Comparison

Ferromagnetic vs Fluid Sonata

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Ferromagnetic

Transform music into real-time visual art with dynamic audio-reactive effects. Enhance personal listening, create ambiance for gatherings, or perform live with captivating visuals that sync to every beat. Offers thousands of unique visual combinations for a fresh experience with every song.

Highlights
  • Real-time audio-reactive visuals
  • Multi-band frequency analysis
  • Automatic beat detection
  • Metal-powered rendering engine
  • Multi-layer compositing system
  • Customizable visual parameters
  • Thousands of unique visual combinations
Features
Read full description

Ferromagnetic: Music Visualizer & VJ App for iPhone, iPad, and Mac Ferromagnetic turns Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, and any other sound into stunning real-time visuals. It's a professional audio visualizer for everyone, from home listening and house parties to DJ sets, live shows, and VJ performances. FM Visualizer: Effortless Background Visuals Start a System Broadcast and Ferromagnetic follows the audio of Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, and most other apps on your device. Or use the microphone to visualize anything around you, from a DJ set to a live band. The 12-band frequency analysis and tunable beat detection catch every beat and note, and a GPU-accelerated Metal engine renders it all in multiple layers. Pick a Vibe like Calm, Energetic, Trippy, or Retro to set the mood in one tap. Or let Ferromagnetic take the wheel and build new scenes on its own from over 1,000 combinations. Set how fast the scenes change and choose from ten transition styles, including Morph, Zoom, and Color Distance. Choose from over 20 audio-reactive effects: the signature Ferrofluid and Electromagnetic fields, plus Starfield, Petals, Laser, Glitter, Cloud, Refractions, and more. Build your own scene from three effect layers and particles, each with its own blend mode, and tune every layer to the bass or the highs. Particles burst and flow with the sound, and glitch and shake hit harder as the volume rises. Transform the image with Kaleidoscope, Droste Spiral, Voronoi Mirror, or Tunnel, then shape the look with pixelation, dithering, blur, and color palettes like Vivid, Warm, or Triadic. Show your own logo text on screen, perfect for cafes, bars, and venues. Mirror the visuals to a TV or projector with AirPlay or a cable, and the screen stays awake for as long as the music plays. Visuals render at up to 60 fps. FM Producer: Live Visual Performance On iPad, FM Producer turns Ferromagnetic into a VJ app for live shows. The dual-deck interface works like a DJ controller: prepare the next scene on one deck, then crossfade it in. Add the iPad camera or NDI® sources as live layers, and send your visuals to OBS, Resolume, and other apps with NDI output. Connect a MIDI controller or keyboard, map any control with MIDI Learn, and trigger effects and scenes without touching the screen. FM Producer also unlocks the complete Mac app, with video, image, and 3D model layers, presets, and video recording. Try It Free Download Ferromagnetic for free, then unlock only what you need with an affordable subscription or a one-time purchase. One purchase works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Already on FM Visualizer? Your purchase counts toward FM Producer. NDI® is a registered trademark of Vizrt NDI AB. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

About

Fluid Sonata

Features
Read full description

A fluid simulation and a classical performance, both generated live on your phone, wired to the same clock. There are no audio files in this app and no video. A piano is synthesized from scratch every time you press play — a fundamental plus four slightly sharp partials, a hammer thud on the attack, a small hall around it — and every note it plays is thrown into a real Navier-Stokes fluid solver running on the GPU. The left hand punches jets up from the floor. The right hand lands at an x position taken from its own pitch, so the melody plays the screen like a keyboard. Behind it all, a ten-body Newtonian integrator runs the actual solar system, on a real date. TEN SCORES, FOURTEEN READINGS Seven pieces from the public-domain canon — Bach's Prelude in C, Mozart's Rondo alla Turca, Beethoven's Für Elise, Ode to Joy and the Moonlight Presto, Tchaikovsky's Trepak, Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King — plus three originals written for this app. Every score plays fourteen ways: piano recital, cathedral organ, strings, music box, jazz trio, electric guitar, synth, 8-bit, 16-bit, drums, deep bass, disco, techno and an EDM remix. Every instrument is synthesized from scratch — there is not one audio file in this app. LISTEN TO THE ROOM Turn on Listen Mode and the fluid dances to whatever is playing near you — another app, a speaker, someone at a piano. The microphone reaches the analyser and nothing else: nothing is recorded, stored or sent, and turning it off releases the microphone. TWO WAYS TO DRIVE IT ORBITAL Click puts everything on a circular touch surface — a thumb travelling around the ring moves the selection, with real detents you can feel and acceleration when you spin. Fluid Classic is a conventional dock and player. Pick either in Settings; everything is reachable from both. STATIONS Three stations of music that is genuinely free to play, streamed from the Internet Archive: classical sides digitised by the Great 78 Project, and recordings Musopen commissioned and released for anyone to use. Every track earns its place by a rule that is checked when the list is built, not assumed. PLAY YOUR OWN MUSIC Hand it any song on your device and the fluid dances to that instead. A live spectrum analysis drives the same choreography the written scores use. The file is decoded on your phone and never uploaded — the app has nowhere to send it. RECORD THE STAGE Capture the fluid, the orrery and the music together, then save the clip to Files or Photos or send it straight on. PRIVATE BY ARCHITECTURE, NOT BY POLICY No account. No analytics. No third-party SDKs. No tracking. Nothing you do here is collected. The app asks for one permission — the microphone, and only if you turn on Listen Mode. The whole engine ships inside the app, and the scores, your own songs and the simulation all run with the network switched off. Three things do reach out, and the app tells you which: a once-a-day check with Apple for a newer version, carrying nothing but the app's own identifier; StoreKit, to price the Full Concert; and — only when you choose a Station — the recording you asked for. FREE FOREVER, AND A ONE-TIME UNLOCK Moonlight · Presto, Für Elise, the Classical reading and the EDM remix are free forever, with no time limit and no ads. The Full Concert unlocks the remaining scores and readings with a single purchase — no subscription, and it is shared with your family. Also on iPad. Made by djEnterprises.

Screenshots

Ferromagnetic4 screens
Fluid Sonata4 screens

Verdict

The call

Ferromagnetic and Fluid Sonata are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Ferromagnetic sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month and Fluid Sonata sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Ferromagnetic versus Fluid Sonata: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFerromagneticFluid Sonata
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (26 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings26 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDaniel EkeDaniel Ehrlich

Bugs and requests

Ferromagnetic

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • Song titles don’t update
  • Custom image wasn’t saving in presets (reported fixed)
  • Logo makes imported images blurry
  • App crashes on launch
  • Poorly implemented controls (MacOS)
Show 9 more
  • Does not work with Apple Music for some users
  • Does not sync with music for some users
  • Repeating visualizer scenes
  • Shoddy integration with Streamlabs
  • Does not work with microphone for some users
  • Visuals are seemingly random and endless
  • App asks to update when there's no update
  • Crashes every time audio input is changed after update
  • Recurring shapes pop up every few seconds

Requested features

20 requests
  • Add a 'go back' button for controls
  • Add Airplay mirroring or tvOS app
  • More options in visualizer types
  • Configurable presets for cycling settings
  • Ability to stream to TV without a cable
Show 15 more
  • Apple TV app development
  • More shaders and 4k-8k resolution options
  • More options to customize and create own shaders
  • More style options (e.g., retro equalizer, symmetric bars)
  • Ability to navigate a catalog or favorite visuals
  • Rotation feature for effects
  • Output to a file without screen capture
  • Choose output frame rate and size
  • Get rid of or manipulate recurring shapes
  • Remove Source/editor column from viewer window
  • Option to load songs directly from user's library
  • Transparency option for windows
  • More customization options
  • Effects inspired by Apple's classic visualizer
  • Bug fix for audio input crashes

Fluid Sonata

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Ferromagnetic

Subscriptions2
  • FM Visualizer7 Days trial$2.491 Month
  • FM Producer7 Days trial$3.991 Month
One-time4
  • A generous tip$0.99
  • FM Visualizer One-TIme$17.99
  • FM Producer Upgrade$39.99
Show 1 more
  • FM Producer One-Time$59.99
1 purchases

Fluid Sonata

One-time1
  • The Full Concert$4.99

Questions

Is Ferromagnetic free?
Ferromagnetic is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Fluid Sonata free?
Fluid Sonata is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Ferromagnetic or Fluid Sonata have ads?
Neither Ferromagnetic nor Fluid Sonata shows ads.

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