SoundBow vs SKIIID
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SoundBow
Create music by drawing curves and gestural movements on a clean interface. Record your own sounds, build melodies, and export compositions as audio files. This app offers a unique, interactive approach to music production.
- Drawing-based music creation
- Gesture-based sound manipulation
- Record and use own sounds
- Export compositions as audio
- Rescale instrument elements
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SoundBow is a drawing based music instrument with a clean and simple visual interface. You can create music by drawing curves over the screen with lines and gestural movements. Apart from drawing, you can rescale your instrument by moving graphical elements around. Record your own sounds through the microphone and start creating melodies, soundscapes with your own voice. If you wish, you can also export your composition as an audio file. "Touch-based mobile devices allowed interactive, gesture-based music production to hit the masses. So far, this type of musical creation hasn't exactly taken the world by storm. But SoundBow, a drawing-based musical instrument app, should shake things up a little bit with its clean, minimal visual interface and mesmerizing potential for complex, loop-based music production." - The Creators Project "Binaura bring their beautiful SoundBow app to iOS at last. It is a gorgeous instrument with huge possibilities for expression and creativity. I think that in many ways these are the kinds of apps that iOS was made for." - Palm Sounds SoundBow is made with free and open source tools. The interface is built with OpenFrameworks. The sound engine is made with SodaLib, a free Data Sonification Library built on top of libPd (Pure Data).
SKIIID
This app is a percussion synthesizer designed for live performance. It features four morphing pads where finger position controls sound parameters and velocity. Explore deep sound design with a step sequencer, auto-mutation, and chaos engine for instant sound generation.
- Four morphing percussion pads
- Real-time parameter control via touch
- 16-step sequencer per pad
- Auto-mutate sound evolution
- Chaos engine for instant sound generation
- AUv3 plugin support
- MIDI input and Ableton Link sync
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SKIIID is a percussion synthesizer built for real-time performance. Four pads. Each one is a sound sculpted by where your finger lands. Move left or right to morph between synth parameters. Move up or down to control velocity. Simple to play, deep to explore. — PADS — Four independent drum voices. Each pad morphs between parameter extremes based on X-axis position. Velocity is Y-axis. — STEP SEQUENCER — 16-step sequencer per pad. Variable step length for polyrhythms. Reverse playback, shuffle, pin and random step modes. Sync to Ableton Link or run free. — AUTO-MUTATE — Evolves your sound automatically. Individual interval and intensity per pad, synced to tempo. — CHAOS ENGINE — RANDOM, CHAOS, and MUTATE modes generate new sounds instantly. — AUv3 PLUGIN — Run SKIIID inside AUM, ApeMatrix, Audiobus, or any AUv3 host. Multiple instances work independently — different patches, different sequencers, no shared state. — MIDI — MIDI In for pad triggering. MIDI Learn for external controller mapping. Ableton Link for tempo sync. — WORKS ON — iPhone and iPad, all modern screen sizes. Landscape mode.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: SKIIID at every 4 days against SoundBow's every 2 months. SKIIID also leads on review sentiment (74% vs 63%). SoundBow's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.4) and price ($1.99 vs $3.99). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
SoundBow costs $1.99 and SKIIID $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SoundBow holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 13 and 31 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 63% of SoundBow's written reviews are positive against 74% of SKIIID's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
SoundBow ships an update every 2 months, SKIIID every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 21, 2026.
| Parameter | SoundBow | SKIIID |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (13 ratings) — better | 4.4 (31 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 63.3% of reviews | 73.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 13 | 31 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Agoston Nagy | Stephan Bolch |
Customer experience
SoundBow
SKIIID
In-app purchases
SoundBow
No in-app purchases
SKIIID
No in-app purchases









