Comparison

SoundBow vs YOKA INSTRUMENTS

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Drawing-based music creation
  • Gesture-based sound manipulation
  • Record and use own sounds
  • Export compositions as audio
  • Rescale instrument elements
Features
Read full description

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).

About

YOKA INSTRUMENTS

Explore a collection of unique music creation tools. Generate ambient sounds, create chimes with physics, draw waveforms, and synthesize drums. Some instruments can even generate music from your camera feed or automatically play via character plugins.

Highlights
  • Ambient touch instrument with multi-finger support
  • Physics-based chime instrument with space visuals
  • Auto-play character plugin for ambient instrument
  • Camera feed music generator
  • Draw-your-own-waveform sound synthesizer
  • Dual-oscillator drum synthesizer
  • Cross-app loop recorder
Features
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【Included Apps】 ● RIPPLES — Ambient Touch Instrument (Free) An ambient instrument played by touch. Supports up to 6 fingers. Vertical position controls pitch, horizontal position controls filter. ● ASTROCHIME — Chimes Played by Asteroids (Free) A physics-based chime instrument. Asteroids collide with stones to create music in space. The background shows the current-location night sky. ● DROPPLE — Auto-Play Character Plugin for RIPPLES (Free) A plugin exclusive to RIPPLES. A water-drop character walks across the screen and plays automatically. Launch it from the button on the left side of RIPPLES. ● SCANBIENT — Camera Ambient Generator Generates music automatically from the camera feed. Works best when pointed at scenes with movement. ● DRAWSCILLATOR — Draw Your Own Waveform An instrument that turns shapes drawn inside a circle into sound. ● BENDRUM — Dual-Oscillator Drum Synthesizer A drum synthesizer with dual oscillators. ● SIMPLOOPER — Cross-App Loop Recorder A plugin for recording and looping across apps. All apps are currently available for free.

Screenshots

SoundBow2 screens
YOKA INSTRUMENTS4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: YOKA INSTRUMENTS at Free against SoundBow's $1.99. YOKA INSTRUMENTS also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 66%) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). SoundBow's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

YOKA INSTRUMENTS is free to download; SoundBow costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for SoundBow against 4.8 for YOKA INSTRUMENTS. 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 YOKA INSTRUMENTS's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SoundBow ships an update every 2 months, YOKA INSTRUMENTS every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
SoundBow versus YOKA INSTRUMENTS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSoundBowYOKA INSTRUMENTS
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (13 ratings)4.8 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews65.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings13 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAgoston NagyTakashi Tsunoda

Customer experience

SoundBow

All ratings13 ratings
Positive92.3%
Neutral7.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews29 reviews
Positive65.5%
Neutral13.8%
Negative20.7%

YOKA INSTRUMENTS

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

SoundBow

No in-app purchases

None

YOKA INSTRUMENTS

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SoundBow free?
SoundBow costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is YOKA INSTRUMENTS free?
YOKA INSTRUMENTS is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SoundBow or YOKA INSTRUMENTS?
YOKA INSTRUMENTS is rated higher. SoundBow averages 4.7 out of 5 from 13 ratings, while YOKA INSTRUMENTS averages 4.8 from 6 ratings.
Do SoundBow or YOKA INSTRUMENTS have ads?
Neither SoundBow nor YOKA INSTRUMENTS shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SoundBow or YOKA INSTRUMENTS?
SoundBow ships an update every 2 months, and YOKA INSTRUMENTS every 2 days. Most recently, SoundBow was updated on September 27, 2026 and YOKA INSTRUMENTS on September 23, 2026.

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