Comparison

Zoot Link vs ShowMIDI

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

Head to head
About

Zoot Link

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Zoot Link is the companion app for Zoot™, the simple electronic wind instrument that unleashes your inner virtuoso. The app includes several high-quality built-in virtual instruments: (1) Zoot Clarinet, a physically modeled clarinet with a wide pitch range; (2) Zoot Brass, a wavetable-based spectral-interpolation synthesizer covering eight brass instruments; and (3) a Sine synth with adjustable skew that can morph toward a richer, sawtooth-like tone — great for theremin-like sounds combined with Zoot Link’s pitch-bend features. The app also accepts MIDI input from other controllers. Zoot is highly expressive yet easy to play. Whether you are playing one of the built-in synths or other virtual instruments like saxophone or violin via the app’s MIDI output, Zoot responds to the subtleties of breath and articulation for the control of dynamics and timbre, to finger positions for selecting the pitch, to motion gestures for vibrato and other effects, and to finger proximity for pitch bends. The essential range of Zoot Clarinet, where the timbre is most realistic, is from C3 to A#6. However, the instrument will respond from C1 (3 octaves below Middle C) to C8 (4 octaves above Middle C). The clarinet works best when paired with the Zoot hardware, which connects to your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook via Bluetooth, but you can also play it using any MIDI controller that produces a continuous breath value. Zoot Brass adds eight more instruments — Piccolo Trumpet, Trumpet, Cornet, Flugelhorn, French Horn, Trombone, Bass Trombone, and Tuba — with breath control shaping dynamics and timbre just as it does for the clarinet, plus a Wander control that adds subtle, human-like variation for a more natural sound. Since Zoot uses standard recorder fingering by default, recorder players can simply pick up the instrument and play. If you’re new to wind instruments, try Zoot’s easy-to-learn simplified fingering system. Or choose whatever fingering system you’re already familiar with — you can even invent your own. Zoot is for everyone who wants to have fun expressing themselves musically! App Features: * Compatible with iPhones and iPads * Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity for Zoot sensor data * Zoot Clarinet, a high quality physically modeled clarinet with wide pitch range * Zoot Brass, a wavetable-based spectral-interpolation synthesizer for eight instruments * Sine wave synthesizer with adjustable skew * Selectable fingering system, including standard recorder * Touch display to show finger positions * Motion gestures for vibrato, tremolo, octave control, and more * Finger-controlled pitch bends * Multiple options for easily setting base pitch and transposition of instrument * Chord strummer using motion gestures only * Named presets for saving and restoring all app controls * MIDI output to control other virtual wind instruments * MIDI input to play Zoot Link’s built-in synths using a different controller * Built-in fingering reference * Live graphs of breath pressure and pitch bend * Sip (suction) sensor for triggering user-defined actions * Proximity and Tilt modes for theremin-like effects * Graphical breath mapping curve for customized control For much more information, including video demos and user guides, please go to https://www.playzoot.com/.

About

ShowMIDI

This application provides a real-time, glanceable view of all MIDI activity on your computer. It visualizes various MIDI messages and allows you to pause the flow for a data snapshot. It can be used as a standalone tool or an AUv3 plugin within your DAW.

Highlights
  • Real-time MIDI visualization
  • Auto-hides irrelevant messages
  • Pause and snapshot data
  • Standalone application
  • AUv3 plugin support
  • Supports MPE configuration
Features
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ShowMIDI is an open-source multi-platform GUI application to effortlessly visualize MIDI activity. Instead of wading through logs of MIDI messages to correlate relevant ones and identify what is happening, ShowMIDI visualizes the current activity and auto-hides what you don't care about anymore. It provides you with a real-time glanceable view of all MIDI activity on your computer. ShowMIDI is designed to be always on, using the spacebar or play/pause button you can pause the flow and focus on a data snapshot with the latest state of any MIDI entity. ShowMIDI can be ran as a standalone application that automatically detects all your MIDI devices, or as an AUv3 plugin in your DAW or host to visualize MIDI data in your sessions. ShowMIDI visualizes: * MIDI ports * channels * program change * note on/off * channel pressure * polyphonic pressure * continuous control change * pitchbend * RPN and NRPN * MPE configuration and channel modes ShowMIDI supports: * themes * standalone operation * AUv3 operation

Screenshots

Zoot Link4 screens
ShowMIDI4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: ShowMIDI at 12.0 against Zoot Link's 15.6. On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Zoot Link ships an update every 3 months, ShowMIDI every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Zoot Link versus ShowMIDI: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterZoot LinkShowMIDI
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.8 (18 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—87.5% of reviews
Number of ratings—18 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.612.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperComputing Explorations, LLCUwyn, LLC

In-app purchases

None

Zoot Link

No in-app purchases

None

ShowMIDI

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Zoot Link free?
Zoot Link is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ShowMIDI free?
ShowMIDI is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Zoot Link or ShowMIDI have ads?
Neither Zoot Link nor ShowMIDI shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Zoot Link or ShowMIDI?
Zoot Link ships an update every 3 months, and ShowMIDI every 2 months. Most recently, Zoot Link was updated on October 7, 2026 and ShowMIDI on October 17, 2026.

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