notation software

StaffPad Autumn 2023 Update

A new update is out for StaffPad. I have been testing the app and have more to say about it on a future episode of the podcast. For now, read about the update from the StaffPad team, themselves…

Autumn 2023 Update:

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! Keep reading here…

The new piano capture and MIDI capture are paradigm-shifting additions to this update that offer entire new input methods. StaffPad is not my only notation tool, but what I appreciate about it is that the features the team chooses to focus on are all features that lift the burden off of me. For example, writing directly on the staff with an Apple Pencil eliminates the abstractions of menus and buttons. Recording my upright piano straight into the staff is, similarly, a concept that let’s me more directly get my thoughts our of my head and into the app, and without fussing with interfaces, USB connections, and MIDI controllers.

This update is very much worth a look and I am excited to discuss it more down the road.

Asked and answered, part 3: Back to school - Scoring Notes Podcast

I’m very happy to have a few of my questions addressed on a recent episode of Scoring Notes (listen here).

Philip and David have been doing a series of episodes featuring listener questions. In part 3, the questions are centered on educational topics. Their responses are insightful, considered, and practical.

Music Ed Tech Talk #52 - Dorico Updates! with Daniel Spreadbury

Daniel returns to the show to discuss the release of Dorico 4 for desktop, Dorico 2 for iPad, Steinberg licensing, and other updates!

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Show Notes:

Album of the Week:
Robby - Dilla Time Book | Slum Village - Fan-Tas-Tic Vol. 1 | Vol. 2 | Jay Dilla Essentials | J Dilla Influences | Inspired by J Dilla
Daniel - Horizon Forbidden West Soundtrack Volume 1

App of the Week:
Robby - Audible
Daniel - Raycast

Tech Tip of the Week:
Robby - Whispersync
Daniel - Pi-hole

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MusGlyphs is a useful font for typing music symbols into a word procesor

Check out the update to MusGlyphs, a font for typing music symbols into a word processor. Scoring Notes has the details. Click to read their writeup below.

MusGlyphs updated to 2.1; text version added - Scoring Notes:

MusGlyphs has been updated to version 2.1. MusGlyphs is the font by Dan Kreider that makes it easier to type a wide variety of musical symbols directly into a word processor, combined with text fonts, without needing to adjust baselines or point sizes.

Among the notable improvements in this version is the addition of MusGlyphs Text, a version of MusGlyphs with regular and bold variants that allows the user to type ordinary text and musical symbols without needing to switch between two different fonts.

This isn’t something I have used a ton but I am excited to check this version out in more detail. It could be really useful for making music worksheets in a word processor like Pages or Word. Unfortunately, Google Docs (to my knowledge) still has terrible support for third party fonts.