Etude for iPad is out | Hacker News Reader

Etude for iPad is out

etudeapp.com

114 pointsdangrover38 comments

It looks lovely, and I'll probably grab it (especially at that price). However, as an Etude for iPhone user, I have to say - you really need to get some more scores into the store. At the moment, months after launch, you still only have material from 21 composers. Everyone I've shown it to loves it, but it's a really hard sell with such a limited selection. I've no problem with paying for sheet music, and I'd probably pay more for the convenience of this format - it just needs to be there!

More scores are coming. I finally did add some Chopin today! (those scores are iPad only for now though)

We'll also be opening up our converter so users can put their own scores in the app, as well as trying to finish these content deals.

Also, it's free if you bought the iPhone version.

That, I didn't realise. Great value :). Almost too great - I'd have paid for an upgrade!

I can see how this could be convincingly better than the analogue equivalent, and worth buying an iPad for (if I still had a piano):

* Is page-turning easy? With paper you have to carefully dog-ear the sheet music so that you can grab the corner and turn the page without breaking flow. A simple one-finger swipe or tap would be less disruptive to playing.

* On-demand sheet music purchase is a great idea, if the catalogue is comprehensive enough. It would be great to be able to go from hearing a great piece on the radio to having the score in front of you in minutes.

I assume you need music to be converted so that you can support the synthesiser and simulated keyboard. To bootstrap, can you take existing sheet music unconverted (just scanned, say) and display it without those features? TBH I'm not sure I see the utility of watching the keypresses anyway (maybe because I haven't tried it).

* As well as hearing a synthesised version of the piece, what about a link from the score to world-renowned recordings, to stream or purchase? I'd often struggle to learn some passages that seemed boring or repetitive, but to hear the same passage played with fluency and passion would be very motivating.

Most of the pieces do have affilliate links to recordings on the iTunes Music Store, but not all.

Also, it bugs me that it's Etude and not Étude, but I'm probably alone in that :)

Yeah, you are, because accents are often left off of capital letters in French.

Huh, didn't know that, but you're right (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_alphabet#Diacritics). I declare myself out-pedanted :)

:-)

Metacomment: I find it amusing that I got more upvotes for providing attribution for a refutation of my own minor criticism of Etude than for my original comment actually discussing Etude.

I guess I'm being rewarded for admitting and embracing my own wrongness!

Yeah, but they are only because it's a pain to type them on the french AZERTY keyboard: it doesn't have an easy to find dead key for the acute accent.

So either you type an accent-less character, or you waste 10mn looking for a way to have the accent in.

As far as the Académie Française is concerned, diacritics are not optional.

For technical reason though, the Académie clearly states diacritics are not optional. So it should be Étude indeed.

I've heard about Etude several times on HN, but only in reference to iP* - does anyone know if there are plans for an Android app?

Is there anyway to tap to reposition the cursor and play? Loops? A/B?

I would love this - it would be an essential feature for practicing difficult sections.

Indeed the first thing that I tried was to pinch-spread across a section in hopes that that would turn the width I had specified into a looped playback region.

Going to have some fun with this. Bravo!

Awesome work on both the iPhone and iPad version :) I've been grumbling at everyone and their mother telling me about Etude because it's not an app for me, but it's certainly one I will and have recommended to friends that want to learn how to play a real piano. (And it's not for me only because I may suck, but I've been banging away at a piano for over ten years and can sight read most of the pieces in Etude in my sleep. Understandably I am not the audience for this app, a PDF reader with metronome is more suited to my needs... :) )

Beautiful app. I've always wanted to learn how to play the piano, and this just lowered the barrier to entry by a mile. Thanks for making it.

So does the app hear what Im playing and turn the page automatically for me? Huge pain-point for piano players.

I've been holding off because of the reviews complaining about lag. Do those apply to the iPad version as well?

Not sure. I think these people might have been using old phones with lots of other stuff running.

works great on my iPad.

The price is a steal. Sure, Xelements is cool, but this completely is reason alone to buy the iPad. Congrats and hope that some day soon orchestras could have this.

Did anyone else notice how the blue-ish marker lags behind the actual position of the piece during playback? Having that in a demo is kind of ridiculous...

Sorry to nitpick, but the sound in the video is off! It's driving me crazy!

This almost makes me want to get an iPad... almost.

Yeah, ffmpeg screwed that up. The h264 and flash versions play correctly.

I wish Firefox would just fall back to the flash version rather than going "Oh, it's not Ogg. I guess I'll just give up."

Also happens to me in Chrome.

I love the video but I would love it more as a lightbox closer to iPad size.

Big congratulations! This alone is a reason to buy the iPad.

Very cool, any chance you will be adding drums? :)

beautiful app. bought, admired, and getting all nostalgic (I used to be a concert violinist but I stopped playing about 8 years ago)

Why can't we practice on the piano in Etude?

The reason the keyboard in the current UI is there is so you can see most of the keys and play the piece on a real instrument.

If I made it playable, people would just complain it's too small.

A new "practice mode" is coming in an upcoming update that gives you a big enough keyboard and lets you practice one hand of the piece.

is there a video of this iPad app somewhere? I just tried searching on youtube but couldn't find anything.

There's a video on the front page.

Congratulations Dan!

Good job!

Congrats!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com