DrumKick vs Gamelan Gender
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DrumKick
This app allows users to play a high-quality drum kit on their mobile device, offering low latency and interactive 3D graphics. It uniquely enables kick drum playing with your foot using a second iOS device and Bluetooth connection.
- Foot-controlled kick drum via second iOS device
- High-quality stereo drum sounds
- Low-latency performance
- Interactive 3D animated drums
- MIDI over Bluetooth support
- Audiobus & Inter-App Audio support
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DrumKick is the ultimate live performance drum app on-the-go! It gives you the freedom to play a great-sounding, intuitively laid-out drum kit anywhere—without the hassle of lugging your entire acoustic set to the show. Simply plug into a P.A. system, headphones, a boombox, or an amplifier, and you're ready to rock! – Connect to your Bluetooth-enabled laptop or device with MIDI over Bluetooth. – Core and Virtual MIDI support. – Audiobus & Inter-App Audio support. – Featured in Apple's Music-Making Apps for "The Song." – Featured in Apple's Band In Your Hand showcase. Reviews: http://www.musicappblog.com/drumkick-music-app-review/ DrumKick is the only stereo drum app that allows you to play the kick drum with your foot! With DrumKick installed on two iOS devices, such as an iPad and an iPhone, you can use the iPhone as a Bluetooth remote to play the kick drum with your foot! It also works with two iPhones or iPod touches. Or, you can mix and match. How does it work? Playing the virtual kick drum pedal is achieved by inserting the iPhone (upside down) into a snug fitness band that's wrapped around your ankle, or the front tube of your relatively clean crew sock. Tap your toes with your heel down, and the iPhone's accelerometer will trigger the kick drum sound on the iPad via Bluetooth. Feature Highlights: • Play the kick drum sound with your foot, using a second iOS device via standard Bluetooth connection. • High-quality drum stereo sounds with independent control of their volume, pitch and pan levels. • Low-latency with drum taps and sounds. • Retina-enhanced, interactive, 3-D animated drums and cymbals. • Multiple tap regions for triggering different drum and cymbal sounds. • Ability to switch the drum kit's audio output from stereo to mono when connected to stereo speakers, such as a P.A. system. • Touch-hold on the crash cymbal for a choked cymbal* muting effect. • Audiobus & Inter-App Audio support (iOS7+) for adding effects apps to DrumKick's output and recording into to GarageBand, Loopy, or AudioShare. https://audiob.us • Audiobus Remote triggers for playing DrumKick's sounds via a secondary iOS Device with the Audiobus Remote app installed. Requires the Audiobus app, iOS 8.3 +, and a Bluetooth LE-enabled iOS device, such as an iPad 3, iPhone 4S & higher. https://audiob.us/remote. • Core MIDI IN & OUT support, thanks to Nic Grant of Audeonic Apps for his robust MidiBus Library (http://midib.us) and generous help. • MIDI over Bluetooth support. • Compatible with the iRig BlueBoard MIDI foot controller. Requires Bluetooth LE-enabled iOS device, such as an iPad 3, iPhone 4S & higher. The iRig BlueBoard does not work with iPad 2. • Jam along with music apps that run in the background, such as GarageBand, Pandora, or your iPod music library. • Minimum requirements: iPad 2, iPhone 4S and newer devices are recommended. * No cymbals were harmed during the making of this app. If you have an issue or find a bug within DrumKick, please do not inform me about it in an App Review, since that method doesn't provide your contact information. For help and support, please send an email to: feedback@drumkickapp.com Known issues: • Missing UI panel for controlling the playback and recording from an Inter-App Audio connected app.
Gamelan Gender
This app is an iOS implementation of a Balinese Gamelan Gender Wayang, a 10-key metallophone. It offers tunable keys, Inter-App Audio/Audiobus support, and MIDI file playback for learning and practice.
- Inter-App Audio/Audiobus support
- MIDI file player
- Animated keys for learning
- Sampled sound bank
- Customizable key tuning
- Looping and tempo control
- Two touch play modes
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iOS implementation of Balinese Gamelan Gender Wayang, tunable and now with Inter-App Audio and Audiobus support! Gender Wayang is a 10-key metallophone, coming in pairs, most be doubled from an other pair one octave higher, tuned in Slendro scale. As Gender Wayang is played with two panggul (mallets) - other than the Gangsa in Gong Kebyar - two player together play the melody (left hand) and the interlocking parts kotekan (right hand) as a complete „mini“ Gamelan. •Inter-App Audio/Audiobus support •Remote trigger for Audiobus Remote •MIDI file player •Animated keys for „traditional" learning •Sound bank sampled from real instruments •Keys assignable to midi notes (adjust to your MIDI file) •Tune it to your real instruments •Mathematical tuning system, only 5 keys have to be defined •Calculated tuning can be overwritten, and each of the 40 keys frequency can be defined •Loop parts for practicing, increase/decrease tempo on every reloop •Set tempo changes, to for example accelerate each repetition... •Change tuning to pelog scale and use it for Gong Kebyar practicing as well, create your own 10 key tunings.... •MIDI input (Core MIDI, physical and virtual, Audiobus 3) •Two touch play modes: gamelan style (strike and damp) and piano style (touch and release)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Gamelan Gender at 5.0 against DrumKick's 4.4. Gamelan Gender also leads on price ($2.99 vs $3.99). DrumKick's advantage is ratings volume (40 vs 3) and iOS requirement (7.0 vs 15.4). On review sentiment, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
DrumKick costs $3.99 and Gamelan Gender $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Gamelan Gender holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DrumKick has 40 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of DrumKick's written reviews are positive against 83% of Gamelan Gender's.
DrumKick ships an update every 6 weeks, Gamelan Gender every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DrumKick | Gamelan Gender |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.4 (40 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 79.8% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 40 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 15.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 56 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mark Jeschke | Otmar Kramis |
Customer experience
DrumKick
Gamelan Gender
Bugs and requests
DrumKick
Reported bugs
8 issues- Kick drum feature doesn't sync or has high latency
- App crashes on startup
- App drains battery in background
- Kick drum activates unexpectedly
- Rarely loads, long loading screen
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- Connection issues with remote kick between devices
- Overall volume not loud enough
- Sound of cymbals sometimes cuts out
Requested features
17 requests- Add left and right-handed orientation setting
- Allow changing kit layout and adding more drums/percussive instruments
- Ability to switch kits around
- Add more drums or different percussive instruments
- Add recording functionality
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- Add background track playback (drumless tracks)
- Option to add own kit sounds
- Full Chinese localization
- Support for iPhone 6/6+
- Simple mode for easier hitting
- More kit variations
- Option to change each sound and build/save custom kits
- Edit drum position button
- Make rolls continuous
- More drum kits
- More variation in samples and velocity changes
- Improve overall volume
Gamelan Gender
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
DrumKick
No in-app purchases
Gamelan Gender
No in-app purchases









