What it does
You write on the staff the way you would on paper. Autograph reads the stroke and sets it properly: the notehead on the right line, the stem the right way up, the beams and accidentals where an engraver would put them. The handwriting disappears; the music stays.
It is built for the moment before a piece is finished: working out a phrase, writing an exercise for a student, getting an idea down before it goes. Not for typesetting a symphony.
Also
- Hear it back. Every bar plays through a sampled instrument, so a wrong note is something you notice rather than something you find later.
- Type or play it instead. A keyboard and a MIDI keyboard both write notes, if that suits the moment better than handwriting.
- Two hands, several voices, lyrics. Grand staff, multiple voices to a staff, words under the notes.
- It leaves with you. Export PDF for printing, MusicXML for Sibelius, Finale, Dorico or MuseScore, and MEI for scholarly work. Open other people's MusicXML and MEI files too.
What it looks like
What you need
- An iPad running iPadOS 17 or later
- It is an iPad app. There is no iPhone version and no Mac version.
- An Apple Pencil, for the handwriting
- Any generation, including the 1st. Everything else, from placing notes to editing, playback and export, works with a finger, so the app is usable without one.
The beta
Autograph is in open beta and free to use while the beta runs. It will stay that way for at least the next several months.
When it is finished it will be a paid app, bought once rather than subscribed to. Beta testers will be looked after when that happens.
Places on the beta are limited. If the link above is full, or if you would like to hear when the finished version arrives, send me an email.
Who made it
One person, in Toronto. I am a singing student as well as a developer, and Autograph started because writing music down on an iPad was worse than writing it on paper, and it did not seem like it had to be.
If you teach, I would genuinely like to hear what breaks and what is missing. That is what the beta is for. autographapp@icloud.com.