Drumline vs Bass Line Composer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Drumline
This app provides a comprehensive marching percussion experience, allowing users to write and play drum notation, design drill charts, and practice conducting. It features realistic sounds from top brands and tools like a metronome and drumhead tuner.
- Write and play drum notation
- Design and visualize drill charts
- Conducting program with tempo control
- Realistic percussion instrument sounds
- Metronome with subdivisions
- Drumhead tuner
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Snare drum, Tenors, Basses, Cymbals, Xylophone, Marimba, Vibraphone, Write Notation, Charts, Drum Major, Metronomes, Drumhead Tuner, and Challenges!!! In your pocket for the cost of a drum key. This app isn't for people who like drums or are drum-curious. This app is for those who can't stop drumming on anything and everything around them to the point where they are considered "disruptive" to their family, friends, and neighbors. Honored by Apple as "New & Noteworthy" in the Music apps category. This isn't some free tap app with canned sound effects and busted graphics. We're bringing the world's best drumming hardware to your fingertips. We've partnered with Dynasty USA Drums, Pro-Mark Drumsticks, Evans Drumheads, and Sabian Cymbals to deliver an optimized marching experience directly to your iPhone and iPad. And now you can write it, play it, and march it. Are you kidding?! WRITE NOTATION That thing you've been tapping on every available surface? Write it down. Build snare, tenor, bass, and cymbal parts with accents, diddles, flams, sticking, dynamics, and tuplets. Go from mf to f with a crescendo. Hit play and hear your battery bring it back. Save and share editable .perc scores, or export PDF and PNG sheet music. CHARTS A whole drill book, right here. Place performers, build sets, choose the counts, add your music, and watch the transitions in 3D. Check the drill from overhead, orbit, judges, or a performer's view. Basketball courts, WGI floors, custom spaces, and .drillbook sharing. Yes, we're moving feet now too. DRUM MAJOR Somebody's got to keep this thing together. Build a conducting program with different tempos, meters, dynamics, and count-ins. Set a countdown so you can put your device down, then play to the hands. That tempo change isn't going to practice itself. If you're reading this you're late. 1000s of drummers before you downloaded this app: • Battery samples professionally recorded by DCI DVD sound engineer Jamie Vanadia at NoiseFloor Ltd. in Chicago. • Front ensemble samples courtesy of the University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples (MIS) project. You guys rock! • In Snare: toggle between dynamics and standard modes. • In Basses and Tenors: switch between Pro-Mark nylon and soft mallets. • In Cymbals: crashes, chokes, taps, sizzles, sizzle chokes, hi-hats, and zings. • Full and split keyboard layouts for xylophone, marimba, and vibes. Foot pedal on vibes, too. • Color themes to match your drumline. THE HARDWARE Snare: Dynasty MS-XD14 Marching Snare Drum. Tenors: Dynasty MT-680234, five- and six-drum configurations. Basses: Dynasty MB-18 through MB-26, 18", 20", 22", 24", 26". Cymbals: Sabian Synergy HHX, 18" and 20". METRONOMES 30–300 BPM in wood block, metal, or duts. Quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and triplet subdivisions. Offbeats and all that sweetness you need. Save your presets for the next rep. DRUMHEAD TUNER Do the impossible: tune your tenors or basses. Hit-and-hold pitch detection, Low/Standard/High tuning targets, and smart harmonic correction. No piano tuner nonsense, just drums. CHALLENGES Test your phrasing memory on snare, tenors, or basses. Put your BPM senses to the test in Line Leader. Grab your practice pad and find out how many single strokes you can play in 30 seconds in Speed Test. Drumline captains, this will put your titles to the test! It's a whole drumline in your pocket for less than a drum key. Get all this when you buy now! Like no tricks. Buy once. No subscription. No in-app purchases. Learn more: https://drumlineapp.com Join the line: https://facebook.com/drumlineapp Or X: https://twitter.com/drumlineapp Yo! Don't use real drumsticks on your device... you'll crack your screen and your friends will point and laugh at you! Let's try not to make this the bad, 1985. :)
Bass Line Composer
Compose and play along with custom bass drum lines. Practice splits, create new beats, and refine your exercises with realistic drum sounds. This app allows you to experiment with speed and timing for your musical ideas.
- Compose bass drum lines
- Play along with compositions
- Practice splits and interspersions
- Create and edit exercises
- Adjust tempo (speed up/slow down)
- Realistic bass drum sounds
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Yo, Bass drummers! Got a split in your head that you've just got to hear right now? Got a line or a lick or an exercise to put down? Compose it and play along with the new Bass Line Composer App! Now you’ve got a whole bass drum line to play along with. Practice splits and interp. Write out your exercises or make up new ones. Put down that new street beat that’s been bouncing around your brain. Speed it up, slow it down, try it out, edit it, and max it out! Compose and play along with the actual bass drum sounds of the Paul Rennick 2012 Santa Clara Vanguard, as recorded by bass tech Brian Lowe - tuned the way they’ll sound on finals night. Best used with Headphones About Telephonic Amusements: Nicholas Wheeler, software engineer, marched Sky Ryders, VK, and UNT - taught at Pioneer and UNT; David Croy, designer, marched Sky Ryders and tech’ed under Paul Rennick at Sky, VK, and has provided visual consulting for UNT and Dynasty Drums.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bass Line Composer at 4.7 against Drumline's 4.1. Bass Line Composer also leads on review sentiment (63% vs 40%) and price ($1.99 vs $4.99). Drumline's advantage is ratings volume (1.2K vs 181). On ads, in-app purchases, chart position and device support 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
Drumline costs $4.99 and Bass Line Composer $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bass Line Composer holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Drumline has 1.2K ratings behind it against 181, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 40% of Drumline's written reviews are positive against 63% of Bass Line Composer's.
Drumline ships an update every 4 months, Bass Line Composer every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.
| Parameter | Drumline | Bass Line Composer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.1 (1.2K ratings) | 4.7 (181 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 39.7% of reviews | 63.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.2K — better | 181 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #110 — better | #130 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 183 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 4+ |
| Developer | John Ostler | N. Wheeler |
Customer experience
Drumline
Bass Line Composer
Bugs and requests
Drumline
Reported bugs
4 issues- Drums not registering hits correctly
- Tenors and bass drums not playing proper pitches
- Cymbals not functioning as expected
- App crashing or not producing any sound
Requested features
4 requests- Add landscape mode for better playability
- Allow customization of drum tuning and sound
- Implement a metronome and ability to play along with music
- Add more advanced drumming techniques (rolls, diddles, etc.)
Bass Line Composer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Drumline
No in-app purchases
Bass Line Composer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Drumline free?
Is Bass Line Composer free?
Which has better reviews, Drumline or Bass Line Composer?
Do Drumline or Bass Line Composer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Drumline or Bass Line Composer?
Which is more popular, Drumline or Bass Line Composer?
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