Comparison

Synthwaver vs AmenBeats

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

Head to head
About

Synthwaver

Features
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SYNTHWAVER: SOUND IN MOTION Step inside the sound. SYNTHWAVER is a spatial synthesizer for iPhone and iPad that turns pure tones, noise, frequency modulation, and movement into an instrument you can feel around you. Every voice travels through a three-dimensional orbit, giving drones and atmospheres a sense of direction and depth. Put on headphones, press play, and hear synthesis leave the flat plane. BUILD A WORLD, ONE VOICE AT A TIME Start with one synth, then add more to create layers of pitch, color, rhythm, and space. Each voice has its own frequency, level, orbit speed, tilt, noise, FM, and reverb. Let one tone circle slowly beneath a fast-moving signal. Blend a warm noise bed behind a cluster of pitches. Set every layer in motion, or hold movement still and focus on timbre. Complex spatial scenes stay approachable because every sound remains visible, independent, and immediately playable. SCULPT PITCH BY EAR OR BY NOTE Explore the audible range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with a responsive frequency control. Use the one-octave keyboard for familiar notes, then shift across ten octave positions to reach the register you need. Indicators identify voices at a glance, while numerical readouts keep precise tuning close. Whether you are building intervals, beating tones, low-end rumbles, or glassy highs, pitch never feels buried in a menu. MAKE EVERY SOUND MOVE Movement is part of the synthesis engine. Set each voice to orbit from near stillness to 6.8 revolutions per second, then tilt its path through the Z-plane. High-quality HRTF headphone rendering creates a binaural field with changing position. Layer speeds and angles until simple waveforms become kinetic patterns: circling, crossing, separating, and reconnecting in space. GO BEYOND THE SINE Turn on frequency modulation for sidebands, metallic edges, animated basses, bells, buzzes, and unstable textures. Dial in the modulation index, choose a frequency in hertz or a musical ratio tied to the carrier, then refine it with coarse and fine controls. FM can add subtle shimmer or push far into complex territory. Each voice has its own settings, so one layer can remain pure while another fractures into rich motion. BLEND TONE, NOISE, AND SPACE Move from a clean oscillator to noise, or settle anywhere between them. Shape noise continuously from white to pink, from bright hiss to softer ambience. Then place each voice in one of ten acoustic spaces, including rooms, halls, chambers, plate, and cathedral, and set the wet/dry balance. Orbit, noise color, FM, and reverb make SYNTHWAVER at home creating test tones, evolving drones, cinematic atmospheres, strange machines, and abstract sound art. FAST, TACTILE, AND READY TO EXPERIMENT SYNTHWAVER keeps essential controls on the surface. Start or stop voices, minimize them into frequency chips, bring any synth forward, and stop the scene instantly from the master bar. Shape individual levels or adjust overall output. The interface adapts to portrait and landscape on iPhone and iPad, so it stays playable whether you are exploring on the couch, sketching with headphones, or presenting an idea. SAVE THE MOMENT When a combination clicks, save it as a preset. SYNTHWAVER remembers every voice and its playing state, pitch, spatial motion, FM, volume, noise, octave, and reverb. Open a scene later, continue shaping it, or build a library of drones, studies, and sonic environments. Move from discovery to a sound you can revisit. FOR CURIOUS EARS SYNTHWAVER is for musicians, sound designers, composers, students, educators, spatial-audio enthusiasts, and curious listeners. Study frequency relationships, explore modulation, design moving textures, build meditative soundscapes, or lose yourself in a strange orbit of your own making. No timeline. No maze of pages. Just sound, motion, and direct control. Your headphones are not just the output. They are the listening space. Create a voice. Set it in motion. Shape the air. Enter SYNTHWAVER.

About

AmenBeats

This app offers a dual-mode music creation experience. Kids can enjoy a simplified interface with big buttons and playful beats, while adults can access a full studio with advanced features and MIDI capabilities. All creations are saved locally and securely.

Highlights
  • Kid-friendly interface with large buttons
  • Variety of playful and legendary drum breaks
  • Step sequencer for beat creation
  • Live drum playing
  • Performance recording and playback
  • Parental controls for customization
  • Full studio mode with advanced features
  • MIDI export and Ableton Link integration
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AmenBeats is a real drum machine built for kids — with a full studio hiding behind a grown-up gate. KID MODE: ONE SCREEN, BIG BUTTONS A focused instrument with big controls and a row of picture buttons for choosing beats. Open it and the row spins like a slot machine and lands on a groove, ready to play. Kids can: • Pick from playful beats — Boom Bap, Rock, Disco, Marchin', Shuffle, Techno, Reggae, Waltz — and eight legendary breaks • Tap the grid to add and remove drum hits, on a 4, 8, 12, or 16-step canvas • Bash the four drums live — Open Hat, Closed Hat, Snare, Kick — right from the grid • Flip power switches: SWING for groove, WILD to loosen it up, FILL! for a snare roll, DROP! to cut the beat out and slam it back • Speed up and slow down with big plus and minus buttons • Spin the wheel any time for a surprise beat SAVE A BEAT. SAVE THE WHOLE SHOW. Everything a kid plays is quietly recorded — the beat, the tempo changes, every live tap. One button saves the entire performance, however long it ran, and one tap plays it back exactly as it happened. Their beats and shows sit in their own list, ready to hear again. GROWN-UPS SET THE RULES Kid Setup tailors the app to each child: • Choose exactly which beats and famous breaks they can reach • Set the tempo range they can dial between • Cap the volume • Turn on mute and solo for older kids learning how a kit fits together • Set up more than one child, each with their own beats, limits, and saved work Kid Mode stays put. A six-digit parent PIN protects access to the studio. Set up your PIN before the first Kid session and save your private recovery code. Tap the lock to unlock; hold it for help. Your PIN and recovery code stay on that device. THE GROWN-UP STUDIO Behind the gate is a proper 16-step, 4-voice sequencer: • Eight study templates of the most sampled breaks ever recorded: the Amen break, the Funky Drummer, Apache, Think, Impeach, When the Levee Breaks, Cold Sweat, and the Big Beat • Tap any step through on, stomp (accent), and ghost — stomps add punch, ghost notes add the feel that makes a break breathe • Tempo from 40 to 220 BPM, swing, and per-voice mute and solo • Humanize and per-voice lay-back for a relaxed, human pocket • Save your grooves and chain them into a looping song, each pattern held for as many bars as you like MIDI AND ABLETON, SET UP BY A GROWN-UP The studio talks to real gear, and every bit of it is configured on the parent side — never in the child's reach: • Send MIDI on GM channel 10 so your pattern drives a drum rack in Ableton Live or any DAW • Export any pattern as a Standard MIDI clip and drag it straight into a session • Import a .mid clip back onto the grid • Sync tempo with Live and other Link-enabled apps over Ableton Link SAFE BY DESIGN No account. No sign-in. No ads. No in-app purchases. No analytics, no tracking, and no servers — AmenBeats collects nothing, and everything a child makes stays on the device. Every drum sound is synthesized as the app runs, so nothing is ever downloaded and the app stays tiny. It plays through the speaker even with the ring switch set to silent. Free.

Screenshots

Synthwaver3 screens
AmenBeats4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: AmenBeats at Free against Synthwaver's $0.99. On ads, in-app purchases, 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

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

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Synthwaver versus AmenBeats: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSynthwaverAmenBeats
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating—3.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequency—Daily
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.518.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRichard Barber1041Soft LLC

In-app purchases

None

Synthwaver

No in-app purchases

None

AmenBeats

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Synthwaver free?
Synthwaver costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is AmenBeats free?
AmenBeats is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Synthwaver or AmenBeats have ads?
Neither Synthwaver nor AmenBeats shows ads.

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