John mentioned the Mellowsound app during his inaugural presentation of the iPad app, and it’s actually quite good. I “upgraded” to the full version (£5.99) and the sounds are pretty useful - the choirs are a definite improvement over the stock Microsonic ones. I found that adding a small delay in the FX bit of Mellowsound fills the voices out very nicely, along with a dash of reverb.
I haven’t been able to get any of the Garage Band instruments to work, despite following the earlier advice re firing up Garage Band etc.
As for Noteperformer, it would be fab if it was ported to the iPad - surely a major and growing market.
You can’t use GarageBand’s built-in instruments in other apps, I’m afraid: they’re not plug-ins in the same way that other apps you can download from the App Store are.
While looking for news concerning the possibility of NotePerformer for Dorico on the iPad, I came across a discussion of the impressive sounds offered by StaffPad for iPad using “added cost” libraries from the likes of Cinesamples and Orchestral Tools and others. The basic sounds were adapted from earlier VST libraries from those vendors and then specifically “adjusted” to work best with StaffPad. As StaffPad is now also iPad compatible, the sounds have presumably already been converted to Audio Units format. Let’s hope these vendors made similar efforts to provide third party sounds for Dorico for the iPad.
Attached is a link to a StaffPad soundtrack using third party samples:
Yes, StaffPad is well known for its very strong playback. I have heard many demos just like this one and all are quite impressive, even the built in library is very good. I would imagine it does some kind of read-ahead for interpretation like what NotePerformer does, coupled with special versions of the sample libraries that are configured for proper orchestral balance with the dynamic response curve tweaked to match the dynamic mappings that StaffPad uses.
If those same vendors made customized versions of their libraries for Dorico for iPad, it would certainly make them sound much better, but without Dorico itself doing some kind of read-ahead to shape the phrase there would be a lot missing in terms of expressiveness.
Unfortunately the engraving is not so strong in StaffPad from what I have seen and heard from others, and there is a lot of frustration when using the pencil for more complicated passages. Also, there are some complaints that no new third party libraries have been released for StaffPad since its acquisition by Muse Group. The MuseScore developers are apparently adding the StaffPad interpretation engine into MuseScore as a free plugin.
I get the sense that a lot of people using StaffPad are not necessarily doing so because of the “writing music with pen” design but rather because of the playback quality. It would be great if Dorico could compete in that way without having to do all sorts of manual stuff, as I expect quite a few of those StaffPad users would be tempted to switch. However, I’m sure it is hard to balance the various demands. Based on threads from this and other forums, some Dorico users from the contemporary classical realm seem to be complaining about too much time being spent on playback related features that they don’t care about, and some users from the commercial realm (ex. film scoring) complain that not enough time is being spent on playback features and too much time spent on 21st century contemporary classical engraving features. Since I inhabit both realms, and am happy with both playback improvements and engraving improvements, I have no such complaints, but it is a tricky balance to manage.
Dorico gives a lot more control than that (at least when they add CC control on iPad). I don’t think it is that expensive to add those libraries into StaffPad, but if you already own them outside of StaffPad you have to buy them a second time, basically. That is one area where Dorico could potentially capture part of the market - if someone had Berlin Strings (or whatever other library) already on PC and they could use it in Dorico and have it sound just as good as StaffPad, where they would have to buy Berlin Strings a second time, it would help to encourage adoption of Dorico.
I see! I was actually hoping those sounds would have been a subscription based model, so that you could try them for example one month.
Anyway great to see progress on this field is made also elsewhere. It is really great if someone has been optimizing those libraries for easier use with notation software.
I came across this thread in the Audiobus forum. Scott Van Zandt, a contributor to the thread has posted 2 superb examples and some background of working with Staff Pad and these Libraries.
Looking around on other threads, users have struggled with the libraries - I’ve read about timing issues - and StaffPad itself has problems.
It looks as if Cinesamples and Orchestral Tools have approached this as a purely commercial proposition. I don’t know whather it’s an exclusive arrangement they have with StaffPad but if not, I would have thought they’d be keen to get on board with other developers.
It does, however, raise a couple of issues for me …
First, the last thing users need are libraries that only work in certain apps and on certain OS’s. I don’t really have that problem on a desktop and I wouldn’t like to have it on a tablet - particularly at the prices that I’m likely to be charged ( ~£80-£100 for an orchestral section). We’re still in the formative stages of libraries coming to tablets . Now would be the time for libraries and developers - DAW and notation - to agree standards that can work across different platforms and programs.
Second, for obvious reasons, large desktop libraries can’t work on tablets. However, I’d be surprised if the reverse was true. It would be good if libraries for tablets could also be utilised on desktops. That way, we get continuity of sound.
I looked into it at one point and I believe their add on libraries (which are, or were at the time I checked, iPad only and wouldn’t transfer back to desktop) were in the $50-100 range a piece. [edit: the scoring notes review confirms the addons range from $10-100]
But I agree with you: I would loooooove to be able to draw in automation curves with Apple Pencil like that!
It also looks very nice that the automation data is overlaid over the notation. I really like that approach, it makes very much sense for people who are used working with notation and not so much with MIDI rolls.
Regarding Pianoteq for iOS, here are some good news from the Modartt-Newsletter today:
We are working hard on the development of forthcoming products and upgrades, such as a Pianoteq version for iOS, Organteq 2, and new exciting instrument models. All to be announced later when available.
