SoundBow vs WoodTroller
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).
WoodTroller
This app functions as a multi-touch bar MIDI controller for MPE and MIDI V2. It offers customizable rotary controls and buttons to manage various parameters and send MIDI commands, with iCloud syncing for presets.
- MPE touch bar with individual pitch shift, pressure, and CC74 control
- 8 customizable rotary controls for sending multiple CC messages
- 8 programmable buttons for sending various MIDI commands
- User-definable rotary and button names, colors, and ranges
- Preset storage and automatic syncing via iCloud
- Stand-alone app and AUv3 plugin support
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WoodTroller is NOT an app to annoy people. It’s an MPE and midi V2 multi touch bar keyboard and midi controller : The MPE touch bar supports multiple notes with individual pitch shift (horizontal movement), pressure and cc74 (vertical movement). WoodTroller has 8 general purpose rotary controls : - Each can send 6 different CC messages to different channels. - Each of the 6 command values can be mapped differently to the full rotary range. - So 1 rotary can control several parameters on the same or on different instruments. - Rotary names, colour, unit, range can all be user set. WoodTroller also has 8 general purpose on-off or push buttons : - Each button can send up to 8 different midi commands (CC, PC, NoteOn, …) to different channels. - This allows to quickly switch multiple midi instruments or devices to another program or to other settings. - Each midi command’s data value can be auto incremented/decremented. - All button names, colour, type can be user set. All settings can be stored in presets in iCloud which yield automatic preset syncing between several WoodTrollers on different devices. WoodTroller is available as stand-alone app and as AUv3 plugin.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: SoundBow at $1.99 against WoodTroller's $9.99. WoodTroller's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 66%) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On rating, ratings volume, 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
SoundBow costs $1.99 and WoodTroller $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for SoundBow against 4.8 for WoodTroller. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 13 and 6 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 66% of SoundBow's written reviews are positive against 100% of WoodTroller's.
SoundBow ships an update every 2 months, WoodTroller fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SoundBow | WoodTroller |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (13 ratings) | 4.8 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 13 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Agoston Nagy | Woodman's Immaculate Maple Syrup Studio |
Customer experience
SoundBow
WoodTroller
In-app purchases
SoundBow
No in-app purchases
WoodTroller
No in-app purchases









