utility" staff... the Tempo Staff .

Often, scores have quite simple tempo instructions. To add a tempo, you can still simply long-press above the staff, choose Insert Text and then simply type a number or write an instruction like Adagio or Presto . Or, you can ask Fenby , our voice-controlled composer assistant to do it for you by tapping the little dude in the top right, and saying "Tempo is one hundred and forty bpm" , for example.

However, there's also times when the score will have a very complex tempo map. This is often the case when working to picture, or theatre shows that have precise timings to hit, or simply if you want precise control and realistic sounding playback with that more natural, less rigid approach to tempo.

For this, we've created the Tempo Staff . The tempo staff shows your tempo as a graph , and you can add points to any beat in the score , and create smooth ramps between them for precise control over accelerandos and ritardandos . You can even import a tempo map from a MIDI file , which is perfect for those complex tempo maps created Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase etc... just bring them into StaffPad by tapping the tempo staff name, and choosing Import Tempo from MIDI File.

The detail slider lets you control how much information you see on the score . Behind the scenes, the tempo map is always respected during playback and export, but sometimes you (or the musicians) just don't need that much visual information. You can choose 4 different detail settings, and StaffPad will interpret the tempo curve, adding enough markings to give you guidance but without overwhelming the score with markings.

Move the slider below to see the tempo graph with a complex MIDI tempo map vs how it's displayed on the score with the low detail setting.

Divisi Staffs

StaffPad lets you write polyphonically with up to 4 individual musical voices per staff, using the voice layers found in the top right corner. However, sometimes, you want to write more detailed divisi, or you want to add an additional staff that's printed on the same part, but only shown when required. StaffPad now lets you attach as many additional divisi staffs as you like to any instrument staff . To do this, simply long-touch within the staff you want to split, and choose Add Divisi Staff . The divisi staff will automatically be hidden from the part if it's empty , and shown only when there's music within.

Layout improvements

StaffPad has an advanced automatic layout engine. From day one, we designed the app to have very few manual page formatting controls. This was a deliberate decision: from the beginning, we knew that we wanted to do the Reader, have auto-formatting realtime parts and create the ultimate digital music stand app. This would mean the parts would have to reflow and reformat instantly, depending on screen size, resolution, the musician's display size preference and, of course, whenever you make any changes. To do this, the app needs total control over the layout, so we knew that adding controls that defined page breaks and system breaks would have created constraints that would interfere with this flexible, responsive "screen music" paradigm.

We know that StaffPad's layout isn't perfect, but we've made strides in improving it. There's still work to be done here; it's one of those areas that's never really finished. Let's look at the improvements we have made already:

The overall look of the music is slightly thicker and more defined than before . The app is smarter about how it uses intra-staff and intra-group spacing to create a nicer spread over the entire page. StaffPad will automatically increase the size of important score elements as the number of staffs increases (and thus the score gets "smaller") - like rehearsal marks and tempos, to ensure they remain easy to read. When creating print or PDF layouts, you can now specify the maximum number of bars per line. Additionally, page numbers are easier to see and rendered in the top corner of facing pages.

All in all, this creates a much more readable score with better overall proportions. Drag the slider below to see the difference between the new update and the old version. You'll see we've set the new layout to be 6 bars per page, the titles, rehearsal marks and tempos are larger and more readable, and there's a more pleasing vertical distribution of staffs, resulting in less white space at the bottom of the page.

All the little things...

Of course, a new decade ushers in a new look, and the app has been visually refreshed for the new roaring '20s. You'll notice more animation, more refinement, and slick effects throughout. We've reworked the home screen to be cleaner, and added an entirely new Discover page with new video tutorials and various tips n' tricks to take you through learning the app.

On Windows, both apps are now fully native ARM64 , which means they work well with the new Surface Pro X and other "Always Connected" Windows Devices. We also switched our inking layer to use DirectInk, which is Windows' new low-latency ink API. The end result should be a more immediate feeling ink stroke, with virtually no delay.

You can finally create clef changes anywhere within the bar , rather than just at the start of a bar.

Glissandos can now cross over a grand staff . Very useful when writing harp glissandos! This is the first part of better cross-staff notation support. We're starting with some common use cases, then will add the ability to cross notes between the two staffs of a grand staff.

You can now easily swap entire instrument staffs if you decide you want a flute staff to become a clarinet staff, and so on. From the Staffs control, just choose the instrument you want to swap and press the new swap button.

Speaking of swap... we've added a feature to easily swap voices in a selection, to help correct issues. Simply select the bars by double tapping with your finger, and then press the new swap voices icon in the command bar.

We've improved MIDI and MusicXML import and export. It's now more robust and gives you better results than before - both ways.

We've added a search feature to the Staffs control; handy for when you start filling up the app with great sounds (CinePerc has something like 110 instruments!)

You can now also more easily sort and search your Library , as well as your Collections and Templates - just scroll up to reveal a search bar .

You can easily duplicate a score from the home page now. Tap the "..." icon and choose "Duplicate".

Whew. If you're still with me, well done! You can see why this took us a while. The reality is that we expect a few things to have slipped through the net. Please do let us know if you experience any issues whilst working with StaffPad.

Even though we've tried to keep the app intuitive, there's still a lot to learn and discover. I hope StaffPad continues to surprise and delight you well into the future.

And, as always, enjoy writing music with StaffPad.

With all best wishes,

David & Matt.

What is StaffPad?

Mon, 30 Dec 2019 21:47:57 GMT

StaffPad is a huge app. With the Reader, it forms one of the most efficient music notation systems ever created. In this post, I'll explore what StaffPad and the Reader do... and why!

What is StaffPad?

This is actually a great question. StaffPad is a music notation application designed for composers. The "designed for composers" bit is important. There are great notation programs out there, but they're often designed for music copyists, librarians, engravers, music publishers etc. In other words, the core focus of those programs is to provide a hyper-flexible and custom layout for existing music. Those programs have a high degree of flexibility for sure, but they can also be very complex to use. Whilst you're composing, writing and experimenting with ideas, the flow is different; you're focused on the music itself, rather than how it looks on a page.

StaffPad was designed from day one to keep that natural flow. It functions almost like a painting app for music.

However, StaffPad was also designed for getting stuff done. As a working composer and arranger, I'm often called upon to write large amounts of music quickly; demo it well for producers, directors or collaborators; then record the final result with studio musicians quickly and efficiently. StaffPad has been designed to streamline this process. The music written for these jobs will only be performed a couple of times - as "takes" on the recording session - and will often be changed right up until the final take. StaffPad and StaffPad Reader allow me to navigate the whole process with a speed, fluidity and ease of use that was previously simply not possible.

Right. So what is StaffPad Reader?

To me, the multi-stage process involved in getting music to musicians always seemed convoluted and technical. As other pipelines (like editing, or visual effects) moved to a non-linear workflow, music notation remained stuck in the past. Once the music is printed out, we may as well be in the 1600s again.

The solution to me was clear, but daunting: First, create a notation app for composers that allows you write quickly; handles the demo and layout stages automatically; and leaves you free to change things at any point. Then, create an app for musicians to perform that score; it should wirelessly display and update each musician's part in realtime across an entire orchestra with the tap of a single button, and handle all the layout, page turns and performance aspects automatically.

To make this a reality, we have to move to working with responsive, digital scores. Not merely photocopies of paper scores, or static PDF scans or exports of fixed-page notation, but truly dynamic, living scores that can change and update right in front of everyone's eyes.

That's where StaffPad Reader comes in. The Reader is for musicians to play your score from. You can have a practically unlimited number of Readers connected to StaffPad in realtime, over a simple WiFi connection. Any changes you make in StaffPad are shown instantly on the Readers. If you press play in StaffPad, all the Readers play too. It'll turn pages smartly, keep everyone in time with a sync'd metronome, count-in and playhead, allow for collaborative annotations and much more. With StaffPad on the conductor's stand, and Readers on the music stands, you can streamline rehearsing, performing and recording with each other like never before.

The hope is that with the benefits of StaffPad, and ScoreSync realtime parts, more composers will be introduced to the incredible experience of hearing their work performed with live musicians.

July Development update

Sun, 23 Jul 2017 23:00:00 GMT

Hello lovely music people!

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to write a post to let you know that today we've pushed out another minor update to StaffPad, which adds a few features and fixes a few bugs. We also had to do some work in order to ensure StaffPad functions correctly on the upcoming Fall Creator's Update to Windows 10, which will be released later in the year.

It's been a while since a major update to StaffPad has happened, but that's not for lack of activity from us on the development side! In fact, StaffPad remains under the heaviest development phase of its post-release lifetime. Despite working around the clock, we're still not quite ready to share with you what we've been up to just yet. What I can share, however, is that we're working on completing the original full vision of what StaffPad should be. The mission with StaffPad was to design a system that would use the latest technology to make it easier to create music . I've always wanted to cover the whole journey, from supporting the composer during the writing phase through to the performance by the musicians. Thus far, we've tackled the composition part of that journey, and now our sights are set on the final destination.

In order to realise that vision, StaffPad has had to undergo some serious work, strengthening the foundations and rewriting processes in order to support new and exciting features yet to come. We've added people to the development team and, within the last year, we've written and added almost quarter of a million lines of code to an entirely new codebase. Whilst this new codebase version is not being released yet, I'm hopeful that we'll have more news to share about this and what it brings with it towards the end of the year.

For now, let's take a look inside the latest release of StaffPad:

As usual, the Windows Store will update StaffPad for you without you needing to do anything, but if you want to double check or force the update early, just open the Windows Store app and choose Downloads and Updates, then Check for updates. To verify you're on the latest version, click the settings icon in StaffPad and make sure you're on v2.4.29.0

Cautionary Accidentals

We've added support for automatic cautionary/reminder accidentals in StaffPad scores. Up until now, the app would remove any non-essential accidentals during the printing phase, which could cause some confusion. Now, reminder/cautionary accidentals will be kept in, and automatically enclosed in parentheses () marks to show they're status. The parentheses will only show up if you manually add a cautionary accidental (there's no need to draw the brackets yourself), or import a score via MusicXML or MIDI. By default, StaffPad is quite, erm, cautious with its cautionary accidentals on imported scores. You may wish to remove a few of the more obvious ones from complex imported scores... we'll be improving the smarts of this system in future updates.

Per Bar/Per System Bar numbers for printing

During the print phase, you can now select to include bar numbers every system (as before); every 2 bars; or every bar. For parts, I rarely choose every bar - but sometimes you might want this if the score is very long or you'll be doing a lot of drop-ins during recording/rehearsal.

The Bar Number Staff

Whilst it's not always necessary to have bar numbers under every bar for each instrument part, it can be really handy to include in the printed full conductors score for that 'at a glance orientation' - especially if there are a lot of instruments/staffs in the piece!

We've included a new category of staff in the Instruments dialog, called Score Tools. Here, you'll find an entry for Bar Numbers, which will create a special type of staff within the score displaying large, boxed bar numbers. You can create as many bar number staffs as you like, and move them around the score order using the move up and move down controls, just as you would for a regular instrument staff. I'll often create two bar number staffs and place them above the strings and brass so I can quickly reference them during a session.

We've also fixed a fair number of little bugs that have cropped up, and tweaked a few behaviours here and there. There's now an additional 90% and 110% Print Scaling Option that's been added to the print dialog, for a few more score zoom options and a few fixes to the built in instrument library.

For now, we'll get back to working on the next major update to StaffPad, which is coming together well. We've still got a lot of work to do here, but I really can't wait to reveal what we've been up to later in the year.

We hope you continue to enjoy writing music with StaffPad!

With all best wishes,

David & MattNew Paragraph

StaffPad November Update

Fri, 18 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Hello again, lovely people!

I'm excited to share details of the latest update to StaffPad, which is available now. As usual, Windows will automatically install the update for you; however, you can also trigger the update manually if you can't wait, by opening the Windows Store app and manually checking for updates there.

Although we've pushed out a few bug fixes and updates over the past 6 months, it's been a while since you've heard from us with new features. That's mostly because we're in a heavy engineering phase, which takes up a lot of development time. Rest assured, there is a lot of development work and effort being poured into StaffPad. Because of this, it might be a while before you hear from us again... but don't worry - it'll be worth the wait :)

This update to StaffPad brings new features, fixes and enhancements - as well as support for the new Surface Studio and Surface Dial. The first thing you'll notice is that we tweaked the UI just a little bit. Check out the new blur effects and animated snow on the Welcome Page... it's like being in a snow globe! Ahhhhhh!

An important thing to note: this update to StaffPad requires the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. If you don't see the StaffPad update; make sure you've got the Anniversary Update from Microsoft first.

Ok, let's dive in and see what's new in the November 2016 update:

Easily move and copy bars with the pen

This is a nice one. You can now drag selected bars around with the pen. Just double tap a bar to select it, then 'move' it by dragging the bar with the pen to a different place in the score. Very cool!

You can also quickly copy a bar like this too, just make sure you press the function button on the pen before you start dragging it.

Change bar numbers

You can now change the bar numbers at the top of the score. If your piece starts at bar -1 or bar 120, just long-touch (or use the pen's function button) on the bar ruler at the top of the score, and choose "Change bar number". Type in your new bar number with the keypad and you're good to go.

Print scaling

If you want your music rendered larger or smaller when you print (or export to PDF), you can do now set this from the print dialog. Choose from 50% up to 200% to change the overall scaling of the music.

You can also change the size of the lyrics when printing. Just choose from "small", "medium" or "large" font sizes in the print dialog.

Surface Studio and Surface Dial support

You can now use the brilliant new Surface Dial with StaffPad! You can use the Dial to navigate the score, by turning it left/right... press to start or stop playback. Whilst writing, you can turn it left/right to undo/redo ink, and press it to trigger recognition. You can also transpose selections quickly by turning the dial whilst in a selection.

If you have a Surface Studio, you get an onscreen radial UI when you place the Dial on the screen, for quick access to common symbols. You can also 'stamp' music around the screen by stamping a bar of music to 'pick it up', then stamping again elsewhere to imprint it.

Recognition enhancements

You can now add notes into an existing beamed group. This is surprisingly useful! The app will now add it into an existing group, and even adjust the tuplet value if you add a note into a tuplet.

If, for some reason, you want to write a tuplet that isn't automatically recognised (or if you've accidentally erased the tuplet mark), you can now long-touch (or use the function button) on a beam and choose 'create tuplet'.

Expanding the brackets of an existing tuplet will also now update it, which is handy for including rests into more complex tuplets, for example.

All the little things

There's a lot of little enhancements which make the process of working with StaffPad smoother. Here's just a few:

Playback is more responsive - it should start playing twice as fast as the last version
Pedal markings are a lot easier to use with. Now, if you change the style for one marking, they all change. You can also insert pedal retakes without having to use a separate symbol - just swipe up with the pen whilst inserting the pedal symbol to get a retake.
Hairpins are now consolidated into a single symbol tile. Whilst inserting the symbol with the pen, Drag the pen up for a crescendo and down for a diminuendo .
If you want to, you can now use key commands now with StaffPad. Undo, redo, cut/copy/paste all work as expected. You can also use the Spacebar to start/stop playback, and the < and > keys to step a bar forward or bar backwards . Pressing 0 returns you to the start of the score . Since StaffPad is designed for use in Tablet Mode, this might not be relevant - but I know that some people also have a QWERTY keyboard connected as well.
MusicXML export got a lot better with this update, and users of Sibelius should notice a much smoother process of converting scores
You can now double tap the FFward icon to move to the end of the score. Tapping the FFward and Rewind icons will now also scroll the score if the playhead is in view.
The strings playback is smoother than before, with less bite at the top dynamics.
The celeste and harp are more balanced, and should sound a bit more natural.
When sharing a score via Email from the Welcome Page, the shared score title is now displayed in the email subject. Makes finding those emails a lot easier later!
The app now recognises slurs and beams with more accuracy
We've improved recognition of minim rests vs whole rests.
The sketch layer will print more accurately than before. Note that this has a noticeable affect on the bar spacing. Before, StaffPad would optimise bars for print layout for maximum efficiency. Since this would cause some issues with the placement of the sketch layer, the app now does some additional work to space things differently to accommodate for sketch layer markings. This will only affect the score if there's sketch layer marks used within the score.
There's also lots of little bug fixes and tweaks which will hopefully make the experience of writing music with StaffPad that little bit more enjoyable.

In the coming weeks, a brand new set of video tutorials will be made available within the app. They'll cover the app from start to finish and serve as an excellent training and refresher series - both for beginners and seasoned StaffPad users.

We hope you find the new update useful, and continue to enjoy writing music with StaffPad!

Until next time...

All the very best,

David and Matt

StaffPad April Update

Thu, 14 Apr 2016 23:00:00 GMT

Happy Birthday to StaffPad!

It's been 12 short months since we released StaffPad, and it's been an amazing journey so far. We've had an amazing response from people all over the world, and the app has evolved and improved at an astonishing rate.

Of course, we haven't been resting on our laurels. Matt, myself, and the rest of the team here have been hard at work over the last few months to bring a big update to StaffPad, just in time for our first birthday.

The Windows Store will automatically download and install the update for you, so you don't need to do anything to get the update. If you've turned off automatic updates, or would like to manually check for and install the update, you can open the Windows Store app, go to the Downloads and Updates page, and click 'Check for updates'.

Ok, let's dive in and see what's new:

Pick-up bars

It's now really easy to add an anacrusis or pick-up bar into your score. Simply write the first bar as you wish, then long-press on the bar (or use the secondary pen button to trigger the context menu) and choose "Create Pickup Bar". If you decide that you don't want it after all, you can remove the pickup bar - just long-press again on the pickup bar itself, and choose "Remove Pickup Bar".

D.C./D.S., Coda/Segno, and Fine!

You can now add D.C. and D.S. markings in really easily, as well as Coda and Segno signs. StaffPad helps you out with this process to ensure you can't get illogical structures. From the Symbols palette, just choose either the D.C. or D.S. tile. A single tap with the pen will insert a D.C. instruction, if you hold the pen to the page and then drag up and down whilst inserting, you'll get the options for D.C. al Coda and D.C. al Fine. For D.C. al Fine, you'll see the bars turn red after the D.C. - this is telling you that these bars will be removed! Remember, you can always undo this action.

Repeat bar symbols

The repeat bar symbol looks like a % sign, and just instructs the players to repeat the previous bar. Again, in StaffPad we've made entry very easy - you can 'paint' them in with the pen. If you drag up or down with the pen whilst inserting, you'll get 2 or 4 bar bar repeat signs.

Flip note stem direction

You can now flip stems of notes when they're selected with the lasso. Just hold down the secondary button on the pen, and draw your lasso around a note or group of notes. You'll see a new 'flip stem direction' button on the toolbar. It does... well... pretty much what it says. It'll flip the stem(s)!

Subtitle, Copyright and Arranger/Lyricist credits

It's now super easy to add a subtitle to a score, as well as an arranger or lyricist credit. Just hit the Enter key after typing your title, and a subtitle will be created on the second line. The same goes for the arranger/lyricist credit - just hit Enter whilst typing the composer's name, and you'll get a new line for the arranger or lyricist's credit (or whatever you like!)

For the copyright information, it's a little bit different. The copyright info can be added on the 'Score Details' page, which is found on the main Welcome Page itself. The copyright is added as a footer on the first printed page - you won't see it whilst writing in StaffPad itself - only once the score is printed or exported.

Double sharps and flats

You can now draw double sharps (they look like an x) and double flats (which look like, erm, two flats together) in StaffPad.

Additional clefs

We now have additional clefs that you can add from the 'Change Clef' control, including treble octave clefs.

Composer assistant enhancements

If you live in an English speaking region, you can now also ask the assistant to insert rehearsal marks for you, as well as D.C./D.S. and it's variants. Just say "D.C. al Coda at bar 16", for example, then "Write 'To Coda' at bar 10". The app will do the rest for you.

As well as these new features, we've added a whole raft of improvements. One of the big areas we focused on was performance . StaffPad is now twice as fast as it was before, and large scores are handled better - so you shouldn't notice too much of a slow-down when the scores get very long! We've also added in a brand new playback engine , which is much more efficient, and features a high quality reverb too. It's easier to scroll around the score during playback, and we've made the view scroll now on repeats and D.C./D.S. instructions too. There's a couple of new instruments, and some free handclaps (well, it had to be done!). You'll also now find a handy single piano staff , which is very useful. Drum notation now formats itself , and is exported as a GM compatible MIDI file, to help that transition into a DAW.

Of course, we've also been working hard on the recognition engine, so you should find the app is now even more accurate than before .

There's also hundreds of little improvements and bug fixes that we've been smashing through, which you'll no doubt discover whilst using the app.

We hope you enjoy this update, and continue to enjoy writing music with StaffPad!

Very best,

David and Matt

StaffPad for Windows 10 Released!

Sun, 15 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Hello, fellow musicians! It's here, finally... the big one.

Today, we've released the update for StaffPad which brings full compatibility with Windows 10, a completely redesigned user interface, and many new features including a voice-activated 'composer assistant', partial bar selection and easy 'clone stamping', swing playback, more articulation symbols, sketch layer colours, copy/paste into OneNote/Email and much more. The update will appear in the Windows 10 store, and is a free update for all StaffPad customers.

It's a bit later than expected, but we wanted to squash a few last minute bugs that popped up somewhat unexpectedly - we're working on the bleeding edge of Windows 10 here, and naturally there's some new ground that we're treading on for both us and Windows 10.

StaffPad will now be a Windows 10 app moving forward. We've always got our eyes on the future, and the app is so different on Windows 10 that it really only makes sense to move forward and continually improve and enhance the app on Windows 10. The Windows 8 version will still run and function, but will be feature frozen. Since Windows 10 is a free upgrade from Windows 8.1, we expect that there won't be many Windows 8 devices around in the near future.

General points

On Windows 10, StaffPad can now be run in a window, but we strongly recommend running StaffPad in Tablet Mode, to get the full screen experience you're used to with StaffPad.

Additionally, I'd also recommend turning off the pen "press and hold" gesture, which is easy to do - type "change tablet pen settings" into Cortana/Search, then click the "press and hold" item in the list, then click 'settings', then uncheck the box at the top. This will stop menus from popping up automatically if you leave your pen stationary on the screen for a few seconds. On the Surface, I actually quite like turning off the 'pen cursor', which is an option found in the settings app in Windows - type "Pen settings" into Cortana/Search and then just toggle off the option to "Show cursor".

Philip Rothman, of the Scoring Notes Blog , has written a great write up of the update, which is well worth a read. Philip also contributed to StaffPad's new online help system, which is found at http://help.staffpad.net

Overall, it's important to remember that the core gesture of swiping from the bottom or top of the app to reveal a command bar is gone. Instead, we now have persistent menu controls that reveal these command bars, and static controls on the home page which provide the options that used to be hidden away in the command bars on Windows 8. You can use the universal back button (which is in the Windows task bar, at the bottom of the screen, in tablet mode - and in the titlebar of the app in desktop mode) to get 'back' from pages, including from the score page to the home screen, from tutorial videos to the home screen and so on.

Let's dive in and see what's new:

The home screen:

This is a completely new design.

The grey colour scheme has gone, and we're now left with a beautiful dynamic background which changes colour and mood based on the time of day, and the current weather in your location. During the day, you'll get bright blues and oranges if it's sunny, and muted greys and greens if it's cloudy. In the evening, it darkens down to a moody dark blue/purple for twilight and dark purple and blacks for night time. It's the little things, right? :)

No prizes for guessing what the weather was like when I took this screenshot. Typical London weather.

We've added realtime search into the home screen now, so you can quickly find a score in your library. You can also delete, add to collections and edit the details of scores directly from the search results - a great time saver!

The score preview now gives us a full page preview, instead of an incipit.

The three dots below the score page preview indicate a flyout menu. You'll see these three dots throughout the home screen. Just tap on one, and the score page will fly out to the left or right and reveal some more options.

From here, you can access old versions of the score, delete the score, sort your scores into collections, edit the details (like title, composer and now also copyright information ) and share you score. Sharing from this page will attach the .stf file (the StaffPad file itself) into an email, which is useful for quickly sending your work to other people with StaffPad as well.

Of course, you can still import MusicXML and MIDI, and access the settings from this page as well, using the icons at the bottom left.

Swiping to the left on the Recent Scores page will slide the whole screen over to the Score Library. The Score Library is now an alphabetised list, making it easier to find your scores overall. You can also tap on any of the header letters to zoom out to a quick-jump alphabet, making it super quick to zoom in on a particular project.

Again, the three dots here will fly out a menu with the same icons as the Recent Scores page, allowing you to quickly delete, share,

Templates and Collections are as you'd expect, in a similar alphabetised list, with similar zoom controls.

The Store page has been updated with a new look, but the same functionality. You can preview sounds and buy them here as before. If your purchases haven't re-downloaded automatically when the app updated, click the settings icon and choose 'restore purchases'. This will trigger a download of all your sample packs, and hopefully sort things out!

The Score Page

Again, there's a lot that's new here.

Tapping the arrow/chevron that's in the top left corner will reveal the command bar , instead of swiping up from the bottom of the screen as we did in Windows 8. Now, this secondary, purple(ish) bar is the context sensitive command bar. You'll see this roll over automatically when you make a selection too.

From the primary command bar, you can now also easily access print, share, help and settings controls.

An active bar will now become a shade of green, instead of red, based on feedback from you guys.

The Composer Assistant

You can add instruments as you would normally, or (if you speak UK or US English) you can now ask the composer assistant to set up the score for you. To do this, tap the little person up in the top right corner of the screen, next to your name. He'll wake up, and listen to your commands.

Try saying "Add strings". Make sure you don't say other things whilst the assistant is listening, or he may not understand you fully. If everything has gone to plan, the assistant will create the 5 staves for you automatically. You could also say "add flute, clarinet and bassoon". The assistant will create the staves in the order you ask for them. For example, if you say "add strings brass and woodwinds", the assistant will create all of those staves, as per a usual orchestral score, but in the order you've specified. For now, this only works with the built in instruments, but support for in-app purchases is coming soon.

Of course, you can do more than this with the assistant. You can say "add strings in 3/4, in F major". Then, you could set the tempo by just saying "One Thirty Five bpm" or "One hundred and thirty five bpm". The tempo will appear at the start of the score.

Naturally, you can be more specific. You can insert things at specific bar numbers too. For example: "140bpm at bar 5", or "change to G major at bar 6". You can set barline styles too, for example: "change to a double bar line at bar 2".

You can also ask the assistant for help. If you ask "how do I insert text?" for example, the assistant will open the new online help system and search for you. You can also ask him "what can I say?" and he'll return a list of commands that he understands.

This is beta feature at the moment; we'll be adding more commands and functionality to it in the future, as well as additional languages. If there's specific functionality you'd love to see here, let us know!

Partial bar selection

It's now possible to select notes within a bar, instead of double tapping on a bar to select the whole measure.

Use the secondary/right-click button on your pen, and draw a lasso around the notes you wish to select. The tool automatically loads it into a clone-stamp tool... so you can instantly tap the pen within the same bar, or within other bars to copy the selected music into the bars. This is great for quickly copying in groups of semiquavers or complex tuplets, and can really speed up note entry. You can also lasso dynamics, and quickly stamp them down the system or elsewhere within the score.

Lastly, it's possible to paste into other voices using this method. You can lasso some quavers in one bar, then dismiss the command bar, select voice 2, and stamp into another bar that already contains some music in voice 1 - the stems will flip automatically and it'll insert it within that voice. You can always use the 'flip stems' feature if your voices are the wrong way around.

You can also move the selected notes up and down in pitch just by dragging them with the pen, as you would for single notes.

To exit the lasso selection, double tap with your finger, as you would to deselect a regular bar selection. You can also right click the pen to deselect a lasso selection as well.

Swing playback

We've added in swing playback, which should make writing for big band a bit easier! To enable this, just insert some text above the staff (as if you were inserting tempo) and then write "swing" or "swung". To cancel the swing playback, just write "straight".

We also added in some big band style articulations - like falls and doits, plops and scoops.These particular articulations won't play back yet - we hope to record some additional sample content to make this possible (I didn't really want to resort to pitch bends!)

Directional symbols

We actually added this in a previous update, but I think it's worth talking about again, since we enabled this for more symbols. When inserting a symbol that has a higher or lower concept, you can insert the symbol whilst dragging the pen up or down to access the different variation. For example, to insert a down bow, choose the bowing symbol and drag the pen down whilst inserting it. Of course, to insert an up bow, drag the pen up. This works for octave markings, falls/doits, scoops/plops, arpeggios, mordents and turns.

Sketch layer colours

You can know use multiple colours on the sketch layer - just tap the colour well that appears once you enable the sketch layer, and choose your new colour!

Page scroll on playback

We've added a new mode to playback, so that StaffPad will scroll the page only when the playhead reaches the end of the screen. By default, we stick with the 'continuous' method that's always been in StaffPad, but it's an easy switch - just click the settings icon and toggle off "continuous scrolling during playback"

Copy and Paste into OneNote or an Email

This is really cool. You can now make a bar selection, press copy, then paste the music directly into OneNote or an email. StaffPad renders the music to an image file and places it onto your clipboard, which is yours to do with what you'd like. For teachers, this is a super quick way to make worksheets - just copy the music out from StaffPad (it'll even copy blank measures), paste it into OneNote, then do any text, images, and formatting you need within OneNote itself. Very cool!

There's a lot of other tweaks as well. You can now turn individual notes in a chord into an X notehead , rather than have the tool converting the entire chord. It's easier than ever to print to a PDF (you can even ask the assistant to "export to PDF"). Hopefully you'll notice that scores load a lot faster . You can now also copy and paste between scores , and write in additional clefs , including octave above and octave below clefs.

This was a major update for us. However, we're not stopping here. We're continuing to work hard on StaffPad, and have some really exciting plans for the future. We hope you're enjoying the app, and finding some great inspiration and creativity with it!

With all best wishes,

David and Matthew

StaffPad June Update

Mon, 22 Jun 2015 23:00:00 GMT

Hello, fellow music lovers!

We've been hammering out another big update to StaffPad, which has now gone live with Microsoft. This update will be beaming itself over the internets for you and updating itself very soon, without you having to do anything. Of course, if you're super keen, you can manually force the update by opening the Windows Store App, swiping in from the right edge and choosing "App Updates". It's well worth watching the quick 3 minute 'what's new?' video, which should appear to the left of your scores, on your home screen, once you get the update.

The June update adds a number of big features. Let's get right to it!

Lyrics

The big one! To add lyrics to a staff, trigger the context menu (by touching+holding on the screen with your finger, or using the pen's secondary button) underneath the staff. The menu will display an "add lyrics" option. Trigger the menu where you'd like to start inserting lyrics from.

Then you can just start typing; use the spacebar to move forward to the next note, and the delete key to erase/go backwards. You can use the arrow keys to step between notes and, of course, you can tap on any syllable/word to edit it in place.

Use the hyphen key to split a word into multiple syllables over one or more notes. For an extender line, use the underscore character; this is used for when a monosyllabic or final word is to be sung over many notes.

TOP TIP: On the Windows on screen touch keyboard, you can drag down with your finger on the '?' key to quickly get to hyphen and underscore characters.

First, second (and more) time endings

You can now add first and second time endings very easily with StaffPad. First, create a repeat barline, and then touch+hold on the bar at which you wish your first time ending to appear. The app will automatically add the second time ending after the repeat barline.

You can drag the handles to change the length, and trigger the context menu again on the ending to add an additional (3rd) ending.

Of course... repeat barlines now also play back correctly !

MOAR Symbols!!!

We've added a few more articulation symbols into StaffPad, and organised the palette more efficiently. The new symbols are:

Mordent/inverted mordent
Turn/inverted turn
Open/Harmonics
Mute
Up/down bow

We've also slightly changed the behaviour for how symbol variations are accessed. Now, whilst placing the symbol, you can drag up or down with the pen to change the variation. For example, instead of having 3 arpeggio tiles in the palette (one for up, one for down, one for unspecified), we now just have one: Whilst you're placing the symbol, you can drag up to add an up arrow or drag down to add a down-arrow. It's very intuitive, and the same idea also applies to up/down bows, octaves, mordents and turns.

Of course, you can also drag these symbols up/down to change their variation after they've been inserted.

The mute symbol can be dragged out horizontally to encompass a range of notes.

Symbols are now only shown for relevant instruments, so you won't see the bowing symbols if you don't have string instruments in your score, for example.

Arpeggios, mordents, turns and trills now all have playback support as well. We also have harmonic/flageolet samples for harp and strings too - mmm, gorgeous!

Performance enhancements

StaffPad is now far more memory efficient, meaning larger scores can be played back on slower devices, and we've added CPU overload protection to ensure nothing slows down your device too much.

Of course, there's many more little features and fixes under the hood. Here's the full change log , in case you're interested.

We're continuing to work hard on StaffPad - we hope you enjoy writing music with it!

StaffPad Tips n' Tricks, Part 1

Wed, 13 May 2015 23:00:00 GMT

StaffPad is very intuitive, but there's a few tips and tricks which you may not have discovered yet. In this post, I'll go through some of the less well known aspects of the app, as well as look at some Windows specific tuning that you can do to make the experience of writing with StaffPad as pleasurable as possible.

Windows Tweaks

Turn off "Pressure and hold"

Touch and hold is a key gesture in StaffPad. Touching your finger to the screen for a few moments will reveal a context sensitive menu. The contents of this menu changes, depending on where you trigger it. Triggering it over a bar will reveal options to change the time signature, key signature and other relevant things. Touch and hold over a barline, and you'll get the option to change the barline style.

However, by default, Windows ships with an option called " press and hold " turned on for the pen, as well as touch. This can be a bit annoying, since if you keep the pen stationary in one position for a few moments, you'll trigger the context menu. Fortunately, you can turn this off, leaving the context menu available via touch and hold, or the secondary button (right click) on the pen itself.

To turn off the press and hold gesture for the pen, open the Settings app and choose Control Panel from the bottom left to open the full desktop Windows Control Panel. From the control panel, choose Hardware and Sound , then Change tablet pen settings . You can search for "pen" in the control panel search box if you can't find it.

Then, select the Press and Hold entry in the list, and press the settings button. Uncheck the Enable press and hold for right-clicking option, click ok - and you're done.

Turn off automatic text suggestions in Windows

Auto-complete can be very handy in a lot of cases, such as when using the onscreen keyboard to type in emails. Along with autocomplete, Windows 8 also gives you a list of possible suggestions popping up where the cursor is, which can be a bit distracting if you're writing in dynamics, musical directions or tempo instructions etc.

Again, this is easy to turn off:

Open the Settings app from the start screen, tap the PC and Devices menu, then the Typing option. Turn off the Show text suggestions as I type toggle, and you're good to go! Note that you won't see these options if you have a keyboard attached to your device.

StaffPad Tweaks

Quicker playback navigation

You can double tap the Rewind button to quickly move the playhead back to the beginning of the score.
You can quickly select an entire staff by triple tapping on the clef at the start of the score.

Hide from Print

Sometimes, you'll have staves in the main score that you don't want to print out on the page. Perhaps these are sketching staves, or simply redundant parts. However, you don't always want to delete them for good. In this case, you can tap on the instrument name and choose " Do not Print " to prevent StaffPad from including it on the main printed score.

Rhythm slash notation

You can actually write slash notation in StaffPad. Just draw the slashes as you'd expect, and StaffPad will fill them in. Make sure you draw them as diagonal slanted lines that cover a couple of spaces on the stave.

Show an eraser icon

If you're using StaffPad on a tablet that's not a Surface Pro or Surface 3, your pen many only have one button on the barrel. The Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3 have pens with two buttons; one for erasing and one for triggering the context menu. If your pen has no eraser button, you can swipe in from the left to open the app settings, and then choose " Show eraser icon ". An additional icon is placed in the top bar, and will enable an eraser mode.

Create a PDF score

Microsoft include a PDF printer driver with Windows 10, and this is now the preferred way of creating PDFs, including from within StaffPad. Press the Print icon and then choose the "Microsoft PDF Printer" driver from the list of printers. Set up your page options as you like, and then press print. Instead of printing, Windows will show a "Save As" dialog for you to name your PDF file and choose a save location.

Saving to Dropbox or other folders

During the initial setup of StaffPad, the app will suggest that you use your OneDrive folder to save your scores to. This makes a lot of sense - every Windows customer gets a huge amount of free storage with OneDrive, it syncs nicely across devices (even when the app is closed) and it's built into Windows. However, sometimes you may want to change where your scores are saved, for example if you use Dropbox you may want to use this instead. Dropbox provides some additional sharing options that OneDrive doesn't, meaning you could feasibly invite other StaffPad users to a shared Dropbox folder and work on scores together.

You can change the scores folder at anytime, by opening the app settings and choosing the " Choose StaffPad Scores Folder " button.

Recognition tips

StaffPad generally does an pretty good job of interpreting your handwriting. However, there are a few things you can do to help it out, especially in tricky cases.

Remember that you can always stretch out an active bar if you run out of room - there's no need to bunch notes up or write them really close together to squeeze things in. StaffPad can recognise things much better if the spacing is good... so don't feel afraid to expand the bar, finish writing, then contract it again once the ink is recognised.
It may also help to zoom in a little , especially as you get used to feeling of writing on glass... remember though that if you zoom in, your writing must stay in proportion - i.e get bigger with the stave. If you zoom in, then write really small, the recognition engine will have a hard time working out what your intention is.
Occasionally, especially in more complex bars, it may be prudent to write different elements in separate passes . Notes, stems, beams and rests in the first pass; accidentals, articulations in the second and finally phrase marks/slurs and crescendos etc in the final pass. The reason for this is musical context: you can imagine, sometimes a slur over quaver duplets may look like an additional beam (and cause two semiquavers). By writing in multiple passes, you're effectively neatening up what you'd write naturally (since you'll subconsciously write better on top of engraved notation), and you're also giving a lot of hints to the recognition engine about what the intention is.
Don't fear pending bars! They're a powerful concept. Of course, if you want playback to be perfect, then you'll need to tidy up pending bars so that the recognition works fine. However, if your music is to be played by humans, as long as your ink is readable everything should still be fine. Pending bars are still printed, saved and divided into parts etc.
Use separate strokes. Although StaffPad does support connected strokes and correctional strokes, the app generally responds best if you use short, separate strokes for elements. For example, a quaver couplet would be best drawn as notehead, notehead, stem, stem, beam. Think of it as the equivalent of writing in print as opposed to cursive.

Whew! Well done if you made it this far! I hope that these few tips and tricks help you get the best out of StaffPad. As always, we're hard at work on the app... and we can't wait to show you what we've got planned for the future!New Paragraph

StaffPad Update

Thu, 07 May 2015 20:37:04 GMT

Hello everyone,

It's been a wonderful first month for StaffPad. We've heard from many of you, from all over the world, and I wanted to say thanks for the incredible support that we've been shown over the last 4 weeks. It's an absolute pleasure for Matt and I to hear your stories and experiences with the app. One of the highlights for us this month was being invited to Microsoft's //Build 2015 conference, writing music on stage with the CEO, and hearing it performed at the end of the keynote .

Naturally, we've been hard at work too :-)

Today, we're pleased to release the first update to StaffPad, which has just gone live in the Windows Store. Due to the way the automatic updates work, you might find it takes a few days before your copy of the app is updated. However, if you want to expedite the process, you can manually check for updates in the Windows Store app. You'll notice when you've got the update, since a new "Latest News" box will appear on the home screen. You can close this box at any time, and it won't bother you again until the next app update.

This update adds some useful features, as well as the usual fixes and enhancements to the app itself. Here's a quick rundown of the new features:

Staff Reordering

You can now change the score order of instruments, by using the new 'move up' and 'move down' controls in the Instruments pane.

Multi-rests

StaffPad will now automatically add multi-rests upon printing. You won't see multi-rests in the main score 'infinity' view, but StaffPad will insert them as appropriate during the print process. You can disable multi-rests if you don't like them!

Custom time signatures

It's now possible to enter custom time signatures, like 8/2 or 13/1, rather than having to stick to the predefined tile options. To insert a custom time signature, scroll to the end of the tiles list, and choose the '...' option. A keypad will pop up, allowing you to insert the top number (the numerator), followed by a selection for the bottom (the denominator).

Enhanced tempo support

Tempo markings now playback correctly, and we've added quick insert tiles for dotted markings.

Of course, there's many other fixes and tweaks in this update. Behind the scenes, we've been improving MusicXML export, fixing bugs and increasing the performance of the app. If you're interested, there's a complete change log available here.

We hope you continue to enjoy writing music with StaffPad!

Building StaffPad, Part 1

Fri, 27 Feb 2015 08:36:56 GMT

Wow! What a journey. The origins of StaffPad go back at least 7 years, to when I started working in recording studios with orchestras and musicians on a regular, professional basis. I had amassed a huge amount of technology, which I have a love/hate relationship with. In some ways, it's a huge liberator and luxury - we can do incredible things with the tools we have available to us... however,I found a part of me that was yearning to just switch off all my gear, clear my head and just... write some music.

Why Build It?

StaffPad came from the simple belief that composing music today has become almost prohibitively technically complex. As composers, we spend a long time thinking about the computer technology we use to realise the compositions, and I've felt for a while now that it can distract and hinder our ability to think about the actual music. Of course, the DAWs/samplers/plugins/hardware we have now are mindblowing and amazing - if you can afford them - but it's easy to feel a bit trapped underneath the weight of it all.

I was fortunate enough, in my early 20s, to start working with the incredibly gifted film orchestrator, Nicholas Dodd. Nicholas is no luddite, yet he still writes music on paper. When I asked him why, he simply said it was quicker. For me, I couldn't really fathom what he meant by this; someone would have to take that handwritten score and laboriously input the notes, one by one, into Sibelius or Finale. Someone would then have to synthesise a mockup of it, and then any changes would be subject to the same process. However, I realised that for composition and orchestration - which were the only two things he was concerned with - paper offered a fluidity and immediacy that nothing else could.

Nicholas wakes up and thinks about music. I generally wake up and think about switching on my Mac. That's a key difference - he doesn't deal with iLoks, hard drive crashes, mixing templates, software updates and the myriad of computer based technical challenges we all face daily as 'modern' composers. As long as he has a pencil, some paper and an eraser, Nicholas can work anywhere and be perfectly happy.

This is fine if you're as gifted, and as respected in the industry as Nicholas is. But, for the rest of us, paper makes little to no sense. It's fast and fluid - but only if you can hear what you're writing in your head. If you can't, then it's an ultimately irrelevant Sysyphean struggle. Marks on paper don't mean anything until they're interpreted by musicians. Notation is merely an instruction book, waiting to be read and performed by other human beings. Additionally, paper is easily lost, destroyed... it's cumbersome to work with at larger sizes and piles up quickly. Plus, it isn't flexible in so many ways - you can't easily copy and paste, insert bars, quickly delete sections, hear it - or change or manipulate its content in any way. Once it's there... it's there. Like it or not.

I started to think about what the ideal tool would be for a composer to work with, and realised that it didn't exist yet. It shouldn't replicate pen and paper, yet it also shouldn't replicate existing notation packages, which are all designed to facilitate the last step of the composition process; the arduous layout and engraving step. Instead, it should evolve paper , and make it more convenient and flexible. It shouldn't be as complex as existing tools, yet it should do everything you need for the majority of jobs. It should be fast and fluid , natural and intuitive. It should allow you to focus on the music , and handle everything else for you - without you even noticing. It should be the best of both worlds.

That was the genesis for StaffPad.

In the next blog post, I'l talk a bit about the actual development process, from finding the right business and development partner, to choosing a platform.

StaffPad Blog

Autumn 2023 Update

Piano Capture, MIDI Capture, Video, Muse Sounds... and more!

Piano Capture

MIDI Capture

Video Staff

Muse Sounds

Harmoniser

All the little things

The July 2022 Update

Summer vibes, timecode, niente hairpins and more!

The Time Staff

Niente Hairpins

New Mixer Effects

All the little things...

The Audio Update

Audio support, studio effects, open key signatures, new symbols and more!

StaffPad Radio

Audio Staffs

Studio Effects

Tempo Mapping

Adaptive Audio

Elements

All the little things ﻿

Springing Forward

One small spring for StaffPad, one giant leap for composers!

StaffPad joins Muse Group

Audio Staffs

Designed from Day One

December 2020 Update

What a year! We've got one last update for 2020...

New Symbols

Key commands

Languages

All the little things

October 2020 Update

A new season, a new update!

Dark Mode

Harp pedals and Glissa ﻿ ndos

﻿ New note head styles

Chord Slash ﻿ es

﻿ Various improvements

Multi-line text

New Downloads & Updates Manager

iOS14 improvements

Ambience Two

Various little things

With all best wishes,

DWH

June 2020 Update

A StaffPad Update, an Apple Design Award, and some reflection...

We've won an Apple Design Award!

The #OutsideCompetition

The June 2020 update to StaffPad

It's here: the StaffPad 2020 Update

The biggest update in StaffPad's history.

ScoreSync and StaffPad Reader

Playback

Versions

Chord Symbols

Tempo Staff

Divisi Staffs

Layout improvements

All the little things...

What is StaffPad?

StaffPad is a huge app. With the Reader, it forms one of the most efficient music notation systems ever created. In this post, I'll explore what StaffPad and the Reader do... and why!

July Development update

Hello lovely music people!

StaffPad November Update

Hello again, lovely people!

All the little things

StaffPad April Update

Happy Birthday to StaffPad!

StaffPad for Windows 10 Released!

Hello, fellow musicians! It's here, finally... the big one.

The home screen:

The Score Page

StaffPad June Update

Hello, fellow music lovers!

StaffPad Tips n' Tricks, Part 1

All the little things

Harp pedals and Glissa ndos

New note head styles

Chord Slash es

Various improvements