Droneo vs Needlepoint
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Droneo
Create rich, evolving drone textures with precise intonations. This synthesizer is ideal for meditation, relaxation, or experimental music creation, offering a wide range of timbres from calming to discordant.
- Polyphonic drone textures
- Precise intonations
- Customizable timbres
- Evolving soundscapes
- Audiobus and IAA support
- User-controlled intervals
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Droneo will bathe your ears with rich polyphonic textures! Droneo is a synthesizer which drones with various timbres and precise intonations that blur the distinction between tones, timbres and chords. Its drone is great for meditation, centering, and calming, walking and biking, but also can be set up for discordant noise and insect-like buzzing and chirping. With Droneo, you can create surprisingly rich, motion filled drones which change over time in a controlled way. Quietly nested in your earbuds or blasted though your stack of amps, Droneo fills your droning needs! Droneo is a relative of one of my other iPhone Apps, SrutiBox. Droneo works with Audiobus and IAA to expand its droning capabilities. —————————————————————————————— Best app I have! "Absolutely love this beautiful app that I use every day. Fantastic concept. Ingeniously implemented. Worth buying an iPhone for!!" -- Petey Pete UK ''Brilliant ! Haunting & beautiful. Inspiring to use in creative music projects for recording or even live performance. The aching, melancholy voice drones are a perfect, gentle way to relax, meditate, induce calm & even aid sleep. Henry you have put something wonderful into the world here, not only an engrossing fun app. Any musicians lucky enough to discover Droneo will find it as cool as I do. Could be used on a daily basis by those practicing relaxation techniques & is a steal at the price!" -- JC / ENGLAND' "Composers delight" This is a truly beautiful little app, and should not be missed by any musicians or dabblers into minimalist or drone based composition. It produces a wide variety of mesmerising drone based tones, all customisable by the user. I have been exporting the audio straight into Logic via a midi keyboard and the results are fantastic. The creative possibilities presented by the iPhone continue to astound me! I highly recommend this app. -- Australian App Store comment Droneo is great whether you use it recreationally to relax or meditate, as a utility either to help tune, educationally to better understand harmonic interaction, or creatively with other music equipment. With a little creativity and effects :) you can use it with almost any type of music. For me, it's had a lasting appeal way beyond most other apps in this price range.[...] Recommended. -- J onah, US Store The most forward thinking music app I have seen. This app allows me to deal with ratios in sound. Most other music apps are limited to equal temperament. Thank you Mr. Lowengard for taking a step forward in musical thinking, and giving us the chance to experience music in a new way via your app, Droneo! -- by mike uhler Wonderful software. With the evolving voices it's as though I'm being accompanied by a living breathing entity - at the same time combined with precise control over what's played: the tuning, the notes and harmonics. -- materialworlds The settings for all the intervals can be visualized and manipulated using a special "Tone Spiral" interface. Droneo is also an excellent way to play with the way chords fuse into timbres. You can get a feel for how certain timbres fit "naturally" in certain frequency ranges, and how tunings and timbres and chords intertwine. Want to know more? Go to the Droneo support page at http://www.jhhl.net/iPhone/Droneo for more information, contact info, and videos! visit my iPhone App Facebook group for starting discussions etc! http://www.jhhl.net/iPhone/fb.html And don't forget to check out my other apps!
Needlepoint
This app simulates the warm, fuzzy sound of vinyl records using advanced physical modeling. It generates realistic turntable noises and artifacts, offering creative control over warped sounds and tempo-synced playback. Additional effects like a compressor and glitchy looper enhance the audio.
- Physical modeling for realistic vinyl sounds
- Synthesized record detritus and distress
- Tempo-syncable turntable speed
- Single-knob compressor with multiple algorithms
- Broken record looper mode
- Vinyl spindown and start effect
- Granular pitch shifter
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Unfiltered Audio's Needlepoint is now available on iOS as a Standalone app or AUv3 plugin! Unfiltered Audio raises the bar (and lowers the tonearm) with Needlepoint: a revolution in vinyl simulation. Continuing the retro themes of their smashed-up hit lo-fi-af, Needlepoint presents a full platter of advanced physical modeling to dive deep into the warm, fuzzy sound of turntable noises and artifacts beloved by many. Of course, since this is an Unfiltered Audio plugin, you can push the needle far past realism and dive into some seriously warped sounds. While many vinyl plugins are content to use looping samples of noise, Needlepoint uses physical modeling to achieve its incredible sound. Needlepoint synthesizes all sorts and sizes of detritus and distress on a record: hair, dust mites, scratches, warping, etc. These are not randomly modeled, but rather accurately distributed onto a rotating, algorithmic platter. Changing the speed of the record can greatly change the nature of Needlepoint's impact on your sound. While you may be used to vinyl RPMs like 33 1/3, 45, and 78, have you ever wondered what it would sound like to tempo sync a turntable to your DAW? Now you can! Beyond noise, ambience, and tone, Needlepoint includes other effects to fully etch out your vibe. A single knob compressor (inspired by lo-fi-af's PRESS knob with six additional algorithms) can be added before or after the signal chain. This compressor can emulate algorithms from famous hardware samplers associated with vinyl, or even mimic the sound of analog distortion introduced by the vinyl pressing process. A BROKEN mode emulates a broken record a broken record a broken record a broken... Where were we? Oh right, a BROKEN mode acts as an unpredictable looper by jumping the grooves on your recent audio. You can automate the mode's toggle to create all sorts of cut-up and glitchy phrases. No vinyl plugin would be complete without a SPINDOWN button that creates that classic vinyl stop (and start!) sound. Here you can control the rate of the spindown to better fit the effect into your mixes. Finally, at the end of the processing chain, Needlepoint features a granular pitch shifter to help you achieve that chopped up vibe without needing to manually change the speed of your tracks. Despite all of these features, Needlepoint is incredibly easy to use. With a beautiful interface and an extensive set of presets, Needlepoint will help you itch that nostalgic scratch that your tracks need. As an AUv3 plugin, Needlepoint has been tested to work perfectly with Garageband, Drambo, AUM, Cubasis, Beatmaker, Nanostudio, apeMatrix, Loopy Pro, and more! Additionally, with its clear layout and smart resizing, Needlepoint can be used on tablets and phones with ease. (Note for Drambo users: Drambo does not yet have automatic Plugin Delay Compensation for managing plugins with latency. As a result, tracks with Needlepoint will not line up properly with other tracks. An upcoming patch for Drambo will add this feature in.)
Screenshots
Verdict
Droneo and Needlepoint both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 90% of Droneo's written reviews are positive against 50% of Needlepoint's. Droneo also leads on price ($2.99 vs $9.99) and iOS requirement (8.2 vs 12.0). Needlepoint's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months). On rating, ratings volume, 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
Droneo costs $2.99 and Needlepoint $9.99 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 — 4.8 for Droneo against 4.8 for Needlepoint. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 31 and 14 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 90% of Droneo's written reviews are positive against 50% of Needlepoint's.
Droneo ships an update every 4 months, Needlepoint fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Droneo | Needlepoint |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (31 ratings) | 4.8 (14 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 89.6% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 31 — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.2 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Henry Lowengard | Unfiltered Audio |
Customer experience
Droneo
Needlepoint
Bugs and requests
Droneo
Reported bugs
12 issues- Distorted sound output
- App crashes
- Cannot access or export recordings
- Refuses to close and drains battery
- Battery drain even after swiping to dismiss
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Full restart required to stop battery drain
- Crashes on iPhone 6s, iPad Air, iPad Pro (iOS 10.2.1)
- Crashes after 20 seconds on title page
- Outdated, will not work in AudioBus 2.1
- Crashes a lot when putting in custom ratios
- Popping/clicking with 'evolving 1' timbre
- Cannot find email address for developer
Requested features
23 requests- iPad or Mac version
- More chords and consecutive partials/pitches
- AUv3 capable new version
- Modulate tones on spiral interface automatically
- More modulation methods
Show 18 moreShow fewer
- iPad version
- AUv3 support
- iPad interface
- iPad version with larger control interface
- Accelerometer controls
- Two more drone sounds
- Tilt to alter sound with accelerometer
- Dark mode option
- On-off toggle
- Individual osc shape changes
- Ability to change individual osc shapes
- More advanced modulation options
- Recording function
- Accelerometer controls
- More drone sounds
- Tilt control
- More comprehensive help information
- Remove bee icon and theme
Needlepoint
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Droneo
No in-app purchases
Needlepoint
No in-app purchases









