Composer's Sketchpad
January 11, 2016 2:18 PM Subscribe
Composer's Sketchpad
Composer's Sketchpad is an iPad sequencer-ish app for quickly jotting down musical ideas. In brief, the app presents you with a giant pannable and zoomable canvas that you can draw musical notes on. I wanted to create a modern take on sheet music, but without any of the legacy limitations; as a result, you can start each note at any time and bend it to any pitch, giving you the ability sketch out expressive solos and complex rhythms with no extra effort. (You can also turn on time or pitch snapping if you like.) Navigation, editing, and playback are carefully designed to be as frictionless as possible, and over 100 different instruments (as well as a percussion set) are available. Your music is saved automatically without any limit on the total number of sketches. Apple Pencil supported!
Lots of features (including iPhone support, MIDI export, and more) are coming soon. This was designed first and foremost as a tool for my own personal use, not as a "product", so it's going to get updated over the years as I find new uses for it. I fully intend to open-source it after I hit my personal sales goal!
Composer's Sketchpad is an iPad sequencer-ish app for quickly jotting down musical ideas. In brief, the app presents you with a giant pannable and zoomable canvas that you can draw musical notes on. I wanted to create a modern take on sheet music, but without any of the legacy limitations; as a result, you can start each note at any time and bend it to any pitch, giving you the ability sketch out expressive solos and complex rhythms with no extra effort. (You can also turn on time or pitch snapping if you like.) Navigation, editing, and playback are carefully designed to be as frictionless as possible, and over 100 different instruments (as well as a percussion set) are available. Your music is saved automatically without any limit on the total number of sketches. Apple Pencil supported!
Lots of features (including iPhone support, MIDI export, and more) are coming soon. This was designed first and foremost as a tool for my own personal use, not as a "product", so it's going to get updated over the years as I find new uses for it. I fully intend to open-source it after I hit my personal sales goal!
Role: everything
Thank you! iPhone support will happen soon. I'd love to do an Android version someday, but I've heard that the platform's real-time audio capabilities still aren't quite up to par, sadly.
posted by archagon at 11:34 AM on January 12, 2016
posted by archagon at 11:34 AM on January 12, 2016
this looks awesome, archagon! makes me wish I had an iPad. Congrats!
posted by Busithoth at 11:58 AM on January 12, 2016
posted by Busithoth at 11:58 AM on January 12, 2016
What's different between the lite and non-lite versions? I'm downloading lite now.
posted by mpark at 12:46 AM on January 13, 2016
posted by mpark at 12:46 AM on January 13, 2016
Thanks, Busi!
mpark, the Lite version places pretty strict limits on your instrument selection, piece length, # of documents, and # of layers. Basically, it's a demo. (But you can still use it to write music.)
posted by archagon at 12:50 AM on January 13, 2016
mpark, the Lite version places pretty strict limits on your instrument selection, piece length, # of documents, and # of layers. Basically, it's a demo. (But you can still use it to write music.)
posted by archagon at 12:50 AM on January 13, 2016
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