Comparison

Music Spectrograph vs variStretch

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

Head to head
About

Music Spectrograph

Visually reverse engineer sound and music in real-time with a live MIDI piano roll displaying pitch and frequency. Slow down or stop audio to analyze musical patterns, aiding in music transcription and learning.

Highlights
  • Real-time MIDI piano roll
  • Pitch and frequency visualization
  • Slow down and stop audio
  • Music transcription aid
  • Adjustable playback speed
  • Color-coded pitch graph
Features
Read full description

Music Spectrograph allows you to visually reverse engineer sound and music, in real-time. See a live MIDI piano roll showing pitch and frequency. When playing music files, you can slow down, and even stop sound in time. Music Spectrograph is being using in college music programs to aid in learning music transcription. The Hotpaw Music Spectrograph presents a high-resolution scrolling spectrogram as you listen, so that you can see these patterns in sound and music, as well as how sound corresponds to notes on a piano keyboard. This piano alignment makes it far easier to spot which frequencies in sounds correspond to which musical notes. Features include: - 12th-octave MIDI-pitch-centered spectrograph (also called a sonogram) - Usable with live audio, tunes from your iOS device's music library, or a file downloaded via a URL (web address) - Records up to a 4 minute spectrograph history you can stop, scroll back and review - Slow Down music files by up to 8X, or speed music up by 3X to skip sections faster - Stop music in time, and still hear the music frequencies present via re-synthesis (scroll back a little in time to bring up the ReSynth switch). - Play tunes in mono, left or right channel only, or with center-panned vocals reduced - Color the pitch graph to see if notes are in-tune or out-of-tune - Color the spectrograph for loudness, or graph in black-and-white or with Pastel colors - Mid-pitch filtering to remove some of the higher overtones Use the Input? button to select a tune from your library (DRM protected iTunes files not supported). Use the Gear button to select among several viewing modes. There's a volume control to manually set the sensitivity threshold. Stop playing or recording to scroll back and review or resynthesize sound. Touch the keyboard during resynthesis to isolate one note. For many musical sounds, this app will show you many overtones and harmonics, not just the fundamental pitch of notes. Some musical experience is required to tell musical notes from their overtones and harmonic frequencies.

About

variStretch

This app allows real-time audio speed manipulation without altering pitch. It offers three distinct playback modes and adjustable buffer settings for precise control over sound processing.

Highlights
  • Real-time speed adjustment (0.5-2.0x)
  • Tape mode (speed & pitch change)
  • Phase Vocoder mode (speed only)
  • Adjustable buffer size
  • Buffer clear function
  • AUv3 host compatibility
Read full description

Concept: The app is a so-called time-stretch machine. The user can change the speed (0.5-2.0) of audio source in real-time using keyboard or slider at will. Usage: There are three play modes: 1) Tape (to change the both speed & pitch) 2) Phase Vocoder (to change the speed alone) 3) Thru (no processing) "Buffer Size" slider determines how long the data will be stored. "Buffer Clear" button will reset the buffer to be zero. System Requirements: AUv3 host

Screenshots

Music Spectrograph2 screens
variStretch2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: variStretch at 5.0 against Music Spectrograph's 2.5. variStretch also leads on price ($5.99 vs $9.99). Music Spectrograph's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 7 months) and ratings volume (4 vs 1). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Music Spectrograph costs $9.99 and variStretch $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

variStretch holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Music Spectrograph ships an update every 6 weeks, variStretch every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Music Spectrograph versus variStretch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMusic SpectrographvariStretch
Price$9.99$5.99 — better
Rating2.5 (4 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.412.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHotPaw ProductionsSatoshi Kajii

Customer experience

Music Spectrograph

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative37.5%

variStretch

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Music Spectrograph

No in-app purchases

None

variStretch

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Music Spectrograph free?
Music Spectrograph costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is variStretch free?
variStretch costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Music Spectrograph or variStretch?
variStretch is rated higher. Music Spectrograph averages 2.5 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while variStretch averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Music Spectrograph or variStretch have ads?
Neither Music Spectrograph nor variStretch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Music Spectrograph or variStretch?
Music Spectrograph ships an update every 6 weeks, and variStretch every 7 months. Most recently, Music Spectrograph was updated on October 17, 2026 and variStretch on October 18, 2026.

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