pUnKGeN vs MidiStep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
pUnKGeN
Create heavy rock, thrash metal, punk, and goth style sequences and loops with a 6-channel pattern groovebox and guitar riff generator. Features independent effects, filters, tuning, and ducking for each track, with options to generate, modify, or manually enter riff patterns.
- 6-channel pattern groovebox
- Guitar riff generator
- Independent track effects
- Manual note entry
- Scale and shuffle patterns
- Arpeggiate function
- MIDI and Ableton Link support
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Punk Syn Gen A 6 channel pattern groovebox and guitar riff generator for creating heavy rock, thrash metal, punk, and goth style sequences and loops. HEAVY METAL! Create mysterious 80s dark metal loops or create random riffs and drum loops with bass guitar licks. With 2 dedicated guitars, bass, synth and also drum tracks. Whether you play the guitar or not, use this app to come up with new ideas, ideas that you would never have dreamed of. ROCK ON! You can use this app as a guitar riff generator to make whole interesting goth or punk /thrash style sample loops. Every track has independent effects, filter, tuning and ducking ( similar to side chain compression) Generate, modify or manually enter riff patterns with "power" levels. Many different ways to generate or modify patterns that intelligently conform the patters for each instrument. Adding a note manually is easy. Place a note and adjust the power level from small strum, to powerchords for guitars. Power level in Guitar 1 allows you to add single note, single muted or power chords to create thrash riffs. Power level in synth gives you different pad type sounds. Two duplicate drum tracks with some basic drum kit sounds to give you some backing Bass Guitar power level goes from soft touch to slap bass. You can simply generate all day long with one button and it will create a scale, and riffs for every track. If you like the pattern but not the notes, choose your scale and rescale one or many tracks at the same time If you dont like the riff, shuffle it If you want an arpeggio but using a riff, make a riff pattern then press arpeggiate, cycles through arpeggio modes You can freely transpose the entire composition You can play one bar at a time or chain up to 4 bars Half or quarter the playback speed independently on each track so 64 steps plays slower equivalent to 256 steps. Thrash algorithm patterns have been influenced from bands like Metallica and Faith no More. In Fact Faith No More inspired us to use synth strings. Create ideas you wouldn't think of using scales and riffs. Whether you are a fan of Metallica riffs or punk, you can never tell what you'll get when it generates all tracks. Some chaos is also added to the generation of riffs. Many affects can be added from purposely adding bend, echo, reverb, extra distortion for even more thrash metal sound and resonating low pass filters to create mysterious and moody goth style patterns. This app is part of a family of apps: 6x808 - a drum sequencer, 2xb303 a TB303 sequencer, 7XdXfm - a 7 track-4 operator FM synth, 7XWave - a sample manipulation groovebox. Unique to this, the step edits are removed, and replaced with a dedicated piano roll for placing notes in a grid representing pitch and time. Like all the other apps, MIDI is included for sync as well as Ableton Link and Inter App Audio so you can route the audio to Audiobus/AUM Output note data on each channel too. You can sample whats playing anytime and it will record a sampled loop you can export to Audioshare or clipboard/email
MidiStep
Create complex rhythms and generative music with a powerful step sequencer. Control randomization for notes, chords, velocity, and more to generate unique, ever-changing musical patterns. Automate synth parameters with independent modulation lanes.
- User-controlled randomization for musical parameters
- Polyphonic chord playback per step
- Variable step sequence lengths
- Multiple linked patterns
- 8 independent modulation lanes
- Real-time modification of randomization
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MidiStep is a powerful and inspirational polyphonic step sequencer, and a dream for lovers of complex rhythms and generative music creation tools. The program uses sophisticated, user-controlled randomization to generate notes with a variety of parameters, including note values, note length, chords, patterns, velocity, gate, dividers, repeats, swing, and many more. You have complete control over what, when, and how much is randomized on a step-by-step basis. You can easily create patterns that have little to no variation, patterns that maintain a recognizable pattern but have some degree of variations to the notes, velocity, etc., all the way to patterns with extreme randomness with every pass – the degree of randomization is completely under your control for every parameter and for every step of a pattern. Features include per-step polyphonic chord playback, variable step sequence lengths for all parameters such as pitch, octave, velocity, note duration, beat divisions etc, and the capability to create multiple patterns which can be linked together in various ways. MidiStep also features 8 additional modulation lanes with independent play speeds. These can be used to automate parameters within your favourite synths. MidiStep uses sophisticated randomization settings for note values, note lengths, velocity, gate, dividers, repeats, swing, pitch bend and modulation. In addition, by setting different cycle lengths, step skips, step repeats, jumps, rewinds, cursor positions, pattern jumps, octave shifts, and many other parameters, you can create an infinite number of non-repeating sequences. The degree and types of randomizations for each of these parameters is up to you! Aleatoric music, also known as chance music, allows you to create patterns and entire compositions with user-controlled randomisation. The word 'aleatory' is derived from the Latin word 'alea' meaning dice. MidiStep allows you to turn on/off randomisation on a stepwise basis for almost all parameters, set the percent probability that the randomisation will occur, set min/max values, set exactly which parameters will be randomized, etc. The exact realization of the music will vary with each pass of the sequence, resulting in unique and captivating aleatoric renditions. All randomization controls can be modified in real-time. Features include: •Each of the 16 sequences can have unlimited types and degrees of randomness that you control. •8 independent sequencer lanes: Notes, Chords, Octaves, Velocity, Gate, Divider, Repeat, Delay. •8 independent Modulation sequencer lanes. •16 Patterns and 4 types of pattern switching, independent for each pattern. •Up to 16 steps per pattern, 16 patterns, and 16 cycles per pattern for a maximum sequence length of 4096 notes. •Independent sequencer length (1–16 steps) for each of the 16 lanes. •A Master step cursor independent of all other lanes. •Independent randomization parameters for each of the 16 lanes, with probability, min/max values, default values, skips, repeats, etc. •Unlimited variety of sequences, from slight variation to wildly different sequences on every pass. •126 scales and 126 chords – in every key, along with a scale and chord editor for you to create your own. •Chord complexity for 2–8 note chords, with notes specified or randomly generated. •Chord Articulation options – Block chords, Strum up/down, Arp up/down – with accent, length, speed, and random note order parameters. •Master lane and Chord lane previews. •Pattern Creator - automatic melody, chord, bass and drum backing. •Auto-scroll chord lane. •7-octave range for notes and chords (from C1–C8), with static and random octave offsets. •11 note lengths – from 1/32 note to 4 full measures, plus ties across notes, rests, repeated notes, and delays. •Two types of Swing with adjustable offset. •Humanize settings for note velocity and note timing. •Transposition of sequences using a keyboard – mono for single notes, and poly for chords.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: MidiStep at 4.8 against pUnKGeN's 3.2. MidiStep also leads on review sentiment (81% vs 44%) and ratings volume (26 vs 5). pUnKGeN's advantage is price ($1.99 vs $7.99) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
pUnKGeN costs $1.99 and MidiStep $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
MidiStep holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MidiStep has 26 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 44% of pUnKGeN's written reviews are positive against 81% of MidiStep's.
pUnKGeN ships an update every 3 days, MidiStep every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | pUnKGeN | MidiStep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $7.99 |
| Rating | 3.2 (5 ratings) | 4.8 (26 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 44.4% of reviews | 81.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 26 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rob Wilmot | 4Pockets.com |
Customer experience
pUnKGeN
MidiStep
In-app purchases
pUnKGeN
No in-app purchases
MidiStep
No in-app purchases








