Synth vs XPad
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Synth
This app is a polyphonic synthesizer for iPad, allowing users to create unique sounds. It offers professional control and sound design capabilities, and can be integrated with other music production tools.
- Polyphonic synthesis
- Microphone sound creation
- Parameter editor (in-app purchase)
- Tabletop integration
- Mod wheel
- Pitch-bend wheel
- Adjustable delay and distortion
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Synth is an incredible polyphonic synthesizer for your iPad. Create your own sounds with the microphone, and relive all of your Casio SK1 dreams. Synth was used by Gorillaz in recording their album, “The Fall.” Synth’s parameter editor provides professional control and sound design via an in-app purchase. Connect Synth to drum machines, sequencers, and more in Tabletop for iPad. Tabletop is an expandable studio with over a dozen included musical devices. Tabletop is a modular environment where you can mix and match different devices. Select from over 40 devices including samplers, mixers, effects, sequencers and more. Buy only the gear you need from an expanding catalog. Need help? Email support@retronyms.com and we’ll answer your questions. Main Features: - Mod wheel - Pitch-bend wheel - Adjustable delay - Adjustable distortion
XPad
This app provides professional pad sounds for keyboardists, aiming to replicate warm analog synth tones with advanced digital features. It offers intuitive glissando control, real-time sound morphing, and extensive MIDI compatibility for a dynamic playing experience.
- Modern pad sounds
- Realistic glissando control
- Tone Width morphing
- Sensible sound controls
- MIDI remote control
- Extensive sound library search
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XPad is a professional sound module app and Audio Unit v3 plugin with focus on modern pad sounds for iPad. Goal was to get the warm and vibrant sound of analogue synths onto the convenient platform of an iPad and combining those sounds with the benefits of state of the art digital features while still preserving that analogue tone and feeling. Glissando XPad introduces a new way that we were developing for our apps to achieve realistic large interval Glissando. You can glide a tone continuously e.g. from the lowest octave up to the highest octave and vice versa, in any desirable speed and without causing an artificial impression to the listener. We were also thinking about how to improve the usability aspects for playing Glissando in a much more intuitive & convenient way for a keyboard player, while still preserving the player's full control. Foremost this app allows you to mix Glissando with regular polyphonic notes (e.g. chords) simultaneously or switch between these playing styles quickly at any time without leaving your hands off the keyboard. For instance you might be playing and holding a chord with your right hand while playing a Glissando slide with your left hand and punching through the right hand's chord from an octave lower than the chord, up to some octave higher than the chord. Tone Width Replicating some analogue boutique pad synthesizers is nice, but what about having a huge stack of them? That's where "Tone Width" control comes into play. Especially the important pad sounds of this app allow you to morph the sound with the "Tone Width" knob in real-time steplessly between a very thin and clean sound up to a huge and fat tonal sound as if an army of pad synths was working under your finger tips. Sensible Control Controls for the individual sound aspects is good. But it should be in a sensible way. Nothing is hard wired here. Every sound of this app presents controls that make sense for the individual sound. All controls presented are always fine tuned to the individual elements of that sound. You can alter all controls remotely by MIDI e.g. with sliders at your keyboard. The most important controls for each sound are mapped to things that you are most likely using anyway at your keyboard. For instance all sounds use the Aftertouch information of your keyboard to bring more dynamic behaviour into the sound even while just holding some notes. And just grab your modulation wheel at your keyboard to bring in some more variance. Never Lost XPad offers up to 462 sounds, but don't worry, it never lets you down and always assists you finding just the sound you need in a glimpse. You can quickly search for sounds with any combination of several criteria like sound characteristics, articulations, controls and more. Connectivity Like all our apps, XPad is very easy to use and start with. Just connect your keyboard with your iPad and you are ready to go. And of course if needed, you can simply tweak the setup, e.g. use a Bluetooth MIDI wireless connection to your keyboard instead of a cabled one, restrict MIDI input to certain devices or apps, connect to other apps with Inter-App Audio or use the sounds of this app as Audio Unit v3 plugin directly in the DAW app of your choice. Recorder The app comes with a built-in MIDI recorder that allows you to quickly record your musical ideas. You can share them as audio files with other people or transfer them as MIDI files for further work e.g. on your Mac. Sound Sets XPad is divided into 14 optional sound sets of different sound categories and provide up to 462 sounds in total. Even though the app is focused on pad sounds, this is not all this app has to offer sound-wise. The "Atmo" pack for instance contains atmospheric sounds for generating very emotional sound bases and backgrounds e.g. for film and entertainment. The "Perc" sound set contains drums and percussive sounds. The "Silicon" sound set covers synthesizers also offside the pad field, and much more.
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: XPad at Free against Synth's $0.99. XPad also leads on rating (3.8 vs 3.1) and update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 6 months). Synth's advantage is review sentiment (72% vs 50%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 12.0). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases 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
XPad is free to download; Synth costs $0.99 up front. Synth sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and XPad sells 14 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
XPad holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 24 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 72% of Synth's written reviews are positive against 50% of XPad's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Synth ships an update every 6 months, XPad every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Synth | XPad |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.1 (20 ratings) | 3.8 (24 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 71.6% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 20 | 24 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 4 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 1.2 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Retronyms Inc | Christian Schoenebeck d/b/a Crudebyte |
Customer experience
Synth
XPad
Bugs and requests
Synth
Reported bugs
2 issues- Pitch bend control reverts back to default
- Occasional crashes or freezes
Requested features
4 requests- Add MIDI support
- Integrate with Tabletop and other music apps
- Implement ADSR, filters, LFO, and other synthesis controls
- Add recording and export capabilities
XPad
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Synth
- Patch Editor$0.99
- Synth Skin Pack$4.99
XPad
- Weirdo Sound Set$2.99
- Pluck Sound Set$2.99
- Metal Sound Set$3.99
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- Bass Sound Set$3.99
- Choir Sound Set$3.99
- Altro Sound Set$3.99
- Organ Sound Set$3.99
- Percussive Sound Set$3.99
- Silicon Sound Set$4.99
- Vintage Sound Set$4.99
- Atmo Sound Set$5.99
- Space Sound Set$5.99
- Nature Sound Set$5.99
- Sequence Sound Set$5.99









