midigarden vs DashJam
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Touch grid with multiple scales
- Retrospective looper
- Custom Pure Data patch loading
- Live parameter control
- Built-in synthesizers
- Optional camera background
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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.
DashJam
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DashJam quietly records your whole rehearsal so you never lose the moment you forgot to hit record for. Start a session and keep playing. DashJam holds the most recent 15 minutes of audio in a rolling buffer. When something good happens — a riff, a take, a happy accident — tap Save Jam and pick exactly the stretch you want right on the live waveform. The moment lands in your Library as a shareable audio file. No more "wait, were we recording?" WHY MUSICIANS LIKE IT • Record continuously, decide later. The last 15 minutes are always there to save — you choose the moment after it happens, not before. • Pick it on the waveform. Save Jam opens a live waveform; drag the handles to grab just the part that mattered, then confirm. • Save from the Lock Screen. A Live Activity and Dynamic Island show the recording state and put a save action a tap away while your phone is in your pocket or on a stand. • It survives a crash. If the app gets killed mid-session, your rolling buffer is still there when you reopen. • A Library you'll actually browse. Saves get evocative auto-generated names ("Crimson Spiral", "Velvet Comet") you can rename, with in-app playback. • Your files, your way. Saved jams export as .m4a and show up in the Files app under DashJam — share them by AirDrop, Messages, or any share sheet. • Designed for iOS. Clean, content-first interface built on the latest iOS design system, tinted recording-red. • English and German, with an in-app language override. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Audio never leaves your device. The rolling buffer lives in the app's cache; saved jams live in the app's documents folder. Nothing is uploaded, ever — you decide if and when a recording leaves your iPhone by sharing or exporting it. There are no accounts, no sign-in, and no tracking. DashJam needs microphone access to record, and keeps recording in the background so a session keeps running while you play. That's it. DASHJAM PRO — OPTIONAL Everything above is free. DashJam Pro unlocks a rolling buffer of up to 60 minutes, automatic jam detection (Beta), trimming saved jams on the waveform — keeping the original or replacing it — Places (arrival and leave reminders at your rehearsal spots), and the audio quality/mono picker. • DashJam Pro — Yearly: 1-year auto-renewing subscription • DashJam Pro — Monthly: 1-month auto-renewing subscription • DashJam Pro — Lifetime: one-time purchase, does not renew Prices are shown in your local currency inside the app, on the DashJam Pro screen, before you buy. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://erigrus.de/dashjam/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: midigarden at none against DashJam's 3. On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. DashJam sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. midigarden asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | midigarden | DashJam |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | — |
| Update frequency | — | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | William Sharkey | Erik Gruschka |
In-app purchases
midigarden
No in-app purchases
DashJam
- Pro Monthly$0.991 Month
- Pro Yearly$8.991 Year
- DashJam Pro Lifetime$17.99









