Comparison

Cantus vs Audio Object

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

Head to head
About

Cantus

Features
Read full description

Cantus - Voicing Lab is an interactive harmony and chord-voicing tool by Nathaniel School of Music for pianists, composers, producers, and music theory students. Explore how notes move inside chords, hear voicings in context, and study color, tension, and modal relationships from the keyboard. Cantus is designed as a focused practice lab: pick a sound, inspect the voice leading, and build intuition for how harmony feels under your hands. FEATURES * Interactive chord and voicing explorer * Piano keyboard visualization * Modal and scale-based harmony practice * Voice-leading movement and pinboard-style comparison * Tone.js audio playback * Self-hosted fonts and bundled web assets * Works without an account BY NATHANIEL SCHOOL OF MUSIC Built for practical harmony learning, composition practice, and deeper chord fluency.

About

Audio Object

This pocket-sized instrument turns your iPhone into a portable music creation studio. It features a four-track looper, a three-voice drum machine, and an eight-pad sampler with extensive editing capabilities. Seamlessly integrate with your Mac DAW via USB for professional workflows.

Highlights
  • Four-track looper with bar-quantized recording
  • Three-voice drum machine click track
  • Eight-pad sampler with EQ and varispeed
  • Project save, load, and WAV stem export
  • Stereo audio streaming to Mac DAWs via USB
  • MIDI clock output over USB
  • Records stereo from Core Audio interfaces
Features
Read full description

Audio Object is a pocket-sized music instrument for iPhone. It looks and works like a small piece of hardware — a wooden body with an instrument panel on each face. Pull the wood edge and the body rotates to the next face. WHAT IT DOES - Four-track looper with bar-quantized recording and per-loop trim - Three-voice drum machine as the click track — kick, snare, hi-hat with a per-step accent grid - Eight-pad sampler with grid, auto, and tap chopping, two switchable banks, three-band EQ, varispeed tuning - Project save, load, and WAV stem export with tempo map - Streams audio to any Mac DAW over USB (Inter-Device Audio & MIDI) - Sends MIDI clock over USB — Ableton, Logic, and Bitwig lock transport to the phone - Records stereo from any Core Audio interface (iRig, Focusrite, MOTU, and others) HOW IT WORKS Six faces. Perform pads on one, sampler on another, click and time signature on a third, projects on the back, I/O on top, master on the bottom. No menus, no tabs. Every control lives on the body. The click track is not a metronome. It is a three-voice drum machine with per-step accents, subdivisions from quarter notes to swing, and time signatures from 3/4 to 12/8. Set up a kick-snare-hat pattern, press record, loop on the beat. The sampler holds eight pads across two banks. Record from the mic or load from Files. Chop by grid, by transient, or by tapping markers. Each pad carries a three-band EQ, varispeed pitch, and an amplitude envelope. All eight play polyphonically. Recording quantizes to the bar, the beat, or runs free. A dedicated loop-adjust face trims each loop to the sample — drag the region brackets, snap to the grid, hear the result while the brackets move. Plug the phone into a Mac over USB. Audio Object appears as an audio input and MIDI clock source. The DAW locks transport to the phone's tempo. No drivers, no setup. Plug a USB audio interface into the phone. Audio Object names the device on screen and records through its preamps at up to 48 kHz stereo. WHAT IS NEXT A synthesizer — bass, chord, and lead modes — is in development for the next major release.

Screenshots

Cantus3 screens
Audio Object4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Cantus at every 5 days against Audio Object's every 2 months. Cantus also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cantus ships an update every 5 days, Audio Object every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Cantus versus Audio Object: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCantusAudio Object
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJason ZachariahGreen Rose Systems, LLC

In-app purchases

None

Cantus

No in-app purchases

None

Audio Object

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Cantus free?
Cantus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Audio Object free?
Audio Object is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Cantus or Audio Object have ads?
Neither Cantus nor Audio Object shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cantus or Audio Object?
Cantus ships an update every 5 days, and Audio Object every 2 months. Most recently, Cantus was updated on October 4, 2026 and Audio Object on September 29, 2026.

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