Comparison

Graphony vs Tape Death

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

Head to head
About

Graphony

Features
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Graphony is a composition environment for academic and experimental composers. Rather than entering notes one at a time, you design a piece from the top down by drawing graphs of its musical parameters, then export a MusicXML score to complete in your notation software and render an audio version using sounds you record yourself. JUMPSTART A COMPOSITION WITH GRAPHS Set the length, meter, and tempo, then draw a curve over time for each parameter: - Pitch content (register and range) - Event duration - Density (how many events sound at once) - Dynamics - Connectivity, motivic patterns, and the amount of pitch-altering effects The graphs are the generative blueprint of the piece. Reshape a curve and the material follows, so you can audition many versions of an idea in minutes. Reference curves from your other parameters are shown underneath, keeping every decision in context. EXPORT A MUSICXML SCORE Graphony writes a clean MusicXML file you can open in Sibelius, Dorico, Finale, or MuseScore, then edit and complete by hand. The score is a point of departure, not a finished product: it is fully yours to refine and notate. HEAR IT WITH YOUR OWN SOUNDS Record short sound samples, label them, and Graphony renders an audio version of the piece using those recordings. Each sound carries its own reference pitch, dynamics, articulation, and effects, so the realization reflects your own sonic material rather than a generic synthesizer. FOR EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICE - Absolute pitch contour: the pitch graph maps to a real concert-pitch register, so the notation means what it says. - Microtonal quarter-tones, chromatic-stepped glissandi, and detected chords notated on a single stem. - A palette of per-sound effects: glissando, scratch, harmonic distortion, reverse, inverted pitch, and granular fragment. - "Notate as C" writes a sound's notes on a single placeholder middle C, so you can set their pitches by hand later. - Sound roles (sustainer, punctuator, doubler, texture) are distinguished by notehead. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything stays on your device. Graphony has no accounts, no ads, and collects no data. Your graphs, recordings, scores, and audio never leave your iPhone or iPad unless you choose to share them. Graphony is built to get an experimental idea out of your head and onto the page quickly: design it as graphs, hear it in your own sounds, and carry the score into your notation software to finish.

About

Tape Death

Features
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Tape Death is a four-tape looping instrument that falls apart while you play it. Record a loop onto a cassette and it plays forever โ€” but it never holds still. Every second it runs, the tape wears: the highs fray, dropouts bloom, the pitch begins to sag. Nothing you make will ever sound new again. That's the point. This isn't a clean, non-destructive studio โ€” it's a machine for sounds that rot beautifully. Four tapes, each aging on its own. Layer them, warp them, drown them in space, and bottle the decaying mix to share. FOUR TAPES โ€ข Record straight from your mic โ€” a voice, an instrument, the whole room. โ€ข Overdub to build layers onto a single loop. โ€ข Play each tape forward, in reverse, or ping-ponging back and forth. โ€ข Every tape keeps its own character and its own state of decay. DECAY IS THE INSTRUMENT โ€ข Tapes wear permanently as they play โ€” the heart of the whole app. โ€ข Dial each tape from "eternal" to "dying," or age them all together. โ€ข Begin the disintegration again whenever you like โ€” your settings stay. CHARACTER, NO NUMBERS Shape each tape by feel, not by figures. Every control is a drag between two words: โ€ข WARMTH โ€” clean to melted tape saturation โ€ข DUST โ€” quiet to snowy hiss and grit โ€ข WOBBLE โ€” steady to seasick wow & flutter โ€ข TONE โ€” dark to bright โ€ข SPACE โ€” each tape's own echo and reverb (spring, hall, cathedral, shimmer, void; standard, ping-pong, and granular delays) THE ROOM A shared space every tape plays into โ€” one reverb, one echo, one bus compressor to glue the whole mix, and a global decay to age everything at once. BOTTLE IT Capture the living, decaying mix to an audio file and share it anywhere. Save whole setups as sessions and return to them. Tape Death records everything on device. No account, no sign-in, nothing collected, and it works fully offline. It keeps playing in the background, too. Make something. Let it die.

Screenshots

Graphony4 screens
Tape Death4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Graphony at 3 against Tape Death's 1. Graphony also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

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

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Graphony versus Tape Death: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGraphonyTape Death
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better17.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size23 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLeonid IogansenColton Harker

In-app purchases

None

Graphony

No in-app purchases

None

Tape Death

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Graphony free?
Graphony is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tape Death free?
Tape Death is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Graphony or Tape Death have ads?
Neither Graphony nor Tape Death shows ads.

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