Vinyl Layer vs MS
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Vinyl Layer
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Vinyl Layer: Record Ambience adds a warm vinyl sound layer over the music you already play. Put on your favorite album, playlist, or late-night mix, then open Vinyl Layer and add the cozy texture of a record spinning nearby. It is simple, charming, and made for people who love the little imperfections that make music feel alive. Choose from four record-inspired moods: - Warm Lo-Fi: Soft haze and gentle wobble for mellow listening. - Clean LP: A subtle layer of warmth for crisp, polished tracks. - Dusty Thrift-Store: Found-bin crackle, age, and character. - Old Jazz: Smoky, low-lit record ambience for slower nights. Vinyl Layer is designed to mix with other audio apps, so you can play your music elsewhere and layer in just the right amount of record texture. Adjust the crackle level, shape the sound with texture controls, and set a sleep timer when the night starts getting soft around the edges. Features: - Four vinyl-inspired sound layers - Crackle control - Texture controls for dust, rumble, warp, and stereo feel - Timer - Background audio support - Simple, beautiful iPhone-first design - No account required - No ads - No tracking - CarPlay support for vinyl record sounds on the road For record lovers, playlist obsessives, lo-fi people, jazz-at-midnight people, and anyone who thinks music sounds better with a little dust on the needle.
MS
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MS-12 is a 16-pad sampler and step sequencer built around the sound of classic 12-bit hardware. Sample anything through the microphone, trim it, and play it straight from the pads. The sample rate and bit depth engine gives you the gritty, saturated character early digital samplers were loved for ā not a filter placed on top, but the sound of the conversion itself. SAMPLING ⢠Record from the built-in mic, a USB or Lightning interface, or line input ⢠Resample the app's own output to bounce layers down ⢠Threshold recording starts the moment sound arrives ⢠Stereo or mono (L/R) capture SOUND ⢠Adjustable sample rate (8ā44.1 kHz) and bit depth (4ā32 bit) ⢠Presets for classic 12-bit voicings ⢠Ring modulator, compressor, punch and saturation per pad EDITING ⢠Trim, fade in and out, normalize, reverse, gain, silence ⢠Time stretch ⢠Auto slice by transient detection, or set slice points live with the pads ⢠Split a stereo sample into separate mono left and right samples SEQUENCER ⢠Step sequencer with velocity and tune per step ⢠Real-time recording with selectable quantize ⢠Up to 4 bars per pattern ⢠Note Repeat ⢠Song Mode chains patterns into a full track PLAYBACK AND MIXING ⢠Volume and pan per pad, mute and solo ⢠Mute groups so pads cut each other off, like a real drum machine ⢠Pad Link to trigger several pads at once ⢠Multi Level and Multi Pitch to spread one sample across the grid ⢠13 effects: tape echo, delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo/pan, distortion, overdrive, fuzz, wah, isolator and a 4-band EQ EXPORT ⢠Bounce a pattern to a WAV file ⢠Save projects on the device and reopen them later FREE VERSION MS-12 is free to try, and the sound engine is not held back ā nothing about the audio is degraded in the free version. You get Bank A (16 pads), one 1-bar pattern, two effects, and microphone sampling up to 10 seconds per pad. A single one-time purchase unlocks everything: all four banks (64 pads), unlimited patterns up to 4 bars, Song Mode, all 13 effects, unlimited sampling time, loading your own audio files, project save and load, and WAV export. Anything you made before buying carries straight over. No subscription. No ads. No account required.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: MS at every 5 days against Vinyl Layer's fortnightly. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Vinyl Layer ships an update fortnightly, MS every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Vinyl Layer | MS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 5 days ā better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 ā better | 18.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Isaac Rose | yuji yoshie |
In-app purchases
Vinyl Layer
No in-app purchases
MS
No in-app purchases









