Drone Meditations vs Stochastic Lab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
Read full descriptionHide full description
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
Stochastic Lab
Read full descriptionHide full description
Stochastic Lab is a generative composition tool built around the mathematical methods Iannis Xenakis used to compose: probability distributions, stochastic processes, and Markov chains, applied directly to sound. GENERATE • 6 generation modes: melody, rhythm, cluster, cloud, pointillistic, sequence • 6 probability distributions: uniform, Gaussian, exponential, Cauchy, Poisson, linear decay • Full control over density, register, tempo, block length, and Markov-driven contour • Choose a single orchestral section (strings, winds, brass) or let the generator blend all three • Pick exactly which percussion sounds are in play REAL INSTRUMENTS • Real sampled strings (high & low), winds, brass, and an 8-piece percussion kit — not synthesized approximations • Authentic short (pizzicato/staccato) and sustained articulations • Genuine glissando and tremolo, generated as part of the composition itself EDIT & PERFORM • Full piano roll editor: drag notes, edit pitch by semitone, adjust duration and velocity • A live recording keyboard to play your own material into any layer • Freeze a generated block into a fixed, fully editable sequence at any time SCORE • A live, Xenakis-style graphic score (particle-cloud visualization) for every layer • Expand any layer — or the full combined score — to fullscreen, with zoom and a moving playhead • Export the score itself as a printable, shareable image SEQUENCE & ARRANGE • Multi-layer Sequencer for building full compositions from generated or recorded material • Song mode for arranging multiple sections into a complete piece EXPORT • Export audio (WAV) and MIDI, mixed or as separate stems per layer, straight from the Generator, Sequencer, or Song view AUv3 PLUGIN • Stochastic Lab also runs as a real Audio Unit (AUv3) instrument inside GarageBand, Logic, AUM, and other hosts • The actual generative engine runs live inside your DAW — not a static sample player • A dedicated on-plugin control panel (mode, distribution, density, pitch range, tempo, and more), with a Preview button to audition before recording • Full MIDI recording support, including pitch bend and glissando THEORY • A built-in Theory section covering Xenakis's life and stochastic music concepts, with real-instrument audio examples for every distribution Stochastic Lab works entirely on-device — no account, no internet connection required, no data collected.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Stochastic Lab at $7.99 against Drone Meditations's $14.99. On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
Drone Meditations costs $14.99 and Stochastic Lab $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Drone Meditations | Stochastic Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 | $7.99 — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 131 MB | 180 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | JOSE ANTONIO GUDE | Martin Adler |
In-app purchases
Drone Meditations
No in-app purchases
Stochastic Lab
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Drone Meditations free?
Is Stochastic Lab free?
Do Drone Meditations or Stochastic Lab have ads?
Other comparisons















