Comparison

Skratcher vs LoopBud

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Skratcher

Transform your device into a professional DJ setup. Load music, scratch vinyl, apply effects, and mix beats with realistic physics and low-latency audio. Record your sets and even connect with another device for a synchronized dual-deck experience.

Highlights
  • Realistic virtual turntable with touch scratching
  • Real-time audio effects suite
  • Sound effects pad with custom import
  • Crossfader with adjustable curves
  • Beat loop import and playback
  • Tempo and pitch control with Key Lock
  • Mix recording to WAV
Features
Read full description

Skratcher turns your iPhone or iPad into a full-featured DJ turntable. Load songs from your music library, scratch vinyl, mix beats, and perform live -- all with realistic turntable physics and low-latency audio. TURNTABLE & SCRATCHING Spin a realistic virtual platter with accurate 33-1/3 RPM rotation and touch-based scratching. Choose from three platter feel presets -- Snap, Medium, or Heavy (Technics 1200-style momentum) -- and switch between Smooth or Raw scratch texture to dial in your sound. A circular waveform display at the center of the jog wheel shows your position in the track in real time. EFFECTS & EQ Shape your sound with a suite of real-time audio effects: - Digital Delay with adjustable time, feedback, and mix - Bandpass Filter with an interactive 4-point curve editor - 10-Band Graphic EQ with LED-lit vertical faders - 3-Band EQ (Bass, Mid, Treble) - Reverb with 13 factory presets from Small Room to Epic Cathedral - Decimator (Bitcrusher) with 16 lo-fi presets including 8-Bit, AM Radio, and Broken Glitch SOUND EFFECTS PAD Trigger 12 built-in retro sound effects -- Horn, Stinger, Scratch, Backspin, Siren, Laser, Explosion, Alarm, Phone, Pew, Phaser, and Warp -- all generated by a procedural audio synthesis engine. Import your own sounds into custom SFX slots. CROSSFADER & TRANSFORMER Mix between your track and scratch samples using four crossfader curves: Scratch, Cut, Linear, and Constant Power. Enable Hamster Switch for reversed fader direction. The Transformer (XFRM) button provides instant audio cuts for advanced scratch techniques with sub-millisecond response. BEAT LOOPS Five built-in beat loops span Hip Hop (90 BPM), Boom Bap (85 BPM), Trap (140 BPM), House (120 BPM), and Breakbeat (100 BPM). Import your own loops from your music library or the Files app. SCRATCH SAMPLES Two built-in scratch samples (subject to change) plus the ability to import your own. Toggle between scratching the built-in/custom scratch samples or the main deck's audio. TEMPO & PITCH Automatic BPM detection analyzes every track on load. Key Lock lets you adjust tempo up to +/-50% while preserving pitch. Fine-tune pitch independently for beatmatching. RECORDING Record your DJ mixes to WAV using the built-in REC button. Load and replay your recordings directly in the app. MICROPHONE Connect a microphone for live DJ announcements and voice mixing with adjustable volume control. APPLE MUSIC Apple Music subscribers can browse, search, and load songs from the full Apple Music catalog. Non-subscribers can load 30-second preview clips for mixing. SHAZAM Identify the currently playing song with one tap. Shazam fetches the track title, artist, and album artwork automatically. LYRICS View time-synced lyrics as your track plays, powered by LRCLIB. Supports synced scrolling, plain text fallback, and instrumental track detection. P2P DUAL DECK MIXER Connect two iPhones on the same Wi-Fi network and turn them into a synchronized dual-deck DJ setup. Each device runs an independent turntable while sharing live audio, playback position, crossfader state, and cue points in real time. Hand one phone to a friend and mix back to back. CARPLAY Full CarPlay support lets you browse your library, select tracks, and control playback from your car's display. IMPORT & FILE SUPPORT Load audio from your music library or import files from Downloads, iCloud Drive, or other locations. Supports MP3, WAV, AIFF, M4A, FLAC, CAF, AC3, and more. DESIGNED FOR IPHONE & IPAD Landscape-optimized layout on iPhone with a center jog wheel and side control panels. Expanded iPad layout with a full mixer panel, larger touch targets, and dedicated effects controls. 46 LANGUAGES Fully localized in 46 languages. SCRATCH. MIX. CREATE.

About

LoopBud

Record, loop, and jam with unlimited MIDI patterns and bars. Features two recording modes, quantization, and tempo control for live performance effects. Export MIDI for further editing in other applications.

Highlights
  • Unlimited MIDI patterns and bars
  • Add and New recording modes
  • Quantization with adjustable levels
  • Tempo control for live effects
  • Single bar focus for recording/looping
  • MIDI export for external editing
Features
Read full description

LoopBud is a super simple yet very powerful MIDI recorder and looper. You can work with unlimited patterns. Although the 4-bar loops are very fun, you can work with an unlimited number of bars on each pattern! LoopBud has two record modes, Add mode and New mode. The "add mode" keeps adding new notes on each loop-cycle. The "new mode" clears out the previous recording and lets you record freshly on each cycle. You can work very fast with those modes. If you make a mistake, don't worry, you can use the "undo" option and get everything back! LoopBud has quantization enabled by default. You can toggle quantizing by pressing the "quantize" button on the top-left side. You can also set the level of quantization from the settings menu. If you want to speed up or slow down the clock, you can do so by pressing the "clock" button on the top-left side. You can achieve different effects on your live performances without a new recording. You can also focus on a single bar by pressing the bar measure on the top. You can either record or loop a single bar - which is a unique feature of LoopBud. In the settings menu, you can edit the piano roll's lowest and highest notes. The notes on the piano roll is not editable. However, you can export MIDI from the settings menu, and do editing on your favorite piano roll editor app! LoopBud is not an audio app, it's a MIDI app. You need to connect a MIDI input and a MIDI output for LoopBud to work. You can do so from the settings menu in the standalone app. You can use the MIDI matrix editor on your DAW if you are using the AUv3 plugin. LoopBud also supports Ableton Link on the standalone app.

Screenshots

Skratcher4 screens
LoopBud4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Skratcher at 5.0 against LoopBud's 3.8. Skratcher also leads on price ($4.99 vs $5.99). LoopBud's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 92 months) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On review sentiment, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Skratcher costs $4.99 and LoopBud $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Skratcher holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 14 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 65% of Skratcher's written reviews are positive against 63% of LoopBud's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Skratcher ships an update every 92 months, LoopBud every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Skratcher versus LoopBud: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSkratcherLoopBud
Price$4.99 — better$5.99
Rating5.0 (9 ratings) — better3.8 (14 ratings)
Positive reviews64.7% of reviews — better62.5% of reviews
Number of ratings914 — better
Update frequencyEvery 92 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMindArray Labs LLCCem Olcay

Customer experience

Skratcher

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive64.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative35.3%

LoopBud

All ratings14 ratings
Positive64.3%
Neutral14.3%
Negative21.4%
Written reviews16 reviews
Positive62.5%
Neutral18.8%
Negative18.8%

In-app purchases

None

Skratcher

No in-app purchases

None

LoopBud

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Skratcher free?
Skratcher costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is LoopBud free?
LoopBud costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Skratcher or LoopBud?
Skratcher is rated higher. Skratcher averages 5.0 out of 5 from 9 ratings, while LoopBud averages 3.8 from 14 ratings.
Do Skratcher or LoopBud have ads?
Neither Skratcher nor LoopBud shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Skratcher or LoopBud?
Skratcher ships an update every 92 months, and LoopBud every 3 weeks. Most recently, Skratcher was updated on October 23, 2026 and LoopBud on October 25, 2026.

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