Neuratron is known for their Photoscore software that many people use to scan music and convert it into a music file that can be read by Sibelius, Finale, and other music notation programs. Now they have come out with an incredibly useful and handy app that does much the same thing on the iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. NotateMe takes hand written music, made with your finger or a stylus on your device's screen, and instantly changes it into a form than can be printed, edited, or exported to a music notation program. While this is pretty cool by itself the features they have planned down the road blow make it almost indispensable.
NotateMe for Android and iOS Makes Tablet Music Notation Easy
When you launch Neuratron's NotateMe you can enter notes on a staff using a finger or a stylus. The screen is split with your markings on the bottom and the transcribed notation appearing on the top. From the demos shown it appears to do a really good job of recognizing even some of the more difficult scribbles. You can quickly make changes to key signatures, time signatures, bar lines, and other items simply by dragging up and down to select the desired value. Other attempts at music notation handwriting recognition have been made by other companies at making this kind of technology work but until now none have been successful.
Audio and Photo Based Transcription Planned For The Future
The video provided by Neuratron says that future releases of the app promise to have expansion packs available that will enable many of the functions found in Neuratron's AudioScore and PhotoScore technologies. In other words, one day soon you will be able to sing your parts into your score or even take a photo of the printed music and have it converted into music notation on the screen automatically. Brilliant!
I can see a lot of potential for NotateMe both for professionals and also for music educators. Many educators, myself included, feel it is better for students to start writing music by hand rather than jumping straight to the computer, so this app provides the best of both worlds. If a student is not being attentive and writing clearly the app probably won't transcribe it correctly and a teachable moment ensues.
Neuratron's NotateMe Is Expensive (But Worth It)
For a limited time Neuratron is offering the app at half price. If you are interested in it then grab it now because half price happens to be $13.99 in the iTunes Store and on Google Play. At this time it is considered an open beta, but those that buy the app now will receive a free upgrade to version 1 of the app when it is released. When it goes back to full price I could see this pricing it out of range for those that would use it in a one to one classroom setting. Still, it is a huge step forward in tablet based music notation and if successful will definitely wind up giving Notion, Noteflight, and others a run for their money.