TEFview vs Backbeat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TEFview
This app lets you view, print, and play musical tablatures and various music file formats on your iOS device. It supports MIDI playback with speed control, metronome, and file management features for easy organization and sharing.
- View tablatures and standard notation
- MIDI playback with speed control
- Assign volume and MIDI instrument per track
- Metronome and countdown timer
- File manager with WIFI sharing
- PDF export for printing and sharing
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TEFview for iOS is an app that allows you to view, print and play tablatures created in TablEdit Tablature Editor on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. TEFview allows you as well to view and listen to ASCII tabs, ABC tunes, MIDI, PowerTab, GuitarPro and musicXML files. Specifications: - Supported file formats: TablEdit, ASCII, ABC, MIDI, Music XML, PowerTab, GuitarPro - Tablature and/or Standard notation display, - MIDI Playback with full speed control, - Ability to assign the volume and the MIDI instrument for any track in real time, - Metronome and count down, - Embedded Help, - Emails file as attachment, - File manager. - WIFI file sharing, Files app support - Subdirectory management - Playlist - extract the compressed tef files from a zip file - pdf export: the pdf can be emailed, printed to a compatible AirPrint printer or opened in a third app,
Backbeat
This app helps drummers improve their skills by focusing on rudiments and grooves. It transcribes your playing into musical notation, provides a customizable metronome, and tracks your progress with detailed statistics. Practice routines can be automated to keep you focused and motivated.
- Real-time notation transcription
- Rudiment library with target tempos
- Customizable metronome with subdivisions
- Automated practice routines
- Groove generation from text descriptions
- Progress tracking and speed curves
- Exportable song charts as PDF
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Most practice apps speak in chords and scales. Drummers count. Backbeat starts where drum practice actually starts: a rudiment, a tempo you can hold today, and a tempo you're chasing. It keeps the numbers, writes what you play as real notation, and runs the click while you do it. WRITTEN AS REAL NOTATION Tap hits into the grid and the staff writes itself. Hands stems-up, feet stems-down, ghost notes in parentheses, accents marked, flams and drags and diddles drawn the way you'd write them out by hand. Kick, snare, hi-hat, ride, crash, toms, cowbell and more across fourteen voices, on straight or triplet grids from two to thirty-two steps a bar. RUDIMENTS WITH A TARGET Every rudiment carries its sticking and a target tempo. Log a session and your current BPM moves. The library starts with eight basics and you can add your own. A CLICK THAT PUSHES YOU Quarter, eighth, sixteenth and triplet subdivisions. Accent, click or mute any beat. Tap the tempo when you don't have a number. The Speed Trainer raises the tempo on a schedule you choose and logs how far you got. ROUTINES THAT RUN THEMSELVES Give each block a length and a target tempo. The click follows along, every block logs itself when it ends, and the record fills in while your hands stay on the sticks. Three starter routines are there on day one. GROOVES, GENERATED Describe a feel in your own words and Backbeat renders it as notation you can play, edit and keep. PROOF YOU'RE GETTING FASTER Sessions, minutes, streaks, and a speed curve per rudiment. Not a participation badge; the actual tempo you held, over time. SONG CHARTS Build a chart measure by measure with repeats and counts, then export it as a paginated PDF, or share a single groove as an image for video. BUILT TO BE READ FROM A STAND Dark, high contrast, and large enough to follow at arm's length in a dim room. It follows your phone's appearance. Backbeat is free, made by one drummer, and still being built. If something in the notation looks wrong to you, say so; that's the part I most want to get right.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: TEFview at 314 against Backbeat's 1. TEFview also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (11.1 vs 18.0). Backbeat's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and review sentiment (100% vs 91%). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Backbeat holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: TEFview has 314 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of TEFview's written reviews are positive against 100% of Backbeat's.
| Parameter | TEFview | Backbeat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (314 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 314 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 11.1 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TablEdit | PETER ANTHONY AFIF |
Customer experience
TEFview
Backbeat
Bugs and requests
TEFview
Reported bugs
2 issues- Doesn't work with files in iCloud Drive
- Crashes when opening MIDI files
Requested features
3 requests- Left-handed fretboard view
- Chord name display
- Ability to delete downloaded files
Backbeat
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
TEFview
No in-app purchases
Backbeat
No in-app purchases









