New Path vs MIDIRack
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
New Path
Create unique rhythms and harmonies by guiding colored shapes with arrows on a 2D grid. Assign instruments, alter paths, and use special arrow types for surprising musical results. Control complex interactions with crossroads, teleports, and rule systems.
- 2D grid-based music creation
- Shape-based instrument playback
- Adjustable arrow paths and types
- Crossroads and teleports for complex paths
- MIDI out and Ableton Link support
- Delay and reverb effects
- Preset and generator systems
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Create surprising rhythms and harmonies by having colored shapes follow arrows on a two-dimensional grid. New Path is a unique and playful tool that drastically changes the way you make music. Pick an instrument for each square or triangle (shapes) and let them walk around. Rotate the arrows to alter their paths. Now choose from an exotic list of arrow types to spice things up. Shapes also have a mind of their own. By using crossroads and teleports they will have to decide for themselves which direction to take. This phenomenon will give you endless surprising results, but you’ll be able to keep full control by adjusting each crossroad/teleport bias. • Use the factory sets to play around and have lots of fun instantly! Or, • Create your own sets with the many features available! Each arrow contains adjustable values such as pitch, note duration, volume, etc, while shapes can interpret these values in their own way. For instance, a shape can add an octave to each pitch it comes across, so it will play all the notes one octave higher. Use delay and reverb to add flavor, use the advanced preset and generator systems to save and modify the grid, use the rules system to determine what should happen when two shapes meet, and much more. New Path is also able to communicate with other hard- & software. With the MIDI out feature, New Path can control for example your hardware synthesizers. Use the Ableton Link feature to sync Link-enabled devices and play together with your friends. And finally, the Audiobus integration lets you send both audio and MIDI to other apps on your device (You will need the Audiobus app). Key Features • A well thought out interface designed for both fast editing and playing live on-stage • Have surprising results with exotic arrow types such as crossroads and teleports • 70+ instruments such as Drums, Bass, Plucked, Synths, Acoustic, and Fx • Midi editor with a scales system • Many useful shape settings such as: Attack, Release, Note Value Multiplier to make non-western rhythms, etc • A preset system to instantly save and recall grid and shape settings • An advanced grid generator/modulator • A system of “If-Then” rules to trigger actions when shapes meet each other • A mixer with Delay and Reverb • 5x5 Arrow Cells with data such as: velocity, note duration, note value, repeat chance, crossroad chance, CC out, and much more… • 9 Tutorials with example sets to get you started New Path supports • Ableton Link • iCloud device sync • iCloud export/import • Audiobus support (midi and audio) • Midi out In-App Purchase • Arrow Skins • Instrument Expansion Pack • Audio Unit v3 (AUv3) About AUv3 • In case you bought New Path before 28th December 2022 (for $6.99), email a screenshot with proof of your purchasing date and we’ll email a promo code for the AUv3 feature (info@studiothezooo.com) Get New Path today to create a treasury of musical gems! * Runs on iPhone 5s with iOS 11.0 and above
MIDIRack
Design custom MIDI control surfaces with a variety of instruments and sequencers. Unlock advanced features like a visual MIDI processing graph for complex routing and generative music creation. Use it standalone, as an AUv3 plugin, or to control desktop DAWs.
- Customizable touch surface design
- KB-1 keyboard suite with MPE support
- Advanced step and matrix sequencers
- Visual MIDI processing graph
- Built-in instruments and samplers
- Connects to desktop DAWs via USB or Bluetooth
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MIDIRack is a MIDI toolkit for iPad. Build a custom touch surface from the KB-1 keyboard suite, an all-new sequencer suite, knobs, faders, buttons and more — then unlock a visual MIDI processing graph (one time in-app purchase) and wire it into anything, from a simple custom controller to a full-on groovebox or a self-playing generative composer. Play it on its own and send MIDI anywhere, as an AUv3 plugin in your favourite host or a standalone instrument. THE BASE APP — PERFORMANCE SURFACE Design a custom control surface on a snapping grid: • The KB-1 keyboard suite — piano, diatonic chord pads, scale-locked keyboard, MPE Seaboard ribbon, MPE Strings grid (4ths), and a 4×4 GM drum-pad grid. Each is its own routable node with latch and octave shift. Successor to the KB-1 Expressive Keyboard Suite. • A suite of sequencers — drum, melody, chord, analog and CC step grids and a Matrix note grid, with a moving playhead, swing and microtiming. Per-step velocity, probability, tie and trigger conditions; pattern chaining and 4-pad scene switching for full arrangements; a knob-per-step analog machine that re-roots live as you play. • Knobs, faders, XY pads, buttons and live visualizers — bind to raw MIDI CC or graph parameters. On its own: a rich custom control surface builder — send MIDI and CC to any synth, app or hardware, no graph required. WITH YOUR DESKTOP DAW Expressive MPE hardware costs hundreds. MIDIRack turns the iPad you already own into a controller for Logic, Live, Bitwig, Cubase or any desktop DAW: • Two MPE surfaces — the Seaboard ribbon and the Strings grid send per-note pitch bend, slide and pressure to any MPE-capable instrument on your desk. • A controller that changes per track — MPE ribbon for the lead, drum pads for the beat, chord pads for the progression, faders mapped to CC for a mix move. Rearrange in seconds; save a surface per project. • Sequence it too — clock the step lanes to your DAW and drive its tracks. • Easy to connect — one USB cable to a Mac via IDAM (Inter-Device Audio and MIDI), or wirelessly over Bluetooth MIDI. No driver, no helper app. UNLOCK — MIDI GRAPH (in-app purchase) Wire MIDI In → processors → MIDI Out on a visual canvas: • 60+ node kinds — arpeggiators, scale/key quantizers, transposers, chords, echoes, swing, humanize, euclidean rhythms, random/generative melodies, LFOs, CC tools, an analog knob-per-step sequencer, a Matrix sequencer and a Counter. • Built-in instruments — Synth, Drums, a Sampler and a loop Slicer make sound right in the graph; no external synth required. • Emergence generators — Conway's Game of Life, Turing machine, Wolfram rules, Markov, bouncing balls, Lorenz attractor — for evolving, living patterns. • Presets — factory patches grouped by category (control surfaces, generators, keyboards, utilities): Amen Engine, Starfield, Conway Choir, Turing Bass, Cellular Drums… Save your own. ROUTING & MPE • MIDI Out exposes all 16 channels plus an MPE connector — multitimbral, multi-instrument setups. The built-in synth responds to MPE. • Every keyboard is its own node — process and route each one independently. PLAYS OUT OF THE BOX • Built-in polyphonic synth, drum kit, sampler & slicer or send MIDI to your gear via CoreMIDI and an always-on virtual port.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: New Path at $1.99 against MIDIRack's $14.99. New Path also leads on review sentiment (75% vs 67%) and iOS requirement (12.3 vs 17.0). MIDIRack's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 months) and rating (4.8 vs 4.4). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
New Path costs $1.99 and MIDIRack $14.99 up front. New Path sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and MIDIRack sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
MIDIRack holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 8 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 75% of New Path's written reviews are positive against 67% of MIDIRack's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
New Path ships an update every 3 months, MIDIRack every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | New Path | MIDIRack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $14.99 |
| Rating | 4.4 (12 ratings) | 4.8 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.3 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 164 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jerk van den Braak | Kai Aras |
Customer experience
New Path
MIDIRack
In-app purchases
New Path
- ClassicFree
- Classic NeonFree
- Classic StoneFree
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- Classic Textile$0.99
- Classic White$0.99
- Pinky$0.99
- Chess$1.99
- Hands and Hats$1.99
- Instrument Pack 1$2.99
- Audio Unit v3$7.99
MIDIRack
- Graph Editor Unlock$7.99









