iACID8 vs AuTranspose
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
iACID8
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iACID8 — Hardware roots. Pocket acid. Born from the beloved Twisted Electrons Acid8 family, iACID8 brings the Acid8 to your iPhone—built directly from the uAcid8 Slim Synth’s original firmware, with its distinctive digital grit and hands-on sequencing intact. The filter gets a serious upgrade: a modern, TB-303-inspired algorithm delivers richer resonance, more expressive squelch and extra acid bite. Crunchy oscillators feed a smoother filter and cleaner output stage, keeping the low-fi character while letting every slide and accent shine. Start with 16 factory grooves, twist your sound into shape and build your own basslines. Record notes live, add slides and accents, or chain patterns and key changes into evolving arrangements. Play standalone or load iACID8 as an AUv3 instrument in your favourite host. Each plugin instance keeps its own patterns and sound settings, with optional host transport following and independent Run control. • 12 level-balanced waveform variations with distinctive digital character • Enhanced resonant filter with envelope, decay and accent controls • 16 editable patterns with slides, swing and live recording • Pattern chaining and recorded key changes • Arpeggiator, bit crushing, wobble and performance effects • MIDI input on channel 1 for notes and sound control • Standalone app and AUv3 instrument, designed exclusively for iPhone • Warm tube-style saturation in the upper third of the volume knob • Tactile haptic feedback in standalone mode • Ableton Link for jamming with apps and devices on the same network • Life slider for live rhythmic variations without rewriting your patterns • Illustrated playing guide and printable cheat sheet Your pocket acid machine—reborn for iPhone.
AuTranspose
This utility plugin allows for simple pitch-shifting and detuning of audio. It offers a range of +/- one octave in semitones and +/- 100 cents detune. Note that it introduces audio latency, making it unsuitable for real-time performance where timing is critical.
- Pitch shifting +/- one octave
- Detune +/- 100 cents
- AUv3 effects plugin
- Standalone or host compatible
- Latency reporting on UI
- Simple and easy to use
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AuTranspose is a simple pitch-shifting / transpose utility plugin with a range of +/- one octave in semitones, and a +/- 100 cents detune (semitone up or down). Please note that AuTranspose has audio latency (see the PLEASE READ section below) so it is not really suitable for realtime pitch shifting in situations where timing is critical - for example, shifting the pitch of an instrument as you play it or syncing multiple tracks in a live performance. AuTranspose is an AUv3 effects plugin that can run standalone, or in any AUv3 compatible host such as Logic Pro, GarageBand or AUM. AuTranspose currently runs on iPadOS / iOS (iPad & iPhone) and macOS (Intel & Silicon) and is available as a Universal Purchase from the Apple App Store. If you’re planning on using AuTranspose on Mac / desktop, please ensure that your favourite DAW / host supports AUv3 (not just AU). PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY! AuTranspose uses a pitch shifting technique that adds latency (delay) to the processed audio. Please note that this is unrelated to your audio interface buffer size or sample rate. The quality of the pitch conversion is a compromise between low latency or decent quality results - unfortunately, you can’t have both. AuTranspose can get as low as around 25ms latency which is just about good enough for a guitar octaver type application, but will probably sound a bit “wobbly” / “lo-fi” on more general audio. If you’re interested in a more guitar-centric octaver, please check out OttavaBassa which uses similar DSP, but tuned for guitar. AuTranspose does not report its latency to the host! This is by design. Instead, the current latency is shown on the UI in samples (and ms) so you can decide yourself if you need to compensate for it - for example, when remixing projects and you need to re-sync tracks that aren’t going through AuTranspose. So what is it for, and why did I make it? In my own search for a simple pitch shifter, I found that the really simple ones didn’t sound so good, and the ones that did produce good results were fairly complicated and / or CPU intensive. So I tried to make something that was very simple to use, that produced reasonable results. When might AuTranspose be useful? Backing tracks: You might want to transpose up or down by a semitone or two to put the song in a more comfortable key to sing, or perhaps you tune your guitar to Eb. In these situations, you could probably transpose the whole track up or down and it’ll still sound OK. The only other thing to keep in mind is that the playback of the track will be delayed by the latency so as long as the backing track doesn’t have to sync with anything else, you should be fine. Remixing recorded projects: Perhaps you have a project that’s audio only and you’ve decided it needs to be in a different key. You could use AuTranspose to pitch-shift the tracks or stems that need to be in key, but leave the percussion tracks as they are. You can then add a sample length delay (*) to these tracks so that everything plays in sync. For convenience AuTranspose reports the number of samples to adjust by. And of course, you could simply use AuTranspose as an effect in itself, for example as a “Lo-Fi” pitch shifter for a retro vibe. There are a few examples in the factory presets to get you started. (*) In cases where you need to compensate for latency on tracks that aren’t using AuTranspose, add a sample delay plugin to those tracks and set the number of samples to what’s reported on the AuTranspose UI. There are several sample delay plugins available, although many of the free ones (Apple’s included) don’t go that high. By the time you read this, MicroLag should be available which supports longer delay times.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: AuTranspose at 4 against iACID8's 1. AuTranspose also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). On price, 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
iACID8 costs $2.99 and AuTranspose $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | iACID8 | AuTranspose |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | $2.99 |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Twisted-Electrons | Rob Jackson |
In-app purchases
iACID8
No in-app purchases
AuTranspose
No in-app purchases









