Comparison

ARIA ONE vs Microtonal Lab

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

Head to head
About

ARIA ONE

Features
Read full description

ARIA ONE is a sound personalization app built from your unique hearing profile. Take the FullScale hearing test — a full-spectrum assessment mapping up to 37 frequencies per ear. Choose Instant, Quick Results, or Full Accuracy pathways. Complete a profile in as little as 8 minutes. Your hearing profile directly powers correction, limiter behavior, presets, and your personalized listening workflow. Three macro controls — Drive, Intensity, and Smoothing — shape the character of your sound. Three mood presets — Calm, Natural, and Intense — switch your full DSP state with a single tap. Play your own music library through your personalized DSP chain with the built-in audio player. ARIA AI gives you access to the full parameter space without touching a single knob. Describe what you want — "make the bass warmer," "tighten the transients," "reduce harshness" — and the AI adjusts one or many parameters at once across correction, dynamics, drive, and limiting. Choose Standard, Fine Tune, or Thinking agents depending on how broad or surgical you want the changes. Keep refining over time instead of learning the parameter space yourself. Presets, hearing profiles, and mood assignments sync across your devices. Use the Advanced View on Mac or Windows to fine-tune your sound with 400+ parameters, then push your presets and moods directly to your phone. Check out a mobile device remotely, dial in its settings from the full desktop interface, and commit changes back. On desktop, ARIA ONE is available as a standalone app and VST3/AUv3 plugin with eight graphing windows and ITU-R BS.1770 loudness metering. Part of the Altitude personalization ecosystem: FullScale, ARIA Studio, Altitude Limiter, and Crossfeed. FEATURES Hearing Test • FullScale hearing test — full-spectrum, 125 Hz to 20 kHz • Up to 37 frequencies per ear • Three pathways: Full Accuracy, Quick Results, Instant • Demographic-based average profiles for instant demo • Test history and result export Sound Personalization • High-resolution hearing correction from FIR filters • Adaptive multi-stage lookahead limiting • Four limiter algorithms • Dual-pass dynamics processing • Input adaptive gain normalization Controls • Three macro sliders with curve-to-parameter mapping • Two macro toggle switches • Mood presets: Calm, Natural, Intense • One-tap mood switching with full DSP state swap • Bypass toggle and Crossfeed toggle Audio Player • Built-in player with playlist management • Library browser with import and song actions • Playback queue with drag reorder • Saved playlists with create, rename, sort • Now Playing strip with transport, seek, repeat, shuffle • Dual-source playback: internal player or system audio AI Personalization • Natural language control over the full parameter space • Adjusts correction, dynamics, drive, macros, and limiting • Four AI agents: Standard, Fine Tune, Thinking, Legacy • Device-specific AI-generated live presets • Iterative refinement — keep shaping your sound over time Sync & Devices • Cloud sync for profiles, presets, and mood assignments • Per-device mood preset management • Remote device checkout and commit • Copy and paste moods between devices • Cross-product sync with Absolute Zero • One-way export to ARIA Studio Preset System • Meta, Full, Limiter, EQ, Macro, and Adaptive Input presets • Factory and user preset libraries • Preset browser with category navigation Desktop Advanced View (Mac & Windows) • 400+ DSP parameters • EQ correction curves with multiband EQ overlay • Stereo processing: Mid/Side, LR, width, crossfeed • Macro assignment panel with curve editor • Eight standalone graphing windows • Vectorscope, Polar Sample, Polar Level, FFT, Waveform • ITU-R BS.1770 loudness metering • VST3 and AUv3 plugin formats Onboarding • Guided seven-phase setup flow • Audio verification and volume calibration • AI-assisted demonstration Localization • English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian

About

Microtonal Lab

Explore music beyond the traditional 12-note scale with this comprehensive microtonal studio. Create custom scales, play a microtonal keyboard, sequence patterns, and perform live with a launchpad. Export your creations as MIDI files for further production.

Highlights
  • Harmonic Galaxy visualizer
  • Microtonal keyboard with custom scales
  • 32-step sequencer with FX
  • Launchpad for live performance
  • Extensive world scale library
  • Multiple tuning systems support
  • MIDI export for DAWs
Features
Read full description

Microtonal Lab is a complete microtonal music studio for iOS. Break free from the 12-note octave and explore the infinite space between the notes. AUv3 PLUGIN Use MicrotonalLab as a plugin inside GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis, Drambo, and any AUv3-compatible host. The full step sequencer, tuning system, and SF2 instruments are available directly in your DAW. Record sequences as MIDI regions with automatic tempo sync. HARMONIC GALAXY Discover musical intervals as a visual universe. Every dot is an interval above the root — its size shows consonance, its color shows its position in the octave, and its number shows the exact distance in cents. Pinch to zoom and new microtones emerge from the depths. Build custom scales by tapping intervals and save them to your library. MICROTONAL KEYBOARD A fully playable keyboard with exact microtonal tuning. Choose from piano, strings, marimba, vibes, bass, pad, flute, or synthesized waveforms. Activate any scale from the library and the keyboard reconfigures to show precisely those notes. Supports glide between notes for expressive playing. STEP SEQUENCER A 16-step sequencer with microtonal note assignment per step, velocity, gate, and swing control. Syncs to the host tempo in AUv3 mode. LAUNCHPAD A grid-based launchpad for live performance. Rows correspond to scale degrees, columns to time — tap to toggle notes and play your patterns in real time. SCALE LIBRARY Browse world scales from dozens of musical traditions, including Arabic maqam, Indian ragas, Persian dastgah, Javanese gamelan, and many more. Preview any scale, then activate it across all views with one tap. TUNING SYSTEMS Switch between 12-TET, 19-TET, 24-TET, 31-TET, and 53-TET. Full access to all scale degrees in the sequencer for every tuning system. MIDI EXPORT Export your sequences to standard MIDI files with full microtonal pitch bend on each channel. Import directly into any DAW for further production. FX Filter (low-pass with cutoff and resonance), reverb (from small room to cathedral), and delay — all controllable via XY pads in real time during playback. Microtonal Lab is built for composers, sound designers, music theorists, and anyone curious about the music that lives between the keys.

Screenshots

ARIA ONE4 screens
Microtonal Lab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: ARIA ONE at Free against Microtonal Lab's $6.99. ARIA ONE also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). Microtonal Lab's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On ads 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

ARIA ONE is free to download; Microtonal Lab costs $6.99 up front. ARIA ONE sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Microtonal Lab asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ARIA ONE ships an update weekly, Microtonal Lab every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 28, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 5 level
ARIA ONE versus Microtonal Lab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterARIA ONEMicrotonal Lab
PriceFree — better$6.99
Rating—1.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size443 MB90 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperAltitude AudioMartin Adler

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ARIA ONE

One-time1
  • ARIA AI Credits — 20 Pack$19.99
None

Microtonal Lab

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ARIA ONE free?
ARIA ONE is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Microtonal Lab free?
Microtonal Lab costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do ARIA ONE or Microtonal Lab have ads?
Neither ARIA ONE nor Microtonal Lab shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ARIA ONE or Microtonal Lab?
ARIA ONE ships an update weekly, and Microtonal Lab every 2 months. Most recently, ARIA ONE was updated on October 28, 2026 and Microtonal Lab on October 28, 2026.

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