Comparison

Drumline Designer vs Drumr Notate

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

Head to head
About

Drumline Designer

Create and edit drumline sheet music directly on your mobile device. This app offers an intuitive grid system for note entry, automatic beaming, and support for complex rhythms and articulations. Export your compositions as PDFs, audio, MusicXML, or animated videos.

Highlights
  • Intuitive grid-based note entry
  • Automatic beaming and placement
  • Support for tuplets and complex rhythms
  • Add accents, staccatos, marcatos, and legatos
  • Instant playback for review
  • Export to PDF, Audio, MusicXML, and video
  • Create animated video clips
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Notate sheet music for drumline directly from your phone! Drumline Designer is the app that lets you easily enter notes into a grid and have your sheet music automatically be created. Perfect for hobbyist and professionals! Export PDFs, Audio, MusicXML, and videos of your music! Drumline Designer uses an accessible grid design system, allowing you input notes easily. Each note is automatically beamed and placed inside of your sheet music. The grid can also work with tuplets, allowing you to write more complex rhythmic lines. Add accents, staccatos, marcatos, and legatos to your music, shaping the way everything plays and sounds. Playback is instant, allowing you to listen and make changes as you go. Each piece of music can be exported to other notation softwares, allowing you to easily implement your drumline music into Sibelius, MuseScore, Dorico and other notation software! Show off your music by exporting animated videos, making both portrait and landscape clips so you can share your work on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media.

About

Drumr Notate

Create and share drum music compositions quickly. This app offers a comprehensive set of notation tools for various drum instruments, allowing you to hear your music and export it as a PDF or MusicXML file. It integrates with a practice tool for enhanced learning.

Highlights
  • Compose drum music with detailed notation
  • Multiple instrument palettes (Drum Kit, Marching Snare, Tenors, Bassline)
  • Playback with built-in drum sounds
  • Export scores as PDF and MusicXML
  • Integrates with Drumr for interactive practice
  • Keyboard shortcuts and intuitive interface
Features
Read full description

Notation software made exclusively for drums. Write kit and drumline parts quickly and easily, hear them played back, and hand your players a clean PDF. Got a part from your instructor? Open, play, and share or print it free. Writing and editing need a Notate subscription — try it free for 7 days. No account required. Write it. Hear it. Share it. Everything you need to compose. - Note values from whole notes to 32nd notes - Tuplets — triplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets, and ninelets - Dynamics from ppp to fff, crescendo and decrescendo hairpins, and score-wide Accent/Tap dynamics - Accents, marcatos, tenutos, staccatos, flams, drags, ruffs, diddles, ghost notes, and open hi-hat markings - Add sticking and text to explain how the part should be played, or show sticking with Berger notation on Marching Snare - Per-measure tempo marks from 30 to 300 bpm and time signatures from 2/4 to 13/8 - Beams group themselves from the meter, compound meters included, with manual override - Rests consolidate automatically - Duplicate measures, repeat notes, and copy and paste to build patterns fast Built for the whole drumline. Four complete instrument palettes, with more than 100 sound and technique combinations. - Drum Kit — snare, bass drum, hi-hats, toms, and cymbals, plus cowbell, tambourine, clave, and gock block - Marching Snare — rimshots, cross-sticks, buzz and press rolls, backsticks, stick shots, stick clicks, ping shots, gock blocks, cowbell, and ribbon crasher - Marching Tenors — all six drums, with rim clicks, rimshots, buzz and press rolls, crossovers, stick shots, stick clicks, and skank - Marching Bassline — all five drums, with rim clicks, rimshots, buzz rolls, stick clicks, and unison hits Hear it back Play your score with built-in authentic drum sounds — playback follows the tempo marks you write, from 30 to 300 bpm, and a metronome clicks the beat while you listen. PDF and MusicXML Share or print a PDF of your scores. Scores live in the Files app and iCloud Drive, and every score is a standard MusicXML file you can use in Sibelius, Dorico, or any notation app that reads it. Send a score to anyone with Notate and they can open and play it free. Scores made with Drumr's retired Sibelius templates convert to Notate files at drumr.app/imports. Made for speed Tap, drag, or use full hardware keyboard shortcuts. Drag a note and Notate previews the valid placements before you drop it. Appearance Choose Light, Dark, or System, with preset or custom theme colors. Wrote it? Now practice it. Tap Open in Drumr on iPhone, iPad, or a Mac with Apple silicon to turn your score into an interactive practice tool — follow along note-for-note, slow the tempo or use speed training to build stick control, loop the hard parts, get practice feedback, and see your progress. Requires a Drumr Premium subscription with a free 7-day trial. — Help/feedback: https://support.drumr.app Privacy: https://privacy.drumr.app Terms: https://terms.drumr.app Apple EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Drumline Designer4 screens
Drumr Notate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Drumr Notate at Free against Drumline Designer's $19.99. Drumr Notate also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 6 days). Drumline Designer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and chart position (#178 vs unranked). On review sentiment, ratings volume, 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

Drumr Notate is free to download; Drumline Designer costs $19.99 up front. Drumr Notate sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Drumline Designer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Drumr Notate holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 4 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drumline Designer ships an update every 6 days, Drumr Notate every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Drumline Designer versus Drumr Notate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrumline DesignerDrumr Notate
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating4.0 (2 ratings)4.8 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings24 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#178 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size213 MB44 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChristian PriceDrumr Inc.

Customer experience

Drumline Designer

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Drumr Notate

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Drumline Designer

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Drumr Notate

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly7 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Drumline Designer free?
Drumline Designer costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Drumr Notate free?
Drumr Notate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Drumline Designer or Drumr Notate?
Drumr Notate is rated higher. Drumline Designer averages 4.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Drumr Notate averages 4.8 from 4 ratings.
Do Drumline Designer or Drumr Notate have ads?
Neither Drumline Designer nor Drumr Notate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Drumline Designer or Drumr Notate?
Drumline Designer ships an update every 6 days, and Drumr Notate every 2 days. Most recently, Drumline Designer was updated on October 15, 2026 and Drumr Notate on October 14, 2026.

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