Comparison

Visual Sandbox Simulation vs NerDie

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

Head to head
About

Visual Sandbox Simulation

Features
Read full description

Browse through the library of realtime shader animations, adjust parameters on the fly and enjoy the show!

About

NerDie

This application generates 8-bit noise and chip sounds using a variety of oscillators, LFOs, and a sequencer. It offers extensive sound manipulation options and can be used as a standalone instrument or an AUv3 plugin.

Highlights
  • Four oscillators with 16 waveforms
  • Four LFOs with 8 shapes
  • Complex summing topologies
  • Resonant low-pass filter
  • One-bar sequencer with overdub
  • 32 registers with MIDI Learn
  • MPE support
Features
Read full description

NerDie is an 8-bit noise machine for iPad and iPhone: four oscillators, four LFOs, a summing tree with eight algorithms, a resonant low-pass filter and a one-bar sequencer. Thirty-two registers, integer arithmetic, mono output — the sound of a chip rather than a picture of one. The engine runs in whole numbers at a fixed chip rate. Overflow, wrap and quantisation are not added afterwards to make it sound old: they are the signal itself. It runs on its own or as an AUv3 instrument on a MIDI track in any host that loads them, in portrait and in landscape. THE MACHINE • 4 oscillators, 16 waveforms each, 19 to 1350 Hz • 4 LFOs, 8 shapes, moving pitch or volume — free-running in Hz, or multipliers of the clock up to x128 with the phase reset on every tick • 3 summing topologies x 3 nodes x 8 algorithms: addition, overflow, subtraction, ring modulation, XOR, FM and wave-shaping — 1,536 ways to add four voices together • 8-bit resonant low-pass filter that self-oscillates at the top of its travel • One-bar sequencer with overdub, recorded finer than a sixteenth-note grid, driven by the internal clock, the host transport or MIDI clock • 32 registers on 8 pages of 4 pots, with optional hardware-style pot pickup • Four chip rates — 15625, 31250, 62500, 78125 Hz — and three outputs: RAW, CLEAN, TAPE TWO KINDS OF ACCIDENT CHAOS throws every register at once, the way the machine does, and sometimes lands on silence. RND builds a whole patch, renders it and measures it before handing it over, so it always makes a sound. UNDO brings back what you had. MADE FOR GLASS Drag a knob up and down for the coarse move and sideways for the fine one, eight times slower, without lifting your finger. Long press to type a value in its real unit - Hz, ms, %, the name of a waveform - to reset it, or to assign a MIDI CC with MIDI Learn. Double tap for the default. Two knobs turn at once, and the four pads are played with as many fingers as you like. Pinch the panel up to 250% and drag it around; the top bar and the value strip never scale, so the preset name and the register you are turning stay readable at any zoom. MPE The four oscillators become four MPE voices. Press, slide, strike and bend pass through a matrix that decides what each one moves — tuning, level, waveform, LFO depth, filter cutoff — with a response curve per gesture. Controllers reach the app over Bluetooth or a Camera Connection Kit, and reach the AUv3 through its host. THREE FACES The pixel panel with its four pots and page buttons; the matrix, with all 32 registers on screen at once; and a photograph of the circuit with the controls mounted on it. PRESETS 45 factory presets in nine folders — Bass, Drones, FX, Glitch, Melodic, Noise, Rhythms, Sequenced, Init — installed on the first run. The ones you save live in the Files app under On My iPad / NerDie / Presets, so you can copy them out or drop new ones in. The .ner format is identical to the desktop version and travels in both directions. Presets saved inside a host are there when you open the app on its own. NO ACCOUNT, NO SUBSCRIPTION, NO ADS Buy it once. There is nothing to activate, nothing to sign in to, and nothing is collected. NerDie is an independent project, modelled on the behaviour of the SOMA Laboratory Rumble of Ancient Times. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by SOMA Laboratory, and no firmware, artwork, font or layout of the original is used in this product.

Screenshots

Visual Sandbox Simulation3 screens
NerDie2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Visual Sandbox Simulation at Free against NerDie's $4.99. NerDie's advantage is chart position (#173 vs unranked) and device support (3 vs 1). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Visual Sandbox Simulation is free to download; NerDie costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Visual Sandbox Simulation versus NerDie: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVisual Sandbox SimulationNerDie
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequency—Every 2 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
Best chart rank—#173 — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMarvin KruegerDiego Capoccitti

In-app purchases

None

Visual Sandbox Simulation

No in-app purchases

None

NerDie

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Visual Sandbox Simulation free?
Visual Sandbox Simulation is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is NerDie free?
NerDie costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Visual Sandbox Simulation or NerDie have ads?
Neither Visual Sandbox Simulation nor NerDie shows ads.

Other comparisons