Comparison

Guitar Tab Notes vs Arch Carrier Instrument Lab

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

Head to head
About

Guitar Tab Notes

Features
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Guitar Tab Notes is a fast sketchpad for guitar players. When a riff or a chord shape shows up, open the app and get it down before it slips away. Instead of finger numbers or fret numbers, every position on the fretboard is shown as the actual note it plays (C, C#, D and so on). You read the sounds, not the shapes, so an idea still makes sense days later and is easy to move around in your head. WHY GUITARISTS USE IT - Capture ideas fast. Tap the fretboard and the note appears. Nothing in the way. - Think in any tuning. Standard, drop, open, or completely custom alt tunings that you type in and save. Every note name updates instantly across all of your chords. - Made for sketches, not for perfection. Group ideas into projects, drop in quick section labels like verse or chorus, and reorder everything by dragging. - Hear it back. Tap play to strum a chord and check an idea on the spot. - Color your voicings. Highlight alternate notes in four accent colors (turquoise, violet, amber, coral) right on the diagram. Colors can even share one spot with the main note: the dot splits into colored sections. - Capo aware. Set a capo and the fretboard and note names follow along. EVERYWHERE YOU WRITE Guitar Tab Notes runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and your whole sketchbook syncs automatically through your private iCloud. Start a riff on the couch with your phone, then finish the arrangement on iPad or Mac later. Nothing to set up and no account to create. EXPORT AND SHARE Send a single chord as an image, or a whole song as plain text or as a print-ready PDF: clean black-on-white A4 pages with your section labels, automatic page breaks and a choice of 2, 3 or 4 chords per row. On Mac, exports go through the standard Save dialog. Simple on purpose and quick by design. Keep the guitar in your hands and let the ideas land.

About

Arch Carrier Instrument Lab

Features
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Draw a shape. Tap it. Hear it ring. Arch Carrier turns drawn shapes into a playable physical modelling instrument. A ring, a plate and a tuning fork each have their own resonances. Change the outline, cut a hole or move your strike, and explore how the sound changes. PLAY AND SHAPE • Strike up to three resonant bodies by touch. • Add and subtract material without degrading untouched contours. • Watch sand trace nodal patterns, and tilt your device to move it. • Start from five seeds or save your own instruments. TUNE AND SEQUENCE • New shapes start at A3, 220 Hz. • Tune by frequency, semitone or octave, with note names and cents. • Audition a tuning or hear the natural model. • Place four mallets and set strength and modal focus for each step. • Choose seven mallet speeds, from 0.25Ɨ to 2Ɨ. • Record looping mallet motion, synchronized to each rhythm. MIDI PATHS • Add editable traces with independent MIDI note ranges and channels. • Each key selects a strike position; velocity sets its strength. • Play from a connected MIDI keyboard while Arch Carrier is in the foreground. • Show the paths when you need them, then hide the overlay while MIDI keeps playing. KEEP YOUR INSTRUMENT • Save shapes, tuning, rhythms, motion, tempo, damping, tone and MIDI mappings together. • Resume your last instrument without automatic playback. • Record stereo 24-bit WAV files and export them to Files or other apps. Free. No account, advertising or in-app purchases. Designed for iPhone and iPad.

Screenshots

Guitar Tab Notes4 screens
Arch Carrier Instrument Lab4 screens

Verdict

The call

Guitar Tab Notes and Arch Carrier Instrument Lab are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Guitar Tab Notes versus Arch Carrier Instrument Lab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGuitar Tab NotesArch Carrier Instrument Lab
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUnited App Sp. z o.o.Jeroen Rombouts

In-app purchases

None

Guitar Tab Notes

No in-app purchases

None

Arch Carrier Instrument Lab

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Guitar Tab Notes free?
Guitar Tab Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Arch Carrier Instrument Lab free?
Arch Carrier Instrument Lab is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Guitar Tab Notes or Arch Carrier Instrument Lab have ads?
Neither Guitar Tab Notes nor Arch Carrier Instrument Lab shows ads.

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