Comparison

TerribleSync vs WorldWandering

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

Head to head
About

TerribleSync

Control the tempo of music hardware like synthesizers and drum machines using your iPhone or iPad. Features include tap tempo, precise dial adjustment, and buttons for performance effects. Requires a 3.5mm audio cable for connection.

Highlights
  • Tap tempo
  • Rotary tempo dial
  • Pause/mute button
  • Performance effect buttons
  • Clear interface
  • Open source project
Features
Read full description

Use your iPhone or iPad to control the tempo of impulse-sync-enabled synthesizers, drum machines, and other music hardware. Features: • Tap tempo • Supports 20.0 - 999.0+ BPM • Rotary tempo dial for precise, tactile tempo adjustment • Pause/mute button • ?, !, and :fire: buttons to introduce character and chaos into your performance • Clear, simple interface designed to be easy to use in a stage/performance setting This app works with any instrument you own that takes voltage impulses as a tempo control, such as: • KORG SQ-1, Volca, Monotribe, etc. • Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator • Moog MOTHER-32 (choose the "single clock advance" setting on the instrument) This project is open source. Try building it yourself at https://github.com/terribleben/terrible-sync or contact twitter.com/terribleben with feedback! Notes: • 3.5mm audio cable is required to connect your iPhone or iPad to your sync-enabled instruments. • If the instrument isn't responding, you may need to increase the iPhone's volume. • This software is not produced by, endorsed by, or affiliated with KORG, Teenage Engineering, Moog Music, or other instrument manufacturers.

About

WorldWandering

Features
Read full description

WorldWandering stretches a short sound up to ten million times into a slowly drifting resonance. It can also speed a sound up tens of thousands of times into a dizzying pulse. Every action and setting takes effect on the spot, so you can create new sounds while the sound plays. The screen is the sound. A band across the middle shows the material as a waveform or a spectrogram, with a line where it is being read and the range it loops over. Touch the band to move the reading position and the volume with your finger. Pinch to widen or narrow the loop. Turn the device sideways and the material fills the whole screen. Touch above or below the band to send the sound on a journey. Left to right is the reading position; top to bottom runs through six places with very different characters — Drift, Haze, Shimmer, Swarm, Pulse and Tape — with the top and bottom joined into a loop. A crosshair shows where you are aiming, and when you lift your finger the sound travels there over the Transition time while a circle closes in on the spot. Tap three times to stop or start. The sound can also wander the map on its own, and Randomize moves every setting somewhere new. The settings that shape the sound are in the Sound sheet, grouped into three tabs: - Material — five built-in sounds: voices, nature, drum loops, an orchestra and an old vocal recording. With Pro you can import your own sounds from the Files app. - Playback — three ways of playing: Simple (like a tape: slower is lower), Granular (short grains joined and overlapped, with synchronous, asynchronous and WSOLA types) and Spectral (the sound is dissolved into its frequencies and stretched). Playback speed runs continuously from ×0 through ×1 to ×∞, with pitch up to two octaves up or down, the window length and shape, grain length, density and jitter, the loop and a shift that moves it along a little on every round, and a crossfade that hides the join of the loop. - Effects — a ping-pong delay, a reverb and a limiter. Four visualizers follow the sound across the whole screen: Pulsar, Aurora, Ring and Nova. Their colours follow the timbre and their size and brightness follow the loudness. Send the sound to Bluetooth speakers, AirPlay speakers such as HomePod, or a USB audio interface, and control it from Control Center and the Lock Screen. Record exactly what you hear as a 48 kHz / 24-bit WAV file. Leave it running while you work, read or rest. Background Playback keeps it going when you leave the app, Prevent Auto-Lock keeps the picture awake, and the corner buttons can be hidden while still working where they are. A quick guide is built in. WorldWandering is free with a banner ad. Pro, a one-time in-app purchase, removes the ad and unlocks every setting, recording, and your own sounds. The Sound sheet is fully available without Pro, apart from importing your own sounds.

Screenshots

TerribleSync1 screens
WorldWandering4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: TerribleSync at none against WorldWandering's 1. TerribleSync also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.6). WorldWandering's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 35 months). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. WorldWandering sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. TerribleSync asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TerribleSync ships an update every 35 months, WorldWandering fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
TerribleSync versus WorldWandering: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTerribleSyncWorldWandering
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 35 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBenjamin RothMasayuki Akamatsu

In-app purchases

None

TerribleSync

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

WorldWandering

One-time1
  • Pro$3.99

Questions

Is TerribleSync free?
TerribleSync is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is WorldWandering free?
WorldWandering is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do TerribleSync or WorldWandering have ads?
WorldWandering shows ads; TerribleSync does not.
Which is updated more often, TerribleSync or WorldWandering?
TerribleSync ships an update every 35 months, and WorldWandering fortnightly. Most recently, TerribleSync was updated on November 2, 2026 and WorldWandering on November 1, 2026.

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