Steve Roach Immersion I vs Mazetools Soniface
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Steve Roach Immersion I
Create infinite ambient music soundscapes from the soundworlds of pioneer Steve Roach. This interactive tool allows you to mix loops to craft the perfect atmosphere for deep listening, meditation, work, reading, or sleep.
- Create custom soundscapes from source loops
- Infinite mix combinations from five loops
- Save and control custom mixes
- Evolve function for new mixes
- Background playback
- CD quality sound
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A re-release of the classic Immersion Station App. Immersion Station brings you infinite ambient music, created from the soundworlds of ambient music pioneer Steve Roach. Use Immersion Station to create the perfect atmosphere for deep listening, meditation and supportive sound spaces for working at the computer, reading, and sleeping. Immersion Station is an elegant interactive sound immersion tool. Create infinite mix combinations from five different loops of varied lengths for endless playback. These sounds have been extracted from the heart of Steve Roach’s soundworlds and carefully chosen for a congruent relationship allowing the user to sculpt constantly changing ambient music. The Immersion Station interface and application, created by Software Artist Eric Freeman (working closely with Steve), allows you to mix loops using a simple, intuitive, interactive and organic interface that is reflective of Steve's work. You can visit http://www.immersionstation.com for a complete demonstration. FEATURES * Easily create custom soundscapes from Steve Roach's source loops * Includes 80 megabytes of loops custom crafted by Steve Roach * Includes five custom mixes from Steve Roach * Each mix provides constantly changing ambient music * Save your own mixes at any time * Control the volume or stereo pan of each loop * Incubate new mixes using the evolve function * Plays music in the background with iOS 4 * Optimized with HD Images for iPhone 4 Retina display * CD quality sound * Supports Apple's remote interface for controlling playback * User's guide provided in the App and online Recommended for headphones or external speakers. ATTENTION iPhone/iPod touch 3.1 Users iOS 3.1 does not support stereo pan, but that's okay, the Immersion station still sounds wonderful. To enable control of stereo pan, just freely upgrade to iOS 4.
Mazetools Soniface
Explore sound and music visually with a unique motion-controlled interface. Create and manipulate audio and visual elements using gestures, touch, and body tracking. Offers a modular approach to instruments and advanced automation for creative expression.
- Visual sound and music exploration
- Motion interface for gesture control
- Modular synth, sampler, and rhythm modules
- Generative Gridsynth synthesizer
- Advanced controller automation
- MIDI input/output and Ableton Link
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Mazetools opens up a unique approach to music and creativity. It's about exploring sounds in a new way, experiencing them visually, changing them through gestures, coming across something in the process, a sound, a melody, a groove, a song... For the first time, we have integrated an interface that allows you to control sound through movement. This is done through the camera of your device and ML-based body recognition. It enables new musical experiences and shared creative moments. Mazetools are unique in their operation and complex in their own way. For some it's a welcome change, for others it's too crazy, for some it's just the right introduction to the world of sound. There are currently two Mazetools: Mutant and Soniface. Mutant is comparable to a loop machine and works with a defined number of instruments. It produces results quickly, but thanks to the Hypercube it offers the possibility to change everything with a swipe and to hear sounds that always surprise us. Soniface, on the other hand, is more modular when it comes to adding instruments. The settings of the synth, sampler and rhythm modules go into great detail. An important feature is the Gridsynth, an area of lines that correspond to a scale over several octaves. Automation plays a major role in Soniface: all instruments and their controllers can be controlled via LFOs, touch and camera-based body tracking. Key Features - Creative space to explore sound, music and geometric visuals - Experiment with audio and visual objects and create your own scenes - Operate controllers and play instruments via multitouch - Motion interface to control instruments and parameters through gestures, movements and dance - Cross-platform compatibility of project files - Simple design for mobile devices, complex (regular) design for tablets and desktops - Advanced in-app guide, FAQ & help function in English and German Instruments - Gridsynth - A generative, visual synthesizer for drones and melodies incl. sequencer & arpeggiator - Rhythm sequencer for sample- and synth-based basses and drums - Spatial & granular soundscape sampler incl. mic input, sample library and file integration - Key interface for cross-instrument tonality incl. progression sequencer - Interactive LivePad and keyboard for Gridsynth, Bass & Sampler Automation & Connectivity - Advanced controller automation incl. multi-touch editor, body tracking interface - MIDI input and output - Master FX and Ableton Link - Audiobus & Inter-App Audio (experimental support) - Normal mouse and keyboard support Mazetools Soniface is free worldwide and without advertising. You can support our work, our vision and all Soniface users by purchasing Soniface Pro, which includes additionally: - Unlimited instruments (Mazes) - Pattern mode to create unlimited scenes for songs and performances - Visual mode with Airplay live video output for performance & VJing - Unlimited internal audio recording (.wav, up to 7.1 on desktop). We do our best to avoid bugs. So feel free to write us bugs and problems. Much more content, terms of use, credits and FAQ are in the app's guide. About Mazetools We are Stephan and Jakob, when we were 13 in 1999, we exchanged our first beat loops on floppy disks and wrote raps on them. Today we are still fascinated by sound, release our music and realize multimedia performances. You can find more information on Ectoplastic.com. With this background, we share a lot of practical experience with Mazetools, from generative sound & visual patches to the development of multi-touch & motion tracking interfaces and VR sound development. We use this technological core to empower creativity, make musical expression inclusive and thus democratize electronic music. We are still within this process, but there is a lot of potential! We invite you to join us. Every purchase directly supports, every positive review, post and constructive feedback. Thank you very much!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Mazetools Soniface at free against Steve Roach Immersion I's paid. Mazetools Soniface also leads on update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 43 months). Steve Roach Immersion I's advantage is review sentiment (90% vs 60%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). On price, rating, ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Steve Roach Immersion I against 4.5 for Mazetools Soniface. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 27 and 27 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 90% of Steve Roach Immersion I's written reviews are positive against 60% of Mazetools Soniface's.
Steve Roach Immersion I ships an update every 43 months, Mazetools Soniface every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Steve Roach Immersion I | Mazetools Soniface |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (27 ratings) — better | 4.5 (27 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 90.4% of reviews — better | 60.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 27 | 27 |
| Update frequency | Every 43 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 121 MB | 478 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Eric Freeman | Ectoplastic |
Customer experience
Steve Roach Immersion I
Mazetools Soniface
Bugs and requests
Steve Roach Immersion I
Reported bugs
8 issues- My mixes scroll issue
- Pause on lock screen issue
- Cannot save mixes anymore (iOS 7)
- Cannot enter track name when saving
- Default title save doesn't work
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- No new mix appears in list after saving
- Save new mix doesn't work on iOS7
- Scroll on loop selection page doesn't allow reaching mixes at the bottom
Requested features
48 requests- Sleep timer function
- More loops available
- More spheres
- More stations for variety
- Ability to pause on lock screen
Show 43 moreShow fewer
- More complexity
- More spheres, especially chants or angelic choirs
- Customizable spheres
- More sphere-loops added
- More presets (by composer) and/or tracks
- Automatic updates of loops and other acoustic components
- Option to keep screen lit while charging
- Access to additional loops (paid option)
- iPad version
- More sounds
- Sleep timer
- More options for setting a sleep timer
- More sounds please
- More balls/loops
- Reverb adjuster
- More sound orbs
- Upgrade to evolve feature (randomly turn spheres on/off)
- Add more balls
- Put your own wallpaper (photo) in the background
- Mixes run in the background
- Background play is awesome
- Evolve feature changes sounds, not just mix
- More spheres, especially chants or angelic choirs
- Customizable spheres
- More sphere-loops added
- More presets (by composer) and/or tracks
- Automatic updates of loops and other acoustic components
- Option to keep screen lit while charging
- Access to additional loops (paid option)
- iPad version
- More sounds
- Sleep timer
- More options for setting a sleep timer
- More sounds please
- More balls/loops
- Reverb adjuster
- More sound orbs
- Upgrade to evolve feature (randomly turn spheres on/off)
- Add more balls
- Put your own wallpaper (photo) in the background
- Mixes run in the background
- Background play is awesome
- Evolve feature changes sounds, not just mix
Mazetools Soniface
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Steve Roach Immersion I
No in-app purchases
Mazetools Soniface
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Steve Roach Immersion I free?
Is Mazetools Soniface free?
Which has better reviews, Steve Roach Immersion I or Mazetools Soniface?
Do Steve Roach Immersion I or Mazetools Soniface have ads?
Which is updated more often, Steve Roach Immersion I or Mazetools Soniface?
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