GoodEar Pro vs Synesthesia
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
GoodEar Pro
Enhance your musical ear with this comprehensive ear training app. It offers four distinct modes—intervals, chords, scales, and melodies—with extensive customization options for all skill levels. Track your progress and challenge yourself with personalized exercises.
- Interval training
- Chord recognition
- Scale identification
- Melody dictation
- Customizable exercises
- Progress tracking
- High score challenges
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Most ear-training apps are multiple-choice quizzes. You hear something, you tap a label. You get good at recognising labels. Good Ear is built for the other half of the skill. You hear an interval, a chord or a melody — in real harmonic context, with the home chord ringing under it — and you play it back on a real piano keyboard. The same skill you use when you transcribe a solo, sing a part you've never seen, or hear a chord change for the first time. WHO ACTUALLY USES GOOD EAR – Self-taught musicians who've hit the plateau where their ears can't keep up with their playing – College and conservatory students preparing for aural-skills, theory or entrance exams – Jazz players, producers and session musicians who transcribe by ear – Vocalists and instrumentalists learning to sing and play what they hear – Teachers and educators looking for a structured aural-skills tool THREE THINGS GOOD EAR DOES THAT MOST EAR TRAINERS DON'T 1. PLAY IT BACK ON A REAL KEYBOARD A scrollable 88-key piano with an overview bar, touch highlighting and multi-touch — the same input method a musician would use at an instrument. Multiple-choice mode is there too if you want fast recognition drills, and you can switch between them at any time. But Melodies mode is keyboard-input only, exactly like dictation in an aural-skills class. 2. HEAR IT IN REAL HARMONIC CONTEXT Add a backing chord to interval and melody exercises. The three chord tones light up on the keyboard so you can see the tonal centre you are hearing — and tap them to explore the harmony without affecting your answer. Functional hearing, not abstract pitch detection. 3. DEPTH YOU WILL NOT OUTGROW No "complete level 1 to unlock level 2." You pick exactly what you train, and the material goes deeper than most ear trainers ever bother: – 24 intervals, from unison to compound 14ths – 39 chord types — triads, seventh chords, extended chords, altered dominants — across root position, first through third inversions, open voicing and Drop 2 (200+ unique variations) – 32 scales across six families — diatonic modes, harmonic minor modes, melodic minor modes, plus pentatonic, hexatonic and octatonic (whole tone, diminished, bebop included) – Melodic dictation on melodies of 3 to 11 notes, diatonic or chromatic, three difficulty levels, optional chord backing From your first major scale to your last bebop mode, in one app. CONFIGURE EVERY DETAIL Adjust tempo, playback direction, voicing, inversion, play style, difficulty, melody length, octave range and harmonic backing. Pick exactly which intervals, chords or scales each session contains. The app adapts to your level — you don't have to grind through someone else's curriculum. KEEP TRACK OF YOUR PROGRESS Per-element accuracy bars sorted weakest-first show you at a glance which intervals, chords or scales need attention. A 52-week heatmap tracks your practice days, and session records keep your best streak, lifetime accuracy and total exercises. Honest progress data — no badges, no fake levels. A DARK, PROFESSIONAL INTERFACE No ads. No distractions. No sign-in. The keyboard is fast, the typography is clean, and nothing gets between you and the next exercise. GET STARTED Free to download, with three days of full access. Then unlock the entire library forever with a one-time Lifetime purchase. Open-source acknowledgements: good-ear.app/acknowledgements Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://good-ear.app/privacy/
Synesthesia
Experience music through a spectrum of colors, mimicking the sensory phenomenon of synesthesia. Use it as a dynamic mood light, a calming night light, or to visualize the pitches of songs and instruments.
- Music visualization
- Mood lighting
- Night light functionality
- Pitch to color mapping
- Microphone access for real-time audio
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Synesthesia makes listening to music a colorful experience and is a wonderful mood light and soft night light when you want to calm down. Do you want to see colors when playing certain tones like people with synesthesia / chromestesia do? The app "Synesthesia - See the music in colors" enables you to experience music in color as well. Whether you use it to train you perfect pitch, to help you remember melodies or just for entertainment as a light organ while listening to your favorite songs - Synesthesia helps you to see the current pitch in colors. To experience the colors simply allow the app to access the microphone on the first start and then play your instrument or a song, sing, ... or just enjoy many color changing patterns even without music as a mood light or night light. Please note: People with synesthesia may experiences different colors for the same pitch. The app therefore uses it's own color scale (each musical note C displays a red color for example). Some of our users use the app as an replacement for their old light organs ... so that should work very well ;-) If you like music apps be sure to check out our other apps as well -> Piano Champion, Guitar Champion, Drum Champion, Voice Back .... and many more to come
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: GoodEar Pro at 4.8 against Synesthesia's 2.3. GoodEar Pro also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 38%) and ratings volume (162 vs 16). Synesthesia's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.0). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. GoodEar Pro sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Synesthesia asks for nothing beyond the download.
GoodEar Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: GoodEar Pro has 162 ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of GoodEar Pro's written reviews are positive against 38% of Synesthesia's.
GoodEar Pro ships an update every 2 weeks, Synesthesia monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | GoodEar Pro | Synesthesia |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (162 ratings) — better | 2.3 (16 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 77.1% of reviews — better | 37.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 162 — better | 16 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pascal Weiss | Christian Auzinger |
Customer experience
GoodEar Pro
Synesthesia
Bugs and requests
GoodEar Pro
Reported bugs
12 issues- Settings not opening/app crashes (iOS 26)
- App crashes when changing scales or chords
- App crashes after clicking option/customization button
- Settings no longer work after iOS 17 update
- Inconsistent performance with headphones on iPad Pro (notes bouncing)
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- Selection at top dropped behind other buttons
- Check all on chords not always working
- App closes when trying to select scales
- Misnames major fourteenth as major thirteenth
- Cannot change tempo on iPhone
- Cannot identify chords, only distinguish major/minor
- Doesn't train hearing specific notes, only intervals
Requested features
54 requests- Add more complex chords (Maj13, Major 6/9#11, etc.)
- Add 7ths or other elements to increase difficulty
- Add more elaborate statistical breakdowns (scores over time)
- Add a guitar fretboard for note input
- Add compound intervals (larger than an octave)
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- Add modes from the melodic minor scale
- Add fully customizable scales by specifying interval sequences
- Improve statistics to show percentages for specific chords/intervals
- Add a progressive difficulty option that tracks struggles
- Add an option to play the chord after playing the arpeggio
- Add chord progressions
- Add backing tracks
- Add Harmonic Major Scale
- Add option to hear the chord underneath a melody separately
- Ability to stay on a melody beyond completion
- Add 13b9, 13#9, 7#11#9 chords
- Add 13#11, 13#11#9, 13#11b9 chords
- Add susb9 chords and dominant chords with 9th and 13th
- Fix range of upper extensions
- Add chord progressions in all keys
- Add longer melodic examples
- Add option to remove the 5th of the chord when playing chords with 11th/13th extensions
- Add different timbres for intervals/scales/melodies (e.g., trumpet)
- Show tempo slider value
- Shorten time between questions
- Identification of tone against a chord
- Add chord progressions
- Add ability to hear chord underneath melody separately
- Add ability to stay on a melody beyond completion
- Add 13b9, 13#9, 7#11#9 chords
- Add 13#11, 13#11#9, 13#11b9 chords
- Add susb9 chords and dominant chords with 9th and 13th
- Fix range of upper extensions
- Add chord progressions in all keys
- Add longer melodic examples
- Add option to remove the 5th of the chord when playing chords with 11th/13th extensions
- Add different timbres for intervals/scales/melodies (e.g., trumpet)
- Show tempo slider value
- Shorten time between questions
- Identification of tone against a chord
- Add chord progressions
- Add ability to hear chord underneath melody separately
- Add ability to stay on a melody beyond completion
- Add 13b9, 13#9, 7#11#9 chords
- Add 13#11, 13#11#9, 13#11b9 chords
- Add susb9 chords and dominant chords with 9th and 13th
- Fix range of upper extensions
- Add chord progressions in all keys
- Add longer melodic examples
- Add option to remove the 5th of the chord when playing chords with 11th/13th extensions
- Add different timbres for intervals/scales/melodies (e.g., trumpet)
- Show tempo slider value
- Shorten time between questions
- Identification of tone against a chord
Synesthesia
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
GoodEar Pro
- goodEar Premium Monthly1 Month trial$2.991 Month
- goodEar Premium Yearly1 Year trial$17.991 Year
- Premium Access (Special Offer)$1.99
- Premium Access$4.99
Synesthesia
No in-app purchases








