Comparison

pOus vs Drone Meditations

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

Head to head
About

pOus

This app emulates analog drum machine bass drums with adjustable tuning and decay. It offers MIDI OUT functionality for envelope follower data and a scale mode for playing musical scales. Designed for musicians using AUv3 hosts.

Highlights
  • BassDrum emulation
  • Adjustable tune and decay
  • MIDI OUT envelope follower
  • Scale mode for musical notes
  • AUv3 instrument
  • MIDI CC routing
Read full description

Concept: The app is an AUv3 instrument that emulates the so-called “BassDrum” of analog drum machine. In addition it features MIDI OUT functionality of Envelop Follower, that is, the user can send out this instrument's unique envelop via midi CC for modulating external plugins. Also there is "scale mode" where the user can play "pOus" with musical scale like Bass. System Requirements: AUv3 host that has a flexible capability of MIDI routing (AUM, apeMatrix, etc) Usage: There are 9 sliders & one button. Tune: BassDrum’s fundamental frequency (30hz - 160hz). text-editable. Decay: determines its duration. Amp: audio’s decibel representation. MIDI OUT: whether the functionality of envelop follower is turned on or off (default: off) MIDI Gain: gain amount of MIDI out Offset: balances the output parameter’s value Channel: determines MIDI channel MIDI CC: determines the destination MIDI CC number. text-editable Scale Mode: This is a sort of Bass mode, that is, it can play musical scale in response to incoming MIDI notes. Button: triggers the instrument. Recommended Scheme: drum machine (MIDI out) -> “pOus” -> audio effect (compressor, saturator etc)

About

Drone Meditations

Features
Read full description

A deep four-oscillator drone synthesizer for meditation, sound healing, and ambient composition. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros, Éliane Radigue, Stars of the Lid, William Basinski, and the long-form drone tradition. Real synthesis, real tuning systems, real cymatics — designed for listeners who want to go deep. Most "drone apps" give you a few sliders and call it ambient. Drone Meditations gives you a real instrument. SOUNDS YOU CAN SIT WITH FOR HOURS • Four oscillators per patch — sine, triangle, sawtooth, square, white / pink noise, granular pink, or loaded sample • Per-voice filter (LP / HP / BP), drive, cross-osc FM, stereo chorus, three-mode delay with musical timing, stereo Schroeder reverb • Twenty multi-target LFOs per patch (five per voice). LFOs 1–4 hit amp / pan / cutoff / Q / pitch / FM / FX-Mix; LFO 5 has its own row of granular + FX targets (grain, delay, reverb). Each LFO's rate can lock to a musical subdivision of the tempo. • Per-voice timing envelopes — fade in over minutes, fade out later, repeat N times or forever. Rotate harmonically across 20 minutes without touching a slider. • Six tuning systems: 12-TET, just intonation, Pythagorean, Lou Harrison Free JI, Wendy Carlos α/β/γ, Harry Partch 43-tone DESIGNED FOR THE DRONE TRADITION • 110+ presets across Drone Artists, Developer Patches, Solfeggio, Natural Resonance, Cymatics, Mystic & Composers, and Binaural categories — plus an INIT preset pinned at the top • 48 Drone Artists tributes — Oliveros, Riley, Radigue, Stars of the Lid, Sunn O))), Basinski, Niblock, Palestine, Budd, Coltrane, and more — capturing each artist's waveforms, FX, and tuning, not just their pitches • 21 Developer Patches showcasing granular sampling, BPM-locked grain density, FX-Mix LFO swells, and the JG hybrid pad/groove series • Modal chord category — the 7 diatonic modes plus Harmonic and Melodic Minor — with quantize-to-scale so pitch-modulated voices arpeggiate across all 7 mode degrees • Auto-morph between any two presets over 30 s to 60 min • 25 scripted meditation journeys (Deep Listening, Heavy Resonance, Minimalist Arc, and 22 more) • Tune to Room — global LISTEN snaps the chord root to a pitch from the mic; per-strip ear icon snaps just one voice LIVE CYMATICS THAT BREATHE WITH THE AUDIO • Physically-calibrated Chladni patterns fit from real plate- vibration footage. The renderer crossfades between two adjacent eigenmodes bracketing each voice's live frequency — vibrato breathes between physical modes, not styled animation. • Pinch to zoom; tap to enter fullscreen Performance mode with a drifting sand-particle simulation along the nodal lines • Cymatic snapshot gallery + spectrum-analyzer alternative GRANULAR + TEMPO • Granular waveform: pink noise chopped into Hann-windowed grains with size, density, jitter, stereo spread, per-voice overlap • Granular sampling: same scheduler on any loaded sample — freeze a bansuri forever, smear a chord into a tape-decay cloud • BPM-quantized density (½ → 1/32T) locks grain spacing to the global tempo. Per-LFO rate sync extends musical subdivisions to LFO speed. Metronome click toggle for an audible reference. RECORD, SHARE, AND COMPOSE • Mastered session recording: 24-bit WAV + AAC M4A sidecar with loudness normalization, automatic fades, embedded metadata • Per-voice mic record captures into a voice's sample slot — normalized, granular-ready, with the current frequency as the sample's reference pitch • 50+ bundled samples: bansuri, organ, piano, storm, tide, forest, urban, cosmic • Cross-device preset sharing via .dronepreset files — AirDrop a patch between web, iPhone, and iPad, samples embedded inline. iCloud auto-syncs samples-free presets across devices. One-time purchase. No subscription, no accounts, no tracking. Free web version: dronemeditations.com

Screenshots

pOus2 screens
Drone Meditations4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: pOus at $2.99 against Drone Meditations's $14.99. pOus also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). Drone Meditations's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months). 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

pOus costs $2.99 and Drone Meditations $14.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

pOus ships an update every 4 months, Drone Meditations every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
pOus versus Drone Meditations: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterpOusDrone Meditations
Price$2.99 — better$14.99
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB131 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperSatoshi KajiiJOSE ANTONIO GUDE

In-app purchases

None

pOus

No in-app purchases

None

Drone Meditations

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is pOus free?
pOus costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Drone Meditations free?
Drone Meditations costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do pOus or Drone Meditations have ads?
Neither pOus nor Drone Meditations shows ads.
Which is updated more often, pOus or Drone Meditations?
pOus ships an update every 4 months, and Drone Meditations every 3 weeks. Most recently, pOus was updated on October 8, 2026 and Drone Meditations on October 3, 2026.

Other comparisons