Comparison

Drone Meditations vs Jacquardi4

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

Head to head
About

Drone Meditations

This app offers a sophisticated drone synthesizer for creating ambient music, sound healing, and meditative soundscapes. It features four oscillators per patch, extensive modulation options, and multiple tuning systems, providing a deep and authentic instrument for drone music enthusiasts.

Highlights
  • Four oscillators per patch with multiple waveform options
  • Per-voice filter, drive, FM, chorus, delay, and reverb effects
  • Twenty multi-target LFOs with tempo-locked rates
  • Per-voice timing envelopes for dynamic sound shaping
  • Six distinct tuning systems
  • Over 110 presets and 48 artist tributes
  • Live cymatics visualization with pinch-to-zoom
Features
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A deep four-oscillator drone synthesizer for meditation, sound healing, and ambient composition. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros, Éliane Radigue, Stars of the Lid, William Basinski, and the long-form drone tradition. Real synthesis, real tuning systems, real cymatics — designed for listeners who want to go deep. Most "drone apps" give you a few sliders and call it ambient. Drone Meditations gives you a real instrument. SOUNDS YOU CAN SIT WITH FOR HOURS • Four oscillators per patch — sine, triangle, sawtooth, square, white / pink noise, granular pink, or loaded sample • Per-voice filter (LP / HP / BP), drive, cross-osc FM, stereo chorus, three-mode delay with musical timing, stereo Schroeder reverb • Twenty multi-target LFOs per patch (five per voice). LFOs 1–4 hit amp / pan / cutoff / Q / pitch / FM / FX-Mix; LFO 5 has its own row of granular + FX targets (grain, delay, reverb). Each LFO's rate can lock to a musical subdivision of the tempo. • Per-voice timing envelopes — fade in over minutes, fade out later, repeat N times or forever. Rotate harmonically across 20 minutes without touching a slider. • Six tuning systems: 12-TET, just intonation, Pythagorean, Lou Harrison Free JI, Wendy Carlos α/β/γ, Harry Partch 43-tone DESIGNED FOR THE DRONE TRADITION • 110+ presets across Drone Artists, Developer Patches, Solfeggio, Natural Resonance, Cymatics, Mystic & Composers, and Binaural categories — plus an INIT preset pinned at the top • 48 Drone Artists tributes — Oliveros, Riley, Radigue, Stars of the Lid, Sunn O))), Basinski, Niblock, Palestine, Budd, Coltrane, and more — capturing each artist's waveforms, FX, and tuning, not just their pitches • 21 Developer Patches showcasing granular sampling, BPM-locked grain density, FX-Mix LFO swells, and the JG hybrid pad/groove series • Modal chord category — the 7 diatonic modes plus Harmonic and Melodic Minor — with quantize-to-scale so pitch-modulated voices arpeggiate across all 7 mode degrees • Auto-morph between any two presets over 30 s to 60 min • 25 scripted meditation journeys (Deep Listening, Heavy Resonance, Minimalist Arc, and 22 more) • Tune to Room — global LISTEN snaps the chord root to a pitch from the mic; per-strip ear icon snaps just one voice LIVE CYMATICS THAT BREATHE WITH THE AUDIO • Physically-calibrated Chladni patterns fit from real plate- vibration footage. The renderer crossfades between two adjacent eigenmodes bracketing each voice's live frequency — vibrato breathes between physical modes, not styled animation. • Pinch to zoom; tap to enter fullscreen Performance mode with a drifting sand-particle simulation along the nodal lines • Cymatic snapshot gallery + spectrum-analyzer alternative GRANULAR + TEMPO • Granular waveform: pink noise chopped into Hann-windowed grains with size, density, jitter, stereo spread, per-voice overlap • Granular sampling: same scheduler on any loaded sample — freeze a bansuri forever, smear a chord into a tape-decay cloud • BPM-quantized density (½ → 1/32T) locks grain spacing to the global tempo. Per-LFO rate sync extends musical subdivisions to LFO speed. Metronome click toggle for an audible reference. RECORD, SHARE, AND COMPOSE • Mastered session recording: 24-bit WAV + AAC M4A sidecar with loudness normalization, automatic fades, embedded metadata • Per-voice mic record captures into a voice's sample slot — normalized, granular-ready, with the current frequency as the sample's reference pitch • 50+ bundled samples: bansuri, organ, piano, storm, tide, forest, urban, cosmic • Cross-device preset sharing via .dronepreset files — AirDrop a patch between web, iPhone, and iPad, samples embedded inline. iCloud auto-syncs samples-free presets across devices. One-time purchase. No subscription, no accounts, no tracking. Free web version: dronemeditations.com

About

Jacquardi4

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Concept: “Jacquardi4” is an AUv3 instrument that does not make any sounds but can send out 4 analog-like “Envelope” signals via MIDI control changes (MIDI CC). That is, the app contains 4 MIDI modules of envelope generator. The user can use them for modulating any parameter of 3rd-party’s plugins that can be assigned to MIDI CC , for example, cutoff frequency. System Requirements: AUv3 host that has a flexible capability of MIDI routing (AUM, apeMatrix, LoopyPro, etc). Usage: Just assign MIDI keyboard to Jacquardi4's MIDI IN (it needs to trigger Jacquardi4) and assign Jacquardi4's MIDI OUT to 3rd party's plugins. Explanation of sliders: Channel: determines MIDI channel. Control Rate: determines the resolution of MIDI processing. Higher value, higher resolution. Active: turn on or off the module. Useful when using MIDI learn functionality of 3rd party plugin. MIDI CC: determines MIDI control number. (text-editable) Amp: determines amplitude in dB Offset: determines an initial value. Attack: attack value. Decay Time: decay time value. Decay Curve: decay curve value. Sustain: sustain value. Release: release value. Explanation of Preset File System: At first make a new bank folder, in which you can save a preset file. And push "Save As" button. Also the user can export or import preset files.

Screenshots

Drone Meditations4 screens
Jacquardi42 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Jacquardi4 at $5.99 against Drone Meditations's $14.99. Jacquardi4 also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On ads, in-app purchases 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

Drone Meditations costs $14.99 and Jacquardi4 $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drone Meditations ships an update every 3 weeks, Jacquardi4 weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Drone Meditations versus Jacquardi4: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrone MeditationsJacquardi4
Price$14.99$5.99 — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size131 MB12 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperJOSE ANTONIO GUDESatoshi Kajii

In-app purchases

None

Drone Meditations

No in-app purchases

None

Jacquardi4

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Drone Meditations free?
Drone Meditations costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Jacquardi4 free?
Jacquardi4 costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Drone Meditations or Jacquardi4 have ads?
Neither Drone Meditations nor Jacquardi4 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Drone Meditations or Jacquardi4?
Drone Meditations ships an update every 3 weeks, and Jacquardi4 weekly. Most recently, Drone Meditations was updated on October 31, 2026 and Jacquardi4 on November 10, 2026.

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