The Audio Toolbox vs shift
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Audio Toolbox
This utility suite offers live sound engineers a collection of eight specialized tools. Features include QLab control, MIDI testing and pad functionality, delay time calculation, time manipulation, angle recording, RF transmitter management, and a metronome clicker.
- QLab remote control
- MIDI message testing and sending
- Delay time calculation
- Time arithmetic with frame rates
- Speaker angle recording
- RF transmitter data management
- Built-in metronome clicker
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The Audio Toolbox contains eight powerful functions, designed to help Live Sound Engineers: QLab Control: The Audio Toolbox searches the current WiFi Network for any computers running QLab. Once the QLab workspace is discovered you can perform basic transport controls on the workspace, such as start, stop and select cues. This has been made possible by the wonderful team at Figure 53, who have open sourced their OSC API, so thank you Figure 53. MIDI Tester: The MIDI Tester works in conjunction with any Made For iPhone compatible MIDI Interface, as well as Network and Bluetooth MIDI. It displays all the MIDI received into the phone, and is designed to help when fault finding any connectivity issues. As well as reading all standard MIDI messages, the MIDI Tester also reads all MIDI Show Control commands! MIDI Pad: MIDI Pad provides six customisable buttons, which can be configured to send standard MIDI messages to the MIDI Output of the phone. MIDI Pad works either wirelessly, over Bluetooth or WiFi, or via any connected MIDI Interface. You can use the MIDI Pad to trigger cues in QLab, add Macros to your DiGiCo or fire samples in Ableton Live. Delay Time Calculator Work out the delay times for all your loudspeakers. Just input a distance in either meters or feet and it will give you a time in milliseconds. You can even adjust the results based on the ambient temperature. Time Calculator: Time Calculator allows you to add, subtract, multiply or divide times together. Unlike any other app we can find on the App Store, Time Calculator can calculate time in milliseconds. Work with video? Time Calculator also works in video frames, supporting eight different frame rates. If you need to translate time between video frames and milliseconds, Time Calculator can do that too. Angle Recorder: Ever got into work to discover some of your speakers have been accidentally knocked? You can now record the angles of as many speakers as you like in one handy list. Want to check if any of them have moved? just click on an angle, hold the phone up to the speaker and the app will compare the results. The screen will go green and the phone will beep when you are all matched up. RF Toolbox: With RF Toolbox you can record all your transmitter information, including actor, character, frequency and gain information, in one place. You can record notes on each of your transmitters, for things like fitting and colouring information. Results are searchable by any of the recorded data. When you input frequency information, RF Toolbox will calculate the optimum aerial length, as well as the transmission channel. Clicker: Finally, for fine tuning your delay times, The Audio Toolbox includes a built in click sound! The click will loop for as long as you like, and interacts with the audio controls on the rest of the phone, so you can pause it from the lock screen.
shift
This tool helps lighting designers and electricians monitor show progress on an Eos family console. It allows observation of pending and active cues, annotation of any cue, and live streaming of channel levels. Users can manage notes, track progress, and even edit console labels directly from their device.
- Connect to Eos consoles
- Monitor cue details
- Annotate cues with custom tags
- View live channel levels
- Manage and filter notes
- Edit console labels and notes
- Apple Watch app for cue monitoring
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An essential new tool for Lighting Designers and Electricians Shift-Label allows you to monitor the progress of your show on an eos family console - observe the pending and active cue and annotate any cue you wish. Key features include (note that some features require an in app purchase): - Connect to any Eos family console with minimal setup - Monitor details of all cues in any cue list, viewing labels, times and other attributes - divided by scene if required - Follow along with the current cue - Add multiple notes to cues, tagging notes with categories such as "Plotting", "Cueing" or "Focus" - all tags are user definable - View live streaming channel levels directly on your device (uses sACN) - Review all notes, or filter them down by taf - Mark notes as completed, or 'sleep' notes for a set time period to revisit later - Maintain separate sets of notes for different shows (great for when working in rep, or revisiting an old production) - Keeps cue details cached on device, allowing you to review details of the show and your notes when not at the console - On iPad run app in "split view" so you can monitor your show while using another app (such as safari or reading a pdf) - Jump directly to a cue on the console from a note - Edit the console label and notes fields directly from your iPad - Keypad control for basic channel manipulation from within app - Apple Watch app - monitor your console's current cue on your wrist! Note that for the watch app to function it must be paired with an iPhone with Shift-Label active and open, I suggest enabling "stop device from sleeping" in shift-label's settings Note that Shift-Label is not an official ETC product and is not authorised or endorsed by ETC in any way. ETC technical support will have no knowledge of the app
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: The Audio Toolbox at 89% against shift's 0%. The Audio Toolbox also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). shift's advantage is price (Free vs $3.99) and iOS requirement (10.2 vs 14.0). On update cadence, ads and device support 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
shift is free to download; The Audio Toolbox costs $3.99 up front. shift sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. The Audio Toolbox asks for nothing beyond the download.
The Audio Toolbox holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Audio Toolbox has 33 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 89% of The Audio Toolbox's written reviews are positive against 0% of shift's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and June 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Audio Toolbox | shift |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.9 (33 ratings) — better | 4.3 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 88.9% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 33 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 10.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Innovate Audio LTD | Richard Williamson |
Customer experience
The Audio Toolbox
shift
In-app purchases
The Audio Toolbox
No in-app purchases
shift
- Full Access$10.99









