Scorched Tunes
by Gary Woods

In the high end music world there are a couple of great music notation software packages. The one I use is called Sibelius and it runs on either the Mac of PC and produces beautiful scores. The parent company of Sibelius is a company called Avid and they;ve come out with an App for the iPad called the Avid Scorch which is based on the Sibelius Notation software.

Scorch lets you import your existing Sibelius files or purchase and download sheet music from its own in-app store. This means that not only can you take your entire sheet music library with you but you can also customize that library in real time.

There's a playback features that lets you hear the score, slow it down so you can learn hard passages and transpose the score on the fly. You can also change the instrumentation to hear how a different instrument would sound on the part and Scorch has a built-in mixer that allows you to bring an instrument's volume up or down.

The app is targeted at composers, arrangers, professional musicians and the education market offering a full screen Music Stand mode that lets you turn the page with a simple tap on the screen or with a Bluetooth foot switch.

The Scorch store offers more than 150,000 downloads with individual titles in the in-app store ranging from free to $10. Typically, guitar tabs cost $1 and piano/vocal/guitar arrangements cost $4. If you're of an entrepreneurial bent you can even sign up for an account at SibeliusMusic.com and sell your score to other Scorch Users. Avid Scorch costs $4.99 at the App Store.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at gandlwoods@earthlink.net or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910