Comparison

Boom Lab vs MS

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

Head to head
About

Boom Lab

Features
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Boom Lab is a futuristic mobile music creation app for building beats, mixing tracks, recording original sounds, and organizing project ideas on your device. Start in Beat Lab with glowing pads, BPM controls, loop recording, quantize, swing, and a collapsible mini synth keyboard. Move into DJ Lab to load two decks, blend tracks, scratch virtual vinyl, adjust deck volume, and save sample ideas back into your crate. Stem Lab tools provide the interface for vocals, drums, bass, and instrumental separation workflows as the app evolves. Boom Lab is designed around local device storage. Saved projects, sample metadata, and recorded sounds are kept on your device so you can keep working smoothly and offline. Current features include: - 4-pad beat machine - Loop recording controls - BPM, swing, and quantize controls - Collapsible mini piano synth - Landscape-style DJ mixing board - Two deck import and playback controls - Virtual vinyl scratch interaction - Sample crate for saved sounds - Original sound recorder - Stem Lab placeholder workflow - Saved project vault - .boom project export and import - Device-first offline workflow Boom Lab is free with ads. The only paid upgrade is Boom Lab Premium, which removes ads. Core creation tools are not locked behind a paywall.

About

MS

Features
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MS-12 is a 16-pad sampler and step sequencer built around the sound of classic 12-bit hardware. Sample anything through the microphone, trim it, and play it straight from the pads. The sample rate and bit depth engine gives you the gritty, saturated character early digital samplers were loved for — not a filter placed on top, but the sound of the conversion itself. SAMPLING • Record from the built-in mic, a USB or Lightning interface, or line input • Resample the app's own output to bounce layers down • Threshold recording starts the moment sound arrives • Stereo or mono (L/R) capture SOUND • Adjustable sample rate (8–44.1 kHz) and bit depth (4–32 bit) • Presets for classic 12-bit voicings • Ring modulator, compressor, punch and saturation per pad EDITING • Trim, fade in and out, normalize, reverse, gain, silence • Time stretch • Auto slice by transient detection, or set slice points live with the pads • Split a stereo sample into separate mono left and right samples SEQUENCER • Step sequencer with velocity and tune per step • Real-time recording with selectable quantize • Up to 4 bars per pattern • Note Repeat • Song Mode chains patterns into a full track PLAYBACK AND MIXING • Volume and pan per pad, mute and solo • Mute groups so pads cut each other off, like a real drum machine • Pad Link to trigger several pads at once • Multi Level and Multi Pitch to spread one sample across the grid • 13 effects: tape echo, delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo/pan, distortion, overdrive, fuzz, wah, isolator and a 4-band EQ EXPORT • Bounce a pattern to a WAV file • Save projects on the device and reopen them later FREE VERSION MS-12 is free to try, and the sound engine is not held back — nothing about the audio is degraded in the free version. You get Bank A (16 pads), one 1-bar pattern, two effects, and microphone sampling up to 10 seconds per pad. A single one-time purchase unlocks everything: all four banks (64 pads), unlimited patterns up to 4 bars, Song Mode, all 13 effects, unlimited sampling time, loading your own audio files, project save and load, and WAV export. Anything you made before buying carries straight over. No subscription. No ads. No account required.

Screenshots

Boom Lab4 screens
MS4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Boom Lab at 3 against MS's 1. Boom Lab also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
Boom Lab versus MS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBoom LabMS
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Every 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJoseph Wrightyuji yoshie

In-app purchases

None

Boom Lab

No in-app purchases

None

MS

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Boom Lab free?
Boom Lab is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MS free?
MS is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Boom Lab or MS have ads?
Neither Boom Lab nor MS shows ads.

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