Anima Synthesizer vs ClockTear
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Anima Synthesizer
This app is a physical modeling instrument that simulates how sound is produced in the real world. It offers intuitive controls for shaping sound through energy, object resonance, and room acoustics. It supports MPE controllers and offers a unique microtonal playing experience.
- Physical modeling sound engine
- Intuitive ENERGY, OBJECT, ROOM controls
- Modal resonator for object shaping
- Morphable room acoustics simulation
- MPE support with zero setup
- Standalone and AUv3 instrument
- Ribbon and piano keyboard options
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Anima is a physical modeling instrument. Sound happens the way it happens in the physical world: a breath excites an object, and the object rings out into a room. That is the whole interface, left to right: ENERGY, OBJECT, ROOM. The object is a modal resonator: twenty-four coupled resonances per voice whose frequencies, loudness, and decay follow physical laws you bend with the controls. Make it wood, glass, or metal. Stretch its partials from strings through piano wire into bells. Touch it at the edge, or hollow it out at the center. Blow at it, press it, strike it with a mallet that hits harder the higher you raise it. Push Inertia far enough and the note ignites and sings on its own breath. The controls are bold glyphs, shapes whose form is the value. No numbers at rest: the panel is a picture of the current sound, and it glides into a new shape when you load a preset. On an iPad the three sections share the screen; on an iPhone they sit side by side, a swipe apart, with the ribbon always under your fingers. Every control is easy to grasp and none of them stop at what the label says; finding what else a knob can do is part of the instrument. The ROOM is a morphable space: Size sets the echo's time, Regen goes all the way into self-oscillation, and Blur melts the repeats into a wash. Delay at one end, reverb at the other, one knob between them. Because every mode frequency is computed from the note, nothing ties Anima to the usual twelve pitches: it plays any tuning an MPE controller can send. Anima is the companion instrument to Hexatone; route Hexatone's MPE into it and per-note microtuning just works, with no configuration. - Standalone app and AUv3 instrument (AUM, Logic, GarageBand, Cubasis, Loopy Pro), on iPhone and iPad; your sound saves with the session - MPE with zero setup: per-note pressure is breath (press into a note and it can ignite), and the slide axis goes wherever you route it, any mix of the ENERGY and OBJECT controls, per note - Every control answers a fixed MIDI CC, so any hardware controller reaches the whole instrument with no mapping; pick a MIDI channel in the app, or play on all of them - Sustain pedal (CC64), MIDI Program Change, Glide, and 1 to 64 voices (at 1 it is a true mono synth) - A ribbon keyboard for true microtonal play (multitouch, per-finger glide, Hold to build chords, Snap or Loose), and a piano with properly wide black keys when you want the familiar - 55 factory presets in banks, including packs by Red Sky Lullaby and Hoavi; save your own, or copy any sound as text and send it to a friend - Undo and redo for every gesture, and the full manual lives inside the app - Collects no data; nothing leaves your device One purchase, iPhone and iPad. Headphones or a real speaker recommended: the low end of the breath is real.
ClockTear
This audio processor simulates digital signal degradation through various clock failure modes. It offers granular control over timing instability, dropouts, and signal fracturing for unique sound design.
- Clock-based sample hold and timing damage
- Four clock failure modes: Slip, Stutter, Tear, Collapse
- Drift and jitter-driven clock wobble
- Dropouts, stutters, folding, and digital interruption
- Adjustable tone shaping and saturation
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Clock Tear is a digital instability processor built around failing clock behavior. Instead of simple bit crushing, Clock Tear holds, slips, stutters, folds, drops, and damages the signal based on input activity, drift, jitter, and the selected clock mode. Four modes move from subtle timing instability to heavier fractured playback and collapse-style digital failure. Features • Clock-based sample hold and timing damage • Four clock failure modes: Slip, Stutter, Tear, and Collapse • Drift and jitter-driven clock wobble • Dropouts, stutters, folding, and digital interruption Modes Slip – Sample-hold clock slipping with the shortest failure range. Stutter – Adds repeating stutter behavior to the clock damage. Tear – Adds stronger clock tearing with drive and foldback-style damage. Collapse – Combines the widest clock failure range with stronger stutter, folding, and drop behavior. Controls Tear – Sets the main clock damage and drive intensity. Mode – Selects Slip, Stutter, Tear, or Collapse behavior. Tone – Shapes the artifacts from darker to brighter. Drift – Adds slow clock movement and stereo wobble. Jitter – Adds faster random clock instability. Drop – Introduces intermittent dropouts and level collapses. Glue – Adds saturation and makeup cohesion after the damage. Mix – Blends dry and processed signal.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ClockTear at $2.99 against Anima Synthesizer's $7.99. ClockTear also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On rating, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Anima Synthesizer costs $7.99 and ClockTear $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Anima Synthesizer against 5.0 for ClockTear. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 2 respectively.
| Parameter | Anima Synthesizer | ClockTear |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Victorien Genna | Jeremy Phillips |
Customer experience
Anima Synthesizer
ClockTear
In-app purchases
Anima Synthesizer
No in-app purchases
ClockTear
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Anima Synthesizer free?
Is ClockTear free?
Which has better reviews, Anima Synthesizer or ClockTear?
Do Anima Synthesizer or ClockTear have ads?
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