Comparison

FunkBox Drum Machine vs DM1

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

Head to head
About

FunkBox Drum Machine

This app offers a collection of vintage drum machine sounds for composing, recording, and performing music. It allows users to create custom drum kits, edit patterns, and export loops. It's compatible with various iOS devices and integrates with other music apps and hardware.

Highlights
  • Vintage drum machine sounds
  • Compose, record, and play music
  • Create custom drum boxes
  • Edit and create rhythm patterns
  • Export audio and MIDI loops
  • Audiobus 3 and Inter-App Audio support
  • Ableton Link and CoreMIDI sync
Currently charting
Read full description

Funkbox contains all your favorite vintage drum machine sounds in one funky quirky little app! FunkBox is a full featured drum machine that you can use to compose, record and play your songs live. It has been used in the studio by electronic artists such as Gorillaz (on their album “The Fall”) Tom Middleton (Global Communications, Jedi Knights) and Steve Cobby (Fila Brazillia), and also by alternative/indie musicians such as tUnE-yArDs, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, QOTSA), Anton Newcombe (Brian Jonestown Massacre), and Reggie Pace (Bon Iver, No BS Brass). It's also been used on stage by rock/pop musicians such as Joan Osborne and Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) live in concert. Its quirky vintage sounds, ease of use and advanced features have made it popular with many musicians worldwide who use it to make all sorts of different styles of music. FunkBox was featured in Computer Music Magazine's "Amazing Music Apps" special issue and Electronic Musician magazine's "Attack of the Killer Apps" best music tools for the iPad. 

FunkBox 4.0 features: The look, feel, sound and quirks of a classic vintage drum machine. iOS 10 compatible, iPhone 5 retina graphics compatible, iPad retina graphics compatible.
 Universal app that works great on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Buy it once and you can use it on all your iOS devices. Fourteen classic boxes to choose from, including favorites like the 808, 909, CR-78, LM-2, MRK-2, DX, TOM, and more. 
Create your own custom boxes by mix and matching preset samples, or even import and use your own custom samples. Includes 36 preset rhythm patterns, plus several more bonus banks. Easily edit the included patterns to create your own beats.
 Export your drum loops as audio or midi via email, audio pasteboard, or the iTunes folder. Easily share your custom boxes and patterns via email with your friends, or between your devices. Use Audiobus 3 and Inter-App Audio to exchange live audio with other apps. 
Use Ableton Link or CoreMIDI to sync up with “real” music equipment or other music apps, multi-tasking in the background or on other nearby iOS devices. 
Use the bonus MIDI bass sequencer to play a bassline along with your beat using another iOS app or a “real” hardware synth! 
…and lots more. Need some old school beats? Grab yourself some funk in a box.

About

DM1

Create electronic music with a powerful drum machine app. Features a step sequencer, drum pads, mixer, FX trackpads, and song composer. Offers a vast library of drum kits and instruments, with options to import your own samples.

Highlights
  • Step Sequencer
  • Drum Pads
  • Mixer
  • FX Trackpads
  • Song Composer
  • Instrument Mode
  • Sample Import
Read full description

As electronic musicians ourselves, we, at Fingerlab, have developed DM1 with the intention of delivering the perfect mix between fun playability and powerful sonic capacities. We always keep in mind the importance of a beautiful design with the right balance of powerful abilities while avoiding clumsy, overbusy interfaces. Check our 154 electronic drum kits. 42 classic vintage drum kits plus 112 in-house produced electronic kits, edited and mastered at Fingerlab professional studio. DM1 offers 5 main sections: 1 - THE STEP SEQUENCER frees your imagination with a smart use of the multi-touch screen. Just turn on and off steps in your sequence with the tip of your fingers to create cool beats, or unexpected rhythms! 2 - THE DRUM PADS simply lets you play and record the beat that tickles your fingers. No need to be a first-class drummer, automatic quantize does the work for you. 3 - THE MIXER for quick and subtle sound mixing of your drum kits. Featuring settings for volume, pitch, sample length, custom drum kit element for each channel, mute and solo mode. 4 - THE FX TRACKPADS a creative duo of FX trackpads to distort, modulate and transform your beats. The effects include: Overdrive, Delay, Reverb, Envelope follower, Phaser, Dub Delay, Formant, Texturizer, Robotizer, Filter, Dalek filter, Compressor and Noise Gate. 5 - THE SONG COMPOSER allows you to quickly make a song with the beat patterns you have created. Just drag and drop the patterns onto the timeline. Fast and easy. Specifications: • Retina Display • Graphic design by Jonas Eriksson • Smart ergonomy for fast creativity and fun • 108 vintage and produced drum kits, mastered at in-house Fingerlab Sound Studios • 48 additional drum kits available with In-App Purchases • Instrument mode allowing to add bassline, chord and melody • 3 instruments: Piano, Korg MicroPreset and Cello Strings • 3 other instrument (Clavinet, Marimba, MiniLogue) are available with In-App Purchases • Samples Import from AudioShare, iPod Library, microphone, DropBox, AudioCopy and iTunes shared folder • Step Sequencer with multi-touch matrix • Time signature • 16 or 32 Steps per patterns • Mixer page with pitch, length and level rotary controls, pan controls, choke and custom drum kit per channel • Automation Panel for a precise and intuitive control of any Mixer parameter over time • Duo FX Trackpads for real-time sonic destruction and multi-FX • Live Waveform display for FX pads • FX per track • FX automation (FX parameters and FX per pattern) • 9 Big Drum pads, quantized recording and pitch-bend ribbon • Pitch-bend ribbon automation • Mode song with intuitive editing • High-quality export to SoundCloud, DropBox, AudioShare, Facebook, email, iTunes shared folder or AudioCopy • Separated tracks and AAC encoding export options • The Randomizer tool • Extra fast drum kit loading • Playable pattern selection for extra creativity • Audio background mode •  Audiobus support •  Import & Export your song project (DropBox, Mail, iTunes folder) • Full Midi implementation • Midi export • Inter-App Audio support Watch DM1 video trailer on YouTube Fingerlab's channel: http://www.youtube.com/fingerlab Feel free to let us know what you think and what you'd like to see in the next DM1 update. Enjoy! Watch us : vimeo.com/​fingerlab Visit us : fingerlab.net Follow us : twitter.com/​fingerlab Contact us : contact@fingerlab.net Powered by Fingerlab http://www.fingerlab.net

Screenshots

FunkBox Drum Machine4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FunkBox Drum Machine at none against DM1's 6. FunkBox Drum Machine also leads on price ($4.99 vs $9.99) and chart position (#101 vs unranked). DM1's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.2). On ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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

FunkBox Drum Machine costs $4.99 and DM1 $9.99 up front. DM1 sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. FunkBox Drum Machine asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

DM1 holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 70 and 138 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 81% of FunkBox Drum Machine's written reviews are positive against 72% of DM1's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 17, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
FunkBox Drum Machine versus DM1: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFunkBox Drum MachineDM1
Price$4.99 — better$9.99
Rating4.2 (70 ratings)4.5 (138 ratings) — better
Positive reviews81.1% of reviews — better72.1% of reviews
Number of ratings70138 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#101 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS9.3 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB310 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSynthetic Bits, LLCFingerlab

Customer experience

FunkBox Drum Machine

All ratings70 ratings
Positive81.4%
Neutral4.3%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews180 reviews
Positive81.1%
Neutral8.3%
Negative10.6%

DM1

All ratings138 ratings
Positive89.9%
Neutral2.2%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews240 reviews
Positive72.1%
Neutral8.3%
Negative19.6%

User reviews

FunkBox Drum Machine

From 70 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Excellent little classic drum machine with sequencer
  • 👍 Great for messing around with some beats offline
  • 👍 Usability and interface are superb (even moreso on an iPad)
  • 👍 Samples sound good
  • 👍 Fun, fast and simple keep inspiration at the forefront

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes whenever trying to open settings
  • 🐛 App won't close, have to reboot every time
  • 🐛 Saving patterns not working, crashes
  • 🐛 Cannot access the settings, puts me back to Home Screen
  • 🐛 Midi is a pain, always asks about Bluetooth, doesn't stay set

DM1

From 138 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful and feature-rich
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 💯 Excellent sound quality
  • 🎨 Versatile with many drum kits
  • 🎢 Fun and engaging to play with

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • 🔊 Distortion and audio quality problems
  • 🕰️ Inaccurate tempo and sync issues
  • 🔀 Difficulty with pattern and song management
  • 🔒 Limited import/export and sharing options

Bugs and requests

FunkBox Drum Machine

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Crashes on iOS 7 for iPhone 5s
  • Presets disappearing after update, unable to load saved banks

Requested features

11 requests
  • Please refresh and update the app a bit
  • Add ability to customize drum sounds beyond just volume and panning
  • Implement copy/paste functionality for sequences
  • Allow programming in 3/4 time signature
  • Add ability to adjust the pitch and tuning of drum sounds
Show 6 more
  • Implement song mode to chain patterns together
  • Add ability to export each instrument as a separate WAV file
  • Implement Ableton Link support
  • Add ability to adjust the speed of the roll button
  • Implement more effects and sound manipulation options
  • Add a drop-down list for recalling presets instead of individual buttons

DM1

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes on startup or during use
  • Audio distortion and quality degradation
  • Inaccurate tempo and timing issues
  • Inability to save or load custom patterns
  • Incompatibility with newer iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Custom sample import and kit creation
  • Expanded time signature and subdivision options
  • Independent pattern tempo and effects control
  • Improved MIDI and inter-app connectivity
  • Ability to rearrange and loop song sections

In-app purchases

None

FunkBox Drum Machine

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

DM1

One-time6
  • More Vintage Pack 1$0.99
  • More Acoustic Pack 1$0.99
  • More DM1 Pack 1$0.99
Show 3 more
  • More Styles Pack 1$0.99
  • More Instrument Pack 1$0.99
  • All Packs$3.99

Questions

Is FunkBox Drum Machine free?
FunkBox Drum Machine costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is DM1 free?
DM1 costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, FunkBox Drum Machine or DM1?
DM1 is rated higher. FunkBox Drum Machine averages 4.2 out of 5 from 70 ratings, while DM1 averages 4.5 from 138 ratings.
Do FunkBox Drum Machine or DM1 have ads?
Neither FunkBox Drum Machine nor DM1 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, FunkBox Drum Machine or DM1?
FunkBox Drum Machine ships an update every 2 months, and DM1 every 2 months. Most recently, FunkBox Drum Machine was updated on October 17, 2026 and DM1 on October 17, 2026.

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