Comparison

Tandem MIDI Canvas vs Midiboard

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

Head to head
About

Tandem MIDI Canvas

Design and build custom MIDI controllers on your iPhone or iPad. Save presets, perform with motion and snapshots, and collaborate in real-time with others. Features smart snapping, layout templates, and morphing between states.

Highlights
  • Build custom MIDI controller layouts
  • Save and recall presets
  • Perform with motion and snapshots
  • Real-time collaboration
  • Smart MIDI setup
  • Morphing between states
Features
Read full description

Tandem turns your iPhone or iPad into a customizable MIDI controller you can actually trust on stage. Build your own layouts in minutes, map them fast, save reusable presets, and perform with powerful features like snapshots, morphing, motion control, and real-time collaboration. Whether you’re producing in the studio, playing live, teaching, or building DJ performance layouts, Tandem gives you a fast, flexible way to create controllers that fit your workflow instead of forcing you into someone else’s. BUILD THE CONTROLLER YOU ACTUALLY WANT Create custom layouts with knobs, faders, XY pads, drum pads, buttons, toggles, momentary buttons, endless encoders, transport controls, and gyroscope-based motion. Start from a blank canvas or jump in quickly with templates for mixers, synth performance rigs, drum layouts, dashboards, and more. Save your setups as presets and reuse them whenever you want. FAST WORKFLOW, BUILT FOR REAL USE Tandem is designed to help you build quickly and perform confidently. Features include: • Smart snapping and responsive grids • Spacing tools for clean layouts • Focus Mode for precision editing • Fast MIDI Learn • Helpful hints and a replayable tutorial walkthrough • Smart MIDI setup so new controls can automatically map to unused assignments SHAPESHIFT YOUR PERFORMANCE This is where Tandem becomes more than a controller. Save up to 8 snapshots of an entire layout, including all control values. Instantly jump between states or smoothly interpolate between them using a Morph Driver. It’s perfect for live performance, evolving sound design, transitions, and expressive macro control. RANDOMIZATION YOU CAN PLAY Map Randomize to a button or pad and generate musical variation on demand. Great for experimentation, happy accidents, sound design, and live moments that feel alive instead of static. COLLABORATE IN REAL TIME With Tandem Mode, multiple devices can share and control the same layout together. Host or join a session and collaborate live across devices—ideal for bands, classrooms, writing rooms, rehearsals, and shared performance setups. Locally and Remotely via SharePlay! DJ AND PERFORMANCE READY Tandem isn’t just for synths and studio control. It can also power performance-oriented layouts for transport, mixing, browser access, FX control, looping, hot cues, waveforms, and more. Build focused pages for the way you actually perform. THEMES THAT LOOK GOOD AND HOLD UP ON STAGE Use high-contrast, stage-ready themes or create your own look. Tandem includes a redesigned Theme Maker plus import/export support for themes and preset packages so you can share setups and visual styles. FLEXIBLE CONNECTIVITY Connect with: • USB-C • Bluetooth MIDI • Wi-Fi Background processing helps keep MIDI flowing while you work. Tandem isn’t just a MIDI controller app. It’s a controller builder with performance features you usually only get from dedicated hardware—wrapped in a workflow that’s fast, modern, and easy to come back to. Design your ideal controller, save your favorite setups, morph entire layouts, and perform anywhere—solo or together.

About

Midiboard

Features
Read full description

Your phone, as the controller you actually wanted. Midiboard turns an iPhone into a Bluetooth MIDI controller you lay out yourself. Drop a widget on the grid, drag it where your hand goes, size it to the reach you actually have. Save the screen, build the next one, and flip between them with one tap while the song is running. Every other phone controller hands you someone else's idea of a surface. This one hands you the grid. BUILD THE SURFACE • Pad grids of any size, tuned chromatically or in fourths, fifths, thirds or octaves — a grid in fourths keeps every chord shape the same wherever you move it • Keyboards of any span, starting on any note, with glissando between keys • Chord buttons you write note by note. C, E, G#, D is as valid as a minor triad • Pitch and mod wheels shaped like the ones beside your keyboard, plus 270° arcs and endless rotaries • Faders and two-axis XY pads, with relative pickup so grabbing one mid-song does not throw the sound • Step sequencers where every step names the note it plays, each with its own run button • Footswitch banks where exactly one lamp is lit — press a switch and the last one goes out, so a glance tells you which preset you are actually on • Transpose controls that move a group of widgets, so a bass bank and a lead move independently on the same page PLAY IT • Set a key per widget: notes outside it either step back but stay playable, or snap into the key • Poly, mono, legato and glide, per widget • A clock with tap tempo, MIDI clock out, note repeat and an arpeggiator — or follow your computer's tempo instead • Set the travel of any control, so a fader only ever moves between two settings that are useful on the other end • Panic always within reach, and haptics you can tune per control KEEP IT • As many saved layouts as you like. Export one to a file, send it to someone, import theirs • Two colour palettes, and note names that match whatever your software calls them CONNECTS TO WHATEVER YOU PLAY Two routes, and you pick the one your rig has. Over Bluetooth LE MIDI, Mac, iPad and iPhone connect directly and Windows pairs through a Bluetooth MIDI bridge. Over Wi-Fi it is an RTP-MIDI session — built into macOS, and on Windows through rtpMIDI — which is the one to reach for when Bluetooth is crowded or the computer has none. It can also open a MIDI port for other apps on this same phone or iPad. No cable, no dongle, no account, and nothing to sign into. Midiboard collects nothing: no analytics, no crash reporting, no accounts, no tracking. Over Wi-Fi it uses your local network to reach the computer you chose, and the only thing it ever puts on it is MIDI. PRO Midiboard is free, with pad grids, keyboards, faders and labels. Pro adds every other widget, and starts with a free trial; after it, a monthly subscription or a one-time purchase keeps it. The subscription renews monthly unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://safabulat.github.io/midiboard-site/privacy.html

Screenshots

Tandem MIDI Canvas4 screens
Midiboard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Midiboard at Free against Tandem MIDI Canvas's $14.99. Midiboard also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 weeks). Tandem MIDI Canvas's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Midiboard is free to download; Tandem MIDI Canvas costs $14.99 up front. Midiboard sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Tandem MIDI Canvas asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tandem MIDI Canvas ships an update every 5 weeks, Midiboard every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Tandem MIDI Canvas versus Midiboard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTandem MIDI CanvasMidiboard
Price$14.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMitchell CohenMAHMUT SAFA BULAT

In-app purchases

None

Tandem MIDI Canvas

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Midiboard

One-time1
  • Midiboard Editor$9.99

Questions

Is Tandem MIDI Canvas free?
Tandem MIDI Canvas costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Midiboard free?
Midiboard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Tandem MIDI Canvas or Midiboard have ads?
Neither Tandem MIDI Canvas nor Midiboard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tandem MIDI Canvas or Midiboard?
Tandem MIDI Canvas ships an update every 5 weeks, and Midiboard every 2 days. Most recently, Tandem MIDI Canvas was updated on October 10, 2026 and Midiboard on October 7, 2026.

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