Comparison

Harmonic Explorer vs Riffshed

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

Head to head
About

Harmonic Explorer

Features
Read full description

Harmonic Explorer is a unique musical instrument built for sonic discovery. Tap into a grid of harmonic tones, pan across four octaves, and sculpt sound with layered controls that invite both casual play and deep experimentation. From soft, violin-like purity to rich metallic textures and spatial choruses, Harmonic Explorer offers a wide expressive range. Adjust harmonic gains, spread tones into lush chords, or reduce everything down to a single precise frequency. Key Features: - Intuitive multi-touch interface with four full octaves - Portrait and Landscape mode fully supported - Harmonic tone generation with per-voice amplitude control - Dynamic chord spread control — from single tones to shimmering triads - Built-in reverb with selectable acoustic spaces (from Room to Cathedral) - Randomize and Reset for playful experimentation or clean slates - Route Picker to send audio directly to Bluetooth or external devices - Designed for real-time performance and sound exploration - Fully offline — no ads, no tracking, no accounts, no interruptions Whether you're a composer looking for new inspiration, a student learning sound design, or just curious about the nature of harmonic structure, Harmonic Explorer offers a fresh way to hear and shape music. Sculpt tones. Discover timbres. Explore harmonics.

About

Riffshed

This app helps musicians improve their practice by focusing on deliberate repetition and structured work blocks. It includes a metronome, sheet music viewer, and links to music streaming services, all designed to enhance focused instrumental practice.

Highlights
  • Rep-based practice tracking
  • Focus-block timer
  • Built-in metronome
  • Sheet music integration
  • Links to streaming services
  • Curated starter libraries
Features
Read full description

Riffshed is a practice journal for jazz musicians, built on the card system. See whether you're actually getting better — or just spending more time with the instrument. THREE PHASES. ONE CARD. Every exercise is a card that moves through three phases — Explore, Integrate, Master — each with its own color and rep counter. You decide when a card is ready to move forward; Riffshed remembers when it did and how long it stayed in each phase. REPS, NOT MINUTES A timer rewards sitting with the instrument. A rep counter rewards doing the work: running a phrase through twelve keys, taking a head clean. Minutes are still tracked — but reps are the unit you optimize. FOCUS BLOCKS A 20/5 focus cycle tuned for instrumental practice: twenty minutes on one card, five minutes of mandatory break. Both intervals are configurable; the open-ended mode drops the clock entirely for jams and lessons. START FROM ANYWHERE (new in 1.1) A Home Screen widget starts a session in one tap and shows today's minutes, your streak and the weekly goal. The live timer follows you to the Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island — pause and finish without unlocking; the session saves itself. Map practice to the Action Button, ask Siri, or add a Control Center switch. A METRONOME YOU'LL ACTUALLY USE Full-screen metronome with pendulum, subdivisions and swing. Configure click and accent per beat and per subdivision: silence the "and" of 2, accent any sixteenth, build polyrhythm grids. EVERYTHING LIVES IN THE CARD Notes, target tempo, separate rep counters per phase, PDF sheet music that opens full-screen (pages flip with a swipe while the metronome keeps playing), and one-tap links out to iReal Pro, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and more. SEE A YEAR OF WORK A calendar heatmap of your practice. Tap any day to see what you played, for how long, and which cards moved forward. CURATED LIBRARIES TO START Jazz Piano Fundamentals (67 cards ordered by difficulty) and iReal Pro — Essential Standards (30 standards with deep links) are pre-installed. Build your own libraries, or import a curriculum a teacher shared as a single file. YOUR DATA IS YOURS Fully offline. Full JSON backup including scores. Library export and import in one tap. No account, no ads. Free. Built for daily practice — for iPhone and iPad.

Screenshots

Harmonic Explorer4 screens
Riffshed4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Riffshed at Free against Harmonic Explorer's $0.99. Riffshed also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 7 months). Harmonic Explorer's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). On 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

Riffshed is free to download; Harmonic Explorer costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Harmonic Explorer ships an update every 7 months, Riffshed every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Harmonic Explorer versus Riffshed: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHarmonic ExplorerRiffshed
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPhilippe ZayAnton Rozhkovskiy

In-app purchases

None

Harmonic Explorer

No in-app purchases

None

Riffshed

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Harmonic Explorer free?
Harmonic Explorer costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Riffshed free?
Riffshed is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Harmonic Explorer or Riffshed have ads?
Neither Harmonic Explorer nor Riffshed shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Harmonic Explorer or Riffshed?
Harmonic Explorer ships an update every 7 months, and Riffshed every 2 days. Most recently, Harmonic Explorer was updated on September 21, 2026 and Riffshed on October 9, 2026.

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