Notion: Music Notation and Tab 4+

Compose anywhere

PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc.

    • Free
    • Offers In-App Purchases

Description

With over 10 years in the App Store, Notion Mobile is a free, award-winning music composition tool for iOS, iPadOS®, macOS and more! You’ll effortlessly create dynamic compositions in traditional musical notation or guitar tablature with its intuitive touch-based interface and incredibly broad editing capabilities.

With a user-friendly interface and simple interactive piano keyboard, fretboard, drum pad, and even optional Handwriting Recognition, Notion Mobile makes it easy to get started composing your music. You can also hear your music performed with the most realistic playback possible, using real audio samples recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.

Notion Mobile is a native cross-platform app, meaning you can write anywhere on any device without requiring a constant Internet connection. And when you’re back online, you’ll be able to sync your work across multiple devices — either through your preferred cloud provider, or through the optional wireless transfer between PreSonus applications on any device. Start your work on one device and finish it on another. Once you are happy with your creation you can share the Notion file, or export as MIDI, MusicXML, PDF or as an audio file.



Compose, edit, and play back your music performed with real piano and orchestral samples recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios — along with outstanding sampled guitar, bass, drums and other popular instruments. And when you’re ready for more sounds, you’ll find the extensive library of Notion Add-on Soundsets to purchase as part of the Feature Bundle. To save space, the initial app download contains just piano — you can then manage which of the bundled Soundsets to have on your device or keep in the cloud, just tap on Sound Installation.



Notion has been featured in various Apple campaigns including the 2014 YourVerse television commercials and has won several awards, including a prestigious music industry NAMM TEC Award for Best Smartphone/Tablet App.

What you get:


Notion Mobile includes unlimited staves, comprehensive editing features and core orchestral and rhythm section Soundsets — all for free. You can optionally register (also for free!) to unlock an additional Soundset (containing Solo Strings, Classical Saxophones and Glockenspiel), the multivoice function that allows writing in up to 4 voices per staff, and access to the friendly Notion Mobile User Forum. Then for the full experience, either sign in with your PreSonus Sphere membership or purchase the Notion Feature Bundle. This unlocks Handwriting Recognition, all the Expansion Soundsets (including many auxiliary instruments and additional articulations and effects), additional audio export formats (m4a, OPUS, FLAC) and direct file transfer between any PreSonus application running on the same network (including Notion Mobile, Notion Desktop, and Studio One.)


Free:
Unlimited staves
All editing features
Core Soundsets
Export as MIDI, PDF, wav, mp3


Register for free:
Reward Soundset including Solo Strings, Glockenspiel, Classical Saxophones
Access to the new Notion Mobile User Forum
Additionally write for voices 3 and 4 in a single staff
Export as MusicXML, Compressed MusicXML



Feature Bundle (in-app purchase or sign in with PreSonus Sphere):
Handwriting Recognition, powered by MyScript
Available on iPhone, iPad and macOS (macOS with supporting graphics tablet or using Sidecar with compatible iPad)
Automatic pen vs. finger recognition to switch between handwriting and edit mode
Pressure-sensitive support for Apple Pencil
Adjustable timer for Handwriting Recognition
Override handwriting timer by double tapping Apple Pencil (2nd Gen)
All Expansion Soundsets
Additional audio export formats (m4a, OPUS, FLAC)
Direct file transfer between any PreSonus application running on the same network (including Notion Mobile, Notion Desktop, and Studio One)

What’s New

Version 3.5

Bug fixes and performance improvements
For the full guide, check:
https://shorturl.at/moFGG

Ratings and Reviews

Global War(n)ing ,

Expensive and full of bugs.

The cost of this app and in-app purchases is high for what it delivers.
If it all worked smoothly, it would be good value. However, it tends to sit unused on my iPad and iPhone in favour of other apps.
The handwriting option (which is expensive) is quite useless because it doesn't actually work. I think it was misleading to call it 'handwriting' when it just isn't.
There are many bugs, but the ones that come to mind first are: not being able to change time signature and not being able to play back without horrible distortion.
There are user difficulties such as difficulty selecting notation, inability to arrange text on the page, awkwardness of selecting several things at once and the tool boxes obscure the staff on the iPhone. In fact, I really wouldn't recommend this for iPhone. iPad is bearable.
The help pages are informative, but difficult to navigate.
Passing on feedback to notify them of bugs and suggestions seems impossible. Which might be why they don't get fixed.

Adam_s0s ,

Drum set notation and handwriting are disappointing

As a drum set tutor I purchased this app for the ability to quickly write out drum set notation for students on my iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil and print it off. However, the app and handwriting feature do not work in a natural way as one might expect. Interpretation of common handwritten drum set notation is lacking, eg. Writing x for a closed hi-hat. Writing directly on the score rather than in a separate space at the bottom of the screen would contribute to a more natural experience. When attempting to write at the bottom left instead of drawing your note a side bar menu is activated. A way to improve this would be an option to use the pencil or other stylus purely for writing notes and using hand gestures for everything else. A good example of this can be found in the procreate app where you can set the pencil to only draw and not activate menus and such. All in all this app has a lot of potential but still a long way to go to give a natural notation writing experience.

buscemi ,

Good interface, but lots of bugs.

Been using Notion for a week or so after years of using MuseScore on PC and Mac. I would very much love to ditch my laptop and go with all-iPad, and a music notation app was one of the last pieces of the puzzle. Sadly, I can’t make that move quite yet, at least not with Notion.

Start with the positive: the interface is pretty good, took a bit of time to get used to, but that’s fine. Playback function easy to use, good selection of instruments, adding staves is easy.

Unfortunately: keeps crashing. All the time. Still haven’t succeeded in saving a single file where I want it, which is Dropbox. Screen keeps glitching and hanging in a weird way which requires restart, problems adding key signatures, and very very confusing Apple Pencil options. Also, I’m a working bass player, there are no tablature options for anything other than six-string guitar that I can find, which is a big omission compared to the competition.

Worst part? No option that I can find to give feedback! I hate that I have to go to a public review option to do so, I’d much rather send feedback directly, but if the option isn’t there, then I’m sorry but I have to air it publicly.

Has potential, but very undercooked, feels like a Beta version at best.

App Privacy

The developer, PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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