Comparison

midigarden vs Scale Navigator Dashboard

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

Head to head
About

midigarden

Transform your device into a touch-based synthesizer. Play melodies and chords on a responsive grid, load custom sound patches, and control parameters live. Ideal for live performance, sketching ideas, and sound design.

Highlights
  • Touch grid with multiple scales
  • Retrospective looper
  • Custom Pure Data patch loading
  • Live parameter control
  • Built-in synthesizers
  • Optional camera background
Features
Read full description

midigarden is a touch-based synthesizer that turns your iPhone or iPad into a musical instrument. Play melodies on an 5x8 grid mapped to musical scales. Each pad triggers notes with 8-voice polyphony, letting you play chords and melodies with your fingers. FEATURES • Touch Grid - Play notes on a responsive grid. Choose from multiple scales including major, minor, pentatonic, and chromatic. • Retrospective Looper - Captures what you just played, even if you weren't recording. Never lose a good take. • Custom Patches - Load your own Pure Data patches via the Files app. The app automatically wraps them with voice allocation and mixing. • Live Parameters - Every knob and slider in your patch becomes a touchable control. Drag to adjust in real-time. • Built-in Synthesizers - Ships with patches ready to play, physical models, fm and drum synths. • Camera Background - Optional live camera feed behind the grid for screen-recorded performances. PURE DATA POWERED Under the hood, midigarden runs Pure Data patches - the same open-source audio engine used by professional musicians and sound designers worldwide. Create patches on your computer and load them into the app. PERFECT FOR • Live performance and jamming • Sketching musical ideas • Learning synthesis • Use iOS screen capture with background camera to make performance videos that capture the mood and environment • Sound design experiments No music theory required. Just touch and play.

About

Scale Navigator Dashboard

Explore musical harmony by navigating scales and chords. Save interesting progressions, build songs step-by-step, and sync with other musicians or DAWs in real-time. Visualize the interconnected network of scales in 2D or 3D.

Highlights
  • Navigate interconnected scales
  • Explore and save chord progressions
  • Build songs step-by-step
  • Real-time ensemble syncing
  • DAW integration
  • 3D scale network visualization
  • Instrument tablature display
Features
Read full description

What key are we in, what’s the chord right now, and what comes next? Scale Navigator answers that question by giving you a way to explore harmony and keep what you find. You can move through scales and chords, try things, and hear how they connect. Stay in one area or move somewhere new. When you come across something you like, you can save it. Build sequences of harmonic states and chain them into a progression or a full song. Whether you’re exploring or building, the foundation stays the same: a shared harmonic state. Once it’s set, everything can follow it. Your playing, your instruments, your DAW, or other musicians in the room. THE SCALE NETWORK Scales are arranged in a connected network: think of it like the circle of fifths on steroids. Each scale sits next to neighbors that are related, so moving between them feels smooth. Move locally for subtle changes, or jump across the network for contrast. CHORD PROGRESSIONS Every scale contains its own set of chords. You can adjust chord quality, control how roots move, and shape the voice leading. This gives you a structured way to explore chords, try ideas, and keep what works as you move through different harmonic areas. SKETCHPAD When you land on something you like, you can save it. Each saved state keeps the scale and chord together, so you can return to it, compare it, and build from it. Write music step by step by chaining together the moments you want to keep. ENSEMBLE Create an ensemble and share a link. The host controls the harmonic state. Anyone who joins stays in sync with the same scale and chord in real time. Each person or instrument can use it differently. Play directly, improvise, read notation or tablature, or route it into MIDI. It works just as well for coordinating multiple instruments on your own as it does for playing with other people. TABLATURE View scales and chords on piano, guitar, bass, mandolin, and other instruments, along with standard notation. 3D VIEW The network can also be explored in 3D, with zooming and rotation control. DAW INTEGRATION Connects to your DAW, so your session stays in sync with the current harmonic state.

Screenshots

midigarden3 screens
Scale Navigator Dashboard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Scale Navigator Dashboard at 9 against midigarden's 3. Scale Navigator Dashboard also leads on iOS requirement (15.5 vs 17.0). On price, rating, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for midigarden against 4.9 for Scale Navigator Dashboard. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 9 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
midigarden versus Scale Navigator Dashboard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametermidigardenScale Navigator Dashboard
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.9 (9 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings39 — better
Update frequency—Every 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWilliam SharkeyNathan Turczan

In-app purchases

None

midigarden

No in-app purchases

None

Scale Navigator Dashboard

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is midigarden free?
midigarden is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Scale Navigator Dashboard free?
Scale Navigator Dashboard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, midigarden or Scale Navigator Dashboard?
midigarden is rated higher. midigarden averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Scale Navigator Dashboard averages 4.9 from 9 ratings.
Do midigarden or Scale Navigator Dashboard have ads?
Neither midigarden nor Scale Navigator Dashboard shows ads.

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