pocketOscilloscope vs Circa Looper
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
pocketOscilloscope
Visualize audio waveforms on your Mac, PC, or iOS device. This tool offers detailed controls for RMS/Peak metering, voltage, gain, and visual elements like line thickness and rotation. Customize channel colors for a personalized audio analysis experience.
- Stereo capable oscilloscope
- RMS/Peak meter
- Controllable Vertical/Horizontal Offset
- Voltage and Gain controls
- Line Thickness and Rotation
- Custom color selection
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pocketOscilloscope is a Mac/PC and iOS compatible stereo capable oscilloscope tool for audio nerds. Complete with RMS/Peak meter and controllable Vertical and Horizontal Offset. As well as separate Voltage and Gain controls, coupled with visual controls like Line Thickness and Rotation for a complete experience. Custom color selection for audio channels 1 & 2. This tool is great for checking your custom built oscillators, plug-ins, or just visualizing your audio. VST3, AU, AUv3, & Stand-alone compatible. *Stand alone app works with external audio hardware devices.
Circa Looper
A powerful multi-channel looping instrument for iPad, designed for musicians and producers. It offers six independent stereo loop layers, deep modulation, precision syncing, and built-in effects for creating complex patterns and evolving soundscapes. Its touch-friendly interface allows for hands-on creative control and seamless DAW integration.
- Six independent stereo loop layers
- Deep modulation control
- Precision syncing
- Built-in reverb and delay
- Touch-friendly interface
- Full MIDI mapping
- Drag-and-drop audio export
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Circa runs as a standalone app, or as an AUv3 plugin in hosts such as GarageBand, Logic, AUM and Cubase. Equal parts workhorse and abstract creative tool, Circa is a six track multi-layer looping environment that can do most of the things your popular floor pedal looper can while also paying homage to the serendipitous world of ambient looping. Each layer can sync to the host, a master loop, or free run, and can be triggered in sync, with an audio signal, or freely. Circa has seven stereo outputs (including a dedicated cue output for monitoring) and built-in reverb and delay. Add in a complete MIDI control and LFO modulation system and Circa is a full looping workstation. Features -- Multi-Layered Looping Circa has six layers that can operate independently or in sync with each other and/or the host. Circa can record from the stereo input, or self-record via an internal buss for interesting feedback possibilities. -- Standalone Or Plugin As a standalone app, Circa has its own audio and MIDI settings: choose your audio interface, sample rate and buffer size, pick the input pair, send each of Circa's seven outputs to any output pair on your interface, and select a MIDI input. Sync to incoming MIDI clock, or let Circa set the tempo from your first loop. As an AUv3 plugin, it lives inside your host and syncs to its transport. -- Designed To Be Touched And Played Circa's user interface is made for tactile manipulation, with touch strips for speed and position (including dedicated pages). The position strip can be further subdivided with slices. All this works together to turn a looping effect into a playable instrument. -- Easy To Get Along With Circa's layers each have an undo for destructive edits like recording, overdubbing, and erasing. -- Controllability And Modulation Circa has 30 modulation slots. Each one can map a MIDI controller to any of Circa's looping functions, or run an LFO: seven shapes, free-running or tempo-synced, with rate, phase and level, modulating speed, start and end position, level, panning, delay and reverb sends, filter frequency and resonance, or the slice the play head is on. LFOs swing around wherever each control is set, so the knobs stay in charge. -- Self-Contained Circa has a full internal mixer, filtering on each layer, and studio-quality send reverb, send delay, parametric EQ and compressor taken directly from Audio Damage's extensive effect library. -- Expandable And Performance-Ready Circa has 7 outputs in all: six assignable stereo outputs and a cue output for monitoring. Send any layer to any of the six stereo outputs, while keeping the cue for soloing, recording, and editing, unheard by the audience. In the standalone app, each output can go to its own pair of outputs on your audio interface. -- Ecosystem-Aware Circa's user presets are cross-platform compatible, and work on any instance of Circa, whether on macOS, Windows, Linux, or iOS. In addition, sessions created in GarageBand or Logic on iOS will open in the desktop version on macOS if you have purchased a license to that version.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Circa Looper at 4.6 against pocketOscilloscope's 3.6. Circa Looper also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 12 months). pocketOscilloscope's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $7.99) and review sentiment (50% vs 33%). On ratings volume, 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
pocketOscilloscope costs $0.99 and Circa Looper $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Circa Looper holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 10 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of pocketOscilloscope's written reviews are positive against 33% of Circa Looper's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
pocketOscilloscope ships an update every 12 months, Circa Looper every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | pocketOscilloscope | Circa Looper |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 — better | $7.99 |
| Rating | 3.6 (5 ratings) | 4.6 (10 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better | 33.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 10 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 12 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #195 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 66 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | OSC Audio | Audio Damage, Inc. |
Customer experience
pocketOscilloscope
Circa Looper
In-app purchases
pocketOscilloscope
No in-app purchases
Circa Looper
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is pocketOscilloscope free?
Is Circa Looper free?
Which has better reviews, pocketOscilloscope or Circa Looper?
Do pocketOscilloscope or Circa Looper have ads?
Which is updated more often, pocketOscilloscope or Circa Looper?
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