Descent Granulator vs tapeworm
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Descent Granulator
This app captures audio, breaks it into tiny grains, and manipulates them for unique sound effects. Explore subtle thickening, rhythmic delays, frozen soundscapes, and shimmering pitch-shifted textures.
- Real-time granular engine
- Pitch shifting with quantization
- Six-axis randomization
- Diffusion and feedback controls
- Tempo sync
- 35 factory presets
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Descent is a real-time granular effect that captures incoming audio, breaks it into tiny grains, and scatters them across time and pitch. The result: everything from subtle thickening and rhythmic delays to vast frozen soundscapes and shimmering pitch-shifted clouds. GRANULAR ENGINE Control up to 50 simultaneous grains with independent settings for duration, overlap, and envelope shape. Play grains forward, reverse, or randomly mixed for tape-style effects, reverse swells, and glitchy textures. PITCH SHIFTING WITH QUANTIZATION Transpose from -24 to +24 semitones. Lock pitch shifts to specific intervals—octaves, fifths, or any chromatic combination—for harmonically correct shimmer and transposition effects. SIX-AXIS RANDOMIZATION Independently randomize pitch, pan, position, amplitude, duration, and grain count. Dial in subtle organic movement or push into complete textural chaos. DIFFUSION AND FEEDBACK High-feedback mode with a diffusion control transforms delays into lush, reverb-like washes that never get harsh or run away from you. TEMPO SYNC Lock grain timing to your session's tempo or let textures evolve freely in untethered mode. 35 FACTORY PRESETS Covering shimmers, delays, reverbs, pitch effects, and experimental sound design. Cross-platform XML presets are compatible across all Audio Damage plugin formats and operating systems. SOUND DESIGN IDEAS Add subtle depth with a few long grains and minimal randomization Create rhythmic delays with short, quantized grains at high feedback Build infinite sustain pads by freezing audio with high grain count and overlap Craft shimmer effects by quantizing pitch to octaves and fifths Transform vocals into ethereal textures with diffusion and wide panning AUv3 compatible. Runs standalone or hosted in AUM, ApeMatrix, Audiobus, Cubasis, GarageBand, and other AUv3 hosts on iOS 13 or newer. From Audio Damage—making creative software for discerning musicians since 2002.
tapeworm
This music app offers a unique tape delay effect with a "wiggly, dirty" sound. Control delay time by stretching or flicking a virtual tapeworm, with options for manual or random adjustments. It includes analog-modeled saturation, compression, and amplifier stages for a rich audio experience.
- Interactive tape delay time control
- Manual and free modes for delay
- Analog-modeled tape saturation and compression
- Overdrivable feedback
- AUv3 plugin compatibility
- Performative sound design elements
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Tapeworm is a tape echo with a unique method of changing the delay time, and a wiggly, dirty sound. You can set the delay time manually by stretching the worm. The record button will flash to show the current interval. You can exit the fixed time mode and enter free mode by toggling. This lets the delay time change randomly, which you can encourage by flicking the tapeworm around. Double tap to reset, adding a fun performative element to your sound. Feedback can be overdriven. An analog-modeled tape saturation and compression, and amplifier and limiter stage, keep it sounding juicy when it gets loud. Tapeworm is audio unit (AUv3) compatible, meaning you can use it as a plugin in your app of choice like AUM, GarageBand or Logic. We hope you enjoy using tapeworm for music, or just for fun.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: tapeworm at 71% against Descent Granulator's 0%. tapeworm also leads on price (Free vs $4.99) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Descent Granulator's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.3). 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
tapeworm is free to download; Descent Granulator costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Descent Granulator holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: tapeworm has 12 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 0% of Descent Granulator's written reviews are positive against 71% of tapeworm's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Descent Granulator ships an update every 2 months, tapeworm every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 9, 2026 and August 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Descent Granulator | tapeworm |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.3 (12 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 71.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 12 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Audio Damage, Inc. | Radii Research |
Customer experience
Descent Granulator
tapeworm
In-app purchases
Descent Granulator
No in-app purchases
tapeworm
No in-app purchases





