Radio Unit vs MIDI Tape Recorder
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Radio Unit
Stream over 35,000 internet radio stations with this app. Enhance your audio experience by using it as an AUv3 plugin with other compatible music apps. Discover new music and save your favorites.
- Access 35,000+ radio stations
- Enhance audio with AUv3 plugins
- Intuitive interface
- Song discovery and saving
- Favorites sync across devices
- MIDI control for AUv3 plugin
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Discover a world of music with Radio Unit, a sleek and powerful Internet radio player with a built-in Audio Unit (AUv3) plugin. Elevate your listening experience by enhancing streaming audio in real time using your favorite third-party audio processing plugins (not included) within AUv3-compatible hosts like Drambo or GarageBand. Features: • Intuitive Interface: Enjoy a clean, user-friendly design for effortless navigation. • Song Discovery: Tap to add the currently playing song to your favorites, then open it in the Apple Music app or search for it on Google. • Massive Station Library: Access over 35,000 radio stations—search by name, browse by genre or location, and sort by popularity. • Favorites Sync: Save stations and songs to your favorites list, seamlessly synced across your devices. • AUv3 Integration: Use Radio Unit as a standalone app or as an AUv3 plugin in hosts like Drambo, GarageBand, and more, with support for multiple plugin instances. • MIDI Mapping: Control buttons can be triggered by MIDI Note events (C3 to F3). (AUv3 only) • Battery Efficient: Stream music without draining your device. The app requires internet connection.
MIDI Tape Recorder
This app offers a unique approach to MIDI recording, capturing performances with audio-like precision. It focuses on preserving the nuances of your playing without altering timing, ideal for expressive MPE performances. Simple controls make it fun to record, play back, and loop MIDI.
- Sample accurate MIDI recording
- MPE support
- Four independent MIDI tracks
- Overdub and punch-in recording
- MIDI file import/export
- Undo/redo functionality
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MIDI Tape Recorder takes a radically different approach to MIDI recording. Now in version 2.0, it runs both as an Audio Unit v3 plugin inside your favorite host and as a standalone app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. MIDI messages are recorded and played back with the same accuracy and precision as audio recordings. Most modern DAWs, even at their highest resolution, still change the timing of MIDI messages to accommodate their editing features. These changes impact the playback of your performance as MIDI messages get reordered and delayed, altering how they influence sound, sometimes in very significant ways. MIDI Tape Recorder records your performance exactly as you play it, just like an audio recorder, accurately reproducing every nuance. It purposefully has no MIDI note editing, no quantization, no individual CC tweaking, nothing you wouldn't do with audio. Instead, very expressive and ultra-dense MIDI streams are perfectly stored and reproduced. It excels at capturing and playing back expressive performances with MPE controllers and MPE plugins. The controls are purposefully simple and intuitive, like a traditional four-track tape recorder, making it fun to record, play back, and loop your MIDI performance. Even with non-MPE MIDI, it keeps you in the flow and creative, without being interrupted by the technical nature of most DAWs. New in the standalone app: run MIDI Tape Recorder on its own, with CoreMIDI input and output to route your performance to any of your MIDI apps, synths, and hardware. Sessions are autosaved and can be saved, opened, and shared as documents. Recording keeps running in the background and with the screen locked, so you never lose a take. MIDI Tape Recorder makes no sound on its own: as a plugin it records inside your host; as a standalone app it routes MIDI to your instruments. Features: • Runs as an AUv3 plugin or as a standalone app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac • Four independent tracks for recording MIDI channel voice messages • Sample-accurate MIDI recording and playback • Real-time display of active recorded notes and other received messages • Full MPE support • Continuous loop recording that re-records over the loop on each cycle instead of stopping at the loop end • Multi-level undo and redo • Overdub recording, with punch-in/punch-out for automated regional overdubbing • CoreMIDI input and output routing in the standalone app • Autosaved, shareable session documents in the standalone app • Background and screen-locked recording in the standalone app • Automated storage and recall of all recordings inside the AUv3 host project • MIDI file import and export, for the whole project or each individual track • Repeated playback with start and stop locators • AUv3 parameters for all controls • Snap-to-beat positioning for the playhead and locators • Per-track MPE configuration (MCM) detection and envoy • Host transport and host tempo sync • Clear all recordings or a single track, and crop the session to a new duration • Fully resizable UI with per-track input/output activity indicators • Optional per-track record enable, input monitoring, and mute • Four virtual MIDI cable inputs, with optional routing of the first cable to all tracks • AUv3 user presets when the host supports them • Open source, freely distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: MIDI Tape Recorder at every 2 weeks against Radio Unit's every 2 months. Radio Unit's advantage is price ($6.99 vs $9.99) and chart position (#189 vs unranked). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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
Radio Unit costs $6.99 and MIDI Tape Recorder $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Radio Unit against 4.7 for MIDI Tape Recorder. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 60 and 61 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of Radio Unit's written reviews are positive against 79% of MIDI Tape Recorder's.
Radio Unit ships an update every 2 months, MIDI Tape Recorder every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.
| Parameter | Radio Unit | MIDI Tape Recorder |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (60 ratings) | 4.7 (61 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 81.5% of reviews — better | 79.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 60 | 61 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #189 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | BeepStreet | Uwyn, LLC |
Customer experience
Radio Unit
MIDI Tape Recorder
Bugs and requests
Radio Unit
Reported bugs
17 issues- Cannot remove recognized songs
- Cannot remove favorite saved songs (Mac)
- Last update ruined experience with loading times and connection issues
- Sadé channel frequently disconnects
- Some stations don’t connect at all
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- Cannot see song title/artist
- Seamless integration with GarageBand and Logic Pro doesn't work
- Cannot change station with MIDI, LFOs etc. after update
- Cubasis 3 can’t find app
- BBC streams no longer play
- Cannot edit user slots after adding of link
- Links not working
- Cannot add user slots ('see the developer to unlock slots')
- Adding stations near impossible
- Failed URL slot flashes red and is inaccessible
- Cannot paste other URLs
- Cannot record and sample the feed into DAW
Requested features
13 requests- Option to remove or filter hostile nations
- Add more stations (Golha radio, IRIB radio)
- Ability to organize, tag, and edit stream specifications
- Ability to use with CarPlay
- Pitch slider within the app to slow down radio in real time
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- More user presets/slots
- iCloud sync for recently played stations and discovered pieces
- Ability to change station with MIDI, LFOs etc. (post-update issue)
- More exposed parameters for tweaking
- Greater resources for slots (folders/sections)
- Import/export presets list
- Assign MIDI CC to volume knob and channel switch buttons
- Support for streams in OGG container format
MIDI Tape Recorder
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Radio Unit
No in-app purchases
MIDI Tape Recorder
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Radio Unit free?
Is MIDI Tape Recorder free?
Which has better reviews, Radio Unit or MIDI Tape Recorder?
Do Radio Unit or MIDI Tape Recorder have ads?
Which is updated more often, Radio Unit or MIDI Tape Recorder?
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