# Is SPad a pro tool?



## RonOrchComp (Nov 4, 2020)

Just checking out some videos on youtube. It looks pretty cool, and seems like you can do quite a bit.

Is it a professional tool - meaning, are pro composers and orchestrators (Alan Silvestri, John Powell, Conrad Pope, etc) using this for feature films? Or is this really geared towards the bedroom composer?


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## dcoscina (Nov 4, 2020)

RonOrchComp said:


> Just checking out some videos on youtube. It looks pretty cool, and seems like you can do quite a bit.
> 
> Is it a professional tool - meaning, are pro composers and orchestrators (Alan Silvestri, John Powell, Conrad Pope, etc) using this for feature films? Or is this really geared towards the bedroom composer?


Concert composers and media composers working with smaller budgets for the time being.


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## Uncle Peter (Dec 14, 2020)

RonOrchComp said:


> Just checking out some videos on youtube. It looks pretty cool, and seems like you can do quite a bit.
> 
> Is it a professional tool - meaning, are pro composers and orchestrators (Alan Silvestri, John Powell, Conrad Pope, etc) using this for feature films? Or is this really geared towards the bedroom composer?



Who gives a shit? If YOU find it useful, then it's a good tool


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## nilblo (Dec 15, 2020)

Is pen and paper considered to be professional tools for composing?


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## gh0stwrit3r (Dec 15, 2020)

The big benefits from SP for me is that you can write music anywhere! You only need a portable device like an iPad. Fits easy in my bag and with the great playback system I can do some seriously writing on the fly. Love it!

I can imagine that famous composers will (or maybe already have) adapt this way of working. Sketching out ideas or maybe even write a full composition wherever they are, whenever they like. And give the result in MIDI, XML file to an assistant to work it out properly in a DAW with his/her favourite professional libraries. Would work for me if I was in that position ...


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## muratkayi (Dec 15, 2020)

I find that question hard to answer without knowing what your criterion for "professional" is. 

On the staffpad youtube channel there's a quite awesome composition by Nicholas Dodd who used Staffpad and scored feature films (or movies or whatever english speaking people call the stuff that runs in cinemas, hahah).

According to David William Hearn that guy used to score big productions with pen and paper before. Is that professional?

Is only Logic a professional DAW, because everybody seems to use it and if you use orchestral VSTs and want someone to orchestrate what you performed you are expected to work in a compatible format? Or are you even more professional, because you handed your Staffpad audio in together with an orchestrated score? Which might or might (rather) not be ready to be handed over to musicians? 

I think, it's a tool. I think it's a wonderful and inspiring tool.

But I would rather say that behaviour can be professional. Work ethics. Results. Stuff like that. People seem to be using the wildest stuff as tools.


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## Michael Antrum (Dec 16, 2020)

I'm the most important and successful composer in the whole of my house, and I use it. What further recommendations could you possibly require.....


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## jonathanparham (Dec 16, 2020)

I've pitched some up-and-coming directors I already have relationships with whom in previous exchanges I have given samples and mocked up stuff before. Haven't gotten or done a gig with it yet.


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## ReleaseCandidate (Dec 17, 2020)

Only Pro Tools is a pro tool. And because of that also Festool and Narex.


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## MGdepp (Dec 17, 2020)

Could you provide a link? I googled SPad and couldn't find anything music related ...


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## ReleaseCandidate (Dec 17, 2020)

MGdepp said:


> Could you provide a link? I googled SPad and couldn't find anything music related ...


StaffPad. https://www.staffpad.net/


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## MGdepp (Dec 17, 2020)

Alright! StaffPad. I know that. I even use it myself ...

People, please stop with these abbreviations of everything! StaffPad is not such a long word that it really needs shortening, is it?


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## RonOrchComp (Dec 17, 2020)

Uncle Peter said:


> Who gives a shit? If YOU find it useful, then it's a good tool



Wow - you sound miffed at my question. Not sure why


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## Gray17 (Dec 22, 2020)

I think it would be considered a "pro tool" just the same as Logic or FL Studio or Dorico. I agree with the response that it mostly depends on OP's definition of "professional." In terms of production, UI, sound quality, and support (a bit biased here , it certainly falls into my definition.


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## PaulieDC (Dec 23, 2020)

MGdepp said:


> Could you provide a link? I googled SPad and couldn't find anything music related ...


You got diverted by a partial acronym. We're brutal on this site.


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## PaulieDC (Dec 23, 2020)

RonOrchComp said:


> Wow - you sound miffed at my question. Not sure why


Nah, he's not miffed at you. He's making the point to not get sidetracked by other's opinions on stuff. A lot of composers use StaffPad and there are libraries you can buy for it, so of course it's a professional tool, _especially _if you use it and you find out it's got added value to your workflow. That, to me, was the point.

If I'm off base, then yeah, he's miffed.


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## PaulieDC (Dec 23, 2020)

ReleaseCandidate said:


> StaffPad. https://www.staffpad.net/


Thanks for the link.

As long as we are on the subject, does it ever go on sale in the Apple App Store?


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## Michael Antrum (Dec 23, 2020)

PaulieDC said:


> Thanks for the link.
> 
> As long as we are on the subject, does it ever go on sale in the Apple App Store?



Not so far. Though some of the add-on libraries have been on sale recently.

If you write with notation, I strongly recommend it. It is the single best money I have spent in a long while. 

I had it for less than a week and found myself ordering a new iPad Pro 12.9 2020 just for this app. I think it is the most elegant piece of software I have ever come across.

It's an orchestra you can hold in one hand.


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## PaulieDC (Dec 23, 2020)

I have the 12.9, the 2018 version, so I'm good there. Been using the Pencil and 12.9 since the first iteration for notes, drawing, etc. But I went the link that @ReleaseCandidate posted, and the homepage is someone writing notation and it instantly converts to formatted music, and my mouth dropped. So yeah, this is on my wishlist! "Paulie, whattya want for Christmas??" Easy answer, iTunes gift cards, lol!

Thanks for the fast reply. I've always played by ear and I do know theory inside and out, but I'm making myself go through a Notation book from Berklee Press, and... well.. I NEED StaffPad.


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