SD vs Portacapture Control
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SD
Control your Sound Devices 8-Series mixer-recorder remotely from your iPad or iPhone. Manage transport, edit metadata, take notes, monitor outputs, and adjust channel settings like faders, trims, and pan. View large-scale meters and timecode on all screens.
- Remote transport controls
- Metadata editing
- Take notes
- Monitor outputs
- Adjust faders, trims, and pan
- Channel arming, disarming, solo, and mute
- Large-scale channel meters
- Timecode display
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Control your Sound Devices 8-Series mixer-recorder from your iPad or iPhone with SD-Remote. Quickly access transport controls, edit metadata, write Take Notes, monitor outputs, and adjust faders, trims, and pan controls. Arm, disarm, solo, and mute channels with ease. Large-scale meters are available for all channels, and the current timecode is displayed on every screen.
Portacapture Control
Control your Portacapture device remotely with this app. Adjust settings, monitor recording status, and manage parameters like gain and effects from your smartphone or tablet. Requires a Bluetooth adapter for connectivity.
- Remote REC start/stop
- Gain adjustment
- Mixer control
- Mark registration
- Input level monitoring
- Recording progress/remaining time
- Parameter settings (low-cut, limiter)
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■Portacapture’s operability at the palm of your hands The Portacapture Control is an app that provides operability with the same user interface as the touch panel on Portacapture. In addition to the basic REC start/stop, gain adjustment, mixer control, mark registration, and all the other controls that can be performed on the main unit are available on this app. Moreover, you can always check information about the input level, recording progress/remaining time, battery level, as well as set various parameters including low-cut, limiter, and many more effects. ※The AK-BT1 Bluetooth adapter (separately sold) is needed to be able to control the main unit via the Portacapture Control app. For more information on how to connect Portacapture and AK-BT1 or how to use Portacapture Control, please refer to the instruction manual. ※This app does not support monitoring of the main unit’s input sound. To monitor this, please use the headphones output or the speaker function on Portacapture. Please carefully read the license agreement below before using this application. http://tascam.jp/content/downloads/products/862/license_e_app_license.pdf
Screenshots
Verdict
SD and Portacapture Control both sit at 3.7 stars, but that hides the real split: 40% of Portacapture Control's written reviews are positive against 22% of SD's. On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.7 for SD against 3.6 for Portacapture Control. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 9 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 22% of SD's written reviews are positive against 40% of Portacapture Control's.
SD ships an update every 2 months, Portacapture Control every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 1, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SD | Portacapture Control |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (9 ratings) — better | 3.6 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 22.2% of reviews | 40.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 9 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sound Devices, LLC | TEAC CORP. |
Customer experience
SD
Portacapture Control
In-app purchases
SD
No in-app purchases
Portacapture Control
No in-app purchases








