What is StaffPad?
David William Hearn • Dec 30, 2019
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.
David William Hearn
David is a the lead designer and co-founder of StaffPad, as well as a professional composer and orchestrator.
London, http://www.davidwilliamhearn.com
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StaffPad has been updated with audio recognition for piano, known as Piano Capture, as well as MIDI input, new Muse Sounds libraries, support for video and more. StaffPad now provides amazing tools for scoring movies.
