Comparison

Gravity Machine vs The Remnant

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

Head to head
About

Gravity Machine

Create music by manipulating a miniature solar system. Fling orbs that bounce off walls, generating notes based on physics and chosen scales. Customize worlds, sounds, and tunings for unique generative compositions.

Highlights
  • Generative music creation
  • Physics-based orb interactions
  • Customizable scales and tunings
  • Multiple world shapes
  • AUv3 and standalone modes
  • MIDI output
Features
Read full description

A tiny solar system that plays piano. Four orbs, a gravity well, and walls that ring like bells. Fling an orb and it falls, ricochets, and plays notes. Where it hits a wall decides what it plays; the physics decide when. You don't write the music. You build a small world and curate what it sings. Gravity is a touch instrument first. Grab an orb and it follows your finger; let go and the throw becomes its velocity. Drag the gravity well and every orbit in the room bends. Set Pulse and the well breathes in time with the tempo, so chaos starts keeping a schedule. EVERYTHING LANDS IN KEY Every impact point along the boundary maps to a note of the current scale, low at one end, high at the other. Pick from 16 scales and 11 tuning systems (12-TET, just intonation, maqam, shruti and more). The scale strip along the bottom is a key-change timeline: tap a segment, change the key, and the whole world modulates on the bar. EIGHT WORLDS TO BOUNCE IN Rectangle, circle, triangle, hexagon, pentagon, octagon, diamond, star. Sharp corners ricochet hard and play jagged. Round shapes glide and play smooth. SOUND A 16-voice pluck engine through a double-bass body and reverb. Octave, key range, quantize from 1/32 to 1/2, orb-to-orb collisions on or off. Presets to start from, themes for the visuals. AUv3 AND STANDALONE Use Gravity full-screen as a standalone instrument, or load it as an AUv3 in GarageBand, AUM, Logic Pro, Cubasis, Loopy Pro and any other Audio Unit host. Each orb has its own MIDI channel, so Gravity can drive other instruments in your host. ONE PRICE No account, no ads, no in-app purchases, no data collected. Buy it once and it's yours. The same engine ships as a VST3 and AU plugin for Windows and macOS at touchmachines.com.

About

The Remnant

This app is a feedback-matrix drone synthesizer with 8 FM voices that modulate each other through a routing grid. It offers extensive control over sound parameters, autonomous matrix mutation, and a touch instrument mode for live performance.

Highlights
  • 8 FM voices with continuous waveform morphing
  • 8x8 feedback matrix for voice modulation
  • Drift for per-voice random pitch wandering
  • Evolve for autonomous matrix mutation
  • Snapshots for saving sound states
  • XY pad for parameter modulation
  • Play mode with velocity-sensitive pads
Read full description

The Remnant is a feedback-matrix drone synthesizer. 8 FM voices modulate each other through an 8x8 routing grid. Signal circulates, persists, and transforms. You set conditions. The sound decides what to become. VOICES 8 FM oscillators with continuous waveform morphing: sine, triangle, saw, noise. Each voice has pitch, fine tune, morph, character (thin, normal with sub-octave, or wide unison), and level. Every voice can modulate every other voice through the matrix. FEEDBACK MATRIX The 8x8 grid is the core. Each cell controls how much one voice modulates another via FM. Diagonal cells create self-feedback. 7 topology presets configure the routing: Pairs, Ring, Star, Mesh, Chain, Random, and Custom. Each topology produces a fundamentally different timbre from the same voices. Edit individual cells by dragging. The synth auto-detects manual edits and switches to Custom. DRIFT Per-voice random pitch wandering. Each voice drifts independently with its own random LFO. Amount sets the deviation range. Rate controls the speed. Low settings: the sound breathes. High settings: voices pull apart into slow harmonic interference. EVOLVE Autonomous matrix mutation over time. Three modes: Wander drifts the matrix randomly. Breathe scales it in sinusoidal cycles. Decay dissolves the network into silence. Duration: 5 seconds to 10 minutes. Modulates on top of your settings, so knob positions are always respected. SNAPSHOTS 8 slots that capture the full sound state: all voice parameters, body/FX settings, drift, evolve, the full feedback matrix, topology, and XY pad positions. Long-press to save, tap to recall. Glide morphs every parameter simultaneously over up to 30 seconds. Transition between completely different sounds. XY PAD Two-axis touch controller. Each axis maps independently to one of 11 destinations: FM Density, Self-Feedback, Drift, Morph, Saturate, Air, Body Decay, Pitch Spread, Tension, Atmosphere, Chaos. Snap-to-center returns on release. Per-sample modulation for FM targets. PLAY MODE Transforms the drone into a touch instrument. 8 velocity-sensitive pads gate individual voices through attack/release envelopes. Expression modes: Volume, Filter (2-pole lowpass), or Morph (pad Y overrides waveform). Pitch bend on pad X. Per-voice latch. Latch All for quick voice management. MIDI input on C4 through G4. RESONANT BODY Physical resonance filter with 4 modes: Chamber, Cave, Metal, Void. Turn Decay to maximum and the body self-oscillates, becoming a sound source on its own. EFFECTS Saturate adds tanh waveshaping from subtle warmth to full destruction. Space spreads voices across the stereo field. Air adds reverb. HARMONY Free or scale-quantized pitch. 13 scales including Major, Minor, Dorian, Pentatonic, Blues, and more. Root note and reference tuning (432/440/442/444 Hz) configurable. 25 factory presets across 7 categories. Save your own. 2x oversampling for alias-free FM. Double-precision phase accumulators. Works as AUv3 in GarageBand, AUM, Logic Pro, and any AUv3-compatible host. Runs standalone on iPhone and iPad. Also available as VST3, AU, and CLAP on desktop. Special thanks to Gavinski for extensive beta testing and feedback that shaped this instrument. From All The Machines. Instruments and effects for sound designers, producers, and experimenters.

Screenshots

Gravity Machine1 screens
The Remnant4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Gravity Machine at 5.0 against The Remnant's 4.3. Gravity Machine also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). The Remnant's advantage is price ($5.99 vs $9.99) 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Gravity Machine costs $9.99 and The Remnant $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Gravity Machine holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Remnant has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Gravity Machine versus The Remnant: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGravity MachineThe Remnant
Price$9.99$5.99 — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.3 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings16 — better
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTouchmachinesStephan Bolch

Customer experience

Gravity Machine

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

The Remnant

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Gravity Machine

No in-app purchases

None

The Remnant

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Gravity Machine free?
Gravity Machine costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is The Remnant free?
The Remnant costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Gravity Machine or The Remnant?
Gravity Machine is rated higher. Gravity Machine averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while The Remnant averages 4.3 from 6 ratings.
Do Gravity Machine or The Remnant have ads?
Neither Gravity Machine nor The Remnant shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Gravity Machine or The Remnant?
Gravity Machine ships an update weekly, and The Remnant weekly. Most recently, Gravity Machine was updated on November 7, 2026 and The Remnant on November 6, 2026.

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