Comparison

MIDIRack vs 2099 Techno

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
Read full description

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

2099 Techno

Features
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2099 Techno writes complete tracks. Press generate and you get 76 bars with an intro, builds, two main sections, a breakdown and an outro, played by a virtual-analog engine and a 909-style drum machine. Bass, acid, stabs, pad, a lead line and the kit, through a dub delay, chorus and reverb. Nothing is sampled. Every note is made on the fly and no two tracks come out the same. The music comes from chaos maths. Three Lorenz attractors shape the melody, the rhythm and the mood. Three separate logistic maps run underneath the drums, the bass and the acid line, so they wander independently: turn the logistic control down and the hats and perc repeat every bar, turn it up and they never do. Chaos on its own is noise, so a small model filters it. It gets rewarded for consonant intervals and rehearses two hundred notes over the changes before it writes anything. The CHAOS / TASTE slider decides how much say each one gets. Eight styles, and they are properly different. Detroit rolls an off-beat bass under syncopated stabs. Dub Techno holds one chord for four bars and lets the delay do the work. Acid runs a 303 line with slides and accents. Hard pushes past 140 with a Reese bass and the drive up. Minimal takes most of it away. 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. 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: bass, acid, stabs, pad or lead, 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 on its own 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: • 8 styles, 6 dark modes, 12 keys, tempo and density • Two-oscillator analog voice with sub, noise, resonant filter and glide • 22 presets and 9 sound kits, from Warehouse to Game Boy, plus random patch • Six-part mixer, dub delay, chorus, plate reverb and a global sweep filter • A PLAY panel: pads in the track's own key, and a 16-step lane with accent and slide, running in time with the track and only in the sections you pick • MIDI in, so your keyboard plays whichever part you have selected • MIDI export: six tracks, one per part • Live spectrum, waveform and a view of the chaos engine at work Two Audio Units, an instrument and a MIDI processor. Each part sends on its own MIDI channel, drums on 10, so one instance can drive six instruments. The MIDI version passes your keyboard through instead of swallowing it. Both follow your host's tempo and transport. 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.

Screenshots

MIDIRack4 screens
2099 Techno4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: 2099 Techno at Free against MIDIRack's $14.99. 2099 Techno also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases 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

2099 Techno is free to download; MIDIRack costs $14.99 up front. MIDIRack sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and 2099 Techno sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MIDIRack ships an update every 4 days, 2099 Techno every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
MIDIRack versus 2099 Techno: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMIDIRack2099 Techno
Price$14.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (8 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings8 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKai ArasSoft Brew Mobile

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MIDIRack

One-time1
  • Graph Editor Unlock$7.99
1 purchases

2099 Techno

One-time1
  • AUv3 Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is MIDIRack free?
MIDIRack costs $14.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is 2099 Techno free?
2099 Techno is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MIDIRack or 2099 Techno have ads?
Neither MIDIRack nor 2099 Techno shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MIDIRack or 2099 Techno?
MIDIRack ships an update every 4 days, and 2099 Techno every 2 days. Most recently, MIDIRack was updated on September 20, 2026 and 2099 Techno on September 21, 2026.

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