PatchRig FX vs Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PatchRig FX
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PatchRig FX turns sound ideas into playable, editable effects rigs for guitar, bass, keys, vocals, drums, and reference audio. Start with 500 generated pedalboards, 500 generated pedals, 60 super pedals, built-in audition performances, and 31,777 bundled song-tone profiles. Create a board from a sound description, a song-title trait profile, or an imported recording/reference loop. Then audition it, edit pedals, amps, voices, MIDI tools, and DSP blocks, save favorites, export audio, sync privately, or share playable patches. Create fast: - Play through a ready pedalboard. - Describe a sound and generate an editable rig. - Create an inspired board from bundled song-tone traits. - Import local audio and build around guitar, bass, keys, vocals, drums, or the full mix. - Design individual pedals, amps, preamps, vocal tools, instrument voices, and safe Open DSP patches. - Preview pedals, amps, voices, and DSP blocks before adding them. - Compare, tune, rename, save, export, sync, and share. For live use and auditioning, PatchRig works with standard USB Audio Class compliant USB or USB-C audio interfaces and Core Audio compatible devices supported by iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Use an interface with instrument, line, or microphone inputs for guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, or other sources, then monitor through the interface outputs or a supported system output. On Mac, registered Audio Unit effects can be validated and used when they are available through the system Audio Unit host path. PatchRig does not require a specific hardware brand and does not download executable plug-in code at runtime. The free app includes a polished starter set, built-in audition sounds, prompt-created board preview, designer preview, and basic import/reference analysis. PatchRig Pro unlocks the full 500-board library, the full generated pedal catalog, 60 super pedals, amp and DSP designers, MIDI and instrument voices, unlimited saved creations, export, sharing, iCloud sync, and community publishing. PatchRig includes loop audition, richer built-in reference performances, A/B comparison, meters, spectrum views, bypass controls, graph editing, inline pedal/amp insertion, recent boards, rename/save flows, and shareable preview audio for community items. PatchRig is honest about audio boundaries. Song and artist requests create original boards inspired by broad tone traits, not exact recording, preset, artist, amp, cabinet, IR, or clone claims. PatchRig only uses built-in safe audio blocks and bundled resources; it does not download executable plugin code at runtime. Unsupported or design-only requests fail visibly instead of silently substituting something else.
Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth
Shape the overtone series directly to create unique sounds. This additive synthesizer allows real-time manipulation of harmonics, LFOs, and envelopes. Explore sound design and synthesis on your device.
- Additive synthesis engine
- Overtone series shaping
- Live waveform and spectrum response
- Modulation matrix with LFOs and envelopes
- AUv3 support
- On-device processing
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BKS Harmonic is an additive synthesizer that builds sound from individual overtones, then gives you tools to shape, scan and filter them by harmony. Load it as an Audio Unit v3 inside AUM, GarageBand, Cubasis, Loopy Pro or any AUv3 host, or run it standalone. A TUNER THAT KNOWS ABOUT STRETCH Tune mode turns the scope into a tuner: it names the note it hears and shows how far sharp or flat it is in cents, with a ring that closes as you land on the pitch. It tunes against the stretch curve rather than equal temperament, so it follows a real instrument. Stretch shapes the overtones inside a note; Key Stretch makes the keyboard follow it, so octaves widen the way a piano's do. FOURTEEN TUNING SYSTEMS, AND A TEMPERAMENT EDITOR Equal and Just, five historical temperaments, and six from outside the European tradition including Maqam Rast, Turkish Rast, Slendro, Pelog and the Harmonic Series. The Temperament slider is a morph, not a switch: fully left is Just, fully right is whichever you chose. Twelve bars show any system as cents away from equal; drag one to make the tuning yours, then copy it out as plain text. Tunings save with the preset. FIVE HUNDRED SCALES Searchable by alternate name: malkauns, nikriz, bhupali and freygish find the right set. THE PARTIALS ARE THE INSTRUMENT The partials display shows every overtone in your sound, and four tools work on it directly. FOLD sweeps upper partials below the fundamental, redistributing energy across harmonic layers — not a filter. The OVERTONE SCAN steps a spotlight through individual partials with triangle, saw or random patterns, and can visit only partials in the active scale. The HARMONIC GATE reinforces partials whose pitch class matches your chord and suppresses the rest: capture a chord, follow MIDI, split the keyboard, or pick the notes on the gate's own keys. SCULPT draws the level and pan of every partial, slides the curve up the grid as a formant, and locks partials in place while the rest moves. THE HARMONIC VOCODER Pass live input or a sample through the synth as an effect. Your sound travels through a bank of tuned peaking bells rather than being replaced by filtered noise: open the Air and the source stays dry, tighten it and the bands resonate into it. Key Track is the mode switch: on it plays as an instrument, off it is a fixed filter you can sweep. Aimed at a sample, the bands track that sample's spectrum as it evolves. One level-matched Blend control crossfades it against the oscillators. PULSE-WIDTH MODULATION Set the core to a saw and Source 2 to a saw: the two ramps subtract, which is what a pulse wave is, and the phase between them sets the duty cycle. Modulate it and you have PWM. A preset in the Utility folder is ready to play. MODULATION A cog on almost every control, so the synth's own engine can drive nearly anything in the interface, including the display. Sources include velocity, envelopes, LFOs, how many notes you hold, how many oscillators sound, the synth's own output level, and Atmo, a shape driven by 84 years of barometric weather data from the Beat Kitchen Weather Sonification Project. Rates run from audio rate down to cycles that span years. THE SCOPE A stereoscope, oscilloscope, spectrum and a live per-partial display. Glow takes the trace from a hard line to a diffuse bloom, Colour sets the hue, Trace Speed and Dot set how it draws — and every one is a modulation target. Route velocity to Colour and the trace shifts as you play. LIVE INPUT A headphone button passes the side-chain straight to the output, so you can hear and see your input with nothing held: green when signal arrives, amber when a bus is connected but silent, red when nothing is. Resynth Speed locks a sample's playback speed to pitch, tape-style, or keeps them independent. Every control has a tooltip, presets work offline, and a harmony wheel follows what you play. One purchase, every update. Made by Beat Kitchen, a music production and teaching community.
Screenshots
Verdict
PatchRig FX and Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth 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
Both are free to download. PatchRig FX sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PatchRig FX | Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 4.8 (12 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 12 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Every 3 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 428 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rob Rightmyer | Beat Kitchen LLC |
In-app purchases
PatchRig FX
- PatchRig Pro$39.99
Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth
- Full Unlock$14.99
Questions
Is PatchRig FX free?
Is Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth free?
Do PatchRig FX or Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth have ads?
Which is updated more often, PatchRig FX or Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth?
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