Music Spectrograph vs Pinkish Trombone
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.
Pinkish Trombone
This app is a studio-ready instrument for iOS, expanding on a classic web-based speech synthesizer. It offers multitouch playability with modulation options and automatable parameters, functioning as a standalone app or AUV3.
- Articulatory speech synthesizer
- Multitouch playability
- Modulation options
- Automatable parameters
- Standalone app
- AUV3 support
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Based on Neil Thapen's classic web-based interactive articulatory speech synthesizer, Pink Trombone, Pinkish expands the original into a studio-ready instrument for iOS. While staying faithful to the original's multitouch playability, Pinkish Trombone adds a suite of modulation options and automatable parameters that breath new life into that venerable vocal tract. Pinkish Trombone operates as a standalone app as well as an AUV3 so you can use it in any of your favorite iOS DAW apps. Apple Silicon macOS users can even use it in Ableton Live!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pinkish Trombone at 100% against Music Spectrograph's 50%. Pinkish Trombone also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.5) and price ($4.99 vs $9.99). Music Spectrograph's advantage is iOS requirement (12.4 vs 17.0). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 Pinkish Trombone $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pinkish Trombone holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Music Spectrograph's written reviews are positive against 100% of Pinkish Trombone's.
Music Spectrograph ships an update every 6 weeks, Pinkish Trombone fortnightly. Both last shipped on November 10, 2026.
| Parameter | Music Spectrograph | Pinkish Trombone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | $4.99 — better |
| Rating | 2.5 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #117 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.4 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | HotPaw Productions | Aaron Meyers |
Customer experience
Music Spectrograph
Pinkish Trombone
In-app purchases
Music Spectrograph
No in-app purchases
Pinkish Trombone
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Music Spectrograph free?
Is Pinkish Trombone free?
Which has better reviews, Music Spectrograph or Pinkish Trombone?
Do Music Spectrograph or Pinkish Trombone have ads?
Which is updated more often, Music Spectrograph or Pinkish Trombone?
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