Comparison

Patterning vs 95 LoFi

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

Head to head
About

Patterning

This music creation app offers a circular drum machine with a powerful sequencer. It's free to download and includes a vast library of drum kits and effects. Unlock advanced production and sync tools through an in-app purchase or a monthly subscription.

Highlights
  • Circular drum machine interface
  • Powerful sequencer engine
  • Extensive drum kit library
  • Built-in effects and mixing
  • Song mode for arrangement
  • Audio and MIDI export options
  • Ableton Link and MIDI sync
Read full description

Patterning is a circular drum machine that is both intuitive and deep. Built on the powerful sequencer engine of "Patterning 3: Drum Machine," this new iPhone version bottles the energy and excitement of our flagship instrument for the small screen. Free to download and make music with. The full sequencer, drum kits and sampler, effects and mixing, project saving, and access to nearly 800 drum kits are all included. "Patterning Studio" is an in-app purchase that unlocks production and sync tools for life : - AUv3 : Run Patterning as an instrument plugin. - Song Mode : chain patterns into full songs - Unlimited access to over 800 free drumkits. - Audio export as stereo or multitrack stems (WAV or AIFF) - Ableton Live Set export, with a free Ableton Live 12 Lite license - MIDI file export - MIDI output to hardware and your DAW - Ableton Link - Link Audio : send stereo or multitrack audio wirelessly to Ableton Live. - MIDI clock send/receive Patterning Studio is offered at a discounted price for existing owners of "Patterning for iPhone." Alternately, you can subscribe to Patterning+ and unlock all current and any future features on a monthly basis.

About

95 LoFi

Generate complete, unique music tracks with a touch of a button. This app uses advanced mathematical chaos to create original melodies, rhythms, and moods, with customizable styles and a built-in tape deck for vintage sound effects. Play along with your own instruments and export your creations.

Highlights
  • Generative track creation
  • Chaos-driven sound design
  • Multiple musical styles
  • Vintage tape deck effects
  • MIDI export
  • Interactive play-along pads
Features
Read full description

95 Lofi writes complete tracks. Press write and you get 52 bars — an intro, three main sections, two lifts, a breakdown and an outro — played by a dusty-keys synthesizer and a soft drum kit, then recorded onto tape. Keys, bass, a melody line, a pad, the kit, and the record surface underneath it all. Nothing is sampled. There are no audio files in this app at all — the Rhodes, the kit and the vinyl crackle are all synthesised as they play, which is why the whole thing is a few hundred kilobytes. The music comes from chaos maths. Three Lorenz attractors shape the melody, the rhythm and the mood. Two logistic maps run underneath the drums and the bass so they wander independently of each other: turn the logistic control down and the hats repeat every bar, turn it up and they never do. Chaos on its own is noise, so a small model filters it. It is rewarded for consonant intervals and rehearses over the changes before writing. The CHAOS / TASTE slider decides how much say each one gets. Nine styles, and they are properly different. Chillhop and Jazzhop sit where you expect. Boom Bap hits harder and drier. Study Beats takes almost everything away. Drift slows to a crawl. Lo-Fi House pushes past 106. Celtic and Medieval are not jokes — modal progressions, different cadences, nothing else on the shelf sounds like them. The tape deck is the other half of the sound: a wow-and-flutter transport that never quite runs true, vinyl crackle with real pops and decaying tails, hiss, bit crush and saturation. The crackle is seeded, so the scratch lands in the same place on every play and every export. Every track is built from its seed. Write the seed down and you can have that exact track again, note for note, whenever you want it. A seed from the browser version rebuilds the same track here. You can play over it, too. The pads are the notes of the track's key rather than a piano keyboard, so nothing you touch is wrong, and the sixteen-step lane runs in time with the track and follows your host. Both play any part you like — keys, bass, melody or pad — through that part's sound and out on its MIDI channel. Choose which sections the lane plays in, just the breakdown say, and preview it without starting the track. Turn on RADIO and it keeps playing, picking a new key, mode, style, sound kit and tempo for each track. You also get: • 9 styles, 8 modes, 12 keys, tempo, swing, density and humanise • A three-layer voice: an FM tine, one or two detuned bodies, and a sub • 16 presets and 9 sound kits, from Tape Deck to Music Box, plus random patch • Six-part mixer, chorus, a long dark reverb, synced delay and sidechain pump • A tape deck: tone, wow and flutter, crackle, hiss, bit crush and drive • MIDI in, so your keyboard plays whichever part you have selected • Export a MIDI file, a WAV mix, or stems — one WAV per part plus the record surface on its own (in the app; in a host you record the audio there) • A note and a MIDI channel for every drum, not one channel for the whole kit • UI scale, so the panel is not tiny on a big iPad • Live spectrum and waveform, and the chaos engine drawn as it runs Two Audio Units, an instrument and a MIDI processor. Each part sends on its own MIDI channel and every drum has a note and a channel of its own, so one instance can drive a rack of them. The MIDI version passes your keyboard through instead of swallowing it. Both follow your host's tempo and transport, and one install registers both. The app is free and nothing in it is held back. Using the Audio Units inside other apps is a one-time purchase, and each AUv3 session plays for two minutes first so you can try them properly. No account, no ads, no subscription. Works offline.

Screenshots

Patterning4 screens
95 LoFi4 screens

Verdict

The call

Patterning and 95 LoFi both sit at 5.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of 95 LoFi's written reviews are positive against 67% of Patterning's. 95 LoFi also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and device support (3 vs 1). Patterning's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating, ratings volume 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Patterning sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and 95 LoFi sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Patterning against 5.0 for 95 LoFi. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 5 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of Patterning's written reviews are positive against 100% of 95 LoFi's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Patterning ships an update every 3 days, 95 LoFi every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Patterning versus 95 LoFi: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPatterning95 LoFi
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (10 ratings)5.0 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings10 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size94 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOlympia Noise Co.Soft Brew Mobile

Customer experience

Patterning

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%

95 LoFi

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Patterning

Subscriptions1
  • Patterning+$1.991 Month
One-time2
  • Patterning Studio Upgrade$7.99
  • Studio Pack (Lifetime)$12.99
1 purchases

95 LoFi

One-time1
  • AUv3 Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Patterning free?
Patterning is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is 95 LoFi free?
95 LoFi is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Patterning or 95 LoFi?
Patterning and 95 LoFi are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 10 and 5 ratings respectively.
Do Patterning or 95 LoFi have ads?
Neither Patterning nor 95 LoFi shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Patterning or 95 LoFi?
Patterning ships an update every 3 days, and 95 LoFi every 2 weeks. Most recently, Patterning was updated on September 27, 2026 and 95 LoFi on September 30, 2026.

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