Comparison

Bass Line Composer vs Drumr Notate

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

Head to head
About

Bass Line Composer

Compose and play along with custom bass drum lines. Practice splits, create new beats, and refine your exercises with realistic drum sounds. This app allows you to experiment with speed and timing for your musical ideas.

Highlights
  • Compose bass drum lines
  • Play along with compositions
  • Practice splits and interspersions
  • Create and edit exercises
  • Adjust tempo (speed up/slow down)
  • Realistic bass drum sounds
Features
Read full description

Yo, Bass drummers! Got a split in your head that you've just got to hear right now? Got a line or a lick or an exercise to put down? Compose it and play along with the new Bass Line Composer App! Now you’ve got a whole bass drum line to play along with. Practice splits and interp. Write out your exercises or make up new ones. Put down that new street beat that’s been bouncing around your brain. Speed it up, slow it down, try it out, edit it, and max it out! Compose and play along with the actual bass drum sounds of the Paul Rennick 2012 Santa Clara Vanguard, as recorded by bass tech Brian Lowe - tuned the way they’ll sound on finals night. Best used with Headphones About Telephonic Amusements: Nicholas Wheeler, software engineer, marched Sky Ryders, VK, and UNT - taught at Pioneer and UNT; David Croy, designer, marched Sky Ryders and tech’ed under Paul Rennick at Sky, VK, and has provided visual consulting for UNT and Dynasty Drums.

About

Drumr Notate

Create and share drum music compositions quickly. This app offers a comprehensive set of notation tools for various drum instruments, allowing you to hear your music and export it as a PDF or MusicXML file. It integrates with a practice tool for enhanced learning.

Highlights
  • Compose drum music with detailed notation
  • Multiple instrument palettes (Drum Kit, Marching Snare, Tenors, Bassline)
  • Playback with built-in drum sounds
  • Export scores as PDF and MusicXML
  • Integrates with Drumr for interactive practice
  • Keyboard shortcuts and intuitive interface
Features
Read full description

Notation software made exclusively for drums. Write kit and drumline parts quickly and easily, hear them played back, and hand your players a clean PDF. Got a part from your instructor? Open, play, and share or print it free. Writing and editing need a Notate subscription — try it free for 7 days. No account required. Write it. Hear it. Share it. Everything you need to compose. - Note values from whole notes to 32nd notes - Tuplets — triplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets, and ninelets - Dynamics from ppp to fff, crescendo and decrescendo hairpins, and score-wide Accent/Tap dynamics - Accents, marcatos, tenutos, staccatos, flams, drags, ruffs, diddles, ghost notes, and open hi-hat markings - Add sticking and text to explain how the part should be played, or show sticking with Berger notation on Marching Snare - Per-measure tempo marks from 30 to 300 bpm and time signatures from 2/4 to 13/8 - Beams group themselves from the meter, compound meters included, with manual override - Rests consolidate automatically - Duplicate measures, repeat notes, and copy and paste to build patterns fast Built for the whole drumline. Four complete instrument palettes, with more than 100 sound and technique combinations. - Drum Kit — snare, bass drum, hi-hats, toms, and cymbals, plus cowbell, tambourine, clave, and gock block - Marching Snare — rimshots, cross-sticks, buzz and press rolls, backsticks, stick shots, stick clicks, ping shots, gock blocks, cowbell, and ribbon crasher - Marching Tenors — all six drums, with rim clicks, rimshots, buzz and press rolls, crossovers, stick shots, stick clicks, and skank - Marching Bassline — all five drums, with rim clicks, rimshots, buzz rolls, stick clicks, and unison hits Hear it back Play your score with built-in authentic drum sounds — playback follows the tempo marks you write, from 30 to 300 bpm, and a metronome clicks the beat while you listen. PDF and MusicXML Share or print a PDF of your scores. Scores live in the Files app and iCloud Drive, and every score is a standard MusicXML file you can use in Sibelius, Dorico, or any notation app that reads it. Send a score to anyone with Notate and they can open and play it free. Scores made with Drumr's retired Sibelius templates convert to Notate files at drumr.app/imports. Made for speed Tap, drag, or use full hardware keyboard shortcuts. Drag a note and Notate previews the valid placements before you drop it. Appearance Choose Light, Dark, or System, with preset or custom theme colors. Wrote it? Now practice it. Tap Open in Drumr on iPhone, iPad, or a Mac with Apple silicon to turn your score into an interactive practice tool — follow along note-for-note, slow the tempo or use speed training to build stick control, loop the hard parts, get practice feedback, and see your progress. Requires a Drumr Premium subscription with a free 7-day trial. — Help/feedback: https://support.drumr.app Privacy: https://privacy.drumr.app Terms: https://terms.drumr.app Apple EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Bass Line Composer4 screens
Drumr Notate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Drumr Notate at Free against Bass Line Composer's $1.99. Drumr Notate also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 63%) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). Bass Line Composer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (181 vs 4). On rating, ads 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

Drumr Notate is free to download; Bass Line Composer costs $1.99 up front. Drumr Notate sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Bass Line Composer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Bass Line Composer against 4.8 for Drumr Notate. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bass Line Composer has 181 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 63% of Bass Line Composer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Drumr Notate's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bass Line Composer ships an update every 2 months, Drumr Notate every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Bass Line Composer versus Drumr Notate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBass Line ComposerDrumr Notate
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (181 ratings)4.8 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews63.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings181 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB44 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperN. WheelerDrumr Inc.

Customer experience

Bass Line Composer

All ratings181 ratings
Positive93.4%
Neutral2.8%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews52 reviews
Positive63.5%
Neutral9.6%
Negative26.9%

Drumr Notate

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Bass Line Composer

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Drumr Notate

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly7 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Bass Line Composer free?
Bass Line Composer costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Drumr Notate free?
Drumr Notate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Bass Line Composer or Drumr Notate?
Drumr Notate is rated higher. Bass Line Composer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 181 ratings, while Drumr Notate averages 4.8 from 4 ratings.
Do Bass Line Composer or Drumr Notate have ads?
Neither Bass Line Composer nor Drumr Notate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bass Line Composer or Drumr Notate?
Bass Line Composer ships an update every 2 months, and Drumr Notate every 2 days. Most recently, Bass Line Composer was updated on October 21, 2026 and Drumr Notate on October 14, 2026.

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