MOUND vs Anacru
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MOUND
Create unique music by layering sounds and applying effects with intuitive touch controls. Explore chord progressions, sonic combinations, and evolving soundscapes.
- Collage soundscape sequencer
- Four mix channels
- 100+ soundfont instruments
- Paint to drive effects
- Euclidean sequencing
- Choose key, scale, BPM, and sequence length
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A collage soundscape sequencer. MOUND is a unique touch instrument (standalone and AUv3 instrument and MIDI included) that uses collage and paint to generate music. You get four layers of stamps to populate chord progressions automatically using euclidean sequencing, and up to 6 paintbrush effects to use your gestures for uninhibited sonic combinations. FEATURES - Four mix channels — chord channel, and three other voices to layer. - 100+ soundfont instruments - Paint to drive effects — use X/Y and hold to control effects - Evolve — mutate your canvas and hear new possibilities - Choose key and scale - Choose BPM and sequence length - FREE Cassette Effect and Granular Delay Free to play. Unlock the full SoundFont library, advanced EVOLVE theory settings, and the rest of the spray effects. Built by fourtrack.fm.
Anacru
Build complex rhythms with interlocking meters, tempo changes, and nested tuplets. Visualize and hear intricate polyrhythms and metric modulations. Export your creations as MIDI files for use in digital audio workstations.
- Construct advanced rhythms
- Interlocking meters and phase shifts
- Metric modulation with tempo changes
- Nested tuplets
- Interactive visual wheel
- Export MIDI files to DAWs
- Private by design, no account needed
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Anacru is a scratchpad for constructing advanced rhythm. Most rhythm apps measure time — Anacru builds it. Instead of tapping along to a click, you assemble the rhythm you're hearing in your head from its parts: interlocking meters, tempo modulations, phase shifts, and tuplets nested inside tuplets. Then you play it back, watch it move, and export it to your DAW. Built for composers, drummers, producers, and teachers who work past 4/4 — and for students trying to finally *feel* how these ideas fit together. WHAT YOU CAN BUILD • Polymeter — stack independent layers, each with its own meter, subdivision, accent pattern, and phase offset. Watch 5/4 drift against 4/4 and snap back into alignment, locked to one shared pulse. • Metric modulation — pick the note value before and after a tempo change and get the exact new BPM instantly, with the direction never ambiguous. Chain modulations into a timeline the playback steps through as it loops. • Nested tuplets — put a quintuplet inside a triplet inside a bar. The engine handles the math; you just stack them. • Phase & accents — tap a pulse to accent it, or drag a layer's ring to rotate its phase. The wheel is the instrument. THE INTERACTIVE WHEEL Every layer is a ring of pulses on a single wheel, color-coded and voiced so you can follow each stream by eye and by ear. A playhead sweeps the cycle so you can see the relationships, not just hear them. HEAR IT PROPERLY Each layer gets its own pitch, stereo position, and selectable voice — woodblock, marimba, pluck, sine, or a kick/hi-hat drum kit — so interlocking parts read as separate instruments instead of one wash. SEE IT NOTATED Each layer is rendered on its own staff with correct meter, beaming, accents, and tuplet brackets. TAKE IT WITH YOU • Save and recall your patterns on-device. • Export a MIDI file — a clean tempo map carrying your modulation timeline, plus one track per layer — and drop it straight into any DAW. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No sign-up. No tracking. No internet required. Everything lives on your device. One purchase, yours to keep.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: MOUND at Free against Anacru's $4.99. MOUND also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (8 vs 2). Anacru's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). 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
MOUND is free to download; Anacru costs $4.99 up front. MOUND sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Anacru asks for nothing beyond the download.
Anacru holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 2 respectively.
MOUND ships an update every 5 days, Anacru monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MOUND | Anacru |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (8 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 176 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | fourtrack.fm LLC | EVAN TRACEN POWERS |
Customer experience
MOUND
Anacru
In-app purchases
MOUND
- MOUND Lifetime Unlock$4.99
Anacru
No in-app purchases









