Song Beats vs DP8
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Song Beats
This app helps you learn and play drums along with your favorite songs. It visualizes drum hits, allows custom accompaniment creation, and offers practice tools like tempo adjustment and looping. Connect to Yamaha electronic drums for enhanced features.
- Visual drum hit guidance
- Custom drum accompaniment creation
- Tempo adjustment
- A-B looping for practice
- Skill testing
- Connect to Yamaha electronic drums
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Song Beats is a new application from Yamaha that makes it easy to play the drums along with your favorite songs! A fabulous drum performance support tool for iPhone or iPod touch! Song Beats supports your drum performance by visualizing which drums to hit and when to hit them while playing along with your favorite songs. The app also allows you to easily create custom accompaniments for drums, putting your drumming at the center of the band. In addition, you can also use any Yamaha MIDI song that you already own by using iTunes File Sharing. [Functions] * Player Screen - Glowing rings make it easy to see which drums to hit and when to hit them, so you can learn to play along with your favorite songs. Hit the corresponding drum when the glowing ring reaches the edge of the drum. - [NEW]Scrolling display (The timeline shows which drum you need to hit, with a cursor moving from right to left to indicate the timing.) - [NEW]Skill test: Evaluate your drumming skills, with a three-level result for each drum. - [NEW]You can connect to the Yamaha electronic drum DTX series (to use the skill test and for playback of song data from the drum kit) * Connecting to a drum kit requires i-UX1. In case of iPhone5, iPod touch(5th generation) and iPad mini, please use them with Apple Lightning to 30-pin Adapter. See the Yamaha website for details of supported devices. - mixing drums : Mix the drum sounds you want to hear by using the mute feature, and create simplified drum beats for practice or performance. - changing the tempo: Change the tempo of any song to match your skill level. - A-B looping: Set loop points to repeat and practice difficult beats in a song. - Customize full band accompaniment with high-quality voices * Library Screen - Enjoy 10 built-in songs and 10 drum patterns as soon as you download Song Beats! Each built-in song has a reference video of the drum performance! - Load any Yamaha MIDI songs you already own into the app by using iTunes File Sharing. Learn more about the Song Beats app on our website: http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/apps/song_beats/
DP8
Experience a full drum kit with an intuitive layout. Enjoy dynamic performance and high-quality sounds at your fingertips. Practice along with songs using real-time speed adjustment and a simple mixer.
- Full drum kit layout
- Natural dynamic performance
- High-quality sound
- Multi-genre drum sounds
- Integrated song playback
- Real-time song speed adjust
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Play whole drumkit with this perfect layout drumpad. Most natural dynamic performance and amazing sound quality, all you can get on your fingertip !! - Multi drum sounds fit different music genre. - All parts of drumset with variety dynamic. - Integrated song playback control. - Simple mixer ,fast sound blend control. - Realtime song speed adjust, perfect for practice. Support by AD ,can be remove by 1-click! Drum Pad 8 Pro adds an AUv3 drum instrument and removes ads. Play Pop, Rock and Jazz kits in compatible AUv3 hosts, using MIDI or the 4×2 pads. Pro is a one-time in-app purchase.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: DP8 at 4.4 against Song Beats's 3.4. DP8 also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (82 vs 19). Song Beats's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (66% vs 50%). On price, update cadence, monetization model and iOS requirement 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. Song Beats sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. DP8 asks for nothing beyond the download.
DP8 holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 19 and 82 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of Song Beats's written reviews are positive against 50% of DP8's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Song Beats ships an update every 6 months, DP8 every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Song Beats | DP8 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (19 ratings) | 4.4 (82 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.3% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 19 | 82 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 47 MB | 77 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yamaha Corporation | MingChun Chien |
Customer experience
Song Beats
DP8
In-app purchases
Song Beats
- Song Beats song$0.99
DP8
No in-app purchases









