Comparison

homecrate vs ARPJAM

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

Head to head
About

homecrate

This app combines a music player with a production studio, offering advanced playback features like algorithm-tuned shuffle and synced lyrics. It also includes a multi-track DAW with a synthesizer, drum machine, and guitar amp for music creation.

Highlights
  • Algorithm-tuned shuffle
  • Synced lyrics and liner notes
  • 8+8 track DAW
  • Synthesizer and drum machine
  • Guitar amp simulator
  • AUv3 plugin hosting
  • MIDI I/O and sync
Read full description

Learn the song. Tune up. Record it. Perform it. Film it. One app. Split any song into stems on your device, unlimited and offline. Play through a real NAM amp. Record 16 tracks. Run your desktop VST3 plugins from your Mac. Pro is $9.99, once. YOUR MUSIC. YOUR RULES. A player and a studio for people who have opinions about music. Not a streaming service. Not an algorithm watching you. Everything runs on your device. FREE, IN FULL A working 4-track studio with a master bus. A real amp with 10 NAM A2 profiles. Drum machine, synth, vocal chain, dynamic EQ with sidechain. Piano roll, step sequencer, automation lanes. MIDI hardware routing and clock sync. Timeline editing with split, crossfades and warp markers. Mixdown and share. A tuner with 50+ tunings, and a metronome. Your lossless library with synced lyrics and liner notes. No trial, no timer, no account. LEARN IT Stem Separation (Pro): Split any song into vocals, drums, bass, guitar and more, entirely on your device. No cloud, no account, no limits. Stems land on tracks ready to play along. Mute the guitar and take its place. Audio to MIDI (Pro): On-device pitch detection turns any clip into notes. Sing the melody, get the part. TUNE IT Tuner: Over 50 established tunings, free. Standards, drops, opens, modal, bass, lap steel and pedal steel. Instrument-aware string sets for 6/7/8-string guitar, 4/5-string bass, 6/8/10-string lap steel, E9/C6 pedal steel. The steel library is validated against John Ely's tunings list and the Papa Dafoe database. PLAY IT Guitar Amp: Neural Amp Modeler with dual profile morphing mapped to your playing dynamics. 10 profiles free; load any .nam or .wav IR with Pro. Synthesizer: Dual-oscillator synth. MPE, microtonal tuning, 6-voice unison. Drum Machine: 16-pad sampler with a multi-bar step sequencer. Vocal Chain: Pitch correction, compression, doubling, de-esser, delay, reverb. Dynamic EQ: Dynamic EQ and compressor with true cross-track sidechaining. Grain: Grain delay and reverb built to be played, not just poured over things. VST3 + AU Hosting (Pro): Run real desktop plugins in your project. A free Mac companion hosts the plugin; homecrate streams audio, MIDI and tempo both ways. Every parameter becomes an automatable lane. Mac required. AUv3 Host (Pro): 4 insert slots per track. Chord, arpeggiator and sequencer plugins drive your tracks, splittable across channels. RECORD IT 16 audio and 8 MIDI tracks with a master bus. Warp markers for timing correction. Slicing, crossfades, pinch-to-zoom timeline, automation with shape presets. Voice control and Music Chat for theory-informed MIDI. Live looper. Collaborative sessions where a bandmate's take lands clock-aligned on your timeline. PERFORM IT Visual Stream (Pro): Send your camera and effects to a projector through the Mac companion. More than one phone can stream at once. Gesture Control (Pro): Hand poses seen by the front camera become MIDI. Twist your hand to ride a filter without touching the screen. MIDI Rig Switching (Pro): Assign layer visibility and effect presets to your pedalboard. One pad flips the whole scene. FILM IT Video Capture (Pro): Film the take with your backing track in the mix. 70+ real-time GPU effects that stack as layers and react to what you play. Preserve Me and Preserve Instrument shields keep you and your guitar untouched while everything else burns. Custom Shader runs your own ISF or Shadertoy code. Media Overlay adds photo and video layers. Section markers switch the look at the chorus. KEEP IT Time your lyrics line by line and they travel into your library as synced lyrics. Spatial audio with a 3D mixer and APAC export on iOS 26. Mixdown to your library or share a whole project as one file. Plex sync. PRO IS $9.99. ONCE. Everything marked Pro above, plus tracks 5 to 16, preset saving everywhere, and custom NAM profiles and IRs. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro. No subscription. No renewal. No account.

About

ARPJAM

This app generates evolving ambient music using two independent arpeggio engines. It features a generative drum machine, sound design tools, and external instrument synchronization. Save and recall your favorite musical setups.

Highlights
  • Dual arpeggio engines
  • Generative drum machine
  • Sound design controls
  • External instrument sync (Ableton Link, MIDI Clock)
  • Save and recall presets
  • Built-in timer
Features
Read full description

ARPJAM is an arpeggio synthesizer that generates ever-evolving ambient music. Layer two independent arpeggio engines, each with its own waveform, scale, and pattern, and let the app weave an endless soundscape that shifts and breathes on its own. ■ Two Arpeggio Engines ARP A and ARP B run simultaneously, each with its own mode, scale, range, waveform, filter, and envelope. Five pattern modes: Random & Chord, Repeat, Random Single, Skank, and Drone. ■ Generative Drums A probability-based drum machine. Tune the firing density, double-hit chance, and open/closed hi-hat ratio for kick, snare, and hihat to create rhythms that evolve naturally alongside the arpeggio. ■ Sound Design Four waveforms — sine, triangle, sawtooth, square. Adjust the low-pass filter, attack, and overdrive per engine. Add depth with ping-pong delay and reverb. ■ Sync with External Instruments [NEW in v1.4] Ableton Link support — wirelessly sync tempo and bar phase with Ableton Move, Live, Koala, and other Link-enabled instruments on the same Wi-Fi network. USB-C MIDI Clock reception is also supported. Sample-accurate timing alignment, with a fine-tune Offset slider for each setup. ■ Redesigned Settings Panel [v1.4] Settings are now organized into five colored sections — Oscillator, Filter, Envelope, Algorithm, and Effects. Each section collapses individually or in bulk, and the state persists between launches. Jump directly to any section via the side rail (iPad) or sticky bar (iPhone). Clear square ON/OFF switches and vivid theme colors — orange for ARP A, lime for ARP B, cyan for Drums — make the whole panel far easier to navigate. ■ Save & Recall Four start presets (Default + SAVE 1/2/3) let you recall your favorite setups with a single tap from the start screen. Presets can be exported and imported as .arpjam files to share with other ARPJAM users. ■ Built-in Timer Choose countdown or infinite mode. The timer fades out with a gentle resolving chord — perfect as a sleep timer or as a companion to meditation. • 8 scales including pentatonic modes • 12 keys (Just Intonation / Equal Temperament switchable) • Groove control for swing feel • BPM 30–200 • English / Japanese language support • Ableton Link / MIDI Clock sync

Screenshots

homecrate4 screens
ARPJAM4 screens

Verdict

The call

homecrate and ARPJAM both sit at 5.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of homecrate's written reviews are positive against 33% of ARPJAM's. ARPJAM's advantage is update cadence (daily vs weekly) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. homecrate sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ARPJAM sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for homecrate against 5.0 for ARPJAM. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of homecrate's written reviews are positive against 33% of ARPJAM's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

homecrate ships an update weekly, ARPJAM daily. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
homecrate versus ARPJAM: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterhomecrateARPJAM
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developeranthony burchellTakashi Tsunoda

Customer experience

homecrate

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

ARPJAM

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

homecrate

One-time1
  • homecrate - Pro$9.99
1 purchases

ARPJAM

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$0.99

Questions

Is homecrate free?
homecrate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ARPJAM free?
ARPJAM is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, homecrate or ARPJAM?
homecrate and ARPJAM are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do homecrate or ARPJAM have ads?
Neither homecrate nor ARPJAM shows ads.
Which is updated more often, homecrate or ARPJAM?
homecrate ships an update weekly, and ARPJAM daily. Most recently, homecrate was updated on September 14, 2026 and ARPJAM on September 23, 2026.

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