DashJam vs Tape Death
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DashJam
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DashJam quietly records your whole rehearsal so you never lose the moment you forgot to hit record for. Start a session and keep playing. DashJam holds the most recent 15 minutes of audio in a rolling buffer. When something good happens — a riff, a take, a happy accident — tap Save Jam and pick exactly the stretch you want right on the live waveform. The moment lands in your Library as a shareable audio file. No more "wait, were we recording?" WHY MUSICIANS LIKE IT • Record continuously, decide later. The last 15 minutes are always there to save — you choose the moment after it happens, not before. • Pick it on the waveform. Save Jam opens a live waveform; drag the handles to grab just the part that mattered, then confirm. • Save from the Lock Screen. A Live Activity and Dynamic Island show the recording state and put a save action a tap away while your phone is in your pocket or on a stand. • It survives a crash. If the app gets killed mid-session, your rolling buffer is still there when you reopen. • A Library you'll actually browse. Saves get evocative auto-generated names ("Crimson Spiral", "Velvet Comet") you can rename, with in-app playback. • Your files, your way. Saved jams export as .m4a and show up in the Files app under DashJam — share them by AirDrop, Messages, or any share sheet. • Designed for iOS. Clean, content-first interface built on the latest iOS design system, tinted recording-red. • English and German, with an in-app language override. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Audio never leaves your device. The rolling buffer lives in the app's cache; saved jams live in the app's documents folder. Nothing is uploaded, ever — you decide if and when a recording leaves your iPhone by sharing or exporting it. There are no accounts, no sign-in, and no tracking. DashJam needs microphone access to record, and keeps recording in the background so a session keeps running while you play. That's it. DASHJAM PRO — OPTIONAL Everything above is free. DashJam Pro unlocks a rolling buffer of up to 60 minutes, automatic jam detection (Beta), trimming saved jams on the waveform — keeping the original or replacing it — Places (arrival and leave reminders at your rehearsal spots), and the audio quality/mono picker. • DashJam Pro — Yearly: 1-year auto-renewing subscription • DashJam Pro — Monthly: 1-month auto-renewing subscription • DashJam Pro — Lifetime: one-time purchase, does not renew Prices are shown in your local currency inside the app, on the DashJam Pro screen, before you buy. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://erigrus.de/dashjam/privacy/
Tape Death
This app is a unique four-tape looping instrument that degrades over time, creating evolving, decaying sounds. Record audio, manipulate tape characteristics like warmth and wobble, and share your sonic creations.
- Four decaying tape loops
- Record from microphone
- Overdubbing
- Forward, reverse, and ping-pong playback
- Adjustable tape wear
- Character-based sound shaping
- Global reverb and echo effects
- Export audio and save sessions
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Tape Death is a four-tape looping instrument that falls apart while you play it. Record a loop onto a cassette and it plays forever — but it never holds still. Every second it runs, the tape wears: the highs fray, dropouts bloom, the pitch begins to sag. Nothing you make will ever sound new again. That's the point. This isn't a clean, non-destructive studio — it's a machine for sounds that rot beautifully. Four tapes, each aging on its own. Layer them, warp them, drown them in space, and bottle the decaying mix to share. FOUR TAPES • Record straight from your mic — a voice, an instrument, the whole room. • Overdub to build layers onto a single loop. • Play each tape forward, in reverse, or ping-ponging back and forth. • Every tape keeps its own character and its own state of decay. DECAY IS THE INSTRUMENT • Tapes wear permanently as they play — the heart of the whole app. • Dial each tape from "eternal" to "dying," or age them all together. • Begin the disintegration again whenever you like — your settings stay. CHARACTER, NO NUMBERS Shape each tape by feel, not by figures. Every control is a drag between two words: • WARMTH — clean to melted tape saturation • DUST — quiet to snowy hiss and grit • WOBBLE — steady to seasick wow & flutter • TONE — dark to bright • SPACE — each tape's own echo and reverb (spring, hall, cathedral, shimmer, void; standard, ping-pong, and granular delays) THE ROOM A shared space every tape plays into — one reverb, one echo, one bus compressor to glue the whole mix, and a global decay to age everything at once. BOTTLE IT Capture the living, decaying mix to an audio file and share it anywhere. Save whole setups as sessions and return to them. Tape Death records everything on device. No account, no sign-in, nothing collected, and it works fully offline. It keeps playing in the background, too. Make something. Let it die.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Tape Death at none against DashJam's 3. On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. DashJam sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Tape Death asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | DashJam | Tape Death |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Erik Gruschka | Colton Harker |
In-app purchases
DashJam
- Pro Monthly$0.991 Month
- Pro Yearly$8.991 Year
- DashJam Pro Lifetime$17.99
Tape Death
No in-app purchases









