Newzik iOS app review: A power-packed sheet music reader

Sheet music is an important asset for any musician, whether a learner or professional. But why should you lug them around or fumble during setup when you can easily carry all your scores on iPhone or iPad with Newzik. The versatile sheet music reader allows you to concentrate on what matters most, the music.

But how exactly does it do that? And what makes this app such a real deal for musicians? Read this hands-on Newzik app review for all your answers.

Newzik: One app for all your sheet music needs

Newzik is designed to give you complete control of your digital scores. Upload, rehearse, perform, organize, improvise, and collaborate to your heart’s content. The developers have studied and worked with many performers to understand their needs from such an app.

As a result, you get a feature-packed, comprehensive, and intuitive toolbox that’ll fit every musician’s bill. I know that these are some tall claims, but here’s how the Newzik app walks the talk.

Build and access your library across devices

First and foremost, it’s super simple to get your music onboard. The reader is compatible with most standard formats, including PDF, MusicXML, audio, and more.

And you can upload sheet music from your computer, cloud storage like iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc., or simply scan the paper scores to digitize them.

Plus, you can import some free scores from Newzik’s library, buy from partners or use templates to create the scores from scratch. And thanks to Newzik Cloud, your library is constantly synchronized across the iPhone app and Newzik web.

That means you can access your scores anywhere, anytime, and from any device. And remarkably, the web version is as smooth and feature-packed as the app.

Make the most of your music with Newzik

Now, getting your music on Newzik cloud is just the first step. Playing, practicing, editing, collaborating, etc., are some important next steps. And remarkably, Newzik handles them all flawlessly.

An intuitive UI

I love music, but I am no maestro, and still, the app felt quite smooth. Even though there are extensive tutorials available, I could seamlessly maneuver through the app without any issue.

Everything is well labeled and thought about, including the settings section. See it for yourself.

Another great thing about the interface is its intuitiveness. When playing a score, the page automatically turns, so your focus is maintained. You can also use a Bluetooth pedal for switching pages.

And a tap on the center of the page invokes the menu bar. You can also access the display or other settings from here; just tap the three-dot icon.

Annotate and manage the scores

Newzik boasts an array of custom pens, symbols, and highlighters that lets you mark your sheets with inputs, notes, and more. Incredibly, you can also invoke multiple layers to make temporary notes or comments, so your score sheet remains clean and fresh always.

What’s more? You can add bookmarks, jumps, reorganize pages, etc. And if you don’t want to concentrate on a certain piece, you can even crop it into parts and work on them.

Organize your sheet music to the T

Keep your scores well organized under setlists and projects. Make a playlist, lesson, favorite list, or create pieces by joining multiple parts for quick and easy access. Moreover, you can add scores to as many setlists or projects as you want.

Notably, a copy is created when you add tracks to your project, and anything you edit here would not affect the original ones. In contrast, changes made in setlists are universal.

Add audio and video

Want to add a sample into the mix for reference? Newzik has thought about that as well. You can add audio or MIDI tracks, your recordings, or even a YouTube video, that’ll play automatically as the page turns.

Further, you can also choose to speed up, slow down, or transpose the clips and practice at your own pace.

Made for collaboration

Projects that you create can be shared with your friends, band members, teachers, and more. Like shared notes, you could see their real-time feedback and comments directly in the score.

And not just that, audio or video clips can also be added showing your version of the score. The perfect feature for band members, orchestra troops, and more to keep the creative exchange alive, even when they are not face-to-face.

LiveScores – Maestria

Newzik employs an advanced optical music recognition (OMR) technology dubbed as Maestria to convert any PDF or paper score into interactive LiveScores that combine PDF, MusicXML, and MIDI formats.

This allows you better control over the score. Thanks to a multi-sensorial approach, you can learn faster, improve sight-reading and audition skills. Plus, you can switch the tempo,  transpose the accompaniment, remove certain instruments, and even rearrange a piece with a click.

Who is it for?

Anyone and everyone, whether you are a:

• Student – The intuitive, easy-to-use interface allows and supports students to self-learn or appoint a teacher for guidance.
• Teachers – Between annotation, collaboration, audio, video assist, and personalized projects for different courses and classes, plenty of features supporting teachers, especially online classes.
• Professionals – Solo, bands, orchestra, DJs, etc., almost all professional musicians can benefit from Newzik and its music-oriented feature list.

Does Newzik strike a chord?

An almost perfect app for musicians. And it doesn’t restrict itself to pros. It warmly welcomes newbies as well. I absolutely love its use case for teachers and students, especially for online classes. The app is intuitive, smart, versatile, and makes scores management a pleasant and hassle-free affair.

Price: $4.49/ per month and $29.99/per year

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