Aurora (MIDI Controller) vs Shruti Bot
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Aurora (MIDI Controller)
Transform space weather data into musical expression with this live MIDI controller. Connect to your DAW and map real-time electromagnetic readings to create unique soundscapes and dynamic tracks.
- Live data streaming from observatories
- Flexible MIDI mapping
- Connects to DAWs like Ableton Live
- Cross-platform compatibility (iOS, macOS)
- Creates ambient and techno music
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Aurora is a live MIDI controller powered by real-time data from space weather observatories and satellites. Connect Aurora to your favorite DAW (like Ableton Live) and transform electromagnetic readings into musical expression. Features: • Live data streaming from NOAA and Dombås observatory • Flexible MIDI mapping for CC controls • Works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac Catalyst Whether you're crafting ambient soundscapes or building dynamic techno tracks, Aurora connects your music to the rhythms of the planet.
Shruti Bot
This app simulates a tunable shruti box with ten reeds and adjustable bellows for dynamic sound. It offers a unique approach to intonation and includes various effects like LFOs, resonance, chorus, and tape delay.
- Tunable shruti box simulation
- Ten reeds with just intonation
- Adjustable bellows for dynamic volume and tremolo
- Independent mixer fader per reed
- Customizable tonic and microtonal tuning
- Two free-running LFOs per reed for tuning and level
- Integrated resonance, chorus, tape delay, and reverb effects
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Shruti Bot is a shruti box you can actually tune. Ten reeds, laid out the way a real box is — the low Pa and Sa drone pair, the full middle saptak from Sa to Ni, and the upper Sa. Every reed sits at its just-intonation ratio against the tonic, not the tempered approximation, so the drone locks together the way the instrument is supposed to. Pull up the bellows and it breathes. At zero no air moves at all and the box is silent; push it up and the drone gets louder and pumps harder, until the breathing turns into an audible tremolo riding on top of the tone. Pressure opens the timbre as well as the volume, so a stroke sounds like air moving rather than a fader going up. THE REEDS • Ten stops — Pa and Sa below, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni across the middle, Sa above • Just intonation throughout — 3/2, 9/8, 5/4, 4/3, 5/3, 15/8 against the tonic • A tapered tuning peg on every reed, plus or minus 100 cents, turned by hand • Detune two neighbouring reeds and they beat against each other — real acoustic summing, not an effect • A mixer fader per reed, independent of the stops, for balancing what's already sounding THE KEY • Any tonic across all twelve pitch classes, octaves 1 through 6 • A peg for each key, arranged as a keyboard • Every pitch class keeps its own microtonal trim, so you can build a tuning that isn't twelve-tone equal temperament and it stays put • The current note and its offset are always on screen MOVEMENT • Two free-running LFOs on every reed — one for tuning, one for level • They run at their own rates and drift in and out of phase, so the beating keeps reorganising and the drone never quite repeats • Set them slow and the box simply sounds alive THE CHAMBER • A swept resonance that moves like a body cavity rather than a filter sweep • Stereo chorus, the point where the drone opens out of the centre • Tape delay with a real moving head — sliding the time bends the pitch the way tape does, and the repeats darken as they recirculate • Plate-style reverb from a quarter second to six TWO INSTRUMENTS Tap the logo. Shruti Bot 2 replaces the reeds with four analogue oscillators — sine, triangle, saw and pulse — with phase shaping on each, from slow comb sweeps to full PWM. Everything else carries straight over: the same tuning, the same reeds switched on, the same effects. Only the sound source changes. No accounts. No subscriptions. No ads. No network. Nothing leaves your device.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Shruti Bot at $1.99 against Aurora (MIDI Controller)'s $2.99. On rating, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Aurora (MIDI Controller) costs $2.99 and Shruti Bot $1.99 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 — 5.0 for Aurora (MIDI Controller) against 5.0 for Shruti Bot. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Aurora (MIDI Controller) | Shruti Bot |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days | Every 8 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jason Snell | Scott Hsiung |
Customer experience
Aurora (MIDI Controller)
Shruti Bot
In-app purchases
Aurora (MIDI Controller)
No in-app purchases
Shruti Bot
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Aurora (MIDI Controller) free?
Is Shruti Bot free?
Which has better reviews, Aurora (MIDI Controller) or Shruti Bot?
Do Aurora (MIDI Controller) or Shruti Bot have ads?
Which is updated more often, Aurora (MIDI Controller) or Shruti Bot?
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