Appmuse

Very good app! However sometimes the pitch change is very subtle no matter how squiggly I draw the lines

So I wanna mess around with the sounds on a piano keyboard setup. Can you add this please? I would really like that

This is a great tool for developing musical ideas. Pitch-wise it is pretty accurate, rhythmically it is lacking. In order to see subdivisions for 16ths you need to put 16 beats per measure. - that is misleading, it should be four beats per measure and have options to see subdivisions by either 8ths. 16ths, or triplets. That would be great. It supports the Apple Pencil, but cannot tell the difference between my pencil and my finger, so every time you go to move the sheet you end up with stray notes. Better Apple Pencil support and more accurate musical ways to control the rhythmic subdivisions would make this a very useful tool for serious musicians. Show more

Play icon doesn’t toggle. Erase button doesn’t. Stops playing every time I touch the piano roll even though I’m just trying to move the screen. Looked like a good idea. Just not done well to my way of thinking. Show more

I was hoping to find something to edit midi on at an affordable price, and I was disappointed to be unable to import music. Please add this.

Updated update: *still* a cool idea. Dark UI theme is very much appreciated, as are standard iOS gestures for drawing and zooming. Now: copy/paste? Please? It is the one missing function that keeps me from using this app more than once every few months. Update: MIDI export: yay! All the other stuff: still want, especially copy/paste, dark UI, and regular iOS scrolling and drawing gestures. Also, there seems to be an annoying lag with the current two-finger drawing: I lift my left thumb but if I try to scroll too quickly with my right, I end up with a stack of notes that have to be erased. Thanks for listening to your users! --- I'm giving this app four stars because I like the idea so much and because even though it is missing some fairly basic functionality it is already extremely flexible in the variety of musical ideas you can take down. I was not even sure anyone had made a simple piano roll music editing app when I went looking for one, but here it is, brand new! So it is a piano roll-style music writing app that comes without a hugely complex DAW attached to it. It can be used for microtonal work at a fairly rough resolution: if you turn off the snap-to-pitch option, it will let you draw notes anywhere between (Western even-tempered 12-tone) pitches that you would like. It is equally flexible with regard to meter: snap-to-time can be turned on or off, and although the roll itself has grid lines for regular measures, you can ignore them entirely. Without the snap-to functions, you can sketch melody lines freely, but there is little precision if you want to be able to create tones at precise frequencies that are not on the even-tempered scale. I have not been able to find any additional preferences to changes scales for the snap-to values. And so this truly is a sketchpad if precision is important to your music but you are trying to work outside of modern even-tempered Western music. My main problems with this app are that very basic digital tools are missing. There is no copy/paste on the sketchpad itself, so repeating structures can take some time to fill in. There is no export of any kind: no audio files, not even an image file of the sketch itself. A dark background app theme would be very helpful for those of us who find glaring white backgrounds painful--or even just annoying--to work with. This app has a lot of potential. Honestly, I could see it becoming into a synth/sampler that created audio stream output. MIDI would be gravy, if challenging to implement. At the least, my wishes for added options would be something like the following: Improved editing: copy/paste; the ability to draw straight lines from one arbitrary point to another rather than being restricted to snap-to-pitch; and making the non-standard two finger drawing/zoom function optional while adding the usual iOS gestures for these functions--myself, I find those gestures adequate and those implemented here to be awkward. Import user samples for custom instruments. Export and/or record audio into aiff or wav format. A sine oscillator as one instrument choice--this would give the app and the user some basic synthesizing power. Audiobus integration that would allow further processing of the audio output. Great start. Add more stuff! :) Show more

I know this is a work in progress, but all of the controls are confusing and hard to use. Making music in general is almost impossible.

I can now create creepy weird music that scares the crap out of my dog.

I applaud this guy for really incorporating ideas from the reviews. Thanks to the "Help" menu, I now know how to properly use this app. I use Finale (from MakeMusic) to compose on my computer, but it's painstaking process of selecting and plotting notes one at a time. This app really makes it easier for me to scribble down any tune that comes to mind, and I believe that's what it's made to do. I don't think it's for writing out entire scores, but that doesn't make it bad. (Although, you can export this as a midi . . . somehow?) In fact, quite the opposite. There are already tons of other programs that can plot notes on a staff. You can do that on regular paper. This app lets you capture a song that you made up on the train and hear it right away without caring about what key it's in. You can experiment with instruments you don't know how to play. It even has more options than the traditional composition programs and doesn't break the bank. Composer's Sketchbook is really something quite different, innovative, and now with instructions, intuitive! Hopefully new features like crescendos and ritardandos will be added in the future, but I'm already a fan! Thank you so much!! Show more

This is a very well designed app. Unique in function and result. One can produce excellent music. Thanks for the updates. However, I still have one major concern, there is no audio export. Without the ability to export to AIFF, WAV, and MP3 this app is only useful to a limited base. What if we just want to export the music to be used in a home video, or just to listen to? MIDI or JSON export makes this app limited. Further, I asked for this feature via email weeks ago and was assured that it would be in the next update. Disappointed... Show more

This app has potential to be really good, but there is a group of people it isn't designed for: those that are left-handed. I have to hold the left side of the screen and use my non-dominant right hand to try to, quite clumsily, draw notes. Please make a left-handed option or, instead of holding the screen at all before you draw, just allowing users to use one hand to draw notes. That's my main issue thus far. Show more

The whole two handed zoom draw thing makes it unusable for me. Not sure why I can't just draw? Can't you use the native controls to zoom in and out and just let me draw using my finger? Show more

Already learning to compose a score. Tired of all the users who complain like little girls. App only cost the price of a crappy Starbucks pastry. Be happy.

Keep working on it

I want to start by congratulating the developer; it's clear you're passionate about the idea, and are a talented developer. Aside from the fresh UI, what made me purchase the app immediately are the midi and json output options. Looking forward to any updates! Feedback and wishlist: - option: confine note sequences to chords/scales - templates for easy starter layouts (eg, waltz, rock, 4/4 at $bpm) - higher bpm limit. please let us get weird. - export and import options would make amazing in-app purchases. Show more

This app has a lot of potential but isn't worth the three bucks...it is very difficult to use...

This app makes composing music so much easier. The sythesizers are decent. However, I would like an option to edit individual or multiple notes in terms of length, pitch, or instrument. A harp glissando function would be useful, as well as an automatic chord function where you could drag across the screen and it would form the chord, the user determining the length. Thank you. Show more

The app is an innovative and fresh idea, and honestly as a composer, I love the idea. Yes, it needs some polishing, yes the UI isn't the best, however, leave constructive criticism in the reviews instead of being rude. I want this app to do well, and I hope my $2.99 will go towards the features this app needs. As a fellow creator, keep your chin up lads, and work hard:) Show more

This app has a lot of potential and I think it could be one of the greatest music apps of the time as long as they keep progressing. The main things I'd like to see in the future would be a tool that allows mass placement of notes instead of having to go through manually and place everything separate. Getting a few more electric style/EDM sounds wouldn't be too bad either. Show more

I wish I would have read the reviews before purchasing... Seriously no delete option? Or even an option to clear all notes and start over? This app is lacking some very basic controls, including deleting projects and muting/volume control of tracks, and copy and paste features. Without these basic things it is hard to see this as being a useful music tool. Cool idea though. Show more