Comparison

Cassette Gold vs Touch Notation

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Cassette Gold

Relive the 80s with this cassette player emulator. Play your music from your device's library with animated cassettes and a selection of styles. Simple touch and swipe controls make it easy to navigate your tunes.

Highlights
  • Cassette player emulator
  • Plays music from device library
  • Animated cassette display
  • Large selection of cassette styles
  • Simple touch and swipe controls
  • Pinch-to-zoom for original size
Features
Read full description

Do you still remember the cassettes from the 80s? Now you can have it again. You have all your songs from your iPhone or iPod Touch ready in the library. Cassette Gold is a cassette player emulator. It plays your music from music app and shows an animated cassette. There is a large selection of cassettes which you can choose from. This app bring's you back to the 80's. Very easy to use. - Touch for play or pause. - Swipe right for next song. - Swipe left for previous song. - Swipe down for next cassette. - Swipe up for cassette change. -Touch in the upper left corner to select songs. - you can zoom in to original cassette size (pinch to zoom). and because the control is very simple, This app is perfect for the car or on your iPod, iPhone docking Station, have fun with the app! Remember: -To use this app, you need music in the Apple Music app!

About

Touch Notation

Create musical scores with intuitive touch gestures. Draw notes, add expressions, and play back your compositions with 30 instrument voices. Export your work in various formats.

Highlights
  • Handwritten notation input
  • 30 built-in instrument voices
  • Tempo and dynamics control
  • Page layout functions
  • Transpose feature
  • Multiple export formats (PDF, SMF, MusicXML)
Read full description

Touch Notation is a powerful musical score creation app that allows anyone to enjoy writing music using touch gestures. In Japan, Touch Notation was selected as one of the ‘App Store Best of 2014’ apps, and held the No.1 spot in the iPad Paid App index for music apps for over two weeks. Up until now, musical score creation software has relied upon dragging individual notes from a palette onto staves. By contrast, Touch Notation allows musicians to draw directly onto the score using a finger or touch pen, and have their work immediately appear as beautifully written notation, then played back using the app’s 30 built-in instrument voices. - A wide-range of functions accessible from a cleanly designed, intuitive user interface. - Ability to enter musical expressions for adjusting tempo and dynamics. - Layout functions such as page breaks. - Convenient transpose feature for raising/lowering the pitch of the entire score. - Output scores using Air Print, or save to Dropbox in PDF, SMF, MusicXML, and ScoreMaker formats. Touch Notation allows the following musical symbols to be entered by hand: - Note, Rest (including dotted and double-dotted), Long Rest, Beam, Tuplet (Triplet) - Grace Note - Accidental, Tie, Slur - Accent, Staccato, Tenuto, Fermata - Trill, sfz, Arpeggio, Pedal, Senza - Metronome symbol - Crescendo, Decrescendo - Dynamics symbols (ppp~fff) - Octave symbol - Repeat brackets - Repeat marks (D.C./Fine/D.S./Segno/Coda/to Coda) - Clefs (Treble Clef/Bass Clef/C Clef/Percussion Clef) - Key signature - Time signature - Bar lines (repeat marks) - Abbreviation Lyrics and other musical expressions (‘Dolce’, ‘Tranquillo’, etc.) can be added using text input, while comments and memos can also be written freehand directly onto the score. * Drum notation is supported, but other types such as rhythm notation and tab notation are not supported. * Older devices may experience stuttering when playing complicated scores with many simultaneous notes.

Screenshots

Cassette Gold4 screens
Touch Notation4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Cassette Gold at 4.3 against Touch Notation's 2.9. Cassette Gold also leads on price ($0.99 vs $9.99) and review sentiment (81% vs 45%). Touch Notation's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.5). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Cassette Gold costs $0.99 and Touch Notation $9.99 up front. Cassette Gold sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Touch Notation sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cassette Gold holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 88 and 21 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 81% of Cassette Gold's written reviews are positive against 45% of Touch Notation's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. Both last shipped on October 11, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Cassette Gold versus Touch Notation: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCassette GoldTouch Notation
Price$0.99 — better$9.99
Rating4.3 (88 ratings) — better2.9 (21 ratings)
Positive reviews80.6% of reviews — better44.6% of reviews
Number of ratings88 — better21
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.511.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB112 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlexander RutkowskijKawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

Cassette Gold

All ratings88 ratings
Positive84.1%
Neutral10.2%
Negative5.7%
Written reviews237 reviews
Positive80.6%
Neutral8.4%
Negative11.0%

Touch Notation

All ratings21 ratings
Positive38.1%
Neutral19.0%
Negative42.9%
Written reviews83 reviews
Positive44.6%
Neutral26.5%
Negative28.9%

Bugs and requests

Cassette Gold

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • Crashes when selecting certain songs
  • Inconsistent playback controls

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add shuffle/mix tape mode
  • Integrate with music streaming services
  • Improve song/playlist management
  • Add more customization options

Touch Notation

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Cassette Gold

One-time2
  • new pack of cassettes$1.99
  • Cassette Collection 2$1.99
10 purchases

Touch Notation

One-time10
  • Sound Set: Piano$0.49
  • Sound Set: Guitar/Bass 1$0.49
  • Sound Set: Strings$0.49
Show 7 more
  • Sound Set: Brass/Woodwind$0.49
  • Sound Set: Bell/Mallet$0.49
  • Sound Set: Vocal/Others$0.49
  • Core MIDI Output$1.99
  • Handwritten Font$1.99
  • Sound Set: Full$2.99
  • Chord Name & Automatic Accompaniment$3.99

Questions

Is Cassette Gold free?
Cassette Gold costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Touch Notation free?
Touch Notation costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Cassette Gold or Touch Notation?
Cassette Gold is rated higher. Cassette Gold averages 4.3 out of 5 from 88 ratings, while Touch Notation averages 2.9 from 21 ratings.
Do Cassette Gold or Touch Notation have ads?
Neither Cassette Gold nor Touch Notation shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cassette Gold or Touch Notation?
Cassette Gold ships an update every 3 months, and Touch Notation every 3 months. Most recently, Cassette Gold was updated on October 11, 2026 and Touch Notation on October 11, 2026.

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