Comparison

MIDIRack vs Tessera Sequenced Resonator

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

Head to head
About

MIDIRack

Design custom MIDI control surfaces with a variety of instruments and sequencers. Unlock advanced features like a visual MIDI processing graph for complex routing and generative music creation. Use it standalone, as an AUv3 plugin, or to control desktop DAWs.

Highlights
  • Customizable touch surface design
  • KB-1 keyboard suite with MPE support
  • Advanced step and matrix sequencers
  • Visual MIDI processing graph
  • Built-in instruments and samplers
  • Connects to desktop DAWs via USB or Bluetooth
Features
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MIDIRack is a MIDI toolkit for iPad. Build a custom touch surface from the KB-1 keyboard suite, an all-new sequencer suite, knobs, faders, buttons and more — then unlock a visual MIDI processing graph (one time in-app purchase) and wire it into anything, from a simple custom controller to a full-on groovebox or a self-playing generative composer. Play it on its own and send MIDI anywhere, as an AUv3 plugin in your favourite host or a standalone instrument. THE BASE APP — PERFORMANCE SURFACE Design a custom control surface on a snapping grid: • The KB-1 keyboard suite — piano, diatonic chord pads, scale-locked keyboard, MPE Seaboard ribbon, MPE Strings grid (4ths), and a 4×4 GM drum-pad grid. Each is its own routable node with latch and octave shift. Successor to the KB-1 Expressive Keyboard Suite. • A suite of sequencers — drum, melody, chord, analog and CC step grids and a Matrix note grid, with a moving playhead, swing and microtiming. Per-step velocity, probability, tie and trigger conditions; pattern chaining and 4-pad scene switching for full arrangements; a knob-per-step analog machine that re-roots live as you play. • Knobs, faders, XY pads, buttons and live visualizers — bind to raw MIDI CC or graph parameters. On its own: a rich custom control surface builder — send MIDI and CC to any synth, app or hardware, no graph required. WITH YOUR DESKTOP DAW Expressive MPE hardware costs hundreds. MIDIRack turns the iPad you already own into a controller for Logic, Live, Bitwig, Cubase or any desktop DAW: • Two MPE surfaces — the Seaboard ribbon and the Strings grid send per-note pitch bend, slide and pressure to any MPE-capable instrument on your desk. • A controller that changes per track — MPE ribbon for the lead, drum pads for the beat, chord pads for the progression, faders mapped to CC for a mix move. Rearrange in seconds; save a surface per project. • Sequence it too — clock the step lanes to your DAW and drive its tracks. • Easy to connect — one USB cable to a Mac via IDAM (Inter-Device Audio and MIDI), or wirelessly over Bluetooth MIDI. No driver, no helper app. UNLOCK — MIDI GRAPH (in-app purchase) Wire MIDI In → processors → MIDI Out on a visual canvas: • 60+ node kinds — arpeggiators, scale/key quantizers, transposers, chords, echoes, swing, humanize, euclidean rhythms, random/generative melodies, LFOs, CC tools, an analog knob-per-step sequencer, a Matrix sequencer and a Counter. • Built-in instruments — Synth, Drums, a Sampler and a loop Slicer make sound right in the graph; no external synth required. • Emergence generators — Conway's Game of Life, Turing machine, Wolfram rules, Markov, bouncing balls, Lorenz attractor — for evolving, living patterns. • Presets — factory patches grouped by category (control surfaces, generators, keyboards, utilities): Amen Engine, Starfield, Conway Choir, Turing Bass, Cellular Drums… Save your own. ROUTING & MPE • MIDI Out exposes all 16 channels plus an MPE connector — multitimbral, multi-instrument setups. The built-in synth responds to MPE. • Every keyboard is its own node — process and route each one independently. PLAYS OUT OF THE BOX • Built-in polyphonic synth, drum kit, sampler & slicer or send MIDI to your gear via CoreMIDI and an always-on virtual port.

About

Tessera Sequenced Resonator

Transform any sound into lush, evolving musical textures with twelve tuned voices. Choose from various resonator models and motion engines to create unique sonic landscapes. Lock to host tempo for rhythmic precision.

Highlights
  • Twelve parallel tuned resonators
  • Selectable scales and chords
  • Eleven resonator models
  • Five motion engines (Contour, SEQ, Strum, Arp, Swarm)
  • Host tempo synchronization
  • MIDI and gate input
  • Standalone and AUv3 plugin support
Features
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Tessera is a tuned resonator. Play a drum loop, a guitar, a vocal, or a field recording into it, and it blooms that sound into twelve pitched voices that ring, shimmer, and decay in tune. At its core are twelve parallel resonators, each locked to a note of a chord or scale you choose. Whatever you feed them excites those voices, so a single hit becomes a lush chord, a sustained pad, or a slowly evolving cloud. Pick a root and a scale, from majors and minors through ninths, elevenths, whole tone, and chromatic, and the whole instrument retunes at once. Choose from eleven resonator models: plucked strings, struck bells, singing bowls, glass, membranes, tuned bars, plates, and hollow tubes. Shape each one with decay, damping, brightness, and stereo spread, moving from tight and percussive to vast and cathedral-like. Five motion engines decide how the voices arrive: Contour spreads them into shimmering, arpeggiated waves. SEQ steps each voice through its own rhythmic pattern. Strum rakes across the chord like fingers on strings. Arp cycles the voices one note at a time. Swarm lets them weave and drift around a moving center. Any of it can lock to your host tempo, so rhythmic patches stay in time. Play Tessera three ways: leave MIDI off and let the resonators sound on their own tuning, key them live from a keyboard, or gate them with held chords. Balance the effect with the dry and wet mix, blur the tails with the diffusion stage, and add motion with the built-in vibrato LFO. Microtonal tunings are supported for the pitch-obsessed. One hundred factory presets get you going, from plucks and drones to bells, rhythmic sequences, strummed chords, arpeggios, and dark cinematic textures. Tessera runs as an AUv3 plug-in inside your favorite host, and as a standalone app.

Screenshots

MIDIRack4 screens
Tessera Sequenced Resonator4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Tessera Sequenced Resonator at none against MIDIRack's 1. Tessera Sequenced Resonator also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and price ($7.99 vs $14.99). On rating, ratings volume, ads and device support 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

MIDIRack costs $14.99 and Tessera Sequenced Resonator $7.99 up front. MIDIRack sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Tessera Sequenced Resonator asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for MIDIRack against 4.9 for Tessera Sequenced Resonator. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 10 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of MIDIRack's written reviews are positive against 100% of Tessera Sequenced Resonator's.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
MIDIRack versus Tessera Sequenced Resonator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMIDIRackTessera Sequenced Resonator
Price$14.99$7.99 — better
Rating4.8 (8 ratings)4.9 (10 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings810 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKai ArasAudio Damage, Inc.

Customer experience

MIDIRack

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%

Tessera Sequenced Resonator

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MIDIRack

One-time1
  • Graph Editor Unlock$7.99
None

Tessera Sequenced Resonator

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MIDIRack free?
MIDIRack costs $14.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Tessera Sequenced Resonator free?
Tessera Sequenced Resonator costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, MIDIRack or Tessera Sequenced Resonator?
Tessera Sequenced Resonator is rated higher. MIDIRack averages 4.8 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while Tessera Sequenced Resonator averages 4.9 from 10 ratings.
Do MIDIRack or Tessera Sequenced Resonator have ads?
Neither MIDIRack nor Tessera Sequenced Resonator shows ads.

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