iAmDrums vs Sound With Bones
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
iAmDrums
Create and play drum beats anytime, anywhere with a variety of drum kits. Features a loop maker for sequencing custom grooves and realistic drum feel with velocity and expression controls.
- Loop Maker Mode
- Create and sequence custom grooves
- Save grooves to KickStart library
- 20 diverse drum kits
- Velocity and expression controls
- Realistic drum feel
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It actually lets you play the drums. Not watch ads. iAmDrums is a real-feeling drum kit for iPhone and iPad. Open it and play: no ads, no subscription, no account, nothing else to buy. One price unlocks all 20 kits and every feature. SOUNDS LIKE REAL DRUMS Every kit responds to where you hit it: • Hit closer to the center for a louder beat, further out for a softer one • Hit the snare on the edge for a rim shot • Hit the center of the ride to ring the bell • Hit the center of the hi-hat for a pedal mute 20 KITS, ALL INCLUDED • Rock & band: Rock, Acoustic, Punk, Rage, Rebel, Radio, Blue • Electronic: House, Rave, Lo-Fi, Minimal, Trip Hop, 808, Analog, Industrial, Dub Step • Something different: Stomp, Orchestral, BeatBox, DrumCircle DRUMS IN YOUR POCKET For everyone who drums on everything: desks, knees, steering wheels. Long commute, time to kill, or a great beat just came on? Drum out the rhythms in your head, anywhere. MAKE YOUR OWN GROOVES Program a groove in Loop Maker, save it to your KickStart library, and play it back on any kit. PAY ONCE. NO ADS. NO TRACKING. No ads, ever. No subscription. No sign-in. We don't collect any data. Buy it once and it's yours. Tip: for the full punch of the kick and toms, play with headphones or external speakers.
Sound With Bones
Create unique musical instruments by drawing physical structures. Hear your creations sing, then manipulate their mass and stiffness to shape the sound. Record and edit performances, or export your creations as audio files.
- Draw physical instruments
- Shape sound by adjusting mass and stiffness
- Record and edit performances
- Export audio and editable workshops
- Two-handed play with damping and pinning
- Learn physics through sound experiments
- AUv3 instrument for music apps
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Draw a structure you can play. Hear it sing, then record how you change it while it rings. Sound With Bones is a physical modeling instrument built from your drawings. A sketch becomes connected joints whose mass and stiffness shape the sound. Pluck a joint, cut a ringing connection, then repair it and hear the structure change. HEAR YOUR DRAWING SING Tap Listen and your drawing plays a whole song, tuned from its own resonances. Change the shape and the same song sounds new. Soft Geometry, an original, and Twinkle, Twinkle are free. SHAPE SOUND BY LISTENING Choose a brighter or less bright sound. The Workshop proposes small changes to a joint's mass or a connection's stiffness. Compare each edit with the same strike, reference pitch, duration and listening level. Keep a version or return to your original. CHANGE THE INSTRUMENT AS IT PLAYS In Workshop > Perform, record the strikes, cuts and repairs you play. Keep the take as editable actions on a beat timeline. Move an action, adjust the tempo and replay it from the drawing captured at the start. A cut changes the sound already ringing. You can also arrange actions by hand. With Plus, export the performance as WAV with its editable workshop. MAKE A FAMILY OF RELATED SOUNDS Create soft, firm, edge and broken variations from one drawing. Edit the strike location, force, softness and connection cut, and hear each one. With Plus, export named 24-bit stereo WAV files at 48 kHz together with the workshop, drawing and recipes. PLAY WITH TWO HANDS Hold one joint while another finger plucks the shape. Damp removes energy where that joint moves. Pin constrains the held joint and changes its resonances. Release it to hear the original structure again. LEARN BY LISTENING Predict what lighter joints will do, hear the natural resonance change, then try an unfamiliar drawing. Isolate one vibration mode or listen to local damping. Save your prediction, measured result and both sounds. Reopen the exact comparison even after changing your current drawing. These experiments use the same physical model as your instrument. BRING YOUR DRAWINGS INTO A MUSIC APP The included AUv3 instrument responds to MIDI notes, velocity and sustain in compatible hosts. Open an exported drawing or workshop in the plug-in. Its drawing is saved with the host project. KEEP YOUR WORK Save instruments, recordings and workshop versions locally. Share editable drawings and workshops through Files. Export recordings as M4A, or import supported audio into your library. Imported recordings remain audio clips; they do not become physical instruments. SOUND WITH BONES PLUS Drawing, playing, cutting, recording, saving, sharing, Workshop comparisons, performances, learning and the AUv3 instrument are free. Plus adds: • 8 more songs, including Für Elise, Canon in D, Bach's Prelude in C and Gymnopédie No. 1 • 8 sculpted shapes: Ribcage, Wishbone, Shell, Bell, Harp, Kalimba, Star and Web • Recordings up to 10 minutes (free recordings stop at 1 minute) • 24-bit WAV export of sound families and Workshop performances • New songs and shapes as they are added Plus is available as a yearly subscription with a 7-day free trial, a monthly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm, or when the free trial ends. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. No account or microphone access is required. Synthesis and recording run on your device. Synthesized sounds come from the drawing's physical model. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://sound-with-bones.netlify.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Sound With Bones at Free against iAmDrums's $3.99. Sound With Bones also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 58%) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months). iAmDrums's advantage is ratings volume (16 vs 3) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). 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
Sound With Bones is free to download; iAmDrums costs $3.99 up front. iAmDrums sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Sound With Bones sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for iAmDrums against 5.0 for Sound With Bones. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iAmDrums has 16 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 58% of iAmDrums's written reviews are positive against 100% of Sound With Bones's.
iAmDrums ships an update every 3 months, Sound With Bones weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iAmDrums | Sound With Bones |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.9 (16 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 58.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 16 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 50 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rubotic, Inc. | No Worries! Lifestyle, LLC |
Customer experience
iAmDrums
Sound With Bones
Bugs and requests
iAmDrums
Reported bugs
13 issues- Trip Hop drum kit invisible but audio plays
- Drums not loading on download
- Black screen on iPhone 11 Pro
- Restore purchases button non-functional
- Purchased kits becoming locked after update
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- App crashes when selecting demo
- High hat making different noises during recording
- Latency/slow response time
- No sound output on certain devices
- App crashes when overwriting loops
- Incompatibility with iOS 6 and older devices
- Sequencer panel missing play button
- Double-kick and drum roll functionality broken
Requested features
15 requests- Left-handed drum kit option
- Extended bar/measure support (beyond 32 steps)
- Higher BPM limit (above 160)
- Additional cymbal types (China, Stack, Splash)
- Custom drum kit creation
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- More drum kit styles (metal, trap, EDM, techno)
- Double-tap drum roll support
- Adjustable drum kit layout
- Volume mixing in play mode
- Record mode without continuous playback
- Audio export functionality (.wav, AudioBus, IAA, MIDI support)
- Time signature customization (3/4 time, etc.)
- Start/stop/pause controls
- Ability to move drum sections for finger play
- Multiple sequence playback in succession
Sound With Bones
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
iAmDrums
- Unlock All Kits$0.99
Sound With Bones
- Plus Monthly$4.991 Month
- Plus Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Plus Lifetime$59.99









