Comparison

Aether Synth vs 1981 FM

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

Head to head
About

Aether Synth

This music creation app offers a professional synthesizer engine with dual-layer sound design and rhythmic motion. It can be used as a standalone workstation or as an AUv3 instrument within compatible iOS hosts for recording and production.

Highlights
  • AUv3 instrument support
  • Standalone synth workstation
  • Dual preset layering
  • Melodic and drum sequencers
  • Sampler tools
  • Multitrack audio workspace
  • Arpeggiator and motion controls
Features
Currently charting
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Aether Synth is an AUv3 synthesizer, sequencer and sampler for iPhone Duo, iPhone and iPad, built for creating expressive sounds that move. Start with a sound, combine two sounds into something new, introduce motion, build a pattern, capture a sample, or simply play. Aether brings synthesis, sequencing, sampling and performance together in one instrument designed to keep ideas moving. CREATE YOUR OWN SOUND Build rich synth patches for pads, basses, leads, textures, atmospheres and evolving sounds. Aether is designed to make sound creation immediate. Shape a patch directly, explore presets for inspiration, or use Random Sound to discover combinations you might not have reached manually. The result can become a finished sound or the starting point for something completely different. DUAL — TWO SOUNDS BECOME ONE Dual lets you combine two independent sounds into a new composite instrument. Choose a sound for A. Choose another for B. Blend between them and shape the result. The two sides can complement each other, contrast with each other, or create something that neither patch produces alone. Save your favorite Blends and return to them later. MAKE SOUNDS MOVE Aether is built around motion as part of the instrument. Use Motion and Random Motion to animate sound over time and create patches that evolve rather than remain static. Movement can be subtle and organic or become a major rhythmic part of the sound. This makes Aether especially suited to evolving pads, shifting textures, rhythmic sounds and patches that respond like performances rather than snapshots. SEQUENCE IDEAS Turn sounds into patterns with Aether's built-in sequencer. Create melodic and rhythmic phrases, experiment with different rates and musical feels, and develop ideas without leaving the instrument. The arpeggiator provides another immediate way to transform held notes and chords into movement, while tempo synchronization keeps rhythmic material locked to the music. SAMPLING Capture and work with audio directly inside Aether. Use sampling alongside synthesis to bring recorded material into the same creative environment as your patches, patterns and performances. A sample can become part of a larger musical idea instead of living in a separate workflow. PERFORM Aether is designed to be played. Use the keyboard and performance controls to shape sounds in real time, then connect a MIDI controller when you want a more traditional playing experience. Velocity, sustain and expressive controls allow patches to respond dynamically instead of behaving like static presets. DISCOVER INSTEAD OF SEARCHING Sometimes you know exactly what sound you want. Sometimes you don't. Random Sound and Random Motion make exploration part of the workflow. Generate a new direction, keep what works, reshape it, combine it with another sound in Dual, and continue from there. The goal is not randomness for its own sake. It is getting from a blank idea to something musically useful quickly. STANDALONE OR AUV3 Use Aether as a standalone instrument on iPhone and iPad, or load it as an AUv3 instrument inside compatible hosts and DAWs. That means the same sound-design environment can work as an instrument on its own or become part of a larger mobile production setup. BUILT FOR MUSICIANS Aether brings together: • Synthesizer sound design • Dual layered instruments and saved Blends • Motion and evolving sound • Random Sound and Random Motion • Preset exploration • Sequencing • Arpeggiation • Sampling • Performance controls • MIDI • Standalone operation • AUv3 plugin support Whether you're designing an evolving ambient texture, building a bass or lead, creating a rhythmic patch, experimenting with layered sounds, or starting a new musical idea from scratch, Aether is designed to keep the distance between inspiration and sound as short as possible. Create a sound. Make it move. Turn it into music.

About

1981 FM

This app generates complete, unique musical tracks using chaotic mathematical principles. It offers various styles, modes, and keys, with customizable FM synth sounds and effects. Tracks can be recreated using seeds and exported via MIDI.

Highlights
  • Chaos-driven track generation
  • Four-operator FM synth engine
  • Multiple musical styles and modes
  • MIDI export and input
  • Customizable effects (chorus, delay, reverb)
  • Offline functionality
Features
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1981 FM writes complete tracks. Press generate and you get 64 bars with an intro, verses, choruses, a break and an outro, played by a four-operator FM synth. Lead, bass, arp, pad and a drum machine, through chorus, delay and reverb. Nothing is sampled. Every note is made on the fly and no two tracks come out the same. The music comes from chaos maths. A Lorenz attractor shapes the melody, rhythm and mood. A Hénon map keeps the arpeggio moving. A logistic map handles the drum fills: turn it down and they repeat every bar, turn it up and they never do. Chaos on its own is noise, so a small model filters it. It gets rewarded for consonant intervals and practises over the chord changes before it writes anything. The CHAOS / POLICY slider decides how much say each one gets. Ten styles, and they are properly different. Funk plays a 16th-note slap line with ghost notes between the backbeats. Bebop walks the bass and puts the ride in charge of the time. Bossa runs a clave. Space strips the kit back to a pulse. Every track is built from its seed. Write the seed down and you can have that exact track again, note for note, whenever you want it. You can play over it, too. The pads are the notes of the song's key rather than a piano keyboard, so nothing you touch is wrong, and the sixteen-step lane runs in time with the song and follows your host. Both play any part you like: lead, bass, arp or pad, through that part's sound and out on its MIDI channel. Choose which sections the lane plays in - just the choruses, say - and preview it on its own without starting the song. Turn on RADIO and it keeps playing, picking a new key, mode, style and tempo for each track. You also get: • 10 styles, 6 modes, 12 keys, tempo and density • Four-operator FM engine, 6 algorithms, 11 presets, random patch • Five-part mixer, chorus, delay, plate reverb and filter • A PLAY panel: pads in the song's own key, and a 16-step lane running in time with the song and only in the sections you pick • MIDI in, so your keyboard plays whichever part you have selected • MIDI export: five tracks, one per part • Live spectrum, waveform and a view of the chaos engine at work Two Audio Units, an instrument and a MIDI processor. Each part sends on its own MIDI channel, drums on 10, so one instance can drive five instruments. The MIDI version passes your keyboard through instead of swallowing it. Both follow your host's tempo and transport. One install registers both. The app is free and nothing in it is held back. Using the Audio Units inside other apps is a one-time purchase, and each AUv3 session plays for two minutes first so you can try them properly. No account, no ads, no subscription. Works offline.

Screenshots

Aether Synth4 screens
1981 FM4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: 1981 FM at Free against Aether Synth's $0.99. 1981 FM also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 71%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Aether Synth's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). On ads 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

1981 FM is free to download; Aether Synth costs $0.99 up front. 1981 FM sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Aether Synth asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

1981 FM holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Aether Synth's written reviews are positive against 100% of 1981 FM's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Aether Synth ships an update every 5 days, 1981 FM every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
Aether Synth versus 1981 FM: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAether Synth1981 FM
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (10 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews71.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings10 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#132 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJacob KirkSoft Brew Mobile

Customer experience

Aether Synth

All ratings10 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative10.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral14.3%
Negative14.3%

1981 FM

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

In-app purchases

None

Aether Synth

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

1981 FM

One-time1
  • AUv3 Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Aether Synth free?
Aether Synth costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is 1981 FM free?
1981 FM is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Aether Synth or 1981 FM?
1981 FM is rated higher. Aether Synth averages 4.7 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while 1981 FM averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Aether Synth or 1981 FM have ads?
Neither Aether Synth nor 1981 FM shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Aether Synth or 1981 FM?
Aether Synth ships an update every 5 days, and 1981 FM every 2 weeks. Most recently, Aether Synth was updated on November 5, 2026 and 1981 FM on November 6, 2026.

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