Sanshin vs SL Air
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sanshin
Learn to play the traditional Okinawan Sanshin instrument with this app. It displays finger positions and corresponds to "Kun-Kun-Shi" musical scores in Kanji, making it accessible even for beginners.
- Learn Sanshin finger positions
- Kanji score display
- Beginner-friendly interface
- Okinawan music exploration
- Interactive learning tool
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The "Sanshin" (Sanxian,三線) is a traditional and very popular musical instrument in Okinawa. Okinawa is beautiful islands located on the end of the southwest of Japan. The Sanshin is indispensable to life of people in Okinawa with traditional "Shima-Uta" that means song of islands. The Sanshin looks like the shamisen that is the tradition musical instrument of Japan similarly. But, the performance method of the Sanshin is farther simpler than the Shamisen,and is friendly musical instrument. In this application, proper finger positions will be displayed on the screen with Kanji. These also correspond to scores that is called "Kun-Kun-Shi" written in Kanji. We hope you will enjoy playing the Sanshin even if you have not played a Sanshin. Please try and enjoy it!
SL Air
Enhance your audio with this AUv3 effect, designed to add brightness, presence, and stereo width. Achieve a polished top-end for vocals, drums, samples, and full mixes with intuitive controls and a motion display.
- Controlled brightness (Air & Lift)
- Smoother high-frequency detail (Silk)
- Stereo expansion (Wide)
- Polished finish (Glow)
- Audio-reactive motion display
- Factory and user presets
- AUv3 support
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SL Air is a streamlined AUv3 audio effect for adding brightness, presence, stereo width and a polished top end to vocals, drums, samples and mixes. • Air and Lift for controlled brightness • Silk for smoother high-frequency detail • Wide for stereo expansion • Glow for a polished finish • Audio-reactive motion display • Factory presets and local user presets • AUv3 support for compatible iPad music hosts Works as a standalone preview app and as an AUv3 effect in GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis, BeatMaker 3 and other compatible hosts.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: SL Air at weekly against Sanshin's every 16 months. SL Air also leads on chart position (#197 vs unranked). Sanshin's advantage is price ($1.99 vs $6.99) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Sanshin costs $1.99 and SL Air $6.99 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 Sanshin against 5.0 for SL Air. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.
Sanshin ships an update every 16 months, SL Air weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sanshin | SL Air |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $6.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 25.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 16 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #197 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CRIMSON TECHNOLOGY, Inc | VIACHESLAV ZHILTSOV |
Customer experience
Sanshin
SL Air
In-app purchases
Sanshin
No in-app purchases
SL Air
No in-app purchases
