Simple Drones vs Nocturne LoFi
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Simple Drones
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Simple Drones is an app that functions as a simple tool to play a continuous note. You choose the root note, and the sound plays steadily in the background. The app also lets you control overtones, higher tones that sit above the main note and change how the sound feels. Use sliders to adjust the volume of each overtone. Turning them up makes the sound richer and brighter. Turning them down makes it softer and more pure. The app is useful for music practice, relaxation, and creating steady background sound.
Nocturne LoFi
Create personalized soundscapes for focus, relaxation, or sleep with generative music. Explore diverse immersive worlds and customize your audio experience with real-time controls. Save and share your creations, or use it as an instrument for music production.
- Generative real-time music mixing
- Immersive sound worlds with distinct identities
- Customizable mood, rhythm, and tone controls
- Focus timer and sleep fade functionality
- Background playback and system controls
- Save and sync custom sound combinations
- Export audio as M4A files
- AUv3 instrument extension for music creators
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Nocturne LoFi is an immersive generative LoFi and ambient music studio for focus, reading, rest, sleep, and late-night creativity. Choose a scene and let its beats, melodies, and environmental textures evolve in real time. Nocturne does not simply repeat one short recording, so each session feels familiar without sounding exactly the same. 【11 IMMERSIVE SCENES】 Travel from Rainy Desk, Late Night Study, Midnight Café, and Night Train to VHS Memory, Forest Cabin, Space Radio, Harbor Dawn, Sunday Morning, Thunderstorm, and Rainy Day. Every scene has its own musical structure and atmosphere. Shape mood, BPM, tone, space, motion, stereo width, and ambience, or generate a fresh variation. Save favorite combinations and return directly to their scenes in Immersive Mode. 【BUILD YOUR OWN SCENES】 Import audio into the shared library, stack up to three layers, and adjust each layer’s volume, pan, and playback speed. Blend your sounds with a generated Nocturne bed to create a personal atmosphere. Choose a built-in vector cover or import, crop, and preview your own image. Pick a clock position, then enjoy your custom scene alongside the built-in scenes on the Home screen and in Immersive Mode. 【SHIMMER AND SOUND SHAPING】 Built-in Shimmer adds a bright, floating upper tail to the sound. Control Amount, Pitch, Decay, Tone, and Modulation, then combine it with warmth, drift, reverb, and the rest of Nocturne’s sound controls. 【FOCUS, SLEEP, AND BACKGROUND PLAYBACK】 Choose a 25-minute focus session, 45-minute deep-work session, or 60-minute sleep timer. Timers continue on the Lock Screen and in the background, pause playback when complete, and gently fade the volume near the end of Sleep Mode. Control playback from the Lock Screen, Control Center, headphones, and Now Playing. Supported iPhone models also show playback and timer status in Dynamic Island, while the Home Screen widget keeps the current scene and BPM visible. 【AUv3 FOR MUSIC CREATORS】 Nocturne LoFi includes both an AUv3 instrument and the Nocturne LoFi FX audio effect for compatible hosts such as GarageBand and AUM. The instrument supports built-in scenes and shared user audio, MIDI performance, host sync, a variable-length step sequencer, swing, ties, per-step velocity, triplet rates, and host project state restoration. Nocturne LoFi FX processes host input with tape warmth, Drive, Tone, Tape Age, Wow, Flutter, Dust, stereo width, Shimmer, and a tempo-aware sequencer. It also supports automatable parameters and effect bypass. The standalone app can discover and load compatible third-party AUv3 effects—including their custom interfaces—so you can build an effects chain around Nocturne. 【EXPORT AND SHARE YOUR SOUND】 Render the current scene as a stereo M4A file, or add it directly to the shared AUv3 audio library for continued use in the instrument and your custom scenes. 【ONE PURCHASE, COMPLETE EXPERIENCE】 Nocturne LoFi is a one-time purchase with no subscription. One purchase unlocks every scene, generative music, custom scenes, timers, audio export, iCloud sync, and AUv3 features.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Simple Drones at Free against Nocturne LoFi's $1.99. Nocturne LoFi's advantage is device support. On in-app purchases 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
Simple Drones is free to download; Nocturne LoFi costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Simple Drones | Nocturne LoFi |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | — | 3.7 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 33.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 2 days |
| Ads | — | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Paid |
| Devices | — | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 0 MB | 114 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Andrew Watkins-Alcocer | 宁 徐 |
In-app purchases
Simple Drones
No in-app purchases
Nocturne LoFi
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Simple Drones free?
Is Nocturne LoFi free?
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