Drone Wheel vs Pixelsynth
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Drone Wheel
Create sustained tones and chords in any key for practice, meditation, or songwriting. Offers a variety of sounds and scales, with a free version and an optional Pro upgrade for more features.
- Hold pure drones in 12 keys
- Play chords and inversions
- Deep sound library with synth and instrument tones
- Lock intonation against reference pitch
- Set scales and modes
- Build grooves with beat engine
- Metronome for timekeeping
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Drone Wheel is a looping studio built on a wheel. Hold a perfectly tuned drone, finger drum a beat, chop a sample, loop your voice, or mix a song. Five decks share one clock, so everything stays in time. • Drone in any key, with chords and scales • Drums with pitch and level on every pad • Chop any sound or video into twelve pads • Loop your mic right on the beat • Mix any song: sync it to your tempo and split out the vocals, drums or bass • Launch clips, mix, add effects, and record the session Your projects sync to your account and across your devices automatically. Free includes the drone, chords, a drum kit, the mic deck, SampleWheel with a starter library, and cloud backup. Pro adds every sound and kit, all scales and modes, your own samples and video, the Pro effects, and recording with export. Drone Wheel Pro: 3 day free trial, then $4.99 a month or $34.99 a year. Payment is charged to your Apple ID. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store settings. Questions? support@wheelverseaudio.com Privacy Policy: https://dronewheelprivacy.netlify.app/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Pixelsynth
This app transforms musical input into a vibrant visual experience, allowing users to see and shape their sound in real-time. It offers a playful and immediate way to create music, with all controls and feedback displayed on a single screen. Designed by a Deaf musician, it prioritizes visual feedback as an integral part of the instrument.
- Real-time visual sound shaping
- Interactive 16-pad grid
- Adjustable waveforms, filters, and envelopes
- LFO, delay, and reverb effects
- AUv3 instrument compatibility
- Offline functionality
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Make a sound in seconds—and shape it while it plays. Pixelsynth turns taps, drags, melodies, and chords into a colorful instrument you can understand by watching it. Everything you play lives on one screen. Touch a note and start exploring. FROM THE DEVELOPER OF PIXELBOOP Pixelsynth is a new visual instrument from the maker of Pixelboop. Both apps share a love of playful grids, immediate feedback, and musical ideas that begin with one touch. PLAY FIRST. LEARN BY WATCHING. Sixteen pads invite you to find a melody, hold a chord, or strum across the screen. Notes light up as you play, and every sound control moves in front of you. You can see what each gesture is doing while you hear the result. SHAPE THE SOUND LIVE • Switch waveforms to change the character of your sound. • Sweep the filter from bright and open to soft and focused. • Shape attack, decay, sustain, and release for crisp plucks, swelling notes, and long tails. • Add motion with LFO, repeating echoes with delay, and depth with reverb. Each control is a colorful tank. Touch higher or lower inside it to set the value directly. Values in the upper half stay where you leave them; notes in the lower half drain away after you lift. It feels immediate because the picture and the sound follow the same gesture. MADE TO BE SEEN Created by a Deaf musician, Pixelsynth treats visual feedback as part of the instrument. The entire musical surface is drawn on a 40 by 24 pixel grid—just 960 pixels—so every control stays visible and every change has a visual response. PLAY IT YOUR WAY Open Pixelsynth as a standalone instrument on iPhone or iPad, or load the included AUv3 instrument in a compatible iOS music host. Your host can send MIDI notes and save the instrument state with your project. A compatible host is available separately. FREE TO EXPLORE No account. No in-app purchases. No third-party ads. The instrument works offline. The standalone app may occasionally show developer news or an introduction to Pixelboop, which you can close immediately. Pixelsynth does not track you or collect the music you play. Open it. Touch a note. See where it takes you.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Pixelsynth at 5.0 against Drone Wheel's 3.7. Pixelsynth also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Drone Wheel sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Pixelsynth asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pixelsynth holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 3 respectively.
Drone Wheel ships an update weekly, Pixelsynth every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Drone Wheel | Pixelsynth |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 300 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | JOSEPH LEE ALLEN | de Bastion, Inc |
Customer experience
Drone Wheel
Pixelsynth
In-app purchases
Drone Wheel
- Pro Monthly3 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Pro Yearly3 Days trial$34.991 Year
Pixelsynth
No in-app purchases









