HEXBEAT vs Roam Studio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
HEXBEAT
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Make music like a pro β right from your iPhone or iPad. HEXBEAT is a fully-featured iOS synthesizer and beat machine for musicians, producers, and beatmakers who want studio-quality sound in their pocket. No samples, no imports β every sound is generated in real time using advanced audio synthesis. STEP SEQUENCER Build rhythmic patterns with a 16-step grid sequencer and 8 programmable drum tracks including kick, snare, hi-hat, clap, 808 bass, tom, and cymbal. Fine-tune your groove with BPM control from 60β200 and swing up to 100%. Save up to 64 patterns across 8 banks and 8 slots each. SYNTH PAD Play melodies with a responsive XY touch pad. Choose from 8 musical scales including Major, Minor, Dorian, Pentatonic, and more. Slide your finger to control filter brightness and pitch simultaneously β up to 5 simultaneous notes for expressive, real-time performance. POWERFUL SOUND SYNTHESIS Shape your sound with 6 oscillator types (Sine, Square, Sawtooth, Triangle, Noise, Super Saw), full ADSR envelopes for amplitude and filter, a resonant low-pass biquad filter, and a 4-waveform LFO with destinations including pitch, cutoff, volume, pan, and PWM. 8-CHANNEL MIXER Mix your tracks withper-channel volume faders, pan control, mute/solo buttons, reverb and delay sends, and real-time peak meters. A master channel with limiter keeps your mix clean and loud. BUILT-IN FX RACK Add depth and character with Reverb (5 room presets from Small Room to Cathedral), Delay with tempo sync, multi-preset Distortion, and a 10-band parametric EQ. BUILT FOR LOW LATENCY HEXBEAT runs at 44.1kHz with 32-bit internal processing and configurable buffer sizes down to 128 samples β delivering under 10ms latency for live performance feel. Whether you're sketching beats on the subway, performing live on stage, or producing tracks at home, HEXBEAT gives you the tools to create. Compatible with iPhone and iPad.
Roam Studio
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Roam Studio is a private workspace for music producers, DJs, and creators who want to organize, review, and share their work without social media, cloud lock-in, or unnecessary complexity. Built around your existing Dropbox storage, Roam Studio helps you keep track of mixes, masters, demos, and works in progress while maintaining complete ownership of your files. FEATURES β’ Dropbox-powered music library Browse and organize your music directly from Dropbox without uploading files to another platform. β’ Version tracking Keep multiple versions of a track together so you can compare changes over time and never lose track of your creative process. β’ Waveform visualization Analyze songs visually with detailed waveform views designed for critical listening and review. β’ Reference comparison Compare your mixes against reference tracks to evaluate balance, loudness, and frequency content. β’ Timestamped notes Leave feedback and production notes at specific moments in a song. β’ Share your work Generate clean showcase pages to share tracks, demos, and works in progress with collaborators, labels, and friends. β’ Privacy first No accounts. No tracking. Your music stays in your Dropbox. Whether youβre finishing a mix, preparing a release, collecting feedback, or simply organizing years of unfinished projects, Roam Studio provides a focused environment built for the music along the way.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Roam Studio at none against HEXBEAT's 1. Roam Studio also leads on update cadence (every 9 days vs every 8 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. HEXBEAT sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Roam Studio asks for nothing beyond the download.
HEXBEAT ships an update every 8 months, Roam Studio every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HEXBEAT | Roam Studio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 9 days β better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No β better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gregory Hogan | Riley Napier |
In-app purchases
HEXBEAT
- HEXBEATOTP$7.99
Roam Studio
No in-app purchases









