# Soarin' by Jerry Goldsmith on Staffpad



## themeworks (Feb 12, 2021)

Staffpad rules. After 25 years working from Emagic Logic, through ProTools and Cubase to Sibelius, Finale and Notion, finally somebody has gotten it right. This interface and playback intelligence is groundbreaking. It has essentially erased the achingly fidgety DAW gap between the page and the stage. What did these blokes figure out that all the other notation majors have missed these past decades? 100GB libraries that do it all in 2GB? Proper instrumentalist playback that reads and performs like you'd expect a human player to do from real notation on the stand? Handwriting finessing aside, Staffpad puts the compose back in composer, IMHO.

Here is my mockup of Soarin' by Jerry Goldsmith, in honor of his 92nd birthday. We miss you, maestro. I think would have dug this application and then some.



I've also done a couple of other mockups of famed movie studio themes. I just can't put this app down. My brand new MacBook M1 is just a hefty email client now. 



Is everyone else reveling in Staffpad or is it just me?


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## MadLad (Feb 12, 2021)

I get what you mean. Before, I was using Finale and it's more an engraving software than a composing software. The Garritan Personal Library is also horrible and completely unbalanced.

Since I bought the whole Berlin Orchestra Library and CinePerc I rendered so much music (mostly old stuff which sounded horrible in Finale) and everything sounds sooooo much better and I almost had to do no mixing or mastering in a DAW. I'd still wish for a more stable app, some kind of detailed manual with a good articulations guide and more bugfixes but they're a small team, so you gotta have patience.

For almost 2 years now, I exclusively use staffpad and only import my stuff in Finale when I want to make it look better. But for mock-ups and actual composing and getting creative, Staffpad is unbeatable.


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## Montisquirrel (Feb 12, 2021)

themeworks said:


> Is everyone else reveling in Staffpad or is it just me?


No, you are not the only one. I love your examples.


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## molemac (Feb 13, 2021)

themeworks said:


> Staffpad rules. After 25 years working from Emagic Logic, through ProTools and Cubase to Sibelius, Finale and Notion, finally somebody has gotten it right. This interface and playback intelligence is groundbreaking. It has essentially erased the achingly fidgety DAW gap between the page and the stage. What did these blokes figure out that all the other notation majors have missed these past decades? 100GB libraries that do it all in 2GB? Proper instrumentalist playback that reads and performs like you'd expect a human player to do from real notation on the stand? Handwriting finessing aside, Staffpad puts the compose back in composer, IMHO.
> 
> Here is my mockup of Soarin' by Jerry Goldsmith, in honor of his 92nd birthday. We miss you, maestro. I think would have dug this application and then some.
> 
> ...



Me too its a miracle even for non trained score writers. So much more fun to work this way. What sounds are you using ? Sounds great .


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## themeworks (Feb 13, 2021)

Cinebrass
Cineperc
Berlin Strings 
Berlin Woods 
Berlin Harps
Ambience 1
Stock Piano


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## emasters (Feb 13, 2021)

It's liberating to be able to sit with a tablet and just write. A year on, I'm still amazed by this app and its expansion libraries. Recently got a Xkey Air 37 Bluetooth midi keyboard. I use that with the UVI Ravenscroft 275 piano app running in the background, which helps to hear some of the harmonies. As an experienced piano player (and less experienced orchestrator), it's helpful to try-out different harmonies and voicings.


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## themeworks (Feb 13, 2021)

emasters said:


> It's liberating to be able to sit with a tablet and just write. A year on, I'm still amazed by this app and its expansion libraries. Recently got a Xkey Air 37 Bluetooth midi keyboard. I use that with the UVI Ravenscroft 275 piano app running in the background, which helps to hear some of the harmonies. As an experienced piano player (and less experienced orchestrator), it's helpful to try-out different harmonies and voicings.


How do you get by with the latency on the UVI piano in the background? My xKey Air 37 BT is wonderful, but when I hit the keys, the notes show up tomorrow.


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## emasters (Feb 13, 2021)

themeworks said:


> How do you get by with the latency on the UVI piano in the background? My xKey Air 37 BT is wonderful, but when I hit the keys, the notes show up tomorrow.


It's definitely a consideration and thus, I use wired headphones. The most significant latency for me is with the Bluetooth between the iPad and headphones. I have a 2018 iPad Pro, so it's pretty fast. If I run only the piano app with the Xkey Air (and wired headphones), no noticeable delay. If I add StaffPad, there's a very slight delay with the piano app playing in the background (while StaffPad is active). If I were actually performing with the piano app, it would be an issue. Using the Xkey Air to work on harmonies and voicings, a very slight delay isn't a big deal. It's still very helpful to try different voice leading ideas quickly. The delay I can't deal with is the Bluetooth delay with the headphones. That's on the order of 250-500 milli seconds.


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