MESA Synth AUv3 vs PolyrhythmLab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MESA Synth AUv3
This music creation tool transforms visuals into sound by rendering shaders and images into wavetables. It offers a powerful synthesis engine, extensive sound-shaping capabilities, and a full effects rack, all controllable through light and visual input.
- Visual-to-audio wavetable synthesis
- Unison oscillator stack with sub-oscillator
- Zero-delay-feedback filter
- Vision panel for sound shaping with light
- 26 stackable visual modifiers as audio effects
- 8-stage stereo FX rack
- Sampler mode with auto pitch-tracking
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MESA is a wavetable synthesizer unlike any other — it turns visuals into sound. Drop in a shader or a .vkograph and MESA renders it offscreen, reads the light across the image, and turns that into a wavetable you play. The picture literally becomes the oscillator — and the same visual keeps living behind your keys, reacting to every note. No other synth works like this. Behind the magic is a complete, serious instrument: THE ENGINE • 64-frame wavetables, FFT mip-banked for clean, alias-free playback everywhere • Unison oscillator stack with detune, spread, and a sub-oscillator • Zero-delay-feedback filter — cutoff, resonance, drive, self-oscillating • Full ADSR envelope, portamento glide, and a dedicated pitch envelope SHAPE THE SOUND WITH LIGHT • Vision panel: choose the scanline, weight color channels, bend the brightness curve, sweep time — one shader, a thousand timbres • 33 color palettes that reshape the tone, not just the look • VFX chain: 26 stackable visual modifiers, each one also an audio effect A FULL STUDIO • 3-slot modulation matrix with 2 LFOs, velocity, and mod wheel • 8-stage stereo FX rack: tape, wow & flutter, chorus, delay, reverb, lo-fi, tape-stop • Sampler mode — load any audio, auto pitch-tracked across the keys • Arpeggiator, Ableton Link, and MIDI Learn on nearly every control BUILT FOR YOUR WORKFLOW • AUv3 plug-in AND standalone app — one purchase, iOS + macOS • iCloud sync — build a patch on your Mac, it's ready on your iPhone • Categorized preset browser with import/export and full patch recall
PolyrhythmLab
Create complex, evolving musical rhythms and dynamic visual performances. This app offers a unique polyrhythmic engine for sound layers and a live visual mixer with customizable effects and camera controls. Export audio, MIDI, or video of your creations.
- True polyrhythm engine with independent step/pulse counts per layer
- AUv3 plugin support for DAWs like GarageBand and Logic
- Live MIDI output for driving external synths
- Integrated VJ mixer with audio-reactive visuals and effects
- Song mode for arranging patterns into full tracks
- Save and reload groovebox patterns and VJ setups as presets
- Export audio, MIDI, and video recordings
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PolyrhythmLab is a groovebox built around true polyrhythms: every sound layer gets its own step count, pulse count, and rotation, so layers of different lengths interlock and drift in and out of phase instead of locking to one shared grid. NEW IN 2.0 — AUv3 PLUGIN Use PolyrhythmLab as a real instrument inside GarageBand, Logic, AUM, and any other AU-compatible host. Four independent polyrhythmic layers, each exposed as automatable parameters, real MIDI output so your performance actually records as a MIDI region, and its own compact control panel with a live pattern wheel, a randomizer, and optional sync to your session's tempo. NEW IN 2.0 — LIVE MIDI OUTPUT Send a real Note On/Off for every layer hit straight from the main app — one MIDI channel per layer, over a virtual MIDI connection — to drive another synth, app, or piece of hardware in real time, not just sync tempo. NEW IN 2.0 — CAST VJ MIX Send the VJ Mix visuals to a TV or projector over AirPlay or a wired adapter, while your device keeps the full set of live controls. Save and reload VJ Mix setups — visual styles, effects, camera moves, and their LFOs — as named presets, same as patterns. GROOVEBOX • Euclidean-style rhythm engine — set steps, pulses, and rotation per layer • Drums, glitch/textural one-shots, classic synth voices (piano, bell, pad, bass), and melodic synth patches • Per-layer filter, reverb, delay, pitch, and LFOs on every parameter • Randomize engine biased toward musical, playable combinations • Chord modes, scales, and modal note selection for melodic layers SONG MODE Arrange your saved patterns into sections and chain them into a full song. VJ MIX A live visual performance surface: blend two audio-reactive visualizations, layer on real-time color and shader effects — RGB split, kaleidoscope, pixelate, glow, trail — and a 3D camera with zoom, pan, orbit, and tilt, each with its own LFO. Randomize the whole look by hand, or hand it to an autonomous "robot" that keeps remixing itself. Record the performance in real time via ReplayKit, or export a styled video clip. PRESETS Save and reload both groovebox patterns and VJ Mix setups as named presets. EXPORT Render your patterns and songs to audio, or export them as MIDI. No account, no ads, no analytics. Everything is stored locally on your device.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: MESA Synth AUv3 at 100% against PolyrhythmLab's 0%. MESA Synth AUv3 also leads on rating (3.0 vs 1.0). PolyrhythmLab's advantage is price ($4.99 vs $8.99). On ratings volume, update cadence, 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
MESA Synth AUv3 costs $8.99 and PolyrhythmLab $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
MESA Synth AUv3 holds the better App Store score, 3.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of MESA Synth AUv3's written reviews are positive against 0% of PolyrhythmLab's.
MESA Synth AUv3 ships an update every 2 months, PolyrhythmLab every 4 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | MESA Synth AUv3 | PolyrhythmLab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | $4.99 — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (2 ratings) — better | 1.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.4 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 401 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Juan Maguid | Martin Adler |
Customer experience
MESA Synth AUv3
PolyrhythmLab
In-app purchases
MESA Synth AUv3
No in-app purchases
PolyrhythmLab
No in-app purchases









