Drumline vs Ensemble Composer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Drumline
This app offers a comprehensive virtual drumline experience with realistic sounds and instruments. It includes practice tools, tuning features, and engaging games to hone drumming skills. Designed for serious percussionists, it provides a professional marching experience on your mobile device.
- Realistic snare, tenor, bass, and cymbal sounds
- Xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone instruments
- Adjustable metronome with various modes
- Drumhead tuning functionality
- Memory and speed challenge games
- Practice pad tools
Read full descriptionHide full description
Snare drum, Tenors, Basses, Cymbals, Xylophone, Marimba, Vibraphone, Metronome, Drumhead Tuner, Challenges, and Practice Pad Tools!!! 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 and sits in the top 50 music apps most days. 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. If you're reading this you're late. 1000s of drummers before you downloaded this app and continue to download it every day: • All battery audio samples are professional recordings by DCI DVD sound engineer Jamie Vanadia at NoiseFloor Ltd. in Chicago • All front ensemble samples are courtesy of University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples (MIS) project (you guys rock!) • In Snare: toggle between dynamics and standard modes • In Basses and Tenors, toggle between Pro•Mark nylon and soft mallets while playing • In Cymbals, perform crashes, crash chokes, taps, sizzles, sizzle chokes, hi-hats, and zings • In Xylophone toggle between full keyboard and split layouts • In Marimba toggle between full keyboard and split layouts • In Vibraphone toggle between full keyboard and split layouts and operate foot pedal • Choose a color theme to matches your drumline • Play along with a metronome 30-300 bpm in wood block, metal, or "duts" mode • Configure the practice metronome with subdivision and offbeats and all that sweetness you need • Do the impossible: Tune your tenors or basses • Test your phrasing memory with the memory game • Test your BPM knowledge in the line leader game • Test your single stroke roll speed in the Speed Test challenge with your drum pad • Blazing fast touch responsiveness, literally to the limit of iOS • It's a whole drumline in your pocket for less than a drum key. Are you kidding?! Get all this when you buy now! Like no tricks. Snare: Dynasty's MS-XD14 Marching Snare Drum Tenors (5 drum and corps config): Dynasty's MT-680234 Tenor Drums in Corps Configuration with 6 inch and 8 inch shot drums Basses: Dynasty's MB-18 thru MB-26 Bass Drums - 18", 20", 22", 24", 26" Crash Cymbals: Sabian's Synergy HHX Cymbals - 18" and 20" Plus NEW: Xylophone, Marimba, and Vibraphone Memory Game • Test your drumming memory through sound and visuals • Test yourself on Snare, Tenors or Basses • Drumline captains, this will put your titles to the test! Metronome • 30-300 BPM Metronome • Subdivision of quarter, eighths, sixteenths, and triplets • NEW Save and store presets Drumhead Tuner • Hit-and-hold detection captures pitch instantly and displays for 5 seconds • Pre-configured for DCI specs with Low, Standard, and High tuning modes • Smart harmonic correction finds the true fundamental, even on bass drums • Built for marching percussion - no piano tuner nonsense, just drums Line Leader Game • Put your BPM senses to the test • You get 8 beats, then you pick which of the 3 BPMs was that tempo • The further you go the hard it gets! Speed Test • Challenge yourself to see how many taps you can do in 30 seconds! Learn more at: http://drumlineapp.com Join other drummers on Facebook (15000 likes and counting!!!): http://facebook.com/drumlineapp Or X: http://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. :)
Ensemble Composer
Create custom drumline music with realistic recorded sounds. Compose street beats, stand jams, or entire musical books. Play along, practice, share, and edit your compositions.
- Compose drumline music
- Realistic recorded drum sounds
- Play along and practice
- Share and edit compositions
- Support for any time signature
- Customizable rhythms
Read full descriptionHide full description
A whole drumline in the palm of your hand! Compose a street beat, a stand jam, or even your whole book. Play along, practice, share, and edit. With amazing real recorded drum sounds and the ability to create any rhythm over any time signature, this is the real deal. Compose and play along with the actual battery drum line sounds of the Paul Rennick 2012 Santa Clara Vanguard, as recorded by bass tech Brian Lowe - tuned the way they sounded on finals night. Best used with Headphones About Telephonic Amusements: Nicholas Wheeler, software engineer, marched Sky Ryders, Velvet Knights, 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. Like us at https://www.facebook.com/DrumlineApps
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Drumline at $4.99 against Ensemble Composer's $14.99. Drumline also leads on chart position (#25 vs #194) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 275). Ensemble Composer's advantage is review sentiment (77% vs 39%) and rating (4.6 vs 4.1). On ads, monetization model, device support and iOS requirement 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 Ensemble Composer $14.99 up front. Drumline sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Ensemble Composer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Ensemble Composer holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.2K and 275 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 39% of Drumline's written reviews are positive against 77% of Ensemble Composer's.
Drumline ships an update every 4 months, Ensemble Composer every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Drumline | Ensemble Composer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $14.99 |
| Rating | 4.1 (1.2K ratings) | 4.6 (275 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 39.2% of reviews | 77.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.2K — better | 275 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #25 — better | #194 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 171 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | John Ostler | N. Wheeler |
Customer experience
Drumline
Ensemble Composer
User reviews
Drumline
From 1.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great app for practicing percussion
- 👍 Realistic drum and cymbal sounds
- 🥁 Variety of percussion instruments (snare, tenors, bass)
Room to improve
- 🐛 Unresponsive or inaccurate hit detection on drums
- 🔧 Bugs with certain drum sounds (e.g. buzzing tenors, incorrect bass pitches)
- 📱 Compatibility issues on newer phones
- 🤔 Confusing in-app purchase model
Ensemble Composer
From 275 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎵 Authentic drum sounds and audio quality (older versions)
- ✍️ Intuitive composition interface for writing cadences
- 📱 All-in-one drumline app combining multiple sections
- 💾 Export functionality to sheet music and audio formats
- 🎯 Useful for educators and students to practice rhythms
Room to improve
- 🐛 Severe audio quality degradation after recent update
- 🐛 Choppy scrolling and laggy performance
- 🐛 Audio stuttering and cutting off during playback
- 🐛 Files not saving or disappearing after updates
- 🐛 Backward compatibility issues with legacy files
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.)
Ensemble Composer
Reported bugs
16 issues- New update prevents opening older files
- Audio stutters and cuts off in faster rhythms
- Triplet rolls don't sound even
- Bass drum subdivisions not working
- Tenor section drums moved to incorrect positions
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Scroll feature is choppy and laggy
- Rhythmic accuracy issues
- Cymbal sounds bleed into each other
- App crashes with certain subdivisions
- Polyrhythm and odd time signature issues
- Saving functionality fails intermittently
- Split feature freezes and causes progress loss
- Files duplicate unexpectedly
- Export format incorrect (.mxl instead of .xml)
- Tempo synchronization issues
- App crashes on startup
Requested features
16 requests- Revert snare sounds to pre-update quality
- Multiple sound option choices for drums
- Hi-hat option for cymbals
- Single tenor drum section option
- Separate tempos within drum sections
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Undo/redo functionality
- Auto-save feature
- iCloud or cloud backup support
- Different drum tuning options
- Legato and staccato buzz options
- Smoother and longer buzz roll sounds
- Sixtet tenor configuration option
- Video export/share functionality
- In-depth tutorial documentation
- Accent dynamics improvements
- Rim click sounds for tenors
In-app purchases
Drumline
- Memory Game$0.99
- Pro Version$1.99
Ensemble Composer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Drumline free?
Is Ensemble Composer free?
Which has better reviews, Drumline or Ensemble Composer?
Do Drumline or Ensemble Composer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Drumline or Ensemble Composer?
Which is more popular, Drumline or Ensemble Composer?
Other comparisons















