Comparison

Tape Death vs Loop Breaker

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

Head to head
About

Tape Death

This app is a unique four-tape looping instrument that degrades over time, creating evolving, decaying sounds. Record audio, manipulate tape characteristics like warmth and wobble, and share your sonic creations.

Highlights
  • Four decaying tape loops
  • Record from microphone
  • Overdubbing
  • Forward, reverse, and ping-pong playback
  • Adjustable tape wear
  • Character-based sound shaping
  • Global reverb and echo effects
  • Export audio and save sessions
Features
Read full description

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 — 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 — 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 • Record straight from your mic — a voice, an instrument, the whole room. • Overdub to build layers onto a single loop. • Play each tape forward, in reverse, or ping-ponging back and forth. • Every tape keeps its own character and its own state of decay. DECAY IS THE INSTRUMENT • Tapes wear permanently as they play — the heart of the whole app. • Dial each tape from "eternal" to "dying," or age them all together. • Begin the disintegration again whenever you like — your settings stay. CHARACTER, NO NUMBERS Shape each tape by feel, not by figures. Every control is a drag between two words: • WARMTH — clean to melted tape saturation • DUST — quiet to snowy hiss and grit • WOBBLE — steady to seasick wow & flutter • TONE — dark to bright • SPACE — 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 — 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.

About

Loop Breaker

This app transforms your audio loops into evolving compositions by introducing random modifiers and effects. It encourages creative exploration by letting you decide how to alter your sound or letting the app make choices for you.

Highlights
  • Gamified audio processing
  • Modifier system for effects
  • Probability system for modifier appearance
  • MIDI CC control for probability
  • Preset system for saving/recalling stacks
  • Record and resample audio output
  • Standalone app and AUv3 plugin
Features
Read full description

Loop Breaker is a gamified audio processing environment that periodically forces you to make choices about how your audio loops should change and how your compositions should unfold. This is primarily achieved through a modifier system; every few bars, a new modifier appears in a queue. You must decide which of your loops should be affected by the modifier. If you make no choice, Loop Breaker will decide for you. Change is the only constant. Modifiers include standard audio effects like reverb, delay, chorus, filters, granular delay, auto-pan, and tremolo. Each of these effects has multiple parameters that are set on the fly and include various onset times. Other modifiers effect loop playback: you can change the playback speed, reverse playback direction, time-stretch, re-pitch, move loop brackets via the parts system, and slice loops and then shuffle, arpeggiate, or repeat them. Modifiers stack. Within minutes, your loops will wander down their own paths and recombine to create something previously unimaginable. Loop Breaker also contains a robust probability system for controlling how likely it is that modifier types will appear in the queue and how likely it is that an individual loop will be targeted for modification, should you cede decision-making responsibilities to Loop Breaker. The probability system responds to MIDI CC messages, so you can dynamically change probability settings with MIDI controllers, automation lanes in your DAW, or via modulation sources. Loop Breaker also contains a preset system for saving and recalling modifier stacks. Take your explorations as far as you want, save a new preset, and then recall it later on, even between sessions. Like the pads and probability system, presets also can be controlled via MIDI. Still not enough exploratory madness for you? Record and resample the audio output and then re-apply it to a pad or process it further in your DAW. Loop Breaker works both as a standalone app and as a AUv3 plug-in. Loop Breaker knows that you have a hard drive full of 4-bar loops that you never turned into finished compositions. Loop Breaker wants to help. Loop Breaker wants to make sure you don't get stuck in a loop.

Screenshots

Tape Death4 screens
Loop Breaker4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Loop Breaker at 3 against Tape Death's 1. Loop Breaker also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Tape Death against 5.0 for Loop Breaker. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 2 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 6 level
Tape Death versus Loop Breaker: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTape DeathLoop Breaker
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings3 — better2
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB30 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperColton HarkerGlowMachine LLC

In-app purchases

None

Tape Death

No in-app purchases

None

Loop Breaker

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tape Death free?
Tape Death is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Loop Breaker free?
Loop Breaker is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Tape Death or Loop Breaker?
Tape Death and Loop Breaker are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Tape Death or Loop Breaker have ads?
Neither Tape Death nor Loop Breaker shows ads.

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