Comparison

Sight Reading Machine vs BackingBand

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

Head to head
About

Sight Reading Machine

This music practice app generates personalized sight-reading exercises for various instruments. Customize rhythm, key, and complexity to suit your skill level and musical preferences. Practice offline with clear notation and adjustable tempo.

Highlights
  • Customizable musical exercises
  • Graded levels (1-8)
  • Adjustable rhythm, key, and complexity
  • Offline practice mode
  • Clear, responsive notation
  • Metronome and tempo control
  • Save and share presets
Features
Read full description

Fresh music to read. Practice that fits you. Sight Reading Machine creates short, musical exercises for piano and other instruments. Choose a graded starting point or shape the music around what you want to practise. Read with your instrument, sing in your head or follow the score wherever you are. START AT YOUR LEVEL Grades 1–8 for piano and selected instruments offer progressively more demanding keys, rhythms, ranges and textures. Choose within each level’s limits, or make a custom copy to explore every option. Each exercise is newly generated for core sight-reading practice. MAKE IT YOURS Choose Classical, Film or Robot, then adjust rhythm, note density, movement and note choices. Simplify the melody, stay in key, follow chords or add chromatic colour. Set note values, range, keys and time signatures. Shuffle your chosen keys and meters for a fresh challenge. NEW FOR PIANO Practise both hands with shared harmony and separate settings. Give each hand its own rhythm, density, movement and pitch range. Explore block chords, broken chords and melodic lines, then listen to either hand or both together. KEEP YOUR PLACE Clear, responsive notation works on iPhone and iPad. Optional beat markers and a pulse help you follow the meter without highlighting every note. Adjust tempo, add a count-in and use the metronome. Larger notation and an upcoming-score preview make small screens easier to read. KEEP WHAT WORKS Save music and playback settings together, favourite the presets you use and return to your last settings with Continue. Exchange .srmpreset files with students, teachers or friends. PRACTISE ANYWHERE Exercises, notation and instrument playback work offline. Choose from 29 instrument and clef setups, plus treble- and bass-clef reading modes. No microphone or account is required. FREE TO START Create five new exercises a day and save one custom preset per instrument. Musical customisation and preset-file import and export stay free. Replay your last exercise without using another daily exercise. SRM PLUS A single, one-time purchase unlocks unlimited new exercises, unlimited saved presets and optional iCloud preset sync. No subscription. Previous buyers of the paid SRM app receive Classic access, with the same full features, when their original purchase is verified. The app interface and screenshots are currently in English. SRM provides generated practice music and playback; it does not listen to or grade your performance.

About

BackingBand

Features
Read full description

Your own band, ready to play whatever you're working on. BackingBand turns a chord chart into a real-sounding rhythm section: drums, bass, keys and guitar that actually groove. Pick a chart, press play, and practice with a band behind you instead of a metronome. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Start from a curated library of ready-to-play tunes, or build your own: enter the chords, arrange your sections (intro, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, outro), and the band plays them back. • Import charts from iReal Pro: paste a link or choose an exported file, and the band picks a matching style for supported charts. • Pick from 38 styles: swing, jazz waltz, bebop, modal jazz, bossa nova, samba, shuffle and slow blues, classic and hard rock, funk, disco, neo-soul, reggae, ska, K-pop, second line, Afro and more. Switch styles anytime and the whole band re-arranges. • Make it yours: set the tempo and key, reshape the groove section by section, and balance, mute, solo or swap instruments in the mixer. • Practice with purpose: loop any passage with A-B repeat, count yourself in, and follow the chart as it scrolls with the music. A BAND THAT BREATHES, NOT A STIFF LOOP Real intros and endings, fills between sections, and a rhythm section that lifts behind your solo instead of repeating the same bar. Whether you're shedding ii-V-I changes, grinding the 12-bar blues or running a pop tune, the backing feels like players in a room. READS LIKE A REAL LEAD SHEET Clean chord symbols in jazz shorthand or spelled out, Roman numerals under every chord, colors by chord quality, and 2 or 4 bars per row. On iPad the chart grows with the screen, in portrait or landscape, and works in Split View and Stage Manager. GENRES Jazz · Blues · Pop · Rock · Funk · Soul/R&B · Latin · Reggae FOR EVERY PLAYER Guitarists, pianists, horn and reed players, bassists, singers, students and teachers: anyone who learns faster with a band behind them. Available in English and Simplified Chinese. FREE TO START, PRO ONCE Start free and save up to 5 charts. BackingBand Pro is a one-time purchase, no subscription: • Save unlimited charts • Play any chart in all 12 keys • The full chord palette: sus, color chords and every 7th beyond the dominant 7th • Create charts in 3/4, 6/8 and 12/8, and change individual bars to supported meters, including 2/4 PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account or ads. Your charts stay on your device, and the band keeps playing in the background. Usage analytics helps us improve the app; you can turn it off in Settings. We do not send your chart contents or audio to analytics. Download BackingBand and never practice to silence again.

Screenshots

Sight Reading Machine4 screens
BackingBand4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: BackingBand at weekly against Sight Reading Machine's every 3 months. BackingBand also leads on iOS requirement (16.6 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Sight Reading Machine sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and BackingBand sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sight Reading Machine ships an update every 3 months, BackingBand weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Sight Reading Machine versus BackingBand: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSight Reading MachineBackingBand
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.7 (26 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews62.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings26 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.016.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size47 MB412 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKai Wa Cheng昆山 郑

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Sight Reading Machine

One-time1
  • SRM Plus$9.99
1 purchases

BackingBand

One-time1
  • Backing Buddy Pro$14.99

Questions

Is Sight Reading Machine free?
Sight Reading Machine is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BackingBand free?
BackingBand is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Sight Reading Machine or BackingBand have ads?
Neither Sight Reading Machine nor BackingBand shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sight Reading Machine or BackingBand?
Sight Reading Machine ships an update every 3 months, and BackingBand weekly. Most recently, Sight Reading Machine was updated on November 6, 2026 and BackingBand on November 5, 2026.

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