Apple picker Anyone who follows the additions of iOS applications for a while will surely not have missed that, in addition to the gaming phenomenon, devices with this operating system are also a musical phenomenon. The choice of music applications is wide, from nerds to professional matters. Notation also belongs to music, and that's why I tested a pair of applications for iPhone and iPad, the name of which is self-explanatory - iWriteMusic.
Japanese developer Kazuo Nakamura has created an unconventional notation system that lets you write, export, and print sheet music at a pretty good semi-professional level. Almost all common music marks are available, you can write a simple outline as well as a polyphonic score, the program handles chord marks and song lyrics, ligatures, legato, staccato and tenuto, changes in key and tempo during the composition and much more. The embedded music can be played back at any time (on iOS 5). Of course, there are various minor restrictions, but more on that later.
Workspace
Both versions of iWriteMusic for iPhone and iPad work in both portrait and landscape orientation. There are several functional icons in the top row. A little house brings up the menu for saving and closing the open file, and after performing the selected function, you can create a new song, or load an existing one, from samples or your own saved things. With a button Edit here you can delete unnecessary files in the usual way.
Number next to the house is the bar number we are currently in. Tapping on the number brings up or hides the slider, which we can use to move around the track. A double tap takes us to the last point from which playback was started, a second double tap to the beginning of the song.
Triangle starts playback from the current measure and changes to a square, which can be used to stop playback again. It's in the middle Track title and on the right edge of the Help icon, Preview of finished sheet music in print form, and under the gear wheel, various song settings are hidden. They are at the bottom Function icons, which are often two-stage. Only note insertion does not have an icon, which is the default and works whenever something else is not selected. If we select a function with one tap, note insertion is performed and activated again. If we need to repeat the function several times, the selection can be locked with a double tap and the function lasts until another is selected.
Features overview
In the group More are chord markers, transposition, rhythmic notation, accents and tempo markers, legato, volume markers, functions for inserting lyrics. Redo, Undo, copy, paste a Guma they have no other sub-options. Undo can also be triggered by shaking the device. In the iPhone, all these functions are hidden under a button Edit. Copy selects an arbitrarily large section of notes by which paste replaces the section in the copied range in the bar where we insert. Dashes are inserted in the same way as notes (see below). Can be added to existing notes Cross, A bullet point or b, one or two can be placed after a note or dash Dots. By function Railing connect individual notes with a flag, Triols combine selected notes into triols to septols. Ligature doesn't branch anymore, but the last function The bar line it offers, in addition to a simple bar line, a double bar, repeats including variations on different repeats, repeat bar markers, coda, signature change and time signature.
Inserting notes needs to be practiced
The basis of the program is an original way of inserting notes, which must be practiced so that their rhythm is not a masochistic torture for you. By tapping in the area of the musical staff, you determine the pitch of the note, which immediately sounds and a horizontal changer pops up under your finger, in which you select the length of the note by moving your finger to the left or right. The selected pitch of the note is signaled graphically in addition to the sound – if the note is on the line, the line is displayed in red. If the note is in a gap, the gap will be colored pink. After you specify the length of the note and lift your finger, the note appears on the staff.
Simple at first glance, but it has its ups and downs. Since the pitch of the note is very sensitive to the exact position compared to the outline of a fairly thick finger, it is necessary to increase the outline as much as possible when inserting notes with the traditional gesture of opening the fingers. When choosing the length of the note, your finger must not leave the changer, otherwise the note will not be inserted. As a negative of this version of the program, I would rate the impossibility of changing the clicked pitch, additionally only the length of the note can be changed.
The first attempts, before you get used to it, are somewhat nerve-wracking, so I would like to add a few tips. After tapping on a sufficiently enlarged staff, see if you hit the pitch, i.e. if red is the right line, or pink is the right space. If not, swipe up or down from the menu and put it away. The note is not inserted and you can start again and better.
If the pitch of the note was correct, we keep our finger on the display and select the length of the note from the menu with a horizontal movement. The length of the note you just selected flutters a bit above the menu, unfortunately in some cases you will have it covered by your finger. The last pitfall awaits you just when you lift your finger, you need to lift your finger perpendicular to the display so that the selected value does not jump to the neighboring one. After a little practice, it's quite easy. If the note doesn't work out after all, we can use it to our advantage undo associated with shaking the device.
If the next inserted note has the same length as the previous one, just tap the right place. Rests are entered in a similar way to notes.
The program monitors the total length of the notes inserted into the measure. It displays extra notes in red and ignores them during playback. Then we can either adjust the length of the notes to fit them correctly in the bar, or insert another bar line.
Chords
We insert one note at a time into the chord - in the same place. If you manage to hit the correct location with the new note, a polyphonic sound will be heard and you must select the same length of the note from the menu, otherwise the previous note will be replaced by the new one. But if we enter the same length, a question pops up asking if you want to add harmony or replace the previous note. Adding a harmony means adding another note to an existing chord. We proceed in this way until we have a whole chord. You need to check the correctness after each note, because the pitch of the entered note cannot be edited, it can only be deleted and entered again. Once you get the hang of entering notes, chords can be tapped quite quickly.
Composition and repetition
The application provides most of the markers used for repeating bars and parts of songs and for breaking up music, such as repeating the content of one or two bars, start of repeat, end of repeat, end of one and start of second repeat. He is here Double line, End colon, First time and other variations of the ends of the repeated part, formative marks Tail, Sign and repetition D.C., DS aFine. Some repeat types are missing, for example DS to coda, this should appear in the next version of the program.
Chord markers and lyrics
Notation can be accompanied by chord markers. In addition to the basic chords of major, minor, augmented and diminished, there is a range of added notes from sixths to thirds, in major and minor variations. It is also possible to notate chords composed of two marks on top of each other, or side by side with a slash in this application. In the composition settings, we select the basic unit of rhythmic division of chords with the Min Division parameter, accordingly, the possible positions of the chord markers are displayed above the staff in gray rectangles when the chord markers function is selected. After tapping the position, the desired chord mark is set in the form. The marks are written according to the conventions of American musical notation, so instead of our H is B, instead of our B is Bb.
Lyrics can only be written under sheet music. The cursor jumps over the written notes and we can write the syllables belonging to them. In this way, it is possible to write up to three lines of text - three stanzas of a song. In the print preview, you need to choose such parameters so that the individual elements do not overlap each other.
Tracks
iWriteMusic can handle an unlimited number of staves. For each track, you can set the name, whether it should have rhythmic or standard notation, key, tonality and the resulting foreshadowing. The sound the track will play can be selected from a fairly large number of instruments, but what comes out of the speakers only partially resembles the instruments in question. Since it is only an approximate playback of the sheet music, it does not fundamentally matter. Written notes can be played transposed one or two octaves higher or lower. You can adjust the volume for the track or turn it off completely. In the same way, currently unnecessary traces can be hidden and not displayed on the display.
Playback
We can play recorded music from the current bar. Playback is only indicative, used to check notation. The program ignores repetitions, prima volts, and other repetition markers. It does not interpret the repeat mark of the content of one or two previous measures, it does not play anything. During playback, the cursor points to the currently played note.
Sheet music preview
Tapping on the magnifying glass in the top right will display a print preview of the written notes. Help Page settings we can influence the distances of individual chords, the number of bars per line, the height of the chord marks above the chord, the distance between chord lines. For more complicated pages, where there are more lines of text and chord marks, this still may not always be enough.
Saving, printing and exporting
It doesn't hurt to save the compositions in progress at regular intervals. Unlike, for example, Pages, iWriteMusic does not save work continuously, but only has it in working memory until you manually save it. While unsaved music will survive program switching and the home button, it will not survive the operating system forcefully terminating the application due to lack of memory. After a few hours of tapping notes it then freezes.
The created music can be sent by e-mail in the format PDF, as standard MIDI and in the application's own format *.iwm, which is the only one that can also open and which can be used to transfer songs between iPhone and iPad. Sheet music can be printed on an AirPrint-enabled printer.
iPhone and iPad
The free version of the program is only available for iPhone. Paid versions are available separately for iPhone and separately for iPad. Functionally, the two versions do not differ, visually only in the layout and size of the menu. The iPhone has the functions Redo, Undo, Copy and Paste hidden under the Edit button, on the iPad they are accessible directly. You can exchange *.iwm format files between the two via e-mail and work on notes alternately on both platforms without any restrictions. I think users would certainly welcome the merging of both versions into one universal one.
Problems, shortcomings
The program has various problems, but none of them are of fundamental importance, some of them are planned to be corrected in future versions.
- Chords can only contain notes of the same length, so if we have a chord where some notes are held and others move, it can only be done by rewriting the entire chord and connecting the held notes with ligatures. With such a construction, we will properly appreciate the copy and paste functions and we must not be alarmed by the threatening message "Replace data in bar x of Track y", because if we have copied only one chord, then the marked place will be inserted by tapping. The existing content will be moved further, but if the insertion creates notes that exceed the measure, they are deleted, i.e. in this case, the red display of the exceeding notes does not apply. I'd almost like it better if the extra notes stayed displayed in red, but weren't discarded. From the way the insertion is done, it follows that it is better to first make a space by inserting a bar and then insert. Excess bar lines can then be deleted.
- The program can't ligature via prima volta to volts per second. It is not possible to additionally change the pitch of a note, just delete it and create another one. Notes also cannot be moved forward or backward. Both of these issues should be addressed in a future version.
- When setting a note inserted into a chord to a different length than an existing chord, se replaces the entire chord inserted note. The only way to save them is Undo.
- It is a certain shortcoming execution of the legatee, which can only be applied to one voice from the top or from the bottom, but not to all, so it is not clear whether to play all the voices tied together, or just the top or bottom. In addition, the execution is not very aesthetic, because if at the beginning of the legato arc there is a note with the foot down and at the end up, the legato goes from the head to the foot, which does not look very good.
- Glissando, portamento and other marks of this category are not possible.
- You cannot divide the song into lettered sections, count from their beginning, or write additional text notes. These options should be in the next version.
- When entering notes, the selected value is often covered by the finger. This is also to be addressed in the upcoming version.
Summary
As you can see, many functions are still missing for perfection, but the author of the program is working on them and there is a good perspective for further development. The goal was to develop a program that would provide users with a tool for easier and faster writing of simple notes, which the program amply fulfills. Based on the test, it was verified that the iWriteMusic program can also be used for moderately complex music. If we consider the price and performance in comparison with professional noto-setting systems, then even with all the mentioned shortcomings, the program can only be warmly recommended.
[one_half last="no"]
advantages:
[Checklist]
- Simplicity
- Price performance
- Chord markers
- Export to PDF and MIDI
- Playing recorded notes
- Perspective of further development[/checklist][/one_half]
[one_half last="yes"]
Disadvantages:
[bad list]
- Not quite the optimal way of inserting notes
- Cannot edit notes already inserted
- The composition cannot be divided into smaller marked sections
- Missing glissando, portamento and the like
- Some form-forming marks are missing, e.g. DS al coda
- Maximum 3 lines of text[/badlist][/one_half]
[app url=”http://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/iwritemusic-for-ipad/id466261478″]
[app url=”http://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/iwritemusic/id393624808″]
Thank you for the absolutely comprehensive review. I've been involved in music for a long time, and outside of GB and FL studios, I've been missing exactly something like iWM on the iPad.
I'm quite sorry to work with PC programs. I use Finale from make music and those from atim haven't come up with anything for the iPad.
I have symphonypro on my iPad - do you have any comparisons with this app? :)
Thanks
One small correction - three lines of text can be placed under the notes, not 4.
I don't know anything about music at all, but the review is written the way every review on the internet should be written! Perfect job! Hats off.