pOus vs Shruti Bot
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- BassDrum emulation
- Adjustable tune and decay
- MIDI OUT envelope follower
- Scale mode for musical notes
- AUv3 instrument
- MIDI CC routing
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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)
Shruti Bot
This app simulates a tunable shruti box with ten reeds and adjustable bellows for dynamic sound. It offers a unique approach to intonation and includes various effects like LFOs, resonance, chorus, and tape delay.
- Tunable shruti box simulation
- Ten reeds with just intonation
- Adjustable bellows for dynamic volume and tremolo
- Independent mixer fader per reed
- Customizable tonic and microtonal tuning
- Two free-running LFOs per reed for tuning and level
- Integrated resonance, chorus, tape delay, and reverb effects
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Shruti Bot is a shruti box you can actually tune. Ten reeds, laid out the way a real box is — the low Pa and Sa drone pair, the full middle saptak from Sa to Ni, and the upper Sa. Every reed sits at its just-intonation ratio against the tonic, not the tempered approximation, so the drone locks together the way the instrument is supposed to. Pull up the bellows and it breathes. At zero no air moves at all and the box is silent; push it up and the drone gets louder and pumps harder, until the breathing turns into an audible tremolo riding on top of the tone. Pressure opens the timbre as well as the volume, so a stroke sounds like air moving rather than a fader going up. THE REEDS • Ten stops — Pa and Sa below, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni across the middle, Sa above • Just intonation throughout — 3/2, 9/8, 5/4, 4/3, 5/3, 15/8 against the tonic • A tapered tuning peg on every reed, plus or minus 100 cents, turned by hand • Detune two neighbouring reeds and they beat against each other — real acoustic summing, not an effect • A mixer fader per reed, independent of the stops, for balancing what's already sounding THE KEY • Any tonic across all twelve pitch classes, octaves 1 through 6 • A peg for each key, arranged as a keyboard • Every pitch class keeps its own microtonal trim, so you can build a tuning that isn't twelve-tone equal temperament and it stays put • The current note and its offset are always on screen MOVEMENT • Two free-running LFOs on every reed — one for tuning, one for level • They run at their own rates and drift in and out of phase, so the beating keeps reorganising and the drone never quite repeats • Set them slow and the box simply sounds alive THE CHAMBER • A swept resonance that moves like a body cavity rather than a filter sweep • Stereo chorus, the point where the drone opens out of the centre • Tape delay with a real moving head — sliding the time bends the pitch the way tape does, and the repeats darken as they recirculate • Plate-style reverb from a quarter second to six TWO INSTRUMENTS Tap the logo. Shruti Bot 2 replaces the reeds with four analogue oscillators — sine, triangle, saw and pulse — with phase shaping on each, from slow comb sweeps to full PWM. Everything else carries straight over: the same tuning, the same reeds switched on, the same effects. Only the sound source changes. No accounts. No subscriptions. No ads. No network. Nothing leaves your device.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Shruti Bot at every 8 days against pOus's every 4 months. Shruti Bot also leads on price ($1.99 vs $2.99). pOus's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On rating, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
pOus costs $2.99 and Shruti Bot $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for pOus against 5.0 for Shruti Bot. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
pOus ships an update every 4 months, Shruti Bot every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | pOus | Shruti Bot |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Satoshi Kajii | Scott Hsiung |
Customer experience
pOus
Shruti Bot
In-app purchases
pOus
No in-app purchases
Shruti Bot
No in-app purchases









