Comparison

16 Drones vs Granula

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

Head to head
About

16 Drones

Create evolving soundscapes and harmonic textures with a powerful ambient drone synthesizer. Shape layered drones using custom wavetables and envelopes, then perform expressively in key. Offers deep timbral control and flexible MIDI integration.

Highlights
  • 16 drone voices for layered textures
  • Custom wavetable synthesis
  • Per-voice drone envelopes
  • Subtractive synthesis layer
  • Expressive in-key performance voice
  • Support for musical scales
  • Standalone and AUv3 operation
  • MIDI input and learn
Features
Read full description

16 Drones is an ambient drone synthesizer built for evolving textures, harmonic soundscapes, and expressive in-key performance. Shape layered drones with a custom wavetable engine, per-voice controls, per-voice custom drone envelopes, and an additional subtractive layer. Then perform on top with a dedicated Play voice that stays in the same scale. Designed to be deep but immediate, 16 Drones gives you rich timbral control, musical scale exploration, expressive performance options, flexible MIDI workflow, and both standalone and AUv3 operation. Features: 16 drone voices for layered evolving textures Custom wavetable synthesis with per-voice control Per-voice custom drone envelopes for motion and character An additional subtractive layer for extra depth and weight A dedicated Play voice for expressive in-key performance Rich musical and exotic scales Standalone app and AUv3 instrument support MIDI input support for performance and control MIDI Learn for fast hardware mapping Aftertouch expression support, including polyphonic aftertouch Factory presets for fast inspiration

About

Granula

Features
Read full description

Granula is a granular synthesizer for the phone. It takes a sound — a chord it generates itself, a guitar, a kalimba, a tongue drum, or thirty seconds you record on the spot — and scatters it into hundreds of tiny overlapping grains. What comes back is a slow, shifting texture: ambient pads, drones, atmospheres that keep evolving as long as you keep listening. Everything is played with your hands. The whole screen is a morph pad: move a finger across it and the sound moves with you, while a field of glyphs lights up under your touch and churns in time with what you hear. FOUR CORNERS, FOUR CHARACTERS • Reverse — short grains, played mostly backwards, with octave and fifth sparkles on top • Gater — a denser cloud chopped on a 126 BPM grid, from halves down to sixteenths • Chorus — long, slow, detuned grains with the read position drifting like a tide • Scatter — harmonic intervals thrown at random and sprayed wide FOUR KNOBS • Grain size, from 15 ms clicks to one-second smears • Position — where in the sample the grains are lifted from • Density, from sparse drips to a solid wash • Dry/Wet — a six-second convolution reverb, plus the amount of reversed grains RECORD THE WORLD Hold the record button and capture up to thirty seconds of anything: your voice, a room, rain on a window, a string you plucked once. The take is granulated immediately and kept in your library under a name of its own. You can also import your own MP3 or WAV files. MADE FOR A PHONE • Keeps playing with the screen locked and in the background • Survives calls, headphone unplugs and output switches without losing your session • Plays through the silent switch, like an instrument should • Any class-compliant USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard plays it — plug in and go, nothing to pair inside the app • Honours Reduce Motion GRANULA PRO Every built-in sound is free and stays free. A free account also brings in one sound of your own — recorded or imported. Granula Pro lifts that limit: record and import as much as you like, and everything syncs to your account so a new phone picks up where the last one left off. Granula Pro is $2.99 per month, billed to your Apple Account and renewing until you cancel. Cancel any time in Settings. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

16 Drones4 screens
Granula4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Granula at every 4 days against 16 Drones's every 2 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. 16 Drones sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Granula sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

16 Drones ships an update every 2 weeks, Granula every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
16 Drones versus Granula: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter16 DronesGranula
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (12 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings12 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRuben Terron RodriguezSergey Duzhev

In-app purchases

1 purchases

16 Drones

One-time1
  • 16 Drones Pro$11.99
1 purchases

Granula

Subscriptions1
  • Granula Pro$2.991 Month

Questions

Is 16 Drones free?
16 Drones is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Granula free?
Granula is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do 16 Drones or Granula have ads?
Neither 16 Drones nor Granula shows ads.
Which is updated more often, 16 Drones or Granula?
16 Drones ships an update every 2 weeks, and Granula every 4 days. Most recently, 16 Drones was updated on October 9, 2026 and Granula on October 10, 2026.

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