Etude for iPad is out

http://etudeapp.com/

by dangrover • 16 years ago

114 38 16 years ago

etudeapp.com

zaveri• 16 years ago

Congrats!

kevinelliott• 16 years ago

Good job!

davisml• 16 years ago

Congratulations Dan!

samratjp• 16 years ago

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.

archgrove2• 16 years ago

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!

dangrover7• 16 years ago

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.

dangrover7• 16 years ago

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

archgrove2• 16 years ago

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

jra101• 16 years ago

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

quizbiz• 16 years ago

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

username32• 16 years ago

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

dangrover7• 16 years ago

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.

username32• 16 years ago

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

sshumaker2• 16 years ago

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

delackner• 16 years ago

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!

bryanh• 16 years ago

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.

dangrover7• 16 years ago

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."

sh1mmer• 16 years ago

Also happens to me in Chrome.

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

sshumaker2• 16 years ago

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

dangrover7• 16 years ago

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

grandalf• 16 years ago

works great on my iPad.

samstokes4• 16 years ago

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.

dangrover7• 16 years ago

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

samstokes4• 16 years ago

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

lanstein2• 16 years ago

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

w1ntermute• 16 years ago

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?

fookyong• 16 years ago

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

friendstock• 16 years ago

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

dangrover7• 16 years ago

There's a video on the front page.

dieterrams• 16 years ago

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.

silencio• 16 years ago

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... :) )

paul9290• 16 years ago

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

kapuzineralex• 16 years ago

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...

Etude for iPad is out

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