Over the history of computer notation programs, the methods for getting music into the machine have stayed largely the same: use the computer keyboard and mouse, play notes live on a MIDI keyboard, or combine these methods using a program's favorite shortcuts. Anyone who spends enough time in notation software will eventually develop some fluency and preferences for working with the software, but they've always presented a slow, steep learning curve, and each program's developments have been to refine the same basic processes for inputting musical material. As the computing industry is experimenting large scale with how people will interact with computers in the future, we've seen some additional technologies develop (such as scanning and PDF recognition, or audio input/dictation), but they have yet to replace the keyboard and mouse as the most common ways to enter notation. One of the main reasons that Windows 8 touchscreen devices are so exciting to me as a technologist is that they signal a shift in the industry towards an underlying principle: the keyboard and mouse are inefficient ways to interact with a computer. Touch and handwriting reflect much better our natural methods of creating and interacting with work, and the ability to use those in a full-computing environment can lead us to much more transparent and natural use of technology. Now that Windows 8 has been in the field for a few months, programs built solely for that environment are starting to emerge that show the potential for touchscreen work, and a new program called StaffPad has finally broken the barrier to a new way of inputting music into a full notation workstation: by writing directly on the screen.
To be clear, StaffPad is not the first handwriting-based notation program. NotateMe for iOS (and NotateMe Now, the free version) also offers the ability to handwrite notes and have them captured into a score. I'll write more about NotateMe next week, but in brief, there are many music teachers who swear by both versions of the app, especially when students have access to devices. They can be very useful for classroom work, but for composition or arranging, I find them unsatisfying for two reasons: first, the size of the iPad (too small), and second, the size of the stylus or my finger (too big). They work well for writing individual lines or even in grand staff on occasion.
StaffPad on my Surface Pro 3 is an entirely different ballgame. Using the active Surface pen, which is the same size as a regular ball-point pen, feels like writing on paper rather than the big blobby writing on an iPad. For better or worse (and my past composition teachers would all tell you "worse,"), StaffPad accurately captures my handwriting and script. The detection and recognition engine work very quickly to translate all of the handwriting into notation as soon as I leave an active measure. Once a measure is "inked," the pen works much like you'd expect a mouse to work in usual notation programs: you can drag notes to correct them, or erase erroneous markings or add ones that were missed. StaffPad comes with a full orchestral sound library, and the playback is high-quality audio. At $69.99 in the Windows Store, there are a few areas where StaffPad doesn't hold up to Finale, and certainly StaffPad doesn't compete with Finale's sound library. It's sufficient for most needs, though, and given the price difference I suspect most will be fine with StaffPad's playback sounds.
The handwriting engine is very sophisticated, and as such, has a few quirks. Using it on the plane over the course of a long flight, I was able to adapt to some of its requirements fairly well, but it may require you to tweak your handwriting a bit. In particular, one oddity is in writing sixteenth-notes: the program much prefers that you write a block of sixteenth-notes in a specific order, starting with the first note of the block, then the last, and then fill in the beams and finally the inner notes. It's less cumbersome than it sounds after a little practice, but it does require a little practice. StaffPad comes with some very friendly videos demonstrating its best practices, but the best training guide is the tutorial section which lets you practice notating key figures and trains you to write them in the most error-free method possible.
Again, testing on the Surface Pro 3, the display is large, clean, and exceptionally easy to work with. Pinch-to-zoom lets you play with the amount of score you see at any given time, and is very useful for viewing full-score or individual parts. The display is fixed in landscape mode (horizontal), which is best for scrolling individual lines. I can see a case to be made for viewing full-score in portrait mode, but that's not supported at this point. The display is clearly optimized for the Surface, but StaffPad will run on other devices which meet the following requirements: Windows 8, touchscreen, and active digitizer/pen. That is a pretty limited field at this point– many consumer Windows 8 devices such as the Yoga or Helix have a touchscreen, but a passive pen. A rule of thumb (not ironclad) is that if the pen has neither a battery nor any buttons on it, it's passive, not active. Since the StaffPad is built totally without keyboard and mouse support, you need the buttons on the pen to control features such as erase. Finally, Windows 8 tablets (especially the Surface) have thrown standard conventions of screen size out the window, so the screen display that's optimized for the Surface may be less satisfactory on devices that don't share the Surface's extreme-Letterbox dimensions. Much of that is mitigated, however, by a very clean, minimalist design and the pinch-to-zoom/touch navigation.
Predictably, many of the responses to StaffPad thus far have been "When is it coming to iPad?" StaffPad has been very clear to say "It's not," and it's fairly easy to see why: From the active pen support to the processing requirements, this program is far beyond what the iPad is technically capable of running (same with Android). It's not a program meant to run in a mobile operating system– it needs the full power of a large-scale OS. If Apple ever relents and builds a touchscreen Mac, porting there would be a possibility, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Their blog does suggest that you can run Parallels on a Mac to load Windows and use an active Wacom tablet if you so desire.
As with most new products, StaffPad has some omissions, and a couple of glaring ones. The lack of support for advanced time signatures will turn some users off. Your common x/4 or x/8 are there, but there's no capacity for more adventurous signatures or ability to create your own, and editing or changing time signatures once notes are entered is ungainly at best. I'll admit that I have yet to figure out how to change the playback tempo, which I'm sure exists, but reflects on the lack of user documentation. Some people love training from friendly videos, but I much prefer an exhaustive manual with a good index, which is nowhere to be found. StaffPad doesn't have chordal notation or playback– you can write chord symbols in, either by entering text or handwritten, but they won't play. In addition, there's no alternate notation such as slash or rhythmic notation. Those who do lots of work in jazz or rock/pop music may sorely miss those features. Their blog does promise that "more in-depth and intuitive support for chord symbols [is coming] in the near future." Finally, and perhaps the most bizzare, there is no support for lyrics. Again, you can handwrite them in, but I for one shudder to think of an ensemble reading a full score's of my handwriting as text. Again, StaffPad says, "coming soon." In the meantime, when you're ready to add text, you can export via MusicXML to another editor and set the lyrics there (or into a PDF editor).
StaffPad isn't ready to be my full-time notation program, and at $70 US and without any trial version, it's hard to recommend that you "give it a try" and see if it works for your use until some of the larger omissions are rectified. That said, I downloaded StaffPad in the airport before a long flight. At takeoff, I was completely blown away by the novelty of writing directly on the screen. By halfway through the flight, it had become completely transparent and I was simply writing score with the speed and fluidity of handwriting and the instant software capacity for playback and editing. The present experience of StaffPad is very exciting, and the future potential could signal an end of our keyboard-and-mouse dependency for computer notation.
Bob Ross says