Comparison

Arpie vs Pixelsynth

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

Head to head
About

Arpie

This app transforms bouncing balls into a musical experience. Place balls of varying heights to create unique melodies and rhythms. It's an intuitive way for anyone to explore music creation.

Highlights
  • Bouncing ball music generation
  • Adjustable ball height for melody
  • Create musical sequences
  • Intuitive music creation
  • Variety of musical patterns
Features
Read full description

Bouncing balls turn into music! Arpie is a novel musical app that allows anyone to enjoy music. Put balls as many as you like, them watch them playing a beautiful melody. Higher balls hit the keys with long pauses, and lower ones hit them fast and repeatedly. By combining them, you can easily create a wide variety of musical sequences.

About

Pixelsynth

This app transforms musical input into a vibrant visual experience, allowing users to see and shape their sound in real-time. It offers a playful and immediate way to create music, with all controls and feedback displayed on a single screen. Designed by a Deaf musician, it prioritizes visual feedback as an integral part of the instrument.

Highlights
  • Real-time visual sound shaping
  • Interactive 16-pad grid
  • Adjustable waveforms, filters, and envelopes
  • LFO, delay, and reverb effects
  • AUv3 instrument compatibility
  • Offline functionality
Features
Read full description

Make a sound in seconds—and shape it while it plays. Pixelsynth turns taps, drags, melodies, and chords into a colorful instrument you can understand by watching it. Everything you play lives on one screen. Touch a note and start exploring. FROM THE DEVELOPER OF PIXELBOOP Pixelsynth is a new visual instrument from the maker of Pixelboop. Both apps share a love of playful grids, immediate feedback, and musical ideas that begin with one touch. PLAY FIRST. LEARN BY WATCHING. Sixteen pads invite you to find a melody, hold a chord, or strum across the screen. Notes light up as you play, and every sound control moves in front of you. You can see what each gesture is doing while you hear the result. SHAPE THE SOUND LIVE • Switch waveforms to change the character of your sound. • Sweep the filter from bright and open to soft and focused. • Shape attack, decay, sustain, and release for crisp plucks, swelling notes, and long tails. • Add motion with LFO, repeating echoes with delay, and depth with reverb. Each control is a colorful tank. Touch higher or lower inside it to set the value directly. Values in the upper half stay where you leave them; notes in the lower half drain away after you lift. It feels immediate because the picture and the sound follow the same gesture. MADE TO BE SEEN Created by a Deaf musician, Pixelsynth treats visual feedback as part of the instrument. The entire musical surface is drawn on a 40 by 24 pixel grid—just 960 pixels—so every control stays visible and every change has a visual response. PLAY IT YOUR WAY Open Pixelsynth as a standalone instrument on iPhone or iPad, or load the included AUv3 instrument in a compatible iOS music host. Your host can send MIDI notes and save the instrument state with your project. A compatible host is available separately. FREE TO EXPLORE No account. No in-app purchases. No third-party ads. The instrument works offline. The standalone app may occasionally show developer news or an introduction to Pixelboop, which you can close immediately. Pixelsynth does not track you or collect the music you play. Open it. Touch a note. See where it takes you.

Screenshots

Arpie3 screens
Pixelsynth4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Pixelsynth at 5.0 against Arpie's 4.5. Pixelsynth also leads on update cadence (every 9 days vs every 97 months). Arpie's advantage is ratings volume (10 vs 3) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pixelsynth holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Arpie ships an update every 97 months, Pixelsynth every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Arpie versus Pixelsynth: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterArpiePixelsynth
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (10 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews92.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings10 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 97 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS11.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKeijiro Takahashide Bastion, Inc

Customer experience

Arpie

All ratings10 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative10.0%
Written reviews40 reviews
Positive92.5%
Neutral7.5%
Negative0.0%

Pixelsynth

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Arpie

No in-app purchases

None

Pixelsynth

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Arpie free?
Arpie is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pixelsynth free?
Pixelsynth is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Arpie or Pixelsynth?
Pixelsynth is rated higher. Arpie averages 4.5 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while Pixelsynth averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Arpie or Pixelsynth have ads?
Neither Arpie nor Pixelsynth shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Arpie or Pixelsynth?
Arpie ships an update every 97 months, and Pixelsynth every 9 days. Most recently, Arpie was updated on October 15, 2026 and Pixelsynth on October 11, 2026.

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