NBS Player vs spool.
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
NBS Player
This app allows you to play Note Block Studio songs on your iPhone and iPad. Import .nbs files, organize them into playlists, and enjoy your note block music on the go. It provides a simple way to listen to community creations or test your own compositions.
- Play .nbs song files
- Import songs into library
- Create and manage playlists
- View song details
- Shuffle and repeat playback
- Background playback
- Apple Watch support
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NBS Player lets you play your Note Block Studio songs on iPhone and iPad. Import .nbs files, create playlists, view song details, and keep your note block music with you wherever you go. Whether you are testing your own creations or listening to songs from the community, NBS Player gives you a simple mobile way to enjoy Note Block Studio files. Features: • Open and play .nbs song files • Import multiple songs into your library • Create and manage playlists • View song information such as notes, layers, tempo, instruments, time signature, and work time • Shuffle and repeat playback • Continue playback in the background • Built for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch NBS Player is designed as a lightweight companion for Note Block Studio, focused on fast importing, simple browsing, and reliable playback.
spool.
Create full songs on your phone with this pocket music studio. It offers a variety of sound engines, sampling capabilities, step sequencing, and a 4-track tape recorder for recording and mixing your music. Effects and MIDI controller support enhance the creative process.
- Multiple sound engines
- Sampling and sequencing
- 4-track tape recording
- Extensive effects rack
- MIDI controller support
- Step sequencer
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Make a whole song on your phone. Spool is a pocket music studio inspired by the joy of hardware grooveboxes — play, sample, sequence, and record to tape, all in one playful instrument. Fourteen sound engines. From punchy FM and fat subtractive Pulse to shimmering Cluster, plucked String, granular Cloud, the TALK vocoder, the WIDE stereo engine, THUMP bass, a Sampler, and two drum machines — each with its own animated, touchable visualizer and four hands-on controls. Sample anything. Record straight from the mic into the sampler or drum kits, trim it, and play it across the keyboard. Drums & beats. Build kits, chop a sample into a playable kit, and lock in grooves with the step sequencer. Playful sequencers. Pattern and arpeggiator to start; unlock Stream, Taps, and the bouncing-ball Gumball machine for happy accidents. Six minutes of 4-track tape. Record, overdub, varispeed (including reverse), scrub, and bounce your jam to a finished mixdown — export to WAV. Your tape is saved with your project. Effects & mixer. A deep rack — delay, spring reverb, drive, compressor, chorus, multimode filter, phaser, tremolo/auto-pan, beat-repeat stutter, and a pitch-shifter/harmonizer — many tempo-syncable. Plus a master EQ and brickwall limiter so it always sounds finished. Plays with your gear. Connect a USB or Bluetooth MIDI controller and play Spool like hardware. AUv3 plugin support is planned for a future update. Free to download and make music with a starter set of engines and sequencers. A single one-time Spool Pro purchase unlocks the full instrument — all engines, sampling, every effect and sequencer, unlimited projects, export, and MIDI. No subscription. Spool is an original, independent work by a solo developer — affiliated with no hardware maker.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: NBS Player at none against spool.'s 1. NBS Player also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). spool.'s advantage is ratings volume (9 vs 1). On price, rating and ads 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
Both are free to download. spool. sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. NBS Player asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for NBS Player against 5.0 for spool.. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: spool. has 9 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | NBS Player | spool. |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 9 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 浠 陈 | Kristopher Yang |
Customer experience
NBS Player
spool.
In-app purchases
NBS Player
No in-app purchases
spool.
- Spool Pro$9.99









