Pixound vs ChoirXML
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pixound
Transform any image into a musical instrument and create unique songs. Explore a deep musical experience with extensive controls, over 127 instruments, and various scales. It's a fun and educational tool for all ages, allowing you to play live video and record your performances.
- Turn any picture into music
- Play live video as an instrument
- Record performances with touch playback
- Over 65 scales and modes
- 127+ instruments for four voices
- Save and share creations
- MIDI export
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"Pixound Turns Photos into Musical Instruments, and It’s Better Than You Think" — Gizmodo "Pixound is a trippy music app for iOS that allows users to turn any snap into a song." — MTV Hive Enjoyed by top musical artists including: Herbie Hancock, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Mark Mothersbaugh (DEVO), Michael Shrieve (Santana) and many more. Have you ever jammed on Saturn's Rings with a whammy bar? Have you ever played the rainbow? What about you're dog's nose? What does it sound like? How about creating your own music just by dancing? With Pixound you can do all this and much more! Pixound is a revolutionary form of musical entertainment! Pixound provides a deep musical experience that lets YOU instantly create music using any picture. It's pure fun to play (at any age) and deep because it can be used to play music like you've never heard before. It's so much fun that artist Peter Max bought an iPhone just to have Pixound! Since there is no limit to what pictures you can play from art and graphics to photos and they can be combined with thousands of different musical settings, there is no limit to the music you can create and enjoy. You owe it to yourself to try Pixound!!! By the way, you will learn a lot about music just playing with Pixound so it's also an educational tool, sometimes referred to as a Deep Toy. Features: • Play any picture from snaps to outer space to art masterpieces • Play Live Video (in-app purchase) so that reality becomes a musical instrument • Record audio or use effects processors via Audiobus 2.1 or Inter-app Audio • Record performances including where you touched in the photo that plays back for others to see. • Play in any key or scale (over 65 scales/modes) • Add Bass and Drums from lots of choices • Tons of musical controls to create a huge variety of great music • Select from many different autoplay styles including device tilt • Add harmony voices • Add Song Progressions from basic to classical and more • Select from over 127 instruments for four voices R, B, G and bass • Import samples using AudioShare™ • Save your own settings to Banks and share with others via community or email • Built-in Reverb • Save MIDI files and go direct out to MIDI synthesizers (in-app purchase) • Access and share your creations with the Pixound Community
ChoirXML
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ChoirXML reads printed choral scores and turns them into MusicXML – the file every common notation app can open. An old sheet, a scan or a photo becomes an editable score you can listen to, transpose, re-engrave or share with your choir. IMPORT • PDF or image from Files, a photo from your library, or scan with the camera • several pages into one song • pages are straightened automatically • choose the kind of score or let ChoirXML tell: choir, piano, choir with piano, instrumental RECOGNITION • staves, clefs, key and time signatures, including changes along the way • notes and rests down to sixteenths, dots, triplets, chords and several voices per staff • ties, slurs, fermatas, multi-bar rests and pickup bars • lyrics with several verses – even when printed once for all voices • dynamics (pp to ff), crescendo and diminuendo hairpins, accents, staccato, tenuto and breath marks • chord symbols above the notes • pale, grey photocopies too CHECK AND CORRECT Your original on top, the recognised music below – bar by bar in the same place. Only what was uncertain is marked in red, and ChoirXML asks exactly about it: Is the length right? Is the pitch right? Does this syllable belong to this note? A loupe shows that spot of the original. • tap a note to change pitch, length, accidental, voice or expression • delete single notes of a chord • insert missing notes for one voice or for both – also onto the stem of a note where the voice divides • insert missing bar lines, set or remove a pickup bar • confirm a voice that sings only a few notes of its own right where they stand • assign a syllable by tapping its note • set clefs, keys, time signatures, slurs, fermatas, final bars and repeats • undo and redo every change LISTEN Play back what was recognised before you share it: with a recorded grand piano and a choir sound, the singing voices as a choir or as a piano. The sounding notes light up, and you set the tempo. EXPORT MusicXML with all voices, verses, markings and chord symbols – with one staff per voice (soprano, alto, tenor, bass, each with its own sound and part in your notation app) or like a piano score on two staves. Save it to Files or share it straight to your notation app. PRIVATE Everything happens on your iPad. No account, no subscription, no ads, no data collection. Your music leaves the device only when you share it. GOOD TO KNOW Recognition works best with cleanly printed music. Handwriting, smudged copies or very dense scores need more corrections – ChoirXML shows you exactly where. Please respect the rights to the music you scan.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ChoirXML at Free against Pixound's $0.99. ChoirXML also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2). Pixound's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On ads 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
ChoirXML is free to download; Pixound costs $0.99 up front. Pixound sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. ChoirXML asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Pixound | ChoirXML |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.1 (8 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 72.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.1 GB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Techné Media | Jonathan Froese |
In-app purchases
Pixound
- Pixound Live Video$1.99
- Pixound MIDI Features$2.99
ChoirXML
No in-app purchases









