Comparison

Additive Drum Machine vs Aether Jam

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

Aether Jam

Features
Read full description

Aether is the simplest way to jam progressive and melodic house from your phone. Build a track as a stack of layers — Bass, Chords, Drums, and a live Lead — each started from a curated loop and tuned with friendly controls. No timeline, no clutter: just pick a sound and play. One synth, everywhere. A single wavetable engine powers Bass, Chords, and Lead. Morph the oscillator from sine to saw to square, sweep the filter, shape the envelope, and save your sound to a global library you can reuse on any layer. Play, don't program. The Lead is performed live on a scale-locked pad grid — every pad is in key, so there are no wrong notes. Hold several pads for chords, slide for glissando, and ride the one-finger filter-morph ribbon. The shimmer river. A shared shimmer-reverb send that any track can attach to or detach from with a tap — add lush, blooming octaves to exactly the tracks you want. Make it yours. • Swap loops, kits and chord progressions in one tap • Per-track volume faders and mute • Adjustable tempo, live • Transpose the bass, change the lead octave • Record your jam to a file and grab it from the Files app Everything stays on your device. No account, no sign-up, no data collected. Plug in headphones and start jamming.

Screenshots

Additive Drum Machine4 screens
Aether Jam4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Aether Jam at every 2 weeks against Additive Drum Machine's every 15 months. Additive Drum Machine's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $8.99) and device support (3 vs 1). On ads and in-app purchases 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 Aether Jam $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Additive Drum Machine ships an update every 15 months, Aether Jam every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Additive Drum Machine versus Aether Jam: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAdditive Drum MachineAether Jam
Price$2.99 — better$8.99
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 15 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS14.5 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGiovanny BermudezDiego Ponciano

In-app purchases

None

Additive Drum Machine

No in-app purchases

None

Aether Jam

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Additive Drum Machine free?
Additive Drum Machine costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Aether Jam free?
Aether Jam costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Additive Drum Machine or Aether Jam have ads?
Neither Additive Drum Machine nor Aether Jam shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Additive Drum Machine or Aether Jam?
Additive Drum Machine ships an update every 15 months, and Aether Jam every 2 weeks. Most recently, Additive Drum Machine was updated on September 21, 2026 and Aether Jam on October 9, 2026.

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