Comparison

Stemly Live Multitrack vs ChordSmith

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

Head to head
About

Stemly Live Multitrack

Features
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Stemly is a multitrack audio player built for live performance — for bands, choirs, DJs and solo artists playing to backing tracks and showing lyrics. PLAY YOUR STEMS LIVE Load multichannel audio and route every track to its own output — vocals, click, guide, instruments. Works with any USB audio interface, and without one in Headphone Stereo mode. BUILT-IN EQ ON EVERY CHANNEL A four-band equalizer on every output channel — tap EQ on a fader and drag the four points on the curve. A linked stereo pair shares one EQ, and settings are saved with each song. On headphones and 2-channel outputs the EQ works on outputs 1+2, so you always hear it. JUKEBOX FOR BREAKS A separate offline player with its own queue and playlists, loop and crossfade. Loop any section of a track by marking it on the waveform. Jukebox is locked while a show song is playing, so it can never start over your performance. LYRICS, MATCHED AUTOMATICALLY Lyrics are matched to songs with the same title — the right lyrics appear the moment you pick a song, even without loading backing tracks. You can use lyrics display and sharing on their own, without the player. Send lyrics over Wi-Fi to any phone, tablet or laptop on stage — no app to install, just scan a QR code. CONTROL FROM ANYWHERE Connect the free Stemly Remote app and run your setlist from the other side of the stage — ideal when the iPad is out of reach. (A 5G router is recommended.) BUILT FOR THE STAGE, NOT THE STUDIO One-tap mixer, volume remembered per song, a song queue with position numbers, protected STOP/PLAY, and a clear interface designed for stage lighting — even at 2 a.m. after soundcheck. One-time purchase. Works on all your Apple devices signed in with the same Apple ID — iPhone, iPad and Mac.

About

ChordSmith

Features
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ChordSmith is a chord finder, a chromatic tuner and a drum machine built for the same instrument — yours. Sixty of them, from six-string guitar and four-string bass through banjo, mandolin, ukulele, violin, cello and double bass, and on to the bouzouki, oud, guzheng, sitar, koto, nyckelharpa, balalaika, charango and kantele. CHORD FINDER Pick a chord and see how to play it on the instrument in your hands, in up to 100 voicings, ordered from the easiest shape upward. Change the tuning and the shapes change with it — every voicing is computed for the strings you actually have, not looked up in a table for standard tuning. DADGAD, drop D, open G and every other preset is one tap away. CHROMATIC TUNER Five displays to choose between: a sweep needle, a strobe for last-cent work, chromatic spokes, a continuous note strip, and one you will want to see for yourself. Every instrument carries its own tunings, drop and open included. Set your reference by ear as well as by number — play a note from a piano, a drone or another player's instrument and the app takes its pitch as the tonic, which is how you tune to an ensemble that is not at A=440. Haptic tuning lets you feel the tuning as a gentle tick: quick when you are far off, slowing as you close in, a steady pulse once you arrive. An optional soft cue marks the moment you lock on. Needle response sets how steady the reading is, from Responsive to Steady. Notes, cents and frequency read out in retro LED-style digits. METRONOME AND DRUM MACHINE Ten kits — standard, click, electric, 808, Latin, cajón, djembe, darbuka, tabla and taiko — and twenty-seven feels, from straight eighths and a swung shuffle through son and rumba clave, bossa nova, the reggae one-drop, bembé, tresillo, maqsum and malfuf. Tap tempo, a BPM counter, compound and odd meters, and an accent pattern you edit, so 7/8 sounds like the 7/8 you are counting. CHORD DETECTION Play a chord and the app names it, tracks the key as you go, and keeps a running transcript of what it heard. The spectrum analyser spans eight octaves, C0 to C8, and runs on the room rather than on a preset, so it works with no instrument selected at all. NINE TUNING SYSTEMS Equal temperament, and the ones that came before it: Werckmeister III, quarter-comma meantone, Vallotti, Young II, Kirnberger III and Pythagorean, with a temperament octave for tuning a piano, harpsichord or clavichord by ear. Quarter-tones as 24-TET for maqam, and Thai equidistant 7-TET for the krachappi, the phin and the saw. SIXTY INSTRUMENTS Guitar in six, seven and eight strings and the Russian seven; bass in four, five and six; ukulele in three sizes; mandolin, five-string and tenor banjo, violin, viola, cello, double bass and the Hardanger fiddle; cavaquinho, viola caipira, vihuela, guitarrón, bajo sexto, cuatro, charango, bandurria and laúd; Greek bouzouki in tetrachordo and trichordo, the Irish bouzouki, Turkish and Arabic oud, bağlama, gambus; erhu, pipa, guqin, guzheng, koto, gayageum, shamisen, sanshin; sitar, tanpura, veena and the Carnatic violin; balalaika, domra, dombra, morin khuur, nyckelharpa, kantele; krachappi, phin, saw duang, saw u and the đàn ghi-ta phím lõm; piano, harpsichord and clavichord. BOUGHT ONCE Fourteen days to try everything, then one purchase, yours for good. No subscription, no account, no advertising. The tuner and the detector run entirely on your device — nothing you play is recorded, uploaded, or sent anywhere. The app works with no network connection at all, which matters more in a rehearsal room than it does in a shop.

Screenshots

Stemly Live Multitrack4 screens
ChordSmith4 screens

Verdict

The call

Stemly Live Multitrack and ChordSmith are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Stemly Live Multitrack sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ChordSmith sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Stemly Live Multitrack ships an update every 8 days, ChordSmith every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Stemly Live Multitrack versus ChordSmith: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStemly Live MultitrackChordSmith
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.616.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB49 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAndrzej BandoszRemnant Workshop, Inc.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Stemly Live Multitrack

One-time1
  • Stemly Full Version$19.99
1 purchases

ChordSmith

One-time1
  • Lifetime$1.99

Questions

Is Stemly Live Multitrack free?
Stemly Live Multitrack is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ChordSmith free?
ChordSmith is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Stemly Live Multitrack or ChordSmith have ads?
Neither Stemly Live Multitrack nor ChordSmith shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Stemly Live Multitrack or ChordSmith?
Stemly Live Multitrack ships an update every 8 days, and ChordSmith every 2 weeks. Most recently, Stemly Live Multitrack was updated on October 28, 2026 and ChordSmith on October 29, 2026.

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