StepLoom vs Geography
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
StepLoom
Create electronic music with a touch-friendly groovebox. Quickly sketch beats, basslines, and melodies using a step sequencer, piano-roll editing, and arrangement views. Supports AUv3 plugins for expanded sound design.
- Touch-friendly beat and melody workflow
- Step sequencer and piano-roll editing
- Timeline, Session, and Flow arrangement views
- AUv3 instrument and effect plugin support
- Mixer controls for sound shaping
- MIDI input and external clock sync
- Export audio, stems, or MIDI
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StepLoom is a fast, touch-first electronic music sketchpad for making beats, loops, basslines, and melody ideas on iPhone and iPad. It gives you the focus of a compact groovebox without the weight of a full DAW, so you can start a rhythm, shape a synth line, try an AUv3 instrument, arrange patterns, and keep moving while the idea is fresh. Create drum patterns with a step sequencer, write melodic parts with piano-roll style editing, stack chords, add legato, adjust BPM, mix tracks, and switch sounds. Add Sample tracks by importing audio or recording directly in the Tracks view, then use the waveform editor to trim, reverse, normalize, tune, and shape One-shot or Loop playback. The project Media Library keeps custom audio available for reuse and arrangement. Turn loops into songs with three complementary arrangement views: shape Patterns and audio clips on the Timeline, launch quantized Patterns and Scenes in Session, or build visual paths and probability rules in Flow. Draw or record automation for mixer controls and supported AUv3 parameters. When you want to go beyond the built-in sounds, add AUv3 instrument or effect plugins, choose exposed plugin presets, open compatible plugin interfaces, and activate Plugin Sound directly from the sound picker. Optional iCloud sync keeps compatible projects and project media available across your Apple devices. StepLoom continues to work locally when sync is disabled. StepLoom is built for quick electronic music drafts: open the app, tap a grid, hear the result, and turn a loop into a structured idea. Main features: - Touch-friendly beat and melody workflow - Drum, melody, and custom Sample tracks - Step sequencer with playback highlight and loop control - Piano-roll style melody editing with chords and legato - Audio import and microphone sample recording - Waveform sample editor with trim, reverse, normalize, gain, tuning, One-shot, and Loop controls - Project Media Library for reusable custom audio - Timeline editing with drag, resize, layers, sections, loop ranges, and multi-selection - Quantized Pattern and Scene launching with Session performance recording - Blueprint-style Flow rules with Next, Jump, Random, Stop, and probability - AUv3 instrument and effect plugin slots - Plugin preset reading for AUv3s that expose factory presets - Plugin Sound option for playing tracks through AUv3 instruments - Mixer and AUv3 parameter automation - Mixer controls for volume, pan, EQ, filter, drive, meters, master gain, and limiter - MIDI input and external clock sync options - Optional iCloud project and media synchronization - Export full songs or the current pattern as audio, stems, or MIDI - Adaptive iPhone and iPad layouts StepLoom is for producers, beatmakers, songwriters, and electronic music learners who want a focused place to capture musical ideas before moving into a larger DAW.
Geography
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Geography turns a sound into a landscape. The sample is drawn as a cross-section of the Earth, from the burning core to outer space, and every grain of sound is a particle with weight that falls, bounces and sounds according to the layer it crosses. PLAY THE MATTER • Tap the terrain to drop grains, draw strings that ring when they're hit, and tilt your iPad or iPhone to change gravity. • Eight string materials: metal, wood, glass, skin, gut, bronze, bamboo and stone. • An on-screen keyboard of up to five octaves, or a continuous ribbon for gliding pitch. • MIDI: play from your keyboard and map its knobs to the app's with MIDI learn (endless encoders too, like the Akai MPK mini's). Program Change switches sounds. A WORLD WITH A LIFE OF ITS OWN • Six strata, each with its own weather: fire in the core, earthquakes in the geosphere, plants that bloom and release tuned spores, swell and bubbles in the water, wind in the atmosphere, satellites and comets in space. • Rituals: a sequencer of world events. The Moon, in its real phase, and the planets sing too. • Life: the instrument improvises, arpeggiates or mutates the sequence on its own. SEE IT IN 3D • Flat, Ridges, Living ridges, Surface, Point cloud, Planet and Sphere: seven ways to look at the same sound, with aurora, clouds and a free camera. THE LAB • Envelope, filter, two LFOs, echo, reverb, modulation (flanger, phaser, ensemble), scales and a 16-step sequencer/arpeggiator. • A mixer with one channel per sound source in the world, and a Space tab to place each source around your head, with scenes that morph on their own. THE REAL EARTH • Pick a place on the map and its live weather flows into the sound. Earthquakes from the last 24 hours shake the landscape. SAMPLER AND PRESETS • Sampler: record with the microphone or open a file, then trim, normalize, reverse and add fades. Up to 45 seconds, which become a landscape; it exports WAV too. • Save your sound under a name, with its settings and rituals, and export it as a file to move it between devices or share it. ON IPHONE • The world in full screen and a hidden dock with the essentials: play, draw, gyroscope, Life and the Ribbon. In landscape, Rituals, Earth, the Lab and the Mixer float over the world. FOR YOUR STUDIO • Audio Unit (AUv3) for Logic Pro, GarageBand, AUM and more: every setting can be automated and is saved with your project. Stereo output, binaural spatial audio with head tracking, or 7.1.4, plus separate stems by source or by stratum. • Thirteen synthesized factory landscapes. You can also open your own sounds, or an image, which you hear as a landscape. Try it free (5 minutes per session). A one-time purchase unlocks everything on iPhone, iPad and Mac. No subscription. No accounts, no ads, no data collected.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Geography at Free against StepLoom's $3.99. StepLoom's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On update cadence, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Geography is free to download; StepLoom costs $3.99 up front. Geography sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. StepLoom asks for nothing beyond the download.
StepLoom ships an update every 2 days, Geography daily. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | StepLoom | Geography |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 宁 徐 | Luis Diaz-Faes |
In-app purchases
StepLoom
No in-app purchases
Geography
- Full Geography$22.99









