Scythe Synthesizer vs Phosphor 3
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Scythe Synthesizer
Design new sounds with an intuitive interface on your iPad. This synthesizer offers a wide range of sonic possibilities, from classic analog tones to unique digital effects. Record and export your creations easily.
- Intuitive sound design interface
- Versatile oscillators (analog & digital)
- Audio clip recording and export
- Extensive modulation
- Wide range of effects
- MIDI support
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Scythe is a MIDI synthesizer for iPad and Mac built for fast, hands-on sound design. Shape analog and digital waveforms, explore deep modulation, save custom presets, and record and share clips without leaving the app. Scythe makes it easy to move from happy accidents to playable sounds fast. Features: • Fast, tactile sound design with the bend workflow • Analog and digital waveforms • Deep modulation and filter shaping • Delay, chorus, phaser, and bitcrusher effects • Factory presets plus your own saved presets • Record, copy, trim, and share audio clips • Core MIDI support as both controller and sound module • Designed for iPad, also available on Mac
Phosphor 3
This app recreates a vintage digital synthesizer, offering a faithful emulation of a classic sound engine. It includes modern features like MPE, extensive modulation, and a new UI for sonic exploration.
- Vintage digital synthesizer emulation
- Additive synthesis engine
- MPE support
- Extensive modulation routing
- Preset manager
- Tuning tables
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Glow in the dark synthesis. Phosphor 3 is a dual-oscillator additive synthesizer that puts the raw building blocks of sound at your fingertips. Draw, randomize, or select up to 64 harmonics per oscillator, then shape them with envelopes, LFOs, cross-modulation, and a flexible mod matrix. Originally inspired by the alphaSyntauri, a rare digital additive synth from the early 1980s, Phosphor 3 takes that concept far beyond its origins with modern MPE expression, polyphonic modulation, and a full effects engine. --- Additive Oscillators Two identical additive oscillators, each with up to 64 individually editable harmonics. Start from classic shapes: sawtooth, triangle, square, or draw your own harmonic spectrum directly in the partial editor. The intelligent randomizer generates musically useful timbres with variable rolloff, density, and formant peaks, so every click produces something worth exploring. Choose 16, 32, or 64 partials per oscillator to balance complexity against CPU. Each oscillator has independent level, pan, transpose, fine tune, a noise generator with lo-fi downsampling, and cross-modulation (FM) for pushing timbres into harsher, more complex territory. Modulation Two ADSR envelopes with adjustable attack, decay, and release curves. Two LFOs with four waveforms (pulse, sine, saw, random), tempo sync, and the option to run polyphonically, a separate LFO per voice, or globally. An 8-source modulation matrix routes velocity, pressure, pitch bend, mod wheel, CC 74, triggered random, and both LFOs to destinations across the oscillators and effects. Effects Stereo delay with independent left/right time, feedback, and cross-channel feedback for ping-pong and rhythmic patterns. Tempo sync locks delay times to your DAW. Dual band-pass filters after the delay let you carve the wet signal into resonant, frequency-specific textures. Expression Full MPE support with per-note pitch bend, pressure, and slide across 16 polyphonic voices. Mono legato and mono retrigger modes with adjustable portamento. Unison mode for thick, detuned stacks. A scrollable 128-key on-screen keyboard with velocity from touch position, pitch bend from horizontal drag, and channel pressure from vertical drag, no hardware controller required. Tuning MTS-ESP client support for real-time microtuning from any MTS-ESP master. TUN file import for custom scales. Standard 12-TET with adjustable A4 reference. Supports AUv3 for use in GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis, and other AUv3-compatible hosts.
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Scythe Synthesizer at every 4 months against Phosphor 3's every 11 months. Scythe Synthesizer also leads on ratings volume (134 vs 9) and price ($4.99 vs $5.99). Phosphor 3's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.0). On rating, 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
Scythe Synthesizer costs $4.99 and Phosphor 3 $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Scythe Synthesizer against 4.7 for Phosphor 3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Scythe Synthesizer has 134 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 77% of Scythe Synthesizer's written reviews are positive against 79% of Phosphor 3's.
Scythe Synthesizer ships an update every 4 months, Phosphor 3 every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Scythe Synthesizer | Phosphor 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $5.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (134 ratings) | 4.7 (9 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.3% of reviews | 78.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 134 — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 11 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Miles Egan | Audio Damage, Inc. |
Customer experience
Scythe Synthesizer
Phosphor 3
Bugs and requests
Scythe Synthesizer
Reported bugs
11 issues- Doesn't load AUM after update, crashes
- Crackle on iPad Pro
- Unintended distortion, glitched artifacts on iPad Pro
- Confirming distortion on every patch on iPad Pro 11 inch
- Bad digital distortion on iPad Pro 11 inch
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- Weird delay on lower portion of keyboard keys
- Triggered keyboard sizing while playing with multiple fingers
- Presets don't save half the time
- Preset sounds nothing like when working on it
- Stopped sound output, dies permanently after switching apps
- Certain patches distort quite a bit after update
Requested features
14 requests- Ability to choose MIDI channel
- Controllable randomization range
- More presets
- Bend modulation to loop
- Bend to be tempo synced
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- Randomize effects section
- Backward compatibility with older iOS
- Ability to rename/save presets with custom names
- Key/note hold feature
- CoreMIDI support (historically)
- Preset sharing
- Continuum (scale) controller
- Bend feature to loop back into itself
- Bends to be voiced for each new key stroke
Phosphor 3
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Scythe Synthesizer
No in-app purchases
Phosphor 3
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Scythe Synthesizer free?
Is Phosphor 3 free?
Which has better reviews, Scythe Synthesizer or Phosphor 3?
Do Scythe Synthesizer or Phosphor 3 have ads?
Which is updated more often, Scythe Synthesizer or Phosphor 3?
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