Comparison

Orbeat 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

Orbeat

This music app offers a unique circular sequencer for beat creation, featuring four distinct drum kits and generative tools. It allows for advanced rhythmic manipulation and can be used as a standalone instrument or an AUv3 plugin. Unlock full features with a one-time purchase.

Highlights
  • Circular sequencer interface
  • Four unique drum kits
  • Generative rhythm patterns
  • Swing and velocity controls
  • Probability and polymeter
  • AUv3 plugin support
  • WAV export
Features
Read full description

Orbeat is a drum machine in the round. Instead of a grid, your rhythm lives on a glowing mandala — concentric lanes of light that orbit a single play button. Tap the rings, watch the playhead sweep, and feel the groove move. Built to be played, not programmed. Open it and you're already making beats. A CIRCULAR SEQUENCER — UP TO TWELVE LANES Six lanes wrap the screen as rings, and the circle can grow to twelve: the mandala opens a second page of rings in its own electric color set, so every lane keeps its full size. Tap to place hits, lock a lane you love, mute and solo as you build the groove layer by layer. The whole pattern turns as it plays. FOUR DRUM KITS Classic, Acoustic, Glitch, and 8-bit — one tap reskins every voice while your pattern stays put. From clean and punchy to broken and chiptune. BRING YOUR OWN SOUNDS Build a custom kit and drop your own audio into any lane — WAV, AIFF or mp3, up to ten seconds, played at its original pitch and in stereo. Imported samples run clean to the output, while the lanes you leave alone keep their synth voice, so a hi-hat you recorded yourself sits right next to Orbeat's own drums. Your first custom kit is free. GENERATORS THAT SURPRISE YOU Roll the dice for an instant pattern, or use Euclidean rhythms to spread hits evenly around a ring. Like what you hear? Tap the ring to write it in and edit by hand. MAKE IT BREATHE, MAKE IT DRIFT Add swing to push the feel off the grid, draw velocity per step for accents that live, and pan each lane across the stereo field. With Probability, hits fire by chance; with polymeter, each lane gets its own length so the phases drift in and out of sync. TAKE IT ANYWHERE Bounce any loop to a stereo WAV — named with the beat, its length and its tempo, so it still makes sense in your DAW next month — or run Orbeat as an AUv3 instrument with MIDI in & out — sequence other instruments, or play Orbeat's lanes from your host's piano roll inside GarageBand, AUM, Logic, and other AUv3 hosts. Standalone, play the pads live from any MIDI controller and sync the whole groove to external MIDI clock. PLAY IN SYNC WITH THE ROOM Ableton Link keeps Orbeat in time with every Link-enabled app and device on your network — Ableton Live, AUM, Loopy, a friend's iPad across the table. Tempo follows the session, start and stop are shared, and everyone stays in phase. No cables, no setup. PLAY FREE. UNLOCK ONCE. The full instrument is free forever — every kit, the six-lane circle, Euclidean generators, swing, velocity, pan, your first custom kit with your own samples, MIDI in & out, and Ableton Link. Orbeat Pro is a single one-time purchase (no subscription, ever) that unlocks room to grow the circle to twelve lanes, plus Probability, polymeter, WAV export, unlimited saved beats, and extra custom kits. Made for iPhone and iPad. No account, no ads, no tracking — your beats never leave your device unless you share them. Tap the rings. Make it move.

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
Read full description

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

Orbeat4 screens
Tessera Sequenced Resonator4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Orbeat at Free against Tessera Sequenced Resonator's $7.99. Tessera Sequenced Resonator's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). On rating, review sentiment, 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

Orbeat is free to download; Tessera Sequenced Resonator costs $7.99 up front. Orbeat 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 — 5.0 for Orbeat against 4.9 for Tessera Sequenced Resonator. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 11 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Orbeat versus Tessera Sequenced Resonator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrbeatTessera Sequenced Resonator
PriceFree — better$7.99
Rating5.0 (6 ratings) — better4.9 (11 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings611 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChih Han LinAudio Damage, Inc.

Customer experience

Orbeat

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
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

Orbeat

One-time1
  • Orbeat Pro$5.99
None

Tessera Sequenced Resonator

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orbeat free?
Orbeat is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tessera Sequenced Resonator free?
Tessera Sequenced Resonator costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Orbeat or Tessera Sequenced Resonator?
Orbeat is rated higher. Orbeat averages 5.0 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Tessera Sequenced Resonator averages 4.9 from 11 ratings.
Do Orbeat or Tessera Sequenced Resonator have ads?
Neither Orbeat nor Tessera Sequenced Resonator shows ads.

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