Comparison

SongNote vs Scouter Synth

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

Head to head
About

SongNote

Features
Read full description

Lyrics and chords, in one notebook your whole band shares. SongNote is the world's simplest songwriting notebook - no sheet music, no MIDI, just lyrics and chords. It feels like writing in a paper notebook, so you can jot down words and chords the moment they come to you. Share a song with your bandmates, and when anyone changes a lyric or a chord, it shows up on everyone's screen right away. Shape the "let's change this part" moments from the studio together. WRITE TOGETHER AS A BAND • Real-time sharing: edits reach everyone's screen in seconds • Comments and @mentions: leave notes like "break here" under any line, notify bandmates, and react with emoji • Invite by username, QR code, or link, and show the chart in a browser to bandmates without an iPhone • Keep writing even with a weak signal in the studio; changes sync when you're back online WRITE • Place chords above lyrics with a tap - they follow along when you edit the words • Sections (Verse, Chorus...), line reordering, undo and redo • Set the song's key and transpose all chords at once • Lyrics and music credits PLAY • Performance mode with large, easy-to-read text and auto-scroll matched to the BPM • Guitar chord diagrams SongNote 2.6.0 adds My Note, a binder for your song ideas, and Read, one songwriting column a day. MY NOTE • Daily Notes, Title Ideas, Progression Notes, and Freeform Notes in one binder • Add quick references: diatonic chord chart, guitar fretboard, chord diagrams, and famous chord progressions • Syncs across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Only you can see your notebook READ • A new songwriting column every day (44 in all) • Read any column, any time, and add favorites to My Note TABS ON YOUR SONGS • Open My Note from the tabs on the right of a song while you write • On iPad and Mac, see your song and notebook side by side COLLECT AND LEARN • My Note: Daily Notes, Title Ideas, Progression Notes, and Freeform Notes in one binder, plus a diatonic chord chart, guitar fretboard, chord diagrams, and famous chord progressions • Open your notebook from the tabs on the right of a song while you write (side by side on iPad and Mac) • Read: one songwriting column a day, 44 in all, from how sound works to melody and lyrics ALSO • Four tabs at the bottom: Songs, My Note, Read, and Me. Your profile and settings are in Me • "How to use My Note" in Help ON IPHONE, IPAD, AND MAC Open the same songs on any device with one account - write on your Mac at home, read on your iPhone in the studio. *The Mac version requires a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 13 or later. Sign in with Apple or Google is required. In an age when AI can make songs, SongNote was born to support music that people write - choosing each word with care, and playing it with their own hands. A songwriting notebook that quietly stays by your side while you and your band make music.

About

Scouter Synth

Create music with a retro handheld console interface. Compose melodies, add synth sounds or samples, and mix tracks with effects. Perform live with a touch-sensitive pad and punch-in effects.

Highlights
  • Eight-track music composition
  • Multiple synth voices and sample playback
  • On-board effects and mixing console
  • Performance pad for live parameter control
  • MIDI and Bluetooth controller support
  • Import and record audio samples
Features
Read full description

ScouterSynth is a music tracker built like a handheld console. Eight tracks, a D-pad, two buttons, and no menus — every operation is a chord you can play with your thumbs. WRITE Phrases of sixteen rows, chains of phrases, and a song made of chains. Write a bassline once and place it four times with different transposes; change it later and every one of those places changes with it. Phrases can be shorter than sixteen rows, so six-eight is as easy as four-four. SOUND A synth voice per track — saw, pulse with PWM, triangle and sine, through a resonant filter and an envelope — or a sample, played whole or sliced. Wavetables for the sounds a plain oscillator cannot make. Per-tick tables for automation that runs faster than a row. SAMPLE Import from anywhere on your phone, or record straight into a slot from the microphone. MP3, AAC, M4A, AIFF and WAV are all converted on the way in. Whatever you choose is copied into your project, so a saved song carries its audio with it. MIX Ten lanes on one screen — eight tracks and two send buses — with level, pan, mute and solo, and three effect slots on each: filter, bitcrush and a tempo-synced delay. Watch the desk as a set of numbers or as ten live traces. PLAY A performance pad wires any two parameters to an X and a Y axis and moves every track at once. A grid of twelve pads holds six punch-in effects — an octave down, tape slow, a stutter, a bitcrush, a high pass and a low pass — held rather than latched, so nothing can be left on by accident, and six one-shot samples to fire over the top. SEE A radar sweep that reads the mix by frequency, a scope on the output, and six palettes to put it all in. INTEGRATE MIDI in and out with clock. A Bluetooth game controller, mapped button by button to whatever pad you own. Export the whole arrangement to a WAV. Songs, samples and exports all sit in the Files app where you can reach them. No accounts. No subscriptions. No network. The manual is inside the app — press SELECT and B on any screen.

Screenshots

SongNote4 screens
Scouter Synth4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: SongNote at every 4 days against Scouter Synth's every 4 weeks. SongNote also leads on device support (4 vs 2) 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

SongNote ships an update every 4 days, Scouter Synth every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
SongNote versus Scouter Synth: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSongNoteScouter Synth
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYuichi OkazakiAndrew Scott

In-app purchases

None

SongNote

No in-app purchases

None

Scouter Synth

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SongNote free?
SongNote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Scouter Synth free?
Scouter Synth is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do SongNote or Scouter Synth have ads?
Neither SongNote nor Scouter Synth shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SongNote or Scouter Synth?
SongNote ships an update every 4 days, and Scouter Synth every 4 weeks. Most recently, SongNote was updated on November 5, 2026 and Scouter Synth on October 31, 2026.

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