# Groove Rider GR-16 — user reviews > 188 indexed App Store user reviews of Groove Rider GR by Dmitrij Pavlov, rated 4.90/5 from 352 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/groove-rider-gr-16/id1318750537/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/groove-rider-gr-16/id1318750537.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 320 · 4★ 23 · 3★ 4 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 4 ## What do users think of Groove Rider GR? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Powerful and feature-rich - 👍 Intuitive workflow and interface - 🎨 Great sound quality and synthesis capabilities - 🔧 Highly customizable and flexible - 🎛️ Excellent for live performance and jamming - 💸 Great value for the price **Cons** - 🐛 Some bugs and stability issues - 🔀 Challenging learning curve for beginners - 🔇 Limited built-in sample library - 🔀 Occasional menu diving required for advanced features **Commonly reported bugs** - Occasional crashes and stability issues - Trouble importing and managing samples - Inconsistent MIDI implementation and mapping - Limitations with the built-in mixer and effects **Most requested features** - Stereo sample import - More built-in instruments and sound banks - Improved MIDI implementation and control - Ability to record and resample directly within the app - Pattern chaining and song mode improvements - Expanded effects and modulation options ## Newest reviews (13 of 188) ### 5/5 — Fantastic and fun Groovebox *2022-08-10* Like many other reviewers here I’ve tried a few music apps, but this one really cuts through. It’s so fun to use and surprisingly powerful. If you’ve ever used an electribe 2 or similar and thought ‘damn I wish it could do that’ - well this app does that! Has an excellent sample player and slicer and nifty step sequencer editor. I’m pretty sure I have to ditch my electribe now, even the synth part of this is better. Highly recommended ### 5/5 — Hello, It would be nice to create a Groove Machine *2022-08-05, version 2.2.1* Hello, It would be nice to create a Groove Machine for example dr. Rex, with support wav. files, with perfect loop browser to sicronise with all project in real time,for example Aum loop browser or loop browser in Magix software Muisic Maker program.I need a Perfect Groovebox, Thanks! ### 5/5 — A full fledged groove box at a steal of a price *2022-07-18* What a great tool for fleshing out ideas on the go. On the surface it may not seem sonically deep but once you understand all the options you can achieve some very usable sounds. While there is quite a bit of menu diving involved for all the various parts of the sequencer and menu it all makes sense to allow you to have a mostly 1 screen app. You could go spend 10x or more on a hardware groovebox and not really have as much freedom to arrange and tweak sounds the way you do on GR-16. ### 5/5 — Great ! *2022-07-16* Love this one really the best ! ### 4/5 — Close to perfect but needs a few things! *2022-06-21* This app is so close to being the perfect groove box but needs a few things! First 6 note polyphony! Next we need templates! I don’t like having to change the drums every single time I load up a new track it really slows down the workflow and creativity sometimes! Last thing would be truly unquantized notes! Sometimes when I play it cuts off some notes which made me realize they aren’t truly unquantized! Other than that it’s great. ### 5/5 — Love it *2022-04-29* Wasn’t too impressed when I first downloaded it and ended up getting rid of it to free up space on my phone... but I installed it again on my new phone and was suitably impressed by how much the iPhone version has improved. Perfect for jamming away to pass the time on boring commutes to and from work. Not used it as part of my home set up but for now it does exactly what I want from a portable groove box. 5/5 easily. ### 5/5 — Quando si dice una killer app *2022-04-23, version 2.2.1* Questa app potrebbe da sola valere l’acquisto di un iPad Ė cosi curata nei minimi dettagli, così musicalmente ben realizzata, così ricca di features da non temere il confronto di nessuno Complimenti allo sviluppatore che tra l’altro ho visto in un video, degno creatore di questa genialata 👏👏👏 ### 5/5 — Greatest iOS music production app ever. *2022-04-09, version 2.2.1* Awesome regular updates. Synth patch randomizer like in Poison would be nice, or maybe I missed the setting. No brainer purchase, like having an electribe at 1/20th the price. ### 5/5 — Best ever, but one thing’s still missing… *2022-03-19* Best groovebox ever… but please please please add midi mapping for the 16 pads! And also a second LFO would be much appreciated… oh… and midi mapping for pads! But yeah, this groovebox really wins, even over many hardware ones. And, btw… if you could please add midi mapping for the pads… that would be super, the final touch! Have I mentions how I would like to have midi mapping for the pads? ### 5/5 — The best groovebox *2022-02-05* I really recommend using this with Cubasis 3, it works absolutely perfectly. You get multi out so you can add effects to each track and the Cubasis song position syncs with the one in grooverider so you can locate where you want playback to start for editing. The amount of control you have in this app is amazing, it’s easy to get every sound just as you want and the sequencer is great with different groove settings, probability and note ratcheting. A top quality app from an amazing developer. ### 5/5 — The Groove is in the Box! *2021-11-27, version 2.2.1* GR-16 is so ahead of its time, It’ s gonna take me a minute to get through all the goodies inside of this groove box app. It’s definitely a must have. my whole new approach to writing all around music, evolves around the GR-16. In all honesty there are a few things I would love to have had, but those would put it in a higher price bracket. I won’t get into each feature, you have YouTube for that. all I can say! this is an app you need! And yes, I am a real user and I’m not endorsed! Great job! Jim Audio..... ### 5/5 — Awesome once you learn how to use it *2021-10-28, version 2.2.0* I was a bit lost by this app at first, but once I understood how to use it I was in love. Seems a bit bewildering at first, but is actually very easy and fun once you understand how to use it. The app could use a built in tutorial, but I found that the walkthrough by Electronisounds on YT really helped me understand this great app. ### 5/5 — This is the one *2021-09-19, version 2.2.0* I love this app. The dev is legendary. I just purchased a Launchpad Pro mk3 thanks to you Dimitri. Can we link up somehow? I’d love for you to hear what I’m making with your amazing app. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — No Refund??? *2025-04-17, version 2.2.1* I tried Groove Rider 16 and it didn’t fit my workflow, cumbersome to change sounds and create user racks… I thought I had the right of withdrawal within 15 days, but apparently they won’t refund me and now I’m stuck with an app that I won’t use… ### 2/5 — Andere Qualität vom Entwickler gewohnt. *2019-11-22* Eigentlich ne geile Groovebox. Nur auf dem IPhone XR unbrauchbar das es nur knackt. Audio Probleme. Bitte beheben... dann 5 Sterne ### 2/5 — 堀さん *2019-05-01* 90年代のグルーブボックスに、ウェーブテーブルシンセを足した物のようで期待したが、期待ほどでは無かった。これ一つで完結出来る訳でも無く、音に個性がある訳でも無い。各トラックの分離が悪く、音が団子になっている。機能面で中途半端というのは当時のグルーブボックスの特徴だが、そんな所まで完コピしなくても、、、 ### 3/5 — Plenty of room for improvement *2021-10-21* Groove Rider sounds great and - for musicians who have worked with groove boxes before - is comparatively easy to understand. However, there are areas in the app that don't feel finished to me.... For example, even with a look at the instruction booklet, I couldn't figure out how to apply the arpeggiator to already recorded chords - it doesn't do anything then. It seems that the arpeggiator can only be used when playing live - only I lack the third hand for complex patterns / automations. Effects are available in Groove Rider - but in my opinion only conditionally useful. These are very simple effects, where not much can be adjusted and which are also quite inflexible and partly unfortunately do not sound good. In the absence of the possibility to integrate more useful plug-ins, one starves here partly. You should not be blinded by the included, well-produced patterns - there is a lot of trickery and concealment. And yes: They sound great. Considering that Groove Rider is more expensive than some full-fledged iPad DAWs at around 22 EUR and has gone almost halfway to Cubasis 3 in terms of price, I still find it a bit lacking in substance here and frankly I can't understand the partially euphoric reviews. It is not essential that Groove Rider is not a DAW - this is about value for money. If you see Groove Rider less as a tool for producing music and more as a tool for DJs, then the app cuts quite a fine figure and is very flexible. Overall, the price is currently 6-7 EUR too high - for me, it is currently the most complex and weakest product of the developer. I am not yet convinced and look forward to hopefully regular updates. ### 3/5 — Well, I’m beginning to like it. But the is not all that... *2020-10-30, version 1.7.9* Ok. I’m starting to like this app after playing with it for a while. Based on the reviews, I see that it’s a common thing to first hate it and then like it better. It’s definitely a competent app, however it really isn’t intuitive to use and quite clunky. It has many cool features which feel like inspired by some hardware instruments (such as timing shift per step reminding me the Digitakt). However, the interface needs A LOT of work. Please please make it better! For example. Buttons don’t follow one uniform idea of operation that makes the user interact with them easily and intuitively. Some functions have dedicated buttons, sometimes buttons require double pressing to access their second function (for example “slice” button), sometimes they have sub selection menu (for example “copy” button), sometimes buttons behave as if they had a bug. A good example of it are the “touchpad mode” buttons. Once ARP and scale is selected it takes multiple presses of other keys to be able to have just the ARP selected again. After doing so the pad still plays pitch shifted notes unless you press it in a new area. *** The main jog wheel is simply bad. Unresponsive and not easy to operate. It should allow both fast and precise scrolling but is really neither. The graphic design of it is also rather ugly and not immediately suggesting that it needs to be turned. ***Some great features such as parameter locks of individual steps are very VERY tedious to adjust. The window to perform them is small and it becomes tricky even with a small number of steps displayed there. ***Menus are labeled in an awkward way, for example, a confusing IFX list selection method: even if you select an effect other than the one marked with a check mark, the check mark stays unchanged. I’m guessing this indicates the default effect for the given selected sound but some other symbol should be used for it (this is on top of the fact that the way the actual selection is marked looks like just highlighting the parameter before making selection). All these things together are very important and heavily affect the user experience. ***The developer brags about the app having all the controls on one page, MEANWHILE the navigation requires constant menu dives, even for the most basic settings. For example, deleting all steps in all parts requires navigations into the menu, selecting the function, executing selection , then confirming the choice on the yes/no prompt screen! This is such a commonly used function and requires 4 button presses and a menu dive! ***Same with many other settings including BPM/tempo. By the way, the “Tap Tempo” button is well hidden. You have to first change the assignment of the “4th button” in the menu... Why so complicated? ***Menu has a messy structure with weirdly assigned categories and questionable logic used for the items in subcategories. ***cryptic basic operations: for example when you want to copy something you press “copy” button. But then to paste it you have to press “copy” button again and choose “paste” from a pop up list! ***The IFX (effects) have a laughable control - all you get is one knob which controls unknown parameter or set of them. That’s it.! ***You can’t use multiple IFX on one sound (other than combining it with MFX effects controlled by the x/y pad and as a master in the mixer). ***When in “slice” mode individual slices can’t have individual IFX or even just different settings for the same effect. IFX (effects) adjustment affects all of the slices. Same with the filter settings. ***No reverb as one of the IFX effects, only as MFX??? These are just some of the things that make the usability of the app not ideal. This app has some undeniable potential but the interface needs improvement. The functionality leans towards the gimmick side of things sometimes rather than being an intuitive tool for music creations. However, it does offer many many various functions, it definitely is features-rich. ### 4/5 — Bien cool mais manque le Tempo Global *2024-09-02* App bien sympa à plein de points d'oreille et de vue : son, ergonomie, design & look, customisation, presets. Mais par contre, il manque un élément majeur pour le live : il n'y a pas de réglage du TEMPO global. M'enfin ! Peut-être que le pad X/Y pourrait être commutable/shiftable en Master Tempo ? ### 4/5 — How do I change tempo? *2023-08-21* Hi everybody, late to the party here. I'm enjoying the app, but I can't figure out how to change tempo. Under pattern, most of the parameters (Length, Rhythm Base, Swing, etc) open up drop-down menus when you hold them. When I hold the Tempo parameter, nothing happens, no drop-down. It just sits there. Is the tempo parameter supposed to open a drop-down? I can't see any other way to change the tempo. Am I missing something, or do I have a bad copy of the app or something? Thanks! ### 4/5 — Electribe 2 améliorée *2022-08-20* GR-16 est un « clone » d’Electribe 2 de Korg mélangeant des caractéristiques des deux versions (Synth et Sampler). Des possibilités ont été ajoutées, notamment sur l’édition des pas qui est plus poussée avec par exemple les trigs conditionnels. Le synthé propose de nombreuses formes d’ondes différentes que vous pourrez sculpter avec tous les éléments d’un synthé soustractif traditionnel. L’ajout notable de tables d’ondes et d’ondes FM permettent des sonorités très variées. La production est immédiate grâce à la facilité d’utilisation du séquenceur et la disponibilité en façade des contrôles les plus importants. Le mode song est également très utile. Le son est de très bonne qualité et l’appli semble relativement peu gourmande en ressources (testé sur un iPad Pro 11 pouces 2021). Je regrette cependant que le développeur, qui est seul je le rappelle et a donc réalisé un travail énorme, n’ait pas élargi le nombre de voix et d’effets disponibles par piste. On se retrouve avec les spécifications exactes de l’Electribe 2 (32 voix, un effet par piste et un effet master), qui pourraient à mon sens être plus étendues sur les iPads actuels. Excellente appli de production musicale néanmoins ! ### 4/5 — Must have tool. *2022-08-12, version 2.2.1* One of the best music making apps out there. Only issue I’m having is I need the ability to use multiple midi controllers at once. Please implement this. ### 4/5 — Da fehlt doch was.. *2022-07-20* Wirklich ein ganz tolles Progrämmchen. Das Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis passt definitiv, doch leider hat der werte Programmierer offenbar die Equalizersektion am virtuellen Mischpult vergessen. Wie konnte denn das passieren? Wird das noch nachgereicht? Danke. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Awesome!!! *2025-03-26* So much fun. Amazing way to make wicked sounding tunes! ### 5/5 — Groove Rider 2 coming *2025-01-28, version 2.2.1* The genius continues! UPDATE 2: Jim even more genius. Buy the IAP just to give Jim some love for all the time, effort and patience he has put into this app. If you can’t afford $5 considering all the effort that has gone into this app then get out of the kitchen! UPDATE: Jim still genius... Jim is a genius. ### 5/5 — Super excited for v2! *2024-12-25, version 2.2.1* Just saw the recent reveal teaser, so excited to get GR-16 2! ### 5/5 — Love it, but... *2024-02-07, version 2.2.1* Great app, dope sounds especially for drums. Standalone is fine. I use it as a VST in GarageBand and unfortunately it records all midi notes to pitch instead of auto routing. Would love for that to be an update. It would make this the PERFECT! Plugin. ### 5/5 — Wow *2024-01-01* Une de mes applications préférées … foncez vous ne serez pas déçu ! Concept génial…pour la création et le live tout y est ### 5/5 — Deeper than it first appears *2023-12-28* I wasn’t sure about getting this due to concerns that it would be like going back to the days of hardware with serious limitations and tedious programming methodology. I still struggle a little with the old fashioned way of programming but the sound capabilities are worth the effort. I can’t understand why anyone still wants to pay close to a grand for a hardware box that can’t do half of what this can without the cost of power supplies, cables, sync issues, need for expensive hardware mixers and all of that. This is going to take some mastering but I have been getting such amazing bass and drum sounds so far that I am going to put the time in. Although impressive I am not into any of the styles in the presets apart from two but if you want a dub machine for great bass and drums this could be for you. ### 5/5 — Launchpad Pro Mk3との連携が *2023-05-29* めちゃくちゃ良いです。アプリとの統合と言ってもいいぐらい、スクリプトが作り込まれていて驚く。そして楽しい。作者への支援を含めてdlcも買います。 ### 5/5 — nach wie vor eine geile groove box *2022-12-19* leider gab es schon lange keine updates mehr, ich hoffe, die app und die anderen beiden apps werden noch weiter gepflegt. und dank multi out lässt sich die app auch sehr gut in cubasis 3 einsetzen und mit weiteren effekte etc. versehen ### 5/5 — Le Top des Groovebox *2022-11-15* J’adore , mais il manque la fonction PATERN SET que l’on retrouve sur les vrai Electribe Sinon très fort 👍 ### 5/5 — Perfeito *2022-08-26* Simplesmente perfeito, área de trabalho simples e intuitiva, motor de áudio potente , sistema de Groove completo , possibilidade de trabalho com wavetable e muitas outras coisas !! Melhor do mercado ! --- *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 2026-09-03.*