Music Spectrograph vs pitchGraf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Real-time MIDI piano roll
- Pitch and frequency visualization
- Slow down and stop audio
- Music transcription aid
- Adjustable playback speed
- Color-coded pitch graph
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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.
pitchGraf
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Concept: The app is a pitch monitoring tool and works as standalone or AUv3 plugin. It will analyze an incoming audio signal using FFT and display its spectral graph in real-time (unit: musical pitch not hertz). The user can watch and study in detail the pitch distribution of audio source. Usage: There are seven sliders. 1. Resolution: determines the analysis resolution. (higher resolution - worse time response) vice versa 2. Pan: works as panner, only if input source is stereo. 3. Magnify: magnifies the screen horizontally. 4. Slide: slides the screen horizontally. 5. Out: determines the audio output to be turned on or off (default: Off). 6. Input: input gain in dB. 7. Tuning: adjusts A4’s reference frequency in the range from 414hz to 467hz (default: 440). In the app the pitches are represented as follows: C -> C Cis -> 1 D -> D Es -> 3 E -> E F -> F Fis -> 6 G -> G As -> 8 A -> A B -> B H -> H Specifications: Compatible with the following sampling rate (from 44.1khz to 96khz)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: pitchGraf at $2.99 against Music Spectrograph's $9.99. Music Spectrograph's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 7 months) and iOS requirement (12.4 vs 15.0). On ads, in-app purchases 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
Music Spectrograph costs $9.99 and pitchGraf $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Music Spectrograph ships an update every 6 weeks, pitchGraf every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Music Spectrograph | pitchGraf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 2.5 (4 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 7 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.4 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | HotPaw Productions | Satoshi Kajii |
In-app purchases
Music Spectrograph
No in-app purchases
pitchGraf
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Music Spectrograph free?
Is pitchGraf free?
Do Music Spectrograph or pitchGraf have ads?
Which is updated more often, Music Spectrograph or pitchGraf?
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