Comparison

Additive Drum Machine vs dSL1200

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

Head to head
About

Additive Drum Machine

Create unique drum beats with additive rhythm and traditional drum machine functionality. Design sequences of any length and structure, easily switching steps on and off to craft complex patterns. Ideal for practicing odd meters and exploring diverse rhythmic structures.

Highlights
  • Additive rhythm concept
  • Traditional drum machine interface
  • Customizable sequence length
  • Step sequencing
  • Odd meter support
  • Symmetrical and asymmetrical rhythms
Features
Read full description

With Additive Drum Machine you can create drum beats using the concept of “additive rhythm” in combination with the sounds and ease of use of a traditional drum machine. Construct step sequences of any length and structure by the chaining of "long" and "short" beats. Then switch on and off individual steps to create a drum pattern. Whether used as a practice tool or composition sketchpad, its intuitive interface allows you to easily make drum patterns that use odd meters, symmetrical and asymmetrical rhythmic structures, and various subdivisions of the pulse. With Additive Drum Machine your musical imagination is the limit.

About

dSL1200

This app simulates a professional DJ turntable, offering a realistic touch experience for scratching and beatmatching. It plays your music library and supports AUv3 effects for creative mixing.

Highlights
  • Real-time turntable emulation
  • Touch-based scratching and control
  • Plays DRM-free music library
  • Loop playback for breaks
  • AUv3 effect rack integration
  • Realistic 3D tonearm and lighting
Features
Read full description

dSL1200 — Digital SL-1200 A professional DJ turntable simulator and music player for iPhone — a faithful real-time emulation of the most-used direct-drive deck in DJ history. Every part of the deck modeled in 3D, most touch-controllable. THE DECK, REBORN For nearly fifty years, one direct-drive turntable has been the de-facto industry standard in clubs, hip-hop, dance, and bedroom studios across the world. dSL1200 captures that deck — its motor, its slipmat, its quartz-locked strobe, its long-throw pitch fader, its tonearm tracking — as a working real-time simulation, not a skin or a sample player. REAL TOUCH, REAL SCRATCH Touch the vinyl and the platter responds the way a real one does. The motor keeps spinning underneath while you scratch, the slipmat couples back when you let go, and the audio rate follows your finger through every back-cue, body-trick rub, and crab. QUARTZ-LOCKED STROBE The multi-dot rim ring locks at exactly 33⅓ and 45 RPM through honest motor-rate-driven strobe physics. Pitch off center and the dots drift; lock to nominal and they freeze — the same visual feedback DJs have used to beat-match by eye for half a century. ACCURATE PITCH RANGE Faithful to the original long-throw pitch fader, with ±8% range, a center-detent snap, and strobe drift independent of motor rate. Beat-match by eye exactly the way the deck was designed for. YOUR MUSIC, ON THE DECK Plays MP3, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and Apple Lossless files from your iOS Music library — any DRM-free track you've imported, ripped, or purchased. (DRM-protected Apple Music subscription streams cannot be played.) The vinyl label is generated from each track's metadata, with title and artist printed on the LP. LOOP PLAY FOR BREAKS Toggle loop mode and the track wraps with zero-sample-gap continuity — perfect for chopping b-boy breaks, drum loops, and battle samples. Cue points and back-cues across the loop boundary work transparently. AUv3 EFFECT RACK Load any installed Audio Unit Extension into a wet/dry parallel mix. Reverb, delay, filters, EQ, distortion — any AUv3 plugin you have on the device works. 3D TONEARM Drag the arm to cue, tap the cue lever to lift and drop, and watch it sweep from outer rim to inner spindle in real time with the audio playhead. The anti-skating dial, height adjustment, and counterweight are visually modeled on the 3D deck for fidelity to the original (not user-adjustable in this version). AUTHENTIC LIGHTING The pop-up inspection lamp lifts and lights with a warm bulb when toggled. A red strobe LED throws a sharp glowing arc across the platter rim — the same flashing red light that makes a working deck look alive in low-light club environments. 120 Hz METAL RENDERER Native 120 Hz on ProMotion devices, 60 Hz everywhere else, with PBR lighting, real-time reflections, vinyl groove geometry, and adaptive touch-density compensation so scratching feels identical regardless of refresh rate. ENGINEERED FOR DETAIL - End-to-end touch-to-audio response under 6 ms - Adaptive high-resolution resampler tuned for scratching - Streaming + ring buffer for tracks of any length - Slipmat physics, not state-machine fakery dSL1200 is an independent simulation product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any manufacturer of physical turntable hardware. Any visual or behavioral resemblance to professional DJ equipment is offered as faithful artistic homage to a category of product that has shaped DJ culture for decades.

Screenshots

Additive Drum Machine4 screens
dSL12004 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: dSL1200 at every 3 days against Additive Drum Machine's every 15 months. Additive Drum Machine's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.5 vs 16.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Additive Drum Machine costs $2.99 and dSL1200 $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Additive Drum Machine against 5.0 for dSL1200. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 4 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Additive Drum Machine ships an update every 15 months, dSL1200 every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Additive Drum Machine versus dSL1200: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAdditive Drum MachinedSL1200
Price$2.99$2.99
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings34 — better
Update frequencyEvery 15 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS14.5 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGiovanny BermudezMike Wolak

Customer experience

Additive Drum Machine

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

dSL1200

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Additive Drum Machine

No in-app purchases

None

dSL1200

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Additive Drum Machine free?
Additive Drum Machine costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is dSL1200 free?
dSL1200 costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Additive Drum Machine or dSL1200?
Additive Drum Machine and dSL1200 are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 4 ratings respectively.
Do Additive Drum Machine or dSL1200 have ads?
Neither Additive Drum Machine nor dSL1200 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Additive Drum Machine or dSL1200?
Additive Drum Machine ships an update every 15 months, and dSL1200 every 3 days. Most recently, Additive Drum Machine was updated on October 24, 2026 and dSL1200 on November 1, 2026.

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