Pocket Drums vs Drumline Break Creator
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pocket Drums
Experience realistic drumming with a virtual drum kit that fits in your pocket. This app offers responsive touch controls, high-fidelity drum sets, and various beats to help you play along. Learn rudiments with included videos and customize your sound with adjustable pitch, volume, and effects.
- Realistic touch-sensitive drum response
- 15 high-fidelity recorded drum kits
- 16 PlayAlong Beats and 20 music/drum beats
- Basic drum rudiment videos
- Adjustable pitch, sensitivity, volume, reverb, and delay
- Multi-track recording and sharing capabilities
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Pocket Drums is the most realistic sounding and looking drum app out there! Perfect for both beginners and pros alike, Pocket Drums utilizes the latest technology and decades of real drum experience to create the ideal drumming app for the iPhone or iPad. All of the features of the app combine to make you feel as if you are sitting down and playing a real drum set. The drums respond to your touch - the pitch changes slightly depending on where you hit the toms, just like a real kit. Playing realistic rolls is as easy as swirling your finger around, simply adjusting the roll speed by how fast or slow you swirl your finger. There is also 15 different professionally recorded high fidelity drum sets to choose from, and an amazing drum wrap, with more to come. Pocket Drums also features 16 PlayAlong Beats, 10 unique Drum Beats and 10 Music Beats to rock out with, as well as 10 different metronome sounds. A unique feature is the addition of 10 basic rudiment videos, so you can see firsthand how to play the drum rudiments. With the ability to adjust the pitch, sensitivity, individual drum volume, reverb, and delay, recording, ability to share and export your recordings (optional in-app purchase), and so much more, Pocket Drums is by far the most comprehensive and realistic drumming app available today! FEATURES: • 15 professionally recorded 44.1 khz high fidelity kits, with more to come • Drum Pitch Sensitivity - the pitch changes depending on where you strike the toms, just like a real kit • Reverb and Delay Controls - slider adjustments allows limitless drum sounds • Pitch Control - lower or raise the pitch of the drums • Drum Volume - adjust volume of each individual drum • Snares - 11 more snares that you can mix and match to create your ideal sound (optional in-app purchase) • Videos of basic drum rudiments played on a real snare drum • Amazingly realistic drum wraps • Realistic visual effects - drums and cymbals look and respond like a real drum set, visually corresponding to your every touch • Retina Display for both iPad and iPhone for incredibly crisp graphics • PlayAlong Beats: 16 new loops with basic bass drum, hi-hat or snare beats, to play along for added rhythmic expression! • 10 Drum Beats and 10 Music Beats to play along to, with more to come! • Realistic Rolls - simply swirl your finger around to create slower or faster rolls • Double Bass drum feature with slider adjustment • 10 Metronome Sounds and 4 Time Signatures to choose from, with BPM adjustment • Recording - easily add or delete tracks, save and loop recordings • Multi-track recording functionality • Share your recordings through email, Facebook, and Twitter • Export your recordings to your computer (optional in-app purchase) • Lefty Mode - reverse the entire drum layout • Play along to the music on your iPod • Option to add bass drum when hitting crash cymbal IN-APP PURCHASES TO UPGRADE: • Additional kit pack • 11 more snares that you can mix and match to create your ideal sound • 3 more wraps: Turquoise, Black Oyster, and Dark Wood • Export recordings • Ads removed PRIVACY POLICY: http://codyrotwein.com/privacy.html
Drumline Break Creator
Easily compose, edit, and share percussion notation for snare and tenor drums. This app offers a streamlined experience for creating custom drum breaks, cadences, and warmups, inspiring a new generation of music writers.
- Compose snare and tenor drum notation
- Edit and playback percussion music
- Save and share compositions
- Includes common rudiments and articulations
- Supports custom sticking and grace notes
- Professionally recorded audio samples
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Composing percussion notation for snare drum and tenors is finally fast, easy, and fun! No laptops, no expensive subscriptions, no extra plugins, and no 1990's music composition apps made for piano with 500 options that you'll never use. Whether you're in your bedroom or the band room, a bus, or the field, you now have full access to the specific notation you need to compose, edit, playback, save and share snare drum and tenor drum notation with your section, instructor, drumline, and band. All this for one price, forever in your pocket right next to your drum key. We spend our entire percussive careers playing other people's music. Isn't it time we start playing our own? This app is on a mission to inspire a new generation of music writers. It's time for YOU to write the next winning break, percussion feature, cadence, street beat, or drill. *Insert stick drop here* All audio samples were professionally recorded at NoiseFloor Ltd. in Chicago by DCI sound engineer Jamie Vanadia. The snare drum and tenors used were generously provided by Dynasty. The snare is Dynasty's MS-XD14 Marching Snare Drum on an Evans Hybrid drumhead. The tenor drums are Dynasty's MT-680234 Tenor Drums in Corps Configuration with 6 inch and 8 inch shot drums on Evans Corps Clear heads. Drum Break Creator includes a number of rudiments such as triplets, sextuplets, flams, single stroke 4s, etc. Plus place, accents, doubles, grace notes, buzz notes, rimshots, double stops, as well put in your preferred sticking. Use the app to create your next standout drum break. Create your drumline's next set of warmups. Write a few new cadences or street beats for that next parade. Use it to better understand the timing and voicing of your music. Play along on your drum pad. For beginners, use it to better understand how to read certain notations. Recreate some of the harder parts of your sheet music to help smooth out the tougher bits of your show. Every person who downloads this app will have ideas on ways to make it better or more awesome. Feedback is super welcome!! I will continue to add and support the apps into the years to come. Oh, and just to take out one of the more obvious requests, bass drums and cymbals are coming as the user base grows. Hi, I'm the developer of this app and I've been drumming for 32 years. (Woah, I never actually did the math on that) From playing along to records of drum battles of Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich when I was 7, to high school marching band, placing at WGI finals, sleeping on the floor at Glassmen (RIP) auditions, Michigan State's drumline, lessons, instruction, all the way to touring the U.S. several times with my indie-emo band backed by Truth Drums (sans black eyeliner). I've been surrounding myself with musicians who appreciate the sport and the art of marching percussion. I'm very fortunate enough to also know a thing or two about creating software – which somehow still leads me back to drumming. :-D Happy hacking, and thanks for downloading.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Pocket Drums at Free against Drumline Break Creator's $1.99. Pocket Drums also leads on ratings volume (290 vs 40). Drumline Break Creator's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and ads (none vs shown). On rating and device support 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
Pocket Drums is free to download; Drumline Break Creator costs $1.99 up front. Pocket Drums sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Drumline Break Creator asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.0 for Pocket Drums against 4.0 for Drumline Break Creator. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Drums has 290 ratings behind it against 40, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 49% of Pocket Drums's written reviews are positive against 81% of Drumline Break Creator's.
Pocket Drums ships an update every 2 months, Drumline Break Creator every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pocket Drums | Drumline Break Creator |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.0 (290 ratings) | 4.0 (40 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 49.4% of reviews | 81.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 290 — better | 40 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 84 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Drum Starz | John Ostler |
Customer experience
Pocket Drums
Drumline Break Creator
Bugs and requests
Pocket Drums
Reported bugs
9 issues- App crashes when playing drums rapidly
- Glitching audio that stutters and repeats loudly
- App freezes when recording multiple times
- Screen stretches and becomes unresponsive
- App fails to open after updates
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- Video upload functionality broken
- Drums don't register input properly
- Incompatibility with recent iOS updates
- Ads freeze the app and prevent closing
Requested features
9 requests- Double bass pedal for metal songs
- Reggae drum tones
- Splash and china cymbals
- Mix and match custom drum sets
- Built-in drumming lessons
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- Ability to modify and remove playlists
- Better disco beat drum sounds
- More instruments and variety
- Reduced ad frequency
Drumline Break Creator
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Pocket Drums
- Remove ads$0.99
- Exporting$0.99
- Kit Pack$0.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Wraps$0.99
- Snares$0.99
- Full - Unlock everything$2.99
Drumline Break Creator
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pocket Drums free?
Is Drumline Break Creator free?
Which has better reviews, Pocket Drums or Drumline Break Creator?
Do Pocket Drums or Drumline Break Creator have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pocket Drums or Drumline Break Creator?
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