Drambo vs SynthMaster 2
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Drambo
This app offers a flexible sound design experience, allowing users to build beats, create synthesizers, and process audio with effects. Its innovative modular system simplifies connections and organization, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced musicians. It functions as a standalone application or a plugin within a DAW.
- Modular sound design
- Intuitive cable-less connections
- Advanced sequencer
- Standalone and AUv3 plugin
- Over 140 modules
- Polyphonic stereo processing
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"Drambo changes the face of iOS music apps." Cult of Mac Drambo is your all-in-one sound laboratory that adapts to your workflow: build beats as a groovebox, design synths, or transform audio with effects, standalone or inside your favorite DAW. At the core of Drambo is a fresh approach to modular design that makes creating with modules easy, fun, and accessible. Connections happen automatically as you add or move modules, so there are no messy cables to slow you down. The interface adapts to your workflow, generating modulation controls when you need them, and even lets modules contain other modules for perfect organization. You’re always free to override the automatic connections, but most of the time, you can just dive in, experiment, and shape sounds without getting tangled in wires. Use a deep and innovative sequencer to compose patterns and whole tracks, for production or live performance. Go beyond simple looping sequences with parameter locking, conditional step components, parameters automation and powerful scene morphing. Drambo works equally well as a self-contained standalone app or audio unit plugin with audio and MIDI connectivity as an AUV3 instrument, audio effect and MIDI effect. You can use Drambo as • A Complete Studio: Produce entire tracks and perform live in a self-contained, multitrack environment. • An Endless modular playground, that allows you to build, modify and store custom instruments and effects. For instance: build a custom synth, sample and resample, build a Theremin using a gyroscope module, or turn your table into a playable surface, by processing microphone input with physical modelling modules. • An Advanced MIDI Sequencer: Control hardware or AUv3 instruments. Generate custom MIDI CC messages or send modulation signals to physical modular synths via DC-coupled interfaces. • The Ultimate AUv3 Plugin: Load Drambo inside other DAWs as an instrument, audio effect, or MIDI processor. Replace dozens of standard plugins by building your own complex modular delays, reverbs, decimators, or modulators in seconds. • A Unified Audio-Visual Studio (Drambo Visual IAP): Arts united. Step into another realm of modular visual synthesis to build complex generative video art, or seamlessly patch your audio and visual engines together for deeply integrated performances. Features: • Polyphonic, stereo processing and audio-rate modulation. All signals are equal. Up to 16 voices per modular instrument rack. • Unique modular concept: cable-less, drag'n'drop, color coding dynamic interface, automatic connections, and customizable compact, rack views. • Directional flow makes Drambo routing and patching straightforward. Signal flows only left to right, so there are no instant feedback routings in Drambo. Delayed feedback is possible using certain modules. • Simple and clean interface, that scales to every size and device orientation • Over 140 modules available, such as: oscillators, samplers, physical modelling modules, LFOs, envelope generators, filters, audio effects, mixers, MIDI processors, sequencers and math functions. (Includes a macro oscillator based on the famous Eurorack Plaits module, with 24 synth engines) • Custom modular racks that can be nested, with presets at the track, rack, and module level. • Clip launcher / song arrager. • 16-tracks, polyphonic sequencer with parameter locks, automation and step components. 8 dedicated step sequence editor types, piano-roll, powerful automation designer with drawing modes and cubic Bezier curves. • Audio Units hosting ( standalone app only ) • Morph groups: you can morph many parameters using a single slider. • Available as a standalone app, AUv3 instrument, effect and MIDI effect. • MIDI and Ableton Link support Drambo is all about control. Control things that other apps don’t even give you access to. Visit the BeepStreet page for help and tutorials, and Patchstorage for community content.
SynthMaster 2
This powerful software synthesizer offers a vast array of sound design capabilities, including multiple oscillator modes, extensive modulation options, and a wide selection of filters. Explore over 1000 factory presets or create your own unique sounds. Available as a standalone app or AUv3 plugin.
- Multiple oscillator modes (Basic, Additive, Wavetable, Vector)
- Extensive modulation architecture
- 6 filter categories
- Import custom wave files
- 1000+ factory presets
- Standalone app and AUv3 plugin
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KV331 Audio is proud to announce the availability of their award winning software synthesizer SynthMaster 2.9 on iOS platform. As being the first app developed using KV331 Audio’s new cross-platform UI framework, SynthMaster 2 runs as a standalone app or AUv3 plugin on iPads with iOS 11 and above. SynthMaster 2 supports native resolutions of various iPad devices. User interfaces are provided for 9.7, 11 and 12.9 inch iPads in 4 different skins (Blue, White, Dark, Proto). Separate interfaces are provided for the AudioUnit plugin as well. SynthMaster 2 comes with 1000 factory presets designed by world class sound designers such as BigTone, Nori Ubukata, NatLife and Yuli Yolo. Thanks to the comprehensive preset browsing features, users can easily filter presets by author name, bank name, instrument type or preset name and find the sounds that they are looking for. There’s also an IAP Shop, which lets users purchase additional sounds: 1. "Desktop Presets Upgrade": This IAP adds all factory presets in SynthMaster 2.9, increasing the total preset count to 2000. 2. "All Expansions Bundle": This IAP adds all current 38 SynthMaster preset expansion banks. Sound Engine: At the heart of SynthMaster 2’s powerful sound engine lies its oscillators, modulators, and filters. Oscillators: The oscillators can operate in 4 different modes to generate sound: 1. In Basic mode, the oscillator plays single cycle waveforms or samples. With the Oscillator Unison turned on, up to 8 voices per oscillator can be played. 2. In Additive mode, 8 Basic oscillators can be stacked up to create richer tones. 3. In Wavetable mode, the oscillator can play wavetables with up to 256 frames. 4. In Vector mode, 4 Basic oscillators are mixed in 2 dimensions. Modulators: Modulators are simply basic oscillators that can be added to other oscillators or modulate other oscillators’ or modulators’ phases. By connecting modulators to other oscillators or modulators, complex FM tones can be synthesized. Importing Wave Files into SynthMaster: While designing sounds, users can easily import wave files into SynthMaster 2. SynthMaster 2 can categorize those files into waveforms, wavetables or multi samples and import them accordingly. Filters: Once the sound is generated by the oscillators it goes through SynthMaster’s filters, which can operate in 6 different categories: Digital, VAnalog, Ladder, Diode Ladder, State Variable and Bite. Custom distortion can be applied before or after the filters as well. Modulation Architecture: SynthMaster 2 features a comprehensive modulation architecture with a wide range of modulation sources: 1. MIDI controls 2. Macros controls 3. 4 ADSR envelopes per layer 4. 4 Multisegmented envelopes per payer 5. 4 LFOs per layer 6. 4 Sequencers per layer 7. 4 Keyscalers per layer There’s real-time visual feedback that lets users see how modulation sources and targets are changing when a note is being played. This is extremely helpful when designing sounds with SynthMaster 2. New modulations can be created easily by dragging and dropping a modulation source onto a knob or slider control. Users can easily see which controls are modulated by a modulation source by clicking on that source. Controls that are being modulated by that source will display modulation amounts. By long pressing a control, the modulation amount can be edited without the need to go through the mod matrix. Arp/Sequencer: SynthMaster features a comprehensive arpeggiator / sequencer with 32 steps. Users can easily create sequences by recording steps one by one. Effects: Each of the 2 layers in SynthMaster has 5 insert effect slots. 13 different types of effects can be instantiated in any of those slots. There are also 2 global effect send busses which can be used to create more complex effect routings.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: SynthMaster 2 at $14.99 against Drambo's $24.99. Drambo's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (87% vs 68%). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Drambo costs $24.99 and SynthMaster 2 $14.99 up front. Drambo sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and SynthMaster 2 sells 32 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Drambo against 4.8 for SynthMaster 2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 325 and 451 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Drambo's written reviews are positive against 68% of SynthMaster 2's.
Drambo ships an update monthly, SynthMaster 2 every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Drambo | SynthMaster 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24.99 | $14.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (325 ratings) — better | 4.8 (451 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.7% of reviews — better | 68.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 325 | 451 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #97 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 144 MB | 918 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | BeepStreet | KV331 Audio |
Customer experience
Drambo
SynthMaster 2
User reviews
Drambo
From 325 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Incredibly powerful and flexible
- 🎨 Endless creative possibilities
- 👍 Intuitive and well-designed interface
- 🔧 Modular synth capabilities
- 🎛️ Excellent sequencing and groove box features
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
- 🔒 Limited undo/redo functionality
- 🔊 Audio export issues (pitch/tempo problems)
- 🔀 Lack of dedicated audio track support
SynthMaster 2
From 451 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Best synth on iPad
- 👍 Delicious sound
- 👍 Tremendously powerful synth
- 👍 Great synth with complex possibilities and great sound(s)
- 👍 Perfeito
Room to improve
- 🐛 Auswahl der Modulationsquellen funktioniert nicht richtig
- 🐛 Echt schlecht
- 🐛 Broken Preset System for a powerful synth
- 🐛 Please fix the OSC behavior on Square and Saw
- 🐛 Preset issues
Bugs and requests
Drambo
Reported bugs
3 issues- Audio cutting out after 5 minutes of use
- Presets and patches not loading properly
- Incompatibility with certain iOS devices
Requested features
5 requests- Stem/track export functionality
- MIDI CC learn and external control
- Ableton Link support
- More parameter control and modulation options
- Improved piano roll and sequencing tools
SynthMaster 2
Reported bugs
4 issues- Presets not loading correctly
- Modulation not working after loading project
- Skin resets to default
- App crashes frequently
Requested features
2 requests- Pitch bend/glide for imported samples
- Integration with AUM audio mixer
In-app purchases
Drambo
- Granular extension$4.99
- Waves extension$4.99
- Formants extension$4.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- DSP extensions 1$4.99
- Visual extension$14.99
SynthMaster 2
- BigTone Tableworks Vol.2$1.99
- Burak Yeter Synth Sounds Vol1$1.99
- Aiyn Zahev Expansion 1$1.99
Show 29 moreShow fewer
- BigTone Tableworks Vol.1$1.99
- Michael Kastrup Expansion$1.99
- EDM Stars Volume 1$1.99
- Nori Ubukata Pop Hits Vol.4$1.99
- Rob Lee EDM Expansion Vol.2$1.99
- Alonso Sound Future Rave$1.99
- Nori Ubukata Pop Hits Vol.1$1.99
- BigTone Techno Bits Vol.1$1.99
- Club Sequences Vol.1$2.99
- Historical Synth Giants Vol.3$2.99
- Dawn of Electronic Music Vol.2$2.99
- Nori Ubukata Art Rock Basics$2.99
- BigTone Analog Basics 02$4.99
- BigTone Analog Basics$4.99
- BigTone Signature Sounds Vol.1$4.99
- NU Sounds of the World$4.99
- Historical Synth Giants Vol.4$4.99
- Historical Synth Giants Vol.1$4.99
- Historical Synth Giants Vol.2$4.99
- Japan Vintage$4.99
- NatLife Future Bass Sounds$4.99
- Danyella EDM Expansion Vol.1$4.99
- Dawn of Electronic Music Vol.1$4.99
- Dawn of Electronic Music Vol.3$4.99
- Rob Lee EDM Expansion Vol.3$4.99
- Natlife Disco Funk$4.99
- Insigne Essentials 4 Clubbin$4.99
- Desktop Presets Upgrade$9.99
- All Expansions Bundle$49.99







