On the 8 vs ShowMIDI
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
On the 8
This app helps musicians synchronize during live performances and studio sessions by displaying song progress with adjustable bar intervals. It shows BPM, elapsed time, song title, and either key or received MIDI notes.
- MIDI clock display
- Adjustable bar interval
- BPM display
- Elapsed time tracking
- Song title display
- Key or MIDI note display
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Never miss a beat – On the 8 is a MIDI clock display designed to help musicians stay together during live performance and studio sessions. It shows the progress of a song in the context of an adjustable bar interval. It also displays BPM, elapsed time, song title and either key or received MIDI notes.
ShowMIDI
This application provides a real-time, glanceable view of all MIDI activity on your computer. It visualizes various MIDI messages and allows you to pause the flow for a data snapshot. It can be used as a standalone tool or an AUv3 plugin within your DAW.
- Real-time MIDI visualization
- Auto-hides irrelevant messages
- Pause and snapshot data
- Standalone application
- AUv3 plugin support
- Supports MPE configuration
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ShowMIDI is an open-source multi-platform GUI application to effortlessly visualize MIDI activity. Instead of wading through logs of MIDI messages to correlate relevant ones and identify what is happening, ShowMIDI visualizes the current activity and auto-hides what you don't care about anymore. It provides you with a real-time glanceable view of all MIDI activity on your computer. ShowMIDI is designed to be always on, using the spacebar or play/pause button you can pause the flow and focus on a data snapshot with the latest state of any MIDI entity. ShowMIDI can be ran as a standalone application that automatically detects all your MIDI devices, or as an AUv3 plugin in your DAW or host to visualize MIDI data in your sessions. ShowMIDI visualizes: * MIDI ports * channels * program change * note on/off * channel pressure * polyphonic pressure * continuous control change * pitchbend * RPN and NRPN * MPE configuration and channel modes ShowMIDI supports: * themes * standalone operation * AUv3 operation
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: ShowMIDI at 18 against On the 8's 2. On the 8's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 12.0). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the 8 holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ShowMIDI has 18 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | On the 8 | ShowMIDI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.8 (18 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 87.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 18 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Justin Rhoades | Uwyn, LLC |
Customer experience
On the 8
ShowMIDI
In-app purchases
On the 8
No in-app purchases
ShowMIDI
No in-app purchases
