Comparison

WAIL vs Strange Loop

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

Head to head
About

WAIL

Transform unstable feedback into a powerful, playable instrument. This app offers direct control over harsh drones, soaring screams, and aggressive textures with an intuitive interface and real-time visual feedback.

Highlights
  • Dynamic XY Pads for tactile control
  • Dedicated Performance Knobs for precise adjustments
  • Real-time oscilloscope waveform display
  • MIDI keyboard and sequencer support
  • AUv3 integration with host sync
  • Standalone app functionality
Read full description

WAIL - Industrial Feedback Synthesiser, Drone and AUV3 FX Turn unstable feedback into a playable instrument. WAIL forces a self-resonating signal into submission, generating harsh drones, soaring screams, and aggressive textures that traditional synths refuse to touch. Built for zero menu-diving and pure performance, WAIL delivers raw, uncompromised noise control in a single intuitive screen. TAME THE NOISE: 4 Dynamic XY Pads: Instant tactile control over Feedback/Filter, Bite/Space, Ring/Fold, and Comb/Sub. Dedicated Performance Knobs: Master, Spread, Grind, and Tune, with dual-axis Coarse/Fine tuning designed for precise, subtle adjustments mid-performance. Real-Time Visuals: Built-in integrated oscilloscope displays waveform stability and feedback saturation as you play. Drone or MIDI Triggered: Play as an evolving drone, or connect a MIDI keyboard or sequencer. AUv3 FX: Load WAIL as an effect in your host and run any track through its feedback engine. Push a drum loop, a vocal, or a synth line into full self-resonating collapse, or layer WAIL's own drone on top of what you send in. Seamless AUv3 Integration: Full host transport sync, preset save/recall, and universal MIDI CC learn across all 12 parameters. Universal Support: Formatted natively for both iPad and iPhone as an AUv3 plugin or Standalone app. 12 parameters. 4 XY pads. One feedback loop trying to escape. Sound demo here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z18IcVSqtwY Crafted by NOIDED Industries, Rochdale, England

About

Strange Loop

This app generates unique, non-repeating music using chaos theory and AI. Users can influence the composition by painting on mathematical attractors and mood pads, choosing from various scales, accompaniment styles, and synthesized sounds. It also functions as an AUv3 instrument and MIDI processor.

Highlights
  • AI-generated, non-repeating music
  • Interactive painting on attractors and mood pads
  • 26 scales and 7 accompaniment styles
  • Sampled grand piano and synthesized voices
  • AUv3 instrument and MIDI processor
  • MIDI file export
  • Real-time visual scopes
Features
Read full description

Strange Loop writes its own music. Three coupled Lorenz attractors drive the piece — one proposes pitch, one shapes rhythm, one wanders the emotional plane. A Markov policy then decides what actually plays, learning from its own output and rewarding intervals that sound consonant. Chaos proposes, the policy disposes. Slide BLEND to choose who wins. Nothing is pre-recorded and nothing loops. Every run is new. PAINT ON THE MATHS Both scopes are paintable. Draw on the attractor and the trajectory bends toward what you drew and lingers there, pulling the melody into those pitches. Draw on the mood pad and the feeling follows your strokes — brightening the harmony, lifting the register, pushing the tempo. Set how hard the ink leans, how big the brush is, and how long it lasts before it fades. WHAT YOU GET • 26 scales — major and minor modes, pentatonics, blues, whole tone, harmonic and melodic minor, altered, both octatonics, and folk scales from Japan, China, Egypt, Spain, Arabia and Hungary • 7 accompaniment styles — chaos grooves, jazz comping with walking bass, stride piano, Alberti bass, classical, arpeggios, ambient rolls • A sampled grand piano plus synthesised voices: soft piano, glass, strings, FM bell, AM organ, pluck, fat saw and more • 6 moods on a valence/arousal plane, from serene to tense, driving chord quality, register, tempo and note length • Live scopes — the attractors, the note-probability distribution the engine is sampling from, and the mood point, all drawn in real time • Deep control: key, scale, tempo, chaos rho, rhythm spread, grace notes, chord-tone pull, softmax temperature, per-track mixer • Record a take and export it as a standard MIDI file to the Files app — melody, chords and bass on separate tracks TWO AUDIO UNITS Strange Loop ships as an instrument AUv3 and as a MIDI processor AUv3, so it can either play its own sounds or sequence any other instrument in your host. Melody, chords and bass each send on their own MIDI channel, so one instance can drive three different instruments. Both Audio Units follow your host's transport and tempo — hit play in AUM, GarageBand, Logic, Cubasis or Zenbeats and it locks to the grid. One install registers both. CREDITS Sampled piano: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0).

Screenshots

WAIL4 screens
Strange Loop3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Strange Loop at Free against WAIL's $9.99. Strange Loop also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 6 weeks) and review sentiment (100% vs 83%). WAIL's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On rating, ratings volume, ads and device support 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

Strange Loop is free to download; WAIL costs $9.99 up front. Strange Loop sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. WAIL 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 WAIL against 5.0 for Strange Loop. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 9 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of WAIL's written reviews are positive against 100% of Strange Loop's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

WAIL ships an update every 6 weeks, Strange Loop every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
WAIL versus Strange Loop: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWAILStrange Loop
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (9 ratings)5.0 (9 ratings)
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings99
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size27 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAnthony MoranSoft Brew Mobile

Customer experience

WAIL

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative0.0%

Strange Loop

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

WAIL

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Strange Loop

One-time1
  • Unlock AUV3 Plugin$2.99

Questions

Is WAIL free?
WAIL costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Strange Loop free?
Strange Loop is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, WAIL or Strange Loop?
WAIL and Strange Loop are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 9 and 9 ratings respectively.
Do WAIL or Strange Loop have ads?
Neither WAIL nor Strange Loop shows ads.
Which is updated more often, WAIL or Strange Loop?
WAIL ships an update every 6 weeks, and Strange Loop every 4 days. Most recently, WAIL was updated on November 10, 2026 and Strange Loop on November 1, 2026.

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