# Thesys — user reviews > 54 indexed App Store user reviews of Thesys by Sugar Bytes GmbH, rated 4.70/5 from 85 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/thesys/id655513441/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/thesys/id655513441.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 72 · 4★ 6 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 3 ## Newest reviews (13 of 54) ### 2/5 — No way to import midi? *2018-12-20, version 1.2.1* Can’t open midi files from within the app or in iOS file share “copy to”. Just like all the other sugarbytes apps, low resolution, and works well with just about no other apps. Not having a file folder accessible from AudioCopy or AudioShare kind of makes using your apps unbearably tedious, terrible to incorporate into work flow. Your VST plugins all work great, hire a guy like that for your iOS versions and you’ll have some of the best apps. ### 3/5 — The best step sequencer, maddeningly tiny interface *2018-12-17, version 1.2.1* This is the best featured step sequencer in iOS, to this day. Has a bunch of modulation lanes, 32 steps, independent lengths for different parameters, scale quantize, scalar transpose, song mode, dj-style midi effects. All amazing, next level stuff, crammed into the most uselessly tiny interface, and ill conceived zoom workarounds. Be ready for bumping adjacent controls all the time and screwing up your sequence. I use it sometimes, and it ends up sounding great, but I loathe the experience. It doesn’t need to be this tiny, there is all kinds of wasted space, and needlessly compacted, dangerous to mix up groups of buttons, in fields of unused white space. It was ported from the desktop, and was never designed for a touch screen. If you could expand the sequencers to fill the screen you would be set, I think. Replace the dreadful PC key modifiers, Cmd, Ctrl, Alt, with traditional touch interface modifiers, like tap and hold, double tap, etc. In an effort to use the app, I’ve gone to great lengths to midi map the controls to a midi controller, but, there is no way to reuse the midi mappings from one project to another, and there is no default mapping. I would avoid this app on anything except the 12.9” iPads. ### 3/5 — Potential but lacking audiobus midi support. *2017-05-03, version 1.2.0* A very good sequencer and it's great to see it's not been abandoned with the new update adding Link. But come on it's a sequencer so where's the audiobus 3 midi support? Add that and it's a 5 star product! ### 4/5 — Interesting app, needs serious update. *2017-01-12, version 1.1.13* It has fiddly controls, and an irritating zoom function which does not really compensate for the cramped design. Why is there no Ableton Link? For 2 years, as far as I can tell, updates for this have been at a bare minimum. So, come on Sugar Bytes, extract the digit. Nic ### 3/5 — Still great, but it's time for an update *2016-12-08, version 1.1.13* This is still one of the best midi sequencers in terms of features, but it needs an update so it integrates better with live performances. MIDI clocking exists, but does not play nice with Ableton Link, so unless all apps are using MIDI clocking, Thesys has to be piped into the mix the old fashioned way. SugarBytes has been all over Ableton Link with their other apps...it's time to give Thesys some of that goodness. Also, needs a new idea with the user interface. As mentioned in other reviews, controls are itsy-bitsy, even on a 12" iPad Pro. With a little TLC, this is a five-star app that will be a main work-horse in mobile music for a long time. ### 4/5 — Powerful sequencer *2015-12-09, version 1.1.13* Nice that it has independent sequences for note, velocity and gate. I can't think of any others that do that. Would be great if the pattern shift buttons were a bit bigger and other interface elements were a little more finger friendly. Otherwise a pretty tight sequencer with a ton of options built in. ### 5/5 — Absolutely astounding *2015-12-01, version 1.1.13* Sugar Bytes really put something special together here.. With full MIDI control, this thing is user friendly and monstrously scary at the same time. A unique and complex yet easy to use performance arpeggio pattern sequencer to the max ### 4/5 — Fantastic, mostly *2015-10-15, version 1.1.13* The good: This sequencer is "over the top". It is so much fun to listen to and VERY powerful. The bad: The UI is a bit "fiddly" and not as iOS-friendly as one might expect. It could be a pro performance app if the controls weren't like that, even with zoom it is not so good. It will be amazing on the iPad Pro I think. ### 5/5 — Great *2015-05-12, version 1.1.10* Another great app from a clearly motivated Dev team. If it is what you are looking for you can be sure of the quality. They waste little time adding missing stuff and tweaking whatever needs tweaking. Thanks to the Dev team. ### 4/5 — Powerful sequencer in need of some interface tweaks *2014-10-16, version 1.1.5* I thought long and hard about whether to try out Thesys. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me. On the plus side, it has a TON of features, but excels at monophonic basslines and leads. There is a chord feature that is pretty neat, but primarily, it is monophonic. The best feature is probably that it has a built-in synth engine within the app. And the sounds aren't half bad. You can audition them, or even export them through AB, etc., as a final product. But the interface is just largely awful. This is obviously a VST port from PC with little re-imagination done as to how it would control on an iPad. (This is true of all the SugarBytes apps). So, the actual part of the screen the contains which notes play in your sequence probably uses 20% of the screen space. You can double that with a magnifier, but it is clumsy and akward. Also, I'm not sure the app either does "Open In" with MIDI files, nor could I find that it exports raw MIDI data. I could be wrong on the latter point, but those are features that would have been nice for a premium app such as this one. Overall, it's intriguing, but still a bit flawed. ### 4/5 — Dear Sugarbytes *2014-02-27, version 1.1.2* Thanks for the update! It works now without any hint of lag. I've updated my review to 4 stars from 1 star. Once I've spent some time with it, I'll decide if it's worth that last star. Now, whatever you did, apply that to turnado, and you'll have earned my confidence back enough for me to buy Effectrix ### 5/5 — Functioning again after latest update (iPad Air) *2014-02-07, version 1.1.1* Thanks for the update! ### 4/5 — Much better! *2014-02-06, version 1.1.1* Everything seems to be back in working order. This is a really great app! I really hope that Sugar Bytes checks every update before they release. Between them and Apple the last update should have never made it to the public. That being said, their apps are really amazing. I also own WOW, and I have played with Turnado. They are very unique and very useable just as Thesys is. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Hate the GUI *2020-01-14, version 1.3.1* This would be fine on desktop. The worst for working on an iPad. ### 1/5 — Change to AU is good, but makes UI even more unusable *2019-03-13, version 1.3.0* Sugarbytes, put a little effort into this please... AU UI is horribly small! ### 1/5 — Be wary of buying... *2018-06-30, version 1.2.1* Sugar Bytes seem to be cutting audiobus support on their apps. So your app may not work as you initially expected. ### 1/5 — Terrible interface design *2016-03-25, version 1.1.13* Well I was looking forward to using this app, but will the terrible interface design it's not a particular pleasure to use. It so very fiddly that half the time your finger is obscuring the item you are trying to change, even the awful zoom function hinders rather than helps. Can I get a refund please. ### 1/5 — Absolute garbage *2015-04-15, version 1.1.10* The apps this company makes are way removed from their desktop quality. When recording a MIDI sequence into Auria, the sync is off & to top it off the pattern change does not work at all when recording, making it impossible to record more than one pattern in a take, so if you need to alternate your pattern every four bars, it is a mess. ### 1/5 — Overhyped! *2015-02-26, version 1.1.10* How can the developer claim this to be the "ultimate sequencer" when you can only play ONE track/pattern at a time!?!?! How are we supposed to use this live if you cant have different patterns running simultaneously? I guess this would be an ok tool for step sequencing ideas into a DAW, but for live "berlin school" style improvising of different synths this is pretty much useless. Refund time. ### 1/5 — Awful... avoid! *2014-09-30, version 1.1.5* This is probably the worst of the bunch… It works on my iPad but barely functions with any speed of use or success at all, exceedingly poor design at work here. The interface is been taken from the original desktop version which was cursor based therefore it has none of the benefits of touch interface present. It seems only handle one channel at a time... Weak!! The use of bars to set the pitch for the chords and Notes is horrible... The clumsy zoom and the tiny, widely spread controls summon the dreadful preset content with no effort, thus ruining your work. Avoid!! ### 1/5 — App is Fubarred!! *2014-02-04, version 1.1.0* The latest update has broken the app....i'm using an iPad Air 64 gig ### 1/5 — Pretty much useless - Whitescreen *2014-02-01, version 1.1.0* See title. White screen after update. Nice testing before release. ### 1/5 — Just a white screen *2014-01-29, version 1.1.0* Even after the update on 01/29 this still loads as an all white screen for me on ipad air ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Dope midi sequences with parameters! *2023-06-28, version 1.4.0* This is great app. ### 5/5 — Like all Sugarbytes apps - deeper than the ocean *2023-01-04, version 1.3.9* They are expensive. But they are quality. I confess I made use of the Black Friday/Cyber Sale to pick up this and the full version of Amarillo. TheSys is a truly fabulous app with bewildering amounts of tweak-ability, but not so much that it boggles the mind. It runs fine for me in AUM where I can access quite a few more of my synths than in the standalone connection which (Sugarbytes take note) is not always 100% reliable. For instance, when I try to connect BeatHawk this way, I get a blank screen. Same for a few more. If I come out of the app and try again, sometimes I’m lucky. But I don’t think luck should play into this - a more robust system would improve reliability. Is it possible to do ties between notes? I haven’t found a way yet. If I’m creating a melody line with the pitch bars, I don’t always want the note value to be in half-notes only. Occasionally I’d like a full note. Perhaps I just haven’t discovered this in the depths yet? TheSys is powerful, fun to use and quite wonderful ### 5/5 — Great stuff *2021-05-29, version 1.3.7* How can you how can you delete something, on iPad - on computer it’s right click. Not able to on iOS. Edit - nvm I figured it out. Long press. Great stuff. ### 5/5 — Fun! *2020-11-23, version 1.3.5* The zoom function is very helpful! Overall an excellent sequencer with lots of possibilities plus it’s AU. Awesome like all of SB apps! ### 5/5 — Complete app! *2020-07-06, version 1.3.3* Very fun app. Easy to get started and deep enough to keep me focused. The customer service is also exceptional. Worthy purchase. Daily use. ### 5/5 — Ignore the ignorance *2019-04-28, version 1.3.0* 2 stars is complete nonsense as this midi effect with the inclusion of auv3 support is phenomenal. The possibilities you have with this are never ending, complete ignorance from the users who have no clue as to how this works and no patience to learn how powerful this monster really is. If you don’t understand what it is, take the time to learn it and you won’t be disappointed. On my way to have purchased every piece of sugar bytes’ software, wish there were more. ### 5/5 — AUv3 update is transformative *2019-03-16, version 1.3.0* The latest update to AUv3 has made it possible to run multiple instances of Thesys inside a NanoStudio 2 session, so you can compose multiple melodic parts together. The desktop interface is quite tiny on an iPad, though—if you have an Apple Pencil, you’ll want to use it. ### 5/5 — The AU train continues! *2019-03-13, version 1.3.0* (Huzzah! Bring on Effectrix!) Syncs up great with cubasis as an iaa instrument for sequencing thor or magellan. Great random options and so nice for quick happy accidents. The built in synths for quick sketching are handy too. I wanted something like the egoist bass sequencer but with more features and this was it. ### 5/5 — Great AUv3 MIDI Sequencer *2019-03-13, version 1.3.0* The update to the app is an excellent upgrade to the functionality of the app. You can easily create all sorts of musical mayhem by running multiple instances of the app and can change sequences on the fly via the GUI or use MIDI to control the app’s parameters. ### 5/5 — Great sequencer/arpeggiator *2016-05-30, version 1.1.13* Still digging into this two weeks after purchase. A deep and fun app. The presets lend themselves to tweaking and exploring. I wouldn't mind a UI update. --- *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 2026-08-09.*