Pad MIDI vs Brecken's Beats
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pad MIDI
Transform your iPhone or iPad into a versatile MIDI controller. It offers wireless and USB connectivity, customizable pads, and a full piano keyboard for your music production needs. Requires external hardware or software to generate sound.
- Bluetooth and USB MIDI support
- 16 assignable MIDI pads
- Full 88-key piano keyboard
- Selectable MIDI channel and velocity
- CC and Program Change controllers
- MIDI message log/debugger
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Pad MIDI turns your iPhone/iPad into MIDI pads and keyboard for your synth or DAW * Supports Bluetooth wireless / USB MIDI * Supports native Mac OS Network MIDI (Core MIDI) * 16 assignable / nameable MIDI pads * Full 88 key piano * Selectable MIDI channel and velocity * CC / Program change controllers * MIDI message log / debugger * Requires external synth or plugin to produce sound Learn how to connect here: http://support.thirteen32.com/apps/padmidi/
Brecken's Beats
Create professional-sounding beats with realistic drum pads and a versatile piano keyboard. Record your voice over your creations, play a rhythm game, and share your music with friends. This app offers a fun and engaging way for young musicians to explore beat making and composition.
- Studio-quality TR-808 drum samples
- Record voice over beats
- Full piano keyboard with 6 voices
- Beat Rush rhythm game
- Beatbox studio functionality
- Export and share tracks
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Brecken's Beats is a music studio made for kids 8 to 13. Open it and within seconds you are building a real song: drums, bass, keys, your own voice and your own beatbox, all stacked in one place. It was designed with a nine year old, so everything is big, obvious and fun, and everything you make stays on your device. THE SONG STUDIO Start from one of eight original song starters (trap, hip hop, pop, lo-fi, house, EDM, drill, reggaeton) or from silence. Tap steps on the drum grid, add a bass line and chords on scale-locked grids that always sound good, record the piano straight into the song, then rap or sing on top with a four beat count-in. Mute, solo, copy bars, double the length, undo and redo. Save it to My Beats and send it to family. BEATBOX Tap Record, get four clicks, then beatbox for two bars. Your actual mouth sounds go into the song as a loop. The app also listens for your kicks, snares and hats and lays them out on a drum grid you can use. Play it back inside the song before you add it. A REAL PIANO A keyboard that behaves like one: slide your finger across the keys, play chords, press lower on a key to play louder. Four octaves, an octave navigator, sustain, note names you can switch on, and a recorder that keeps your take and drops it into your song. Classic and Toy pianos are free. Electric, Rhodes, Synth, 808 Keys, Marimba, Music Box, Organ and Strings come with Plus. RECORD YOUR VOICE Rap or sing over your beat with the microphone, then pick a voice effect: Echo, Robot, Deep or Chipmunk. Recordings never leave the device unless you choose to share them, and sharing is behind a parent check. DJ STUDIO Two decks that play the songs and mixes you made. Scratch a platter that has real weight and pitch bend, nudge, set a cue point, drop beat-synced loops, tap Sync to line two tracks up, sweep the filter, ride the crossfader, and record the whole mix straight into My Beats. MADE FOR FAMILIES No ads. No tracking. No accounts. Nothing is collected. Every purchase, link and share sits behind a parental gate. Works offline. Turn the phone sideways for a wider keyboard and side by side decks. BRECKEN'S PLUS Free: the full Song Studio, Beatbox, voice recording, the DJ Studio, two piano sounds, 30 second exports and three saved songs. Plus adds all ten piano sounds, 60 second exports and unlimited saved songs. Plus is a monthly subscription billed to your Apple Account, renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period, and can be managed in Settings. Privacy Policy: https://bearandhati-oss.github.io/breckensbeats-privacy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Brecken's Beats at 100% against Pad MIDI's 26%. Brecken's Beats also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and rating (5.0 vs 3.0). Pad MIDI's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On ratings volume, ads 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
Brecken's Beats is free to download; Pad MIDI costs $0.99 up front. Brecken's Beats sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $2.99 per month. Pad MIDI asks for nothing beyond the download.
Brecken's Beats holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 26% of Pad MIDI's written reviews are positive against 100% of Brecken's Beats's.
Pad MIDI ships an update every 2 months, Brecken's Beats every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pad MIDI | Brecken's Beats |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 26.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 100 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Thirteen32 Pty Ltd | Cole stegman |
Customer experience
Pad MIDI
Brecken's Beats
Bugs and requests
Pad MIDI
Reported bugs
14 issues- App stays on loading page
- App crashes after splash screen
- App crashes on startup
- App won't load
- App won't open
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- No sound output
- Ads cannot be escaped
- Accidentally clicked remove ad, needs refund
- Ads couldn't be clicked out of
- Notes don't work
- Cannot connect to software
- App crashes when loading
- App crashes when opening
- App automatically closes
Requested features
10 requests- Multi-touch support
- Turn phone display off and maintain connectivity
- Assign velocity to saved pads
- Numerical velocity input
- Customizable button colors/styles
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- XY pad or faders/rotary encoders
- More pages and knobs
- Instructional video for setup
- Support for newer software versions
- USB connection for reduced latency
Brecken's Beats
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Pad MIDI
No in-app purchases
Brecken's Beats
- Brecken's Beats Plus$2.991 Month
Questions
Is Pad MIDI free?
Is Brecken's Beats free?
Which has better reviews, Pad MIDI or Brecken's Beats?
Do Pad MIDI or Brecken's Beats have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pad MIDI or Brecken's Beats?
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