# GEAR-Guitar Effects & Amp Rack — Neural amp sim & pedalboard > Neural amp sim & pedalboard (iPhone/iPad app by Helix Projects Limited.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gear-guitar-effects-and-amp-rack/id6798716338 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Helix Projects Limited](https://appshunter.io/developer/6798716340) - Category: Music, Utilities - Price: Free - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 15.0 · 11 MB - Released: 2026-09-29 - Data updated: 2026-10-24 ## What is GEAR? GEAR is a complete guitar rig for iPad and iPhone: neural amp captures (NAM v2), cabinet impulse responses, an effects grid with no block limit that you route yourself, sixteen instant Scenes in every preset, and MIDI control deep enough to run an entire set from a foot controller. It was built by a gigging player and played live throughout its development. AMPS AND CABINETS Load neural amp captures (NAM v2) and/or your own cabinet IRs. Free-tier rigs get exactly the same audio quality as the full version — nothing is watermarked, shortened or timed out. A GRID, NOT A CHAIN As many blocks as your rig needs, on a grid with real parallel paths, patch-bay splits and merges, per-block bypass you can put on a footswitch, and per-path latency compensation so parallel amps stay in phase. Over sixty blocks: overdrives, fuzzes, compressors, EQs, wahs and filters, delays, reverbs, chorus, phaser, flanger, tremolo, pitch shifting, a looper, and IR loaders from two to eight slots. SCENES Sixteen gap-free sound changes inside every preset — verse, chorus, solo — each with its own block states and levels. A level matcher measures your Scenes and evens them out instead of guessing. BUILT FOR THE STAGE Performance Mode shows what matters at a glance — preset, Scene, tempo, tuner — and can mirror your footswitches so you can see what your feet see. On iPad Performance Mode floats over other apps. Reserved MIDI controls for tuner, tap tempo, Scenes, looper, whole-rig capture and recall, and more work out of the box with any controller, wired or Bluetooth, and up to four expression pedals. GEAR runs on iPhone too, with the same grid editor, presets, Scenes and MIDI as the iPad: a smaller screen, not a smaller app. Presets sync between your devices through iCloud or any cloud folder. I built the iPhone version as a backup in case an iPad fails at a gig, and it has since become a full second rig. MORE • Tuner with a large, readable display • Metronome with tap tempo and count-in • Looper with reverse and half speed • Multiple outputs, including a mono-rig mode for a single amp • Record your dry input for re-amping in a DAW later • iCloud sync of presets between your devices, and one-tap backups • Preset import and export FREE, THEN ONE PURCHASE GEAR is free to download and play. The free version gives you one row of twelve blocks, one amp capture and one IR loader, a selection of drives, dynamics, delay, modulation, EQ and reverb, and four Scenes — at full quality, for as long as you like. A single in-app purchase unlocks everything: every block, the full grid with no block limit, all sixteen Scenes and banks, MIDI, the looper, the metronome, sync, backup and recording. Buy once; it is yours on every device signed in with the same Apple Account. REQUIREMENTS An audio interface: any class-compliant USB audio interface (Lightning or USB-C) with an instrument input, for the guitar in and the sound out. GEAR needs no particular make or model and nothing made for it specially — the same generic interfaces every recording app uses. A MIDI foot controller, wired or Bluetooth, is optional — but it is where GEAR comes alive. You can explore every screen without an audio interface, but your guitar needs a proper input — a built-in microphone will not carry an electric guitar signal. GEAR connects to no servers and collects no data. Support: gear@helixprojects.co.uk User guide, hardware suggestions and getting-started notes: gear.helixprojects.co.uk We welcome suggestions and are looking to do regular updates as ideas come in. ## Is GEAR safe? Not enough ratings yet to assess GEAR. ## Is GEAR legit? GEAR-Guitar Effects & Amp Rack has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for GEAR is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.3 — 2026-10-24 New • Tone controls with an amp's character: the Tone Stack block, and the tone controls after an amp capture, now have a Voicing. Universal is the EQ they always had. UK, USA, Chime, Modern and Hi-Fi model classic passive tone circuits: their knobs read 0–10 and work together the way an amp's do, and with every knob at 5 each sits at about the same level as Universal. Every voicing but Chime, Universal included, has a new Depth control, the low-end thump of an amp's power section; Chime has Cut instead of Mid and Presence. • A new delay (full version) with its own pan for your dry signal and for the repeats. It starts with the dry signal hard right and the repeats hard left, and either can go anywhere in between. You'll need a stereo output to hear it. • The acoustic guitar simulator has a new De-Hiss control. As each note dies away, the extra top end the simulator adds fades with it, and so does the hiss that came with it. It's on in every preset that uses the simulator; set it to 0 for the old sound. • The polyphonic drop-tuning shifter keeps closer time with your playing: a new note comes through much sooner while the last one is still ringing, and chords such as an open G stay in tune when you drop them. • The tuner finds the note about twice as fast after you pick, holds it far more steadily, and its needle updates twice as often. • Changing Scene now closes a block's settings if that block doesn't play in the new Scene, so you can't carry on editing it by mistake. • Every reverb except Freeze has a new Width control that spreads its tail across a stereo output; at 0, the default, each sounds exactly as before. The spring and shimmer reverbs also gain a Pre-Delay. • Restore / Manage now lists the backups you made. Tick Show automatic snapshots to see the ones GEAR takes each time it starts; any snapshot you have kept is always listed. ### 1.2 — 2026-10-10 New • Favourites now work on every block (full version), Input, Output and the Patch Bay blocks included: share an input level and noise gate, or an output level, limiter and routing, across your presets and change them in one place. On the Grid, a star in a block's bottom-left corner shows it is linked to a Favourite. • GEAR now has its own folder in the Files app (On My iPad or On My iPhone, then GEAR). Exported presets and DI recordings appear there, and a preset pack you put there can be brought in with Import. • Restore / Manage... on the System tab (full version) is now the one place to restore a backup. It replaces Manage... and the separate Restore... button, which always restored everything, settings included. It opens straight away, and a message tells you what was restored. If you restore the preset you have loaded, GEAR reloads it so you hear the restored version, unless it has unsaved edits. • After every sync, GEAR shows when the shared folder was last changed. If that's earlier than something you just changed on another device, iCloud hasn't delivered it to this one yet: sync again in a minute. Fixed • Restoring from a backup folder you chose now works. Before, only backups kept on the device itself could be restored. Choosing a backup's own folder, rather than the folder it sits in, now lists it too. • Bank names now travel with Cloud Sync. Rename a bank on one device and the new name reaches your other devices at the next sync. • Snapshot and return (CC 24) now brings back the Scene you were on, as well as the sound. Before, the Scenes bar kept showing the Scene you had switched to, and with Auto Scene Update on, that Scene could be overwritten with the restored settings. • The Restore and Delete confirmations in Restore / Manage now always appear in front of it. • The Scene dot on Grid blocks has moved to the bottom-right corner, clear of block names, and the scroll bars on the System tab (iPad) and in Restore / Manage are easier to grab. ### 1.1.1 — 2026-10-08 New • New Global EQ (full version): one EQ over every preset, for the room you're playing. Turn it on in the System tab, choose which outputs it applies to, and shape it just as you would the Parametric EQ block. GLOBAL EQ shows at the top of the Grid while it's on. • Three instrument simulators (full version), under a new Simulators heading in the Add Block menu: an acoustic guitar, a 12-string, and a sitar. On the 12-string you choose the note where the paired strings change from an octave apart to in unison, as on a real 12-string. • Output trims: if your audio interface's outputs aren't quite level, trim each one by up to 6 dB on the Audio tab. GEAR remembers the trims for each interface. • Unlock Full Version on the System tab, above Restore Purchase: a way to buy the full version without looking for a padlock. Fixed • Plugging your audio interface in while GEAR is in the background: GEAR now picks up its input as soon as you open the app. (iOS doesn't let an app start an input from the background; with Performance Mode open, it works straight away.) • If your audio device can't run at the sample rate or buffer size chosen on the Audio tab, GEAR now settles on what the device can do, instead of restarting the audio over and over in silence. • Tapping a padlocked square on the Grid now explains it and offers the full version. It used to need a long press. • The Session Log, Open Source Licences, CC Allocations and Manage Backups windows now fit an iPhone in either orientation, and the Session Log and Open Source Licences windows have a Close button on iPhone and iPad. ### 1.1 — 2026-10-05 New • Reset Scene: set a Scene back to a copy of Scene 1, from the Scene menu. • Reload the loaded preset from a footswitch (reserved CC 22). Everything goes back to how the preset was saved, and the switch page stays where it is. It does nothing while you have unsaved edits. • Open and close the Looper's controls from a footswitch (reserved CC 20). • Switch Performance Mode between the normal window and the MIDI Controller View from a footswitch (reserved CC 21). The setting on the System tab is left as it is. • The MIDI Controller View shows which switch page you are on. • If your audio interface disconnects or loses power, Performance Mode turns red and says NO INTERFACE, so you know straight away that the fix is the cable, not the app. • iPhone: the Grid's Scenes row is now a Scene button that opens a list of all 16 Scenes (long-press one for its menu), with Update Scene beside it and Perf Mode next to the preset name. • The GEAR logo shows while the app starts. Changed • GEAR starts much faster with a USB audio interface, and without the clicks and pops it used to make while starting. • Freeze: the block's Bypass is now its on/off switch, so the block lights up only while it is holding a pad. Presets that used the old Freeze switch are converted when they load, footswitch assignments included. • The three fuzz blocks' Volume now runs from Off at the bottom of the fader to +12 dB at the top. Existing presets keep their levels. • Save As always saves the loaded preset as a new one, whichever preset is highlighted. • Preset names too long for their space now scroll: on the Grid, and for the selected preset on the Presets tab. • iPhone: loading a preset takes you to the Grid, as on iPad, unless you are on the Perform screen, which a footswitch preset change never takes you away from. Fixed • GEAR opens on the tab chosen under Start on in the System tab, even when it reloads your last preset. • Overdub Once can be used again straight after a pass, without stopping the loop first. • A long-press on a Scene selects that Scene before its menu opens, so your changes go to the Scene you pressed. • Text on bypassed light-coloured blocks is readable. • A block linked to a Favourite now keeps the settings you change in a preset. Saving and reloading the preset no longer puts the Favourite's values back, and the settings you have not changed still follow the Favourite. • The channel lists in the Input and Output blocks show the names of the audio interface that is connected, as the Audio tab does. • An audio interface whose inputs take a few seconds to appear after it is plugged in comes back with your chosen input, under its own name, rather than as "Left" and "Right". • With no input switched on, the Audio tab names the input a tick will open (your interface, or the iPhone or iPad microphone with wired headphones) instead of "Left" and "Right". • iPhone: the buttons on the full version sheet fit on the screen. ### 1.0 — 2026-09-29 No release notes. ## Apps similar to GEAR | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Elementi Guitar Effects & NAM](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/elementi-guitar-effects-and-nam/id6792561748) | 5.0 (2) | Free | Music | | [WaveFolder - Audio Unit](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wavefolder-audio-unit/id1289484131) | 4.6 (9) | $4.99 | Music | | [FuzzWah](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fuzzwah/id6757123920) | 4.5 (2) | $1.99 | Music | | [ANALOGyAMP](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/analogyamp/id6753659328) | 5.0 (2) | $2.99 | Music | | [Pitchli](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pitchli/id6762160541) | 5.0 (1) | Free | Music | | [MuckrakerAU](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/muckrakerau/id6760476884) | 5.0 (2) | Free | Music | ## Related topics [mac tools amp](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/mac-tools-amp) · [guitar looper](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/guitar-looper) · [wiim amp](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/wiim-amp) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-24.*