Shruti Laya vs JAX ESSENTIALS
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shruti Laya
This app provides a drone sound and rhythm counter for practicing Indian Classical Music. It offers a traditional Tambura sound with adjustable tempo and rhythm counts, allowing musicians to practice anywhere.
- Shruti (Tuning) reference
- Laya (Rhythm) counter
- Tambura drone sound
- Adjustable tempo
- Practice anywhere
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## Description Shruti-Laya is a practice companion for Carnatic music. It gives you a tanpura drone, a Mrudanga and a Manjira that play together, locked to one beat, in the tala you choose. Turn on any of them, set your shruti and tempo, and practise. TANPURA • Set the shruti (Sa) to any standard pitch, or to a custom pitch. • Choose the first string: Pa, Ma, Ni or upper Sa. • Slow, Normal or Fast plucking. • Keeps playing when the screen locks. MRUDANGA • Plays a theka for your tala, built from real recorded strokes. • Tuned to your shruti automatically, so it always sits with the tanpura. • Accents on sam and on each anga, with a natural, human feel. • Optional variation: the pattern changes across cycles, with a cadence into sam, instead of repeating one fixed phrase. MANJIRA • Strikes on every beat, on claps only, or on sam only. TALA • All seven Suladi Sapta talas: Dhruva, Matya, Rupaka, Jhampa, Triputa (Adi), Ata and Eka. • Misra Chapu and Khanda Chapu. • Jaati: Tisra, Chatusra, Khanda, Misra, Sankeerna. • Gati (nadai): Tisra, Chatusra, Khanda, Misra, Sankeerna. • Kalai: 1x or 2x. • Tempo from 40 to 150 BPM. Set it with the slider, or tap the beat with Tap Tempo. • Each tala remembers its own tempo. • A four-click count-in before the rhythm starts, always at sam. ON STAGE A full-screen performance display shows the beat count, tala and tempo in large type, readable from across the room. It opens on its own a few seconds after the rhythm starts. TUNER Check your voice or instrument against your shruti. The tuner shows the swara you're on and how many cents sharp or flat you are. ALSO • Five colour themes. • Play and pause from the Lock Screen and Control Center. • Works on iPhone and iPad, with a layout made for the larger iPad screen. PRIVATE The microphone is used only by the Tuner, and only while it's on. Sound is analysed on your device. Nothing is recorded, stored or sent anywhere. No accounts, no ads, no tracking.
JAX ESSENTIALS
This audio effect plugin offers a multi-stage phaser with adjustable depth and speed for dynamic sound nuances. Create unique vocal effects or sweeping soundscapes with numerous presets and custom options.
- Multi-stage phaser effect
- Low frequency oscillator modulation
- Adjustable depth and speed
- Cross-device preset sharing
- 200+ factory presets
- Custom preset export/import
- Universal build for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, visionOS
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( THIS IS AN AUDIOUNIT. AudioUnits are app extensions, requiring any audio host application to perform. ) Use the same AudioUnits across all modern Apple devices, including the iPhone and the Mac (Apple Silicon). Native MacOS apps like GarageBand, MainStage 3 and Logic Pro X are fully supported. Any 3rd-party AUv3 supporting host should be able to host the plugin too. The JAX ESSENTIAL SERIES Phaser is a multi stage phaser modulation effect that uses multiple allpass filters, to produce all kinds of the famous phaser effect. A low frequency oscillator modulates depth and speed of the filter modulation on both stereo channels for various living and moving sound nuances. Make static sounding voices more interesting or create sweaping special effects. You may share the presets for this effect across all your supported devices. Around 200 factory presets are included, you can make and export/import your own. The complete manual is included and can be previewed on our support website. For advanced usage (i.e. mastering and exciting), we recommend to select the phaser from our SELECTIVE RANGE SERIES, which allows to limit the frequency range for processing. This build is truly 'universal', meaning, the audio unit is available for: - iOS (all actual iPhones) - iPadOS (all actual iPads) - macOS (Apple Silicon) - visionOS (Apple Vision Pro) Requirements: MacOS 10.15++ iOS 14.0++ Behaviour on all devices is identical. The parametric interface is resizeble and adopts to any screen size and orientation. This especially applies to Logic Pro X and all hosts with adjustable window sizes on all platforms. Display contrast can be adjusted freely and is now saved with each preset.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Shruti Laya at Free against JAX ESSENTIALS's $4.99. Shruti Laya also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.7). On ratings volume, update cadence, 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
Shruti Laya is free to download; JAX ESSENTIALS costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Shruti Laya holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 3 respectively.
Shruti Laya ships an update every 8 days, JAX ESSENTIALS fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Shruti Laya | JAX ESSENTIALS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 2.7 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 16.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 33 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ramachandra Mallappa | Jens Guell |
Customer experience
Shruti Laya
JAX ESSENTIALS
In-app purchases
Shruti Laya
No in-app purchases
JAX ESSENTIALS
No in-app purchases









