Songwriter Pad App Reviews

I used it for months on two iPads, an iPhone, and a desktop... The syncing was HORRIBLE... The support in trying to fix the issue was even worse... I finally discovered Evernote and stopped using Songwriter's Pad... Don't waste your time or money...

I have the iPad, iPhone, and PC version. Have used the app frequently. Recently updated the PC version to 2.2.0 and it no longer works. Have emailed the developer 3 times and have yet to receive a response. For as much as they want to charge for the product I would expect their support to be more on point. Very disappointed.

It was a good app, not worth 20$, but still decent. The most recent update is basically a disaster, it crawls with bugs. Fix it people!

I was going to buy this app but due to the reviews, I get the feeling they developers dont care once they have your money. thanks for the heads up everyone. :)

I've been using this app for a couple of years now and it is brilliant. I love having all of my lyrics in one place, I love that I can attach audio notes to them and I love that they are backed up to the cloud. I've never had any major problems and any issues I have had have either been down to user error or nothing a quick email to tech support couldn't fix. it just works! Today I upgraded my storage amount and bought the desktop version. Everything went very smoothly and now I'm even more organized. Couldn't be happier. Keep up the Great work!

Thanks for suggesting I can rhyme "me" with "pee." That was helpful? Interesting how alumnae, lungs, and many other strange words are suggested as rhymes for the word "wings." I also don't appreciate suggested phrases with misspelled words like "hate is to nice of a word." I went to college I know the difference between to and too. I shouldn't have to pay $10 to fix spelling errors.

I use a lot of apps for creating music on my ipad. This is one of the few I use everyday! I've been a pro songwriter for more than 40 years, and I take my lyric composition seriously. This app allows me to capture every idea. I love the ability to imagine words, phrases and concepts that I'd like to use in a song and save them in the margin. Arranging sections (blocks) is a breeze, and backing up to icloud allows me to work the same song from several devices. Customer support is great. The rhyming dictionary and thesaurus are very good. I've tried other apps for lyrics but this is hands down the best.

Like others have noted, the app is now asking for an initial login and I cannot get past the screen. Luckily I have not used it for anything important. Just dabbled with it. I want to see this work, but I am losing hope. Will see what support has to say...

Twice this lost my new song ideas, both times when the software updated itself. The first time I was mad the second furious. I lost a few choice songs. Too bad because it functions rather well otherwise. Also, when I contacted the creator the ultimate reply was that I was the only one having the issue so therefore they couldn't help me.

I'm an iOS musician and this app in a class all its own. The developer has really put his heart and soul into this and it shows. He's very responsive to feedback and this thing is absolutely essential. Well designed everything works great and is extremely well designed. One of those apps that you just open it and go. I had it mastered in about 5 minutes without reading the manuals. Great indispensable piece of programming. Highly recommended.

The rhyming library alone makes this app worth awesome. Add in the ability to copyright your song instantly, and what's not to love? Lots of functionality!

I wrote a song with this. Tried to save it. Songwriter said I had exceeded my device limit and deleted my song...one less muse to work with. I use multiple devices, so I'm afraid to use the app lest my work be lost.

This app was awesome until the update. Now I can't get past the cloud sync sign up and it keeps asking me for the email ID even though I filled everything out. If it ain't broke don't fix it! I had to delete it and so now all my songs are gone. I will stick to pad and pen from now on ... Lesson learned

First off - to anyone using this for writing, back up your work. On paper, in a journal, something you can fall back on. Yes it has a sync to cloud function but don't let that be your only option. I just wanted to change the font I was using, and it suddenly lost all of my songs. Every time I have updated the app, all of the songs are gone. The rhymes are basic, but can sometimes trigger a thought that can take you where you need to go. Remember that this is just a tool, writing songs is a process, and it's not as easy as you'd think to craft something that truly connects with the audience.

I hoped this would be much better than it is. I started with the iPad venison and, finding it somewhat lacking, purchased the desktop version, too. It had more promise, so i got the android version for my phone. I was wrong. My bad. Cut, copy and past is buggy at best. Syncing between devices is virtually non-existent. The interface itself is poorly thought out, though it does seem to be inspired by the Pat Pattison worksheet method. Unfortunately, it’s not very flexible. For example, there is a column for phrases, but you can’t add your own. It’s almost as if this app was coded by a musician looking to make a quick buck rather than professional programmers. It does not adhere to ‘standard’ Apple (or android for that matter) interface protocols. The instruction manual is really bad. There are no tool tips and no explanation of the various functions. Last but not least, customer service is very poor, taking days to answer simple questions, and even then, just asking a question in response. Of course, when you clarify, it takes another few days to hear back again. Don’t buy this. It is cheap, poorly thought out, poorly implemented and has virtually no support whatever, and it’s pricey when you buy the desktop. Save your money. I ended up creating a Google document which does what i want better. Oh well....live and learn.

Wonderful!

Second time an update has deleted all my recordings... lost ideas. If there is one thing an app like this CANNOT DO it is lose audio tracks. I mean come on.

it promises to save you time - but it never does...

Are you kidding me Dropbox and iCloud charge significantly less for storage and there are other apps like notability and day one that sync to them. I like the idea of songwriter but you still have tons of bugs and writing in your blocks is cumbersome and impedes workflow. I think you have the potential to be a 5 star app. However you are to busy trying to find ways to bleed people of money rather than fixing your buggy app. I, nor any of my students will ever pay the prices you want for storage. It is simply a waste of money when there are plenty of apps that do the same thing for no extra cost. Let's put it this way I would probably pay around $20-30 for songwriter if it synced to the cloud or Dropbox and did everything it does now as well. However I refuse to pay on a monthly basis to sink to your bogus cloud that probably has more bugs than the app itself. You should probably come up with a better business model. I would pay $2-5 as an in app purchase to sync to the iCloud or Dropbox.

The interface is very clunky and scrolling is almost impossible. The additional tools provided by this app can be found by doing simple things such as online searches, using a dictionary app, etc. Definitely not worth the $15 that I paid. Honestly, this is one of the worst purchases I've made on my device so far. I began using Apple's Pages app, and I am very happy that I did. Haven't looked back.

This was a wonderful app until the update. The layout is a downgrade. When my ipad is horizontal and I select the a section of a song I can no longer see the words and type. I have to scroll up to see the words being typed. I would also like to change the default font and font size. I have to change it every song.

Sync creates issue with text import, doesn’t sync correctly between my desktop version and this version. Also chord names split the words depending on where you try and set them, the full screen view is not full screen it is a window in the app. No refund so hopefully these issue get resolved. It is too much work to get through this app.

I like this app because unlike MasterWriter, you can sink in the cloud, allowing me to work with iPad or my MacBook. The problem is the tools. The logic in the rhyming dictionary is so inconsistent, often times just wrong. I haven’t tried the recording options so I can’t comment of those features. The rhyming phrases features need a lot of improvement to earn anymore stars from me. I hope the developer improves the app.

My files are all gone by it self totally mass up after upgrade.

Lost data once again. Developer is zero help

A solid app for the songwriter of any level or genre; hoping it continues to get upgrades to make interface and storage more fluid and user friendly (i.e. Navigating upload/downloading songs from cloud, cloud based storage/sync using my own apple cloud, some clunky dialogue boxes and folder organization especially on the desktop version, ability to upload sound recordings into song, more than one chord per word, text compatibility). Designer is SUPER helpful if you have any problems and a fair business person as well. The app keeps things nice and organized, legalized, and easy to print out for bandmates and the like.

Any application that has a forced login but does not need internet access to work gets an automatic one-star in my book, only because I can't give zero. I haven't used it much, so can't comment on lost data; and I cannot see the new interface behind the forced login screen, so I can't comment on that either.

I've been using this app for a while now and have written many songs, however one major issue for me is when I import an mp3 from iTunes library and play it, you can't pause to write lyrics and then resume, etc. Please add the ability to scrub through an mp3 and allow to start and stop as needed so that I can create lyrics while listening to the song without having to start the tune all over again. Thanks! --Jason

The best app I've used so far. I wish there was an offline thesaurus and rhyming dictionary. Will help a lot for some of us that don't use data that much. Thanks!!! 👌🏾

Not good for anything so far.

When I first downloaded this, it would not open, it wouldn't let me do anything; but the next day for some reason it opened up with no problem, it absolutely works great! I love this app!

Every now and then you purchase an app and are pleasantly surprised when it turns out to be better than expected. Lyrics are always the hardest part of songwriting for me. I tend to get writers block after a few words. Not any more. This app makes it so much fun to write. It almost feels like you have a songwriting "partner" in the room with you. I highly recommend this app.

Worst app ever

Just went to open the app and there's a login screen that was never there before. Now I can't access the songs I so carefully entered. Of course, I could update (at a price), but what a bait-and-switch ripoff.

I was bought the pro version, but when I linked this ap to dropbox, suddenly my pro version has gone, and they were asking for another bag of money once more. The customer support doesn't listen, they apparenty don't exist. It would be a 5 stars app if this error were solved.

I've gone to pretty much exclusively using this app for writing lyrics, and it works very well. It's nice to be able to sync all my songs across my devices via the cloud. However, there are little things that annoy me. The phrases in the inspiration databank are a bit cheesy, and can sound repetitive. The rhyming bank is off, too - you'll get stuff like "horsemen" as a rhyme for "morning." Once in a blue moon I've also had the app crash on me, resulting in me losing all of the lyrics for a song I was working on. Don't let these things deter you from getting it, however - it's still a great app.

I downloaded and installed the amp last Sat.. It wouldn't open but twice out of the four or five first times I tried the Free App. I tried the upgrade and got charged for it.. Then it would't open at all.... Sent an email to support asking for my money back and haven't heard a thing.. That was 5 days ago. Don't waste your money too!

The perfect tool to remember every idea.

Make sure to make hard copies. Lost all my songs, and had to rewrite some from notes. Very disappointed.

I'm relatively new to structured song writing. Up until recently I always just threw my thoughts onto scraps of paper. I found this app and was a little cautious at first mainly because of the mixed reviews and the fact that it doesn't appear to have been updated for over a year. Long story short I've written a handful of new songs using songwriter and found most of it really awesome and works well on my iPad Pro. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because I couldn't select my own word for the ideas area. There appears to be a spot where I can enter my own word but it won't let me type in anything.

Good idea for an app but it's a buggy piece of junk. Totally unusable.

I originally wrote a fairly harsh review because my data had been lost when I updated. I re-tried contacting support, though, and was pleased that they replied relatively promptly and were ultimately able to solve my problem. Seems like they've improved their process. Since I was so unhappy with the data management, I didn't mention the app's functions and features in the original review. These are excellent and well-suited to the songwriting process.

After just the first few uses I am giving this app 4 stars and I may upgrade it to 5 after using it for a while. I have never been a good lyric writer, and this app is helping collect my thoughts, make notes for research, and in general making it easier for me to write and make some serious attempts at lyric writing. I now use the desktop version. The syncing across multiple devices really makes this a great tool. I have run into issues with some information getting garbled. The company responds quickly to help requests.

Honestly, I don't like the new design at all.

Fantastic way to keep a record of all the process! Really find it helpful!

The extra tools don't help much. Hard to navigate

I have really enjoyed this app for writing on-the-go and otherwise. It is nice to have the record feature built in, even though from time to time it is buggy. The workflow is awesome. I'm hoping the record feature gets fixed in updates.