Symphony Pro - Music Notation 4+

It is a very impressive package, considering all the features that are built into the app. Was somewhat disappointed when, immediately after purchasing, I navigated to the in-app user manual, clicked on "submit feature request", and the app immediately crashed. When I then went to submit a crash report—the app crashed again. Notwithstanding, I am very impressed with the sheer volume of keystroke shortcuts to use the features—and since I am using an ipad keyboard case, this works well for my needs. However, as other reviewers have noted, the note input method is an incredible nuisance. Compared to what else is available on the ipad, and what reviewers are generally saying about them, Symphony Pro seems to my way of thinking yet the most reliable. All the music notation apps seem to have very compromising errors in their functionality, and not much in the way of signs of improvement (judging by what reviewers are saying, that is). Considering what's available, this is of very good quality.

Thanks for sharing feedback earlier this year. We've been revisiting past feedback, and we have been improving the app in the ways you've been clarifying for us.

Although we're glad that SP has suited you well for the most part, your complaint about difficulties with note input raises concerns as it reflects the application's fundamentals. Any clarification on how these aspects were problematic for you (in terms of specific usability issues or in general terms) would be greatly appreciated, as an email to team@symphonypro.net.

In return for just a moment of your time, we'd be glad to provide an early access link to our upcoming update (version 6.0, which is scheduled for general availability later this year). If interested, simply include a reference (or reminder) to this response to your review.

So, before this long overdue update, a lot of my projects were glitchy— unreliably glitchy. I’d have all sorts of weird problems with no workarounds. HOWEVER, with this new update, I have gone through my old projects, and there are absolutely no glitches! That alone merits five stars from me, but there’s more.

It’s all seamless now. PDF export is perfected. There’s tons of customization options and features. I haven’t even had time to look into all the workflow improvements and Core MIDI implementations. I did a MIDI export on one of the example projects to test, and it cranked out a long, detailed six-track MIDI file with tempo and velocity variation with no problems at all. Of course, there are tons of things I haven’t tried, but I haven’t seen ANY bugs so far. None! Not on iPhone, not on iPad. It’s perfect, as far as I can tell.

With this update, I believe Symphony Pro has solidified itself as the greatest scoring app on iOS. The only IAP is for handwriting recognition, which works as awesomely as everything else, by the way. Xenon Labs just gave me a last-minute Christmas gift, and I feel giddy.

Delighted to hear! We hope v6 has continued to run smoothly. Updates will be made more frequently than before, especially to fix the types of issues you described in v5, and we're always listening to everyone's suggestions about how to improve the experience further. So don't hesitate to email us or post on our forums if you have questions or feedback to share!

As of writing this review, I would say that Symphony Pro is still one of the leading tablet notation apps, competing with Notion and, if you like handwriting apps (I don’t) NotateMe. That said, it still pales in comparison to some of the fundamental features of the desktop name-brand softwares. One thing Symphony Pro attempts to do right is its plethora of QWERTY keyboard shortcuts. Definitely a step in the right direction, but still lacking in the most important area - initial note entry. I recognize that tablets are built around the idea of touch notation and handwriting, but a huge game-changer would be adding support for proper QWERTY note entry wherein you type the letter name of the pitch you want and then use shortcuts to tweak the octave and accidentals. This is a central feature that any power user of Sibelius or Finale is used to. If such a feature were integrated, my rating for Symphony Pro would easily be 4 or 5 stars, as no mobile app currently entices me to rely on it for notation. While SP has an impressive range of detailed features, it would offer the most ‘bang’ for its ‘buck’ if it were to improve the way I enter my notes when using a keyboard with my iPad.

Thanks for your feedback -- we're strongly considering entering via typing note letter. If you have any other suggestions to QWERTY support, please email us to team@symphonypro.net.