Choppa vs Pulseq
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
Pulseq
This multi-stage MIDI sequencer is designed for electronic music production, allowing users to create complex patterns for external synths and AUv3 plugins. It offers extensive control over notes, velocity, gate behavior, and rhythm, with features for arranging scenes into full tracks.
- Multi-stage sequencing (1-16 stages)
- Pitch and scale control with 17 scales
- Flexible gate modes and rhythm shaping
- Multiple play and split modes
- Up to eight CC modulation lanes
- Scene chaining for full track arrangements
- Standalone and AUv3 plugin support
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Pulseq is a multi-stage MIDI sequencer built for techno, acid, and experimental electronic music. It drives your external synths and AUv3 plugins over MIDI. Made up of 1-16 "stages", each stage carries its own note, velocity, gate behavior, and length. Chain scenes together into full arrangements. Use Pulseq as a standalone app or as an Audio Unit MIDI effect inside your host. SEQUENCING Build patterns from 1 to 16 stages. Each stage sets its own note, velocity, gate mode, and length in pulses. Let a stages hold for two or three pulses, and hear the loop come alive. PITCH & SCALES Pitch comes from each stage's note, guided by root and scale. Seventeen scales are available. Snap Notes to Scale keeps emitted notes in key; turn it off and stored notes play exactly as entered. GATE MODES & RHYTHM Gate mode is the character of each stage: Off, Single (one trigger per stage), Multi (retriggers every pulse, or every 2nd, 3rd, or 4th), Prob (fires by chance), Long (holds to the end), and Prog (a pattern you draw across up to 16 steps). Add Swing from 0 to 100%, shape Gate Length from tight and clipped to legato, and turn on per-stage Glide with global Portamento. PLAY & SPLIT MODES Play mode sets direction: Forward, Ping-Pong, Random, and Fixed. Split mode changes form: run a single lane, alternate lanes A and B by repeat counts (Serial, to build AAAB patterns), or run both lanes at once on two MIDI channels (Parallel) with an independent B clock multiplier. CC MODULATION Up to eight CC lanes drive filter cutoffs, mod wheels, or any destination that accepts MIDI CC. Lane values are per-stage, and every new lane starts with Don't Send so adding one can never surprise attached hardware. CLOCK & TRANSPORT When hosted, Pulseq follows the host transport and clock. Standalone, an internal tempo from 20 to 300 BPM drives playback, with clock divisions from 1/1 down to 1/32 plus triplet and dotted options. Apply Changes controls when live edits take effect: Immediate, Next Pulse, or Next Bar, for deterministic performance. SCENES & CHAIN Sixteen scene slots capture the full musical setup: stages, root, scale, tempo, split, and CC lanes, while leaving your user configuration intact. String scenes into a complete track with the Chain editor: set per-step lengths, loop the whole chain, and hand scene changes to the timeline. STANDALONE & AUV3 Use Pulseq as a standalone app or as an AUv3 MIDI effect. It runs in AUv3 hosts such as AUM, Drambo, Logic, and Cubasis.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Pulseq at 5.0 against Choppa's 4.3. Pulseq also leads on price ($3.99 vs $4.99). Choppa's advantage is chart position (#56 vs unranked) and ratings volume (6 vs 1). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Choppa costs $4.99 and Pulseq $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pulseq holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Choppa has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Choppa | Pulseq |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $3.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #56 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Elijah Lucian | Joe Topjian |
Customer experience
Choppa
Pulseq
In-app purchases
Choppa
No in-app purchases
Pulseq
No in-app purchases








