Comparison

Choppa vs ARC

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

Head to head
About

Choppa

Record audio, chop it into playable pads, and manipulate it like an instrument. This app offers advanced features like vinyl scratching, chord progressions, and wireless DAW integration for musicians and producers.

Highlights
  • Record and chop audio to pads
  • Vinyl scratching and pitch bending
  • Chord progressions and layered harmonies
  • Auto-chop by transient or pitch
  • Wireless DAW integration (Ableton Link)
  • AUv3 plugin support
  • Multiple input sources
Features
Read full description

Record into your mic. Chop it to pads. Play it like an instrument. Now scratch them like vinyl and play in chord progressions. Choppa is a lightning-fast audio sampler and slicing tool built for songwriters, beatmakers, and live performers. Record through your mic and instantly map audio across playable trigger pads. Auto-chop on transient or pitch detection — switch between 4 / 8 / 16 pad layouts without losing any of their per-chop settings. PERFORMANCE GESTURES Tap to trigger. Hold to sustain. Drag a single finger up and down on a pad to slide pitch in real time — ±2 octaves without lifting. Drop a second finger anywhere on the screen and any held chop slows like a record being touched. Move the second finger and you scratch in either direction. Lift to release the platter — a force-based exponential inertia model (modeled on real turntable physics, not a linear fade) ramps back to nominal speed. Spread your fingers wider and the scratch responds more gently — a "grip pressure" metaphor borrowed from real decks. The chop view and minimap both work as scrub surfaces. The minimap ignores chop boundaries entirely — drag freely across the whole loop as one continuous tape. CHORD PLAY PERF mode has two flavours: SCRATCH for turntable gestures and CNFG for chord play. CNFG's MONO/POLY toggle controls whether each pad press chokes the previous (one voice at a time) or lets multiple voices stack while held — piano-key hold-to-play for chord progressions, sustained harmonies, and layered counter-melodies. CHOPPING Auto-chop detects transients or pitch boundaries automatically when you record or import a sample, with sensitivity knobs for each. Drag chop edges manually, set per-section pitch and gain, enable reverse, and pick between off / forward loop / ping-pong on any chop. Three pad-count layers (4 / 8 / 16) are fully independent — switch between them and all per-chop settings stay intact. INPUT SOURCES Pick what feeds Choppa: any mic capsule (front / back / bottom / USB / AirPods), the two royalty-free streams that ship with the app, or any HTTPS audio URL you paste in. Record from any of them. RECORD MODE A dedicated REC mode for capture work, with an ARM safety pin — destructive full re-record requires a deliberate ARM tap so a stray REC press can't write over a take. Punch-in records into a single chop's region only, with single-level undo — perfect for fixing a flubbed beat without losing the rest. WIRELESS TO YOUR DAW Ableton Link Audio — Choppa's master mix appears as a track-input source in Live, Loopy Pro, AUM, GarageBand iOS, and any Link 4 peer on the same Wi-Fi. Tempo syncs at the same time. No USB cable, no virtual audio device. PLUGIN INSIDE YOUR DAW Full AUv3 plugin support — load Choppa inside GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM, Loopy Pro, or any Audio Unit host as either an Instrument (play chops via host MIDI) or an FX (capture the host's audio for chopping). MIDI mappings persist per host. LIBRARY + SHARE Every recording auto-saves into an App Group library shared between Choppa standalone and the AUv3 plugin — record a sample on your phone, load it in your DAW the next time you open it. Share to Choppa from any other app and pick which bank receives the sample, plus the chop count, before it lands. EXPORT Export source WAV, individual chops, .choppa single-bank presets, or full .choppap multi-bank projects. Import from other Choppa users or any audio file. Built by WaveLoop. Get off the grid.

About

ARC

Create music with a versatile groovebox featuring eight tracks for synths, samplers, and drums. Its intuitive interface allows for real-time performance and easy arrangement into songs, all while staying in key and scale.

Highlights
  • Eight dynamic tracks (synth, sampler, drums)
  • Key and scale locked note/chord pads
  • 16-pad sampler with import/record
  • Deep synth editing and 25 arpeggiator patterns
  • Full mixer with EQ and individual track effects
  • Song mode for arrangement and live performance
  • MIDI input and iCloud sync
Features
Read full description

Eight tracks. Synths, samplers, drums. Play it like an instrument. ARC-24 is a groovebox for iPhone and iPad. Pads, loops, and a mixer in one place. Everything stays in key. Pick a key and a scale and the pads follow, so you can play fast without landing on a wrong note. Record a loop, keep overdubbing while it runs, and fix whatever you fumbled on the grid afterwards. Once you've got a few loops going, chain them into a song. Or leave the transport running and fire them off by hand from the mixer. • Eight tracks that sort themselves out. Synth, sampler, or drums, decided by what you play first. Overdub while the loop cycles. • Note and chord pads locked to your key and scale. Hold latches notes so they sustain. Pulse retriggers them on the beat. • A sixteen pad sampler. Import WAV, AIFF, MP3, M4A, AAC, or FLAC, pull audio from a video, or record through the mic. Chop it into slices across the grid, or map one sample over every pad and play it pitched, in scale or chromatic, at the original length or at tape speed. • Ten drum kits, from 909 and trap to lo-fi, boom bap, and hand percussion. Tune, pan, and level every pad. • Synth editing that goes deep enough to matter. 21 presets to start from, two oscillators, filter, envelope, and LFO when you want to build your own. Save the keepers. • 25 arpeggiator patterns, all of them in your key, from slow drifting phrases to sixteenth note runs. • A piano roll editor. Move, stretch, and delete notes while the loop keeps playing. • A real mixer. Faders, pan, mute, solo, and three band EQ on every channel. • Every track gets its own effects rack, not a shared send. Resonant low and high pass with cutoff and resonance. Compressor and gate. Distortion, bit crusher, ring mod, flanger. Tempo synced delay in digital, analog, or tape. Reverb with chorus and tape wow. Character for texture, air, width, and warmth. • Motion, so synth parts never sit still. Slow LFOs drift the filter as the loop runs, and Bloom opens the cutoff every time you play a note. • Song mode. Arrange loops into sections, or switch between them live from the mixer without ever stopping. • MIDI in from a USB or Bluetooth controller. • Export to WAV or AAC. • iCloud. Start something on the iPad, pick it up on the phone. Seven days free, the whole app. After that one purchase unlocks it for good. No subscription, no renewal, nothing to cancel.

Screenshots

Choppa4 screens
ARC4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: ARC at Free against Choppa's $4.99. Choppa's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and review sentiment (67% vs 33%). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence 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

ARC is free to download; Choppa costs $4.99 up front. ARC sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Choppa asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Choppa against 4.3 for ARC. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 3 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of Choppa's written reviews are positive against 33% of ARC's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Choppa ships an update every 2 weeks, ARC weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Choppa versus ARC: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChoppaARC
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (6 ratings)4.3 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings6 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.1
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB52 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperElijah LucianDaelan Wood

Customer experience

Choppa

All ratings6 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

ARC

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

Choppa

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

ARC

One-time2
  • 7-Day TrialFree
  • ARC-24 Full Version$9.99

Questions

Is Choppa free?
Choppa costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is ARC free?
ARC is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Choppa or ARC?
Choppa and ARC are both rated 4.3 out of 5 on the App Store, from 6 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Choppa or ARC have ads?
Neither Choppa nor ARC shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Choppa or ARC?
Choppa ships an update every 2 weeks, and ARC weekly. Most recently, Choppa was updated on November 9, 2026 and ARC on October 31, 2026.

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