It's here: the StaffPad 2020 Update

David William Hearn • February 2, 2020

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 - justscroll 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.

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

Share this post

Piano Capture magically converts your piano playing to notation

Autumn 2023 Update

By David William Hearn • September 26, 2023
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.