StaffPad - Playback Examples - Pre Update vs Post Update

I haven’t had these issues so far, but I have other problems after the update. The main one is that pressing and holding a written note triggers the playback but very crackled and distorted. This happens only when pressing it with the Apple Pencil. The sound when the playback starts is a normal one without distortion.

Also I’ve detected weird little things, like that the default oboe sound lacks of the G5 and A5 playback sounds. The muse woodwinds’ oboe sounds are complete, though.

Anyone else with the distortion problem or any idea about how to fix it? (I’ve reinstalled the app and this does not solve the problem).

Cheers.

rogercv said:

I haven’t had these issues so far, but I have other problems after the update. The main one is that pressing and holding a written note triggers the playback but very crackled and distorted. This happens only when pressing it with the Apple Pencil. The sound when the playback starts is a normal one without distortion.

Also I’ve detected weird little things, like that the default oboe sound lacks of the G5 and A5 playback sounds. The muse woodwinds’ oboe sounds are complete, though.

Anyone else with the distortion problem or any idea about how to fix it? (I’ve reinstalled the app and this does not solve the problem).

Cheers.

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I got the Same problem as you.

Levels are messed up in most of my scores, in some cases instruments are completely bargled (is that a word, seems like it should be a word to describe something that is completely broken). I understand that they changed the library structure to be Muse compatible but that doesn’t give license to mess up my work.

ssnowe said:

Levels are messed up in most of my scores, in some cases instruments are completely bargled (is that a word, seems like it should be a word to describe something that is completely broken). I understand that they changed the library structure to be Muse compatible but that doesn’t give license to mess up my work.

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The only thing I can figure is that they adjusted the levels to be compatible with Musesounds, but even that doesn't make very much sense when I compare Berlin Strings and Muse Strings. The latter is considerably quieter than the former. For whatever reason, Berlin Strings got a considerable boost. The Berlin piccolo did as well, and it's pretty wonky now. All of the Berlin libraries seem to have gotten a boost, but this boost was not applied uniformly. It's a pretty disappointing development.

I have two iPads, one still on the previous version of Staffpad, one on the newer, files are stored in iCloud.

When the new version started up it immediately tagged all all Staffpad files as belonging to the new version even when many of them weren’t opened in the new version. The iPad with the older version of Staffpad can no longer open the files.

I can theoretically undo this mess by retrieving local files on my mac and moving them before iCloud gets to them but this is amateur hour type of stuff.

DWH is obviously an extremely talented programmer as can be seen by how Staffpad does it thing but his interaction with the Staffpad user community sometimes leaves you wondering what exactly the thought process was when decisions were made.

ssnowe said:

When the new version started up it immediately tagged all all Staffpad files as belonging to the new version even when many of them weren’t opened in the new version. The iPad with the older version of Staffpad can no longer open the files.

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I experienced this exact same problem with my files on my Mac. Once I had updated the iPad, everything in the cloud--and thus everything--became unopenable by my Mac. Fortunately, or perhaps irrelevantly, I made copies of the entire cloud before I updated. I say "irrelevantly" because I have no way to downgrade to the old version. There just seems to be no way to go back.

As far as I can tell, no one is addressing these problems, but since he really doesn't interact with the community, there is no way to know whether anything is going on behind the scenes. For all I know, they dropped their update and departed for Fiji.

Nuts

I think I may need to walk away from Staffpad for a bit. A large percentage of my previous work just doesn't sound that good anymore in this new release. The mix is just way off and the instruments are missing the "special sauce" that used to make them unique. That and I find the interface being a bit sluggish on my M1 iPad pro which I haven't seen before.

Im very disappointed. I was super happy with SP and my Berlin libraries (only missing video) .. And now this.

It is a shame that Staffpad is such a user hostile app, because the idea and initial execution I think are great. But making changes to a software that messes up users' projects is such a misstep and obviously unacceptable. I can't believe this actually hit release without anyone on the team or beta testers going "wait, what the * is this?". When people have paid premium for something you can't just "break stuff" and not provide a path back to previous versions. This would not be such a problem if Staffpad and its ecosystem were more "open" and easy to back up on a portable drive or whatever. Something I would expect from something I paid significant money to own... But since that is not the case they must provide downgrade paths or they are going to eventually scare away all their customers.

They really need to rethink their product development strategy.

But @Jett Hitt reported the playback problems on Cinepiano and it is being worked upon, right?

Couldn't you report your findings and see what happens?

muratkayi said:

But @Jett Hitt reported the playback problems on Cinepiano and it is being worked upon, right?

Couldn't you report your findings and see what happens?

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I did get a very quick response followed by an update to CinePiano within a few hours. At first, I was pretty happy with the changes. The accent was toned down and the tenuto was boosted. Unfortunately, now you can't really tell the difference between the two, and the strong accent sounds like someone hit the piano with a hammer.

New update is out....

Really appreciate having the sound back in the stock brass (Trumpet in C and Tbone Bb). They aren't as 'orchestral sounding', and I find they are much better when just being used as note-check playback sources, along with a reduction in amount of reverb.

Hey everyone,

Eric from StaffPad here. We appreciate you taking the time to detail your thoughts on how things are going - feedback of all types is what helps us improve.
Now that we have released this latest update, there have been some changes to how the playback functions, or rather the instruments themselves. With this update we have switched over the "base" of our sound library to a different library, which as you noticed has altered playback. One reason you may be hearing such a large change is due to any automation you may have in your scores, as this library functions slightly differently to the previous, the same automation will function differently as well.

With any new update or change, it can take some time to get used to the new sound. That's not to say however that there wasn't anything wrong, or there weren't bugs. There definitely are some things on our end to iron out, and hopefully this recent hotfix has helped.
We are already looking on how to improve the overall quality of the new sound library; we want to make StaffPad the best composition space it can be, and that includes everything from the writing process to final playback, and everything in between.

I won't be in this forum often, but if you guys have any questions, or if anything else comes up - you can always email [email protected].

StaffPadEric, good to finally hear from the Staffpad folks

The hot patch definitely made some changes, though I would be hard-pressed to say exactly what they were. I do think that it is better, and it does seem like some cohesion to the sound has returned.

Edit: The sounds haven't returned to their preupdate state, i.e. Berlin remains boosted (though perhaps less? not sure). But I think the magic is back. I am pretty happy with this hot patch.

@StaffPadEric just want to say, great of you to chime in!

Jett Hitt said:

The hot patch definitely made some changes, though I would be hard pressed to say exactly what they were. I do think that it is better, and it does seem like some cohesion to the sound has returned.

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This most recent hotfix is one of a couple patches planned. Here are the changes:

- iOS only: Fix time signature dialog chopped off on iOS 17
- Windows only: Fixed name of Dynamic Mastering effect
- Various playback fixes (including choppy sounding playback, clicks, artifacts, and occasional crashes)
- Fix issues with transcription on some systems
- Fix silent playback bugs for several instruments (single staff piano, Bb trombone, C trumpet, and A clarinet)
- Fix print layout with chord symbols

If you guys notice other things not on the list, you can always email them over. There are other fixes planned in the near future as well, so be on the lookout for another app update soon.

I just updated to version 1.6.2, I think my compositions now sounds as before, what a relief! Celebrating with coffee and cakes :-D!

OleJoergensen said:

I just updated to version 1.6.2, I think my compositions now sounds as before, what a relief! Celebrating with coffee and cakes :-D!

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Coffee and cakes? I'm going to the cathouse--or at least the liquor store.