Tabletop vs XPad
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tabletop
Create music with a modular studio environment. Mix and match over 40 virtual instruments, effects, and sequencers to compose songs, beats, and mashups. Expand your sound palette by purchasing additional devices.
- Modular music creation environment
- Over 40 virtual instruments and effects
- Mix and match devices
- Create beats, songs, and mashups
- Piano roll timeline editor
- MIDI support
- Share music to SoundCloud
Read full descriptionHide full description
Tabletop is an expandable studio with over a dozen included musical devices. Tabletop is a modular environment where you can mix and match different devices. Select from over 40 devices including samplers, mixers, effects, sequencers and more. Buy only the gear you need from an expanding catalog. Need help? Email support@retronyms.com and we’ll answer your questions. Retronyms has partnered with industry giants like Akai Professional and Arturia to create some of the Tabletop-Ready Apps, like iMPC, iMini, and iProphet! Using the Tabletop features of time stretching and pitch shifting, you can slice loops and time stretch them to different tempos and pitches in iMPC Pro. You can also use sliced loops from purchased AudioCopy sound packs inside Gridlock and iMPC Pro. Loops from these sound packs will automatically match the tempo of your sessions. Tabletop is an audio playground where you can create beats, compose songs, mix live, make mashups with samples from your iPod library, and more... the possibilities are endless. Plug the output of a keyboard into a delay to add an echo, or wire it up to a mixer and adjust the pan. Chain up multiple effects to create new and evolving sounds. FEATURES: • 43 devices including effects, sequencers, drum machines, and synths • 14 devices are included for free • 64 bit audio support • Access powerful Tabletop-Ready Apps • Piano Roll style timeline editor • Cut, copy, paste, duplicate, and create notes • Control Tabletop’s keyboards, drum pads, knobs, faders, and other parameters • Correct note timing with Fix to Grid • Edit note length and velocity • Undo changes and edits with Tabletop’s History Menu • Features Core MIDI Support • Works with any MIDI-compatible hardware • Customize control mapping with Midi Learn mode • Connect multiple devices • Share your music to SoundCloud and interact with other Tabletop users
XPad
This app provides professional pad sounds for keyboardists, aiming to replicate warm analog synth tones with advanced digital features. It offers intuitive glissando control, real-time sound morphing, and extensive MIDI compatibility for a dynamic playing experience.
- Modern pad sounds
- Realistic glissando control
- Tone Width morphing
- Sensible sound controls
- MIDI remote control
- Extensive sound library search
Read full descriptionHide full description
XPad is a professional sound module app and Audio Unit v3 plugin with focus on modern pad sounds for iPad. Goal was to get the warm and vibrant sound of analogue synths onto the convenient platform of an iPad and combining those sounds with the benefits of state of the art digital features while still preserving that analogue tone and feeling. Glissando XPad introduces a new way that we were developing for our apps to achieve realistic large interval Glissando. You can glide a tone continuously e.g. from the lowest octave up to the highest octave and vice versa, in any desirable speed and without causing an artificial impression to the listener. We were also thinking about how to improve the usability aspects for playing Glissando in a much more intuitive & convenient way for a keyboard player, while still preserving the player's full control. Foremost this app allows you to mix Glissando with regular polyphonic notes (e.g. chords) simultaneously or switch between these playing styles quickly at any time without leaving your hands off the keyboard. For instance you might be playing and holding a chord with your right hand while playing a Glissando slide with your left hand and punching through the right hand's chord from an octave lower than the chord, up to some octave higher than the chord. Tone Width Replicating some analogue boutique pad synthesizers is nice, but what about having a huge stack of them? That's where "Tone Width" control comes into play. Especially the important pad sounds of this app allow you to morph the sound with the "Tone Width" knob in real-time steplessly between a very thin and clean sound up to a huge and fat tonal sound as if an army of pad synths was working under your finger tips. Sensible Control Controls for the individual sound aspects is good. But it should be in a sensible way. Nothing is hard wired here. Every sound of this app presents controls that make sense for the individual sound. All controls presented are always fine tuned to the individual elements of that sound. You can alter all controls remotely by MIDI e.g. with sliders at your keyboard. The most important controls for each sound are mapped to things that you are most likely using anyway at your keyboard. For instance all sounds use the Aftertouch information of your keyboard to bring more dynamic behaviour into the sound even while just holding some notes. And just grab your modulation wheel at your keyboard to bring in some more variance. Never Lost XPad offers up to 462 sounds, but don't worry, it never lets you down and always assists you finding just the sound you need in a glimpse. You can quickly search for sounds with any combination of several criteria like sound characteristics, articulations, controls and more. Connectivity Like all our apps, XPad is very easy to use and start with. Just connect your keyboard with your iPad and you are ready to go. And of course if needed, you can simply tweak the setup, e.g. use a Bluetooth MIDI wireless connection to your keyboard instead of a cabled one, restrict MIDI input to certain devices or apps, connect to other apps with Inter-App Audio or use the sounds of this app as Audio Unit v3 plugin directly in the DAW app of your choice. Recorder The app comes with a built-in MIDI recorder that allows you to quickly record your musical ideas. You can share them as audio files with other people or transfer them as MIDI files for further work e.g. on your Mac. Sound Sets XPad is divided into 14 optional sound sets of different sound categories and provide up to 462 sounds in total. Even though the app is focused on pad sounds, this is not all this app has to offer sound-wise. The "Atmo" pack for instance contains atmospheric sounds for generating very emotional sound bases and backgrounds e.g. for film and entertainment. The "Perc" sound set contains drums and percussive sounds. The "Silicon" sound set covers synthesizers also offside the pad field, and much more.
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: XPad at 3.8 against Tabletop's 3.3. XPad also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 3 months). Tabletop's advantage is ratings volume (85 vs 24). On price, review sentiment, 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
Both are free to download. Tabletop sells 11 one-off in-app purchases and XPad sells 14 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
XPad holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 85 and 24 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 54% of Tabletop's written reviews are positive against 50% of XPad's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Tabletop ships an update every 3 months, XPad every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tabletop | XPad |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (85 ratings) | 3.8 (24 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 53.9% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 85 — better | 24 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 4 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.4 GB | 1.2 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Retronyms Inc | Christian Schoenebeck d/b/a Crudebyte |
Customer experience
Tabletop
XPad
Bugs and requests
Tabletop
Reported bugs
3 issues- Synth parameters not saving properly
- Incompatibility issues with newer iOS versions
- Unreliable audio export
Requested features
4 requests- MIDI support
- Improved sequencing capabilities
- More free sound modules
- Waveform editing and sample management
XPad
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Tabletop
- EKKO$1.99
- WHIRL$2.99
- Verve$2.99
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- XFADE$2.99
- TT-303$2.99
- Cueboard$2.99
- GLITCHBOARD$3.99
- Deadbeat$3.99
- X0X Drum Deranger$7.99
- RS4000$9.99
- Bundle E$24.99
XPad
- Weirdo Sound Set$2.99
- Pluck Sound Set$2.99
- Metal Sound Set$3.99
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Bass Sound Set$3.99
- Choir Sound Set$3.99
- Altro Sound Set$3.99
- Organ Sound Set$3.99
- Percussive Sound Set$3.99
- Silicon Sound Set$4.99
- Vintage Sound Set$4.99
- Atmo Sound Set$5.99
- Space Sound Set$5.99
- Nature Sound Set$5.99
- Sequence Sound Set$5.99








