Comparison

Tape Death vs Sampledex Effect Shift

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

Head to head
About

Tape Death

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 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.

About

Sampledex Effect Shift

Features
Read full description

Give your sound a new direction. Sampledex Effect Shift brings 50 effect choices, seven hands-on macro controls and the seven-band Bender EQ to iPhone and iPad. Add drive to a drum loop, movement to a synth or space around a melody, then shape the result to fit your track. FIND A STARTING POINT Choose from 51 factory presets: Default plus a starting sound for each of the 50 effects. A factory preset recalls a complete sound. Use the separate effect menu when you want to change the algorithm while keeping your other settings. CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER Explore drive, digital textures, filters, chorus, flanging, phasing, tremolo, ring modulation, delay and reverb. Start with an effect, then turn Amount, Tone, Time, Mix, Dimension, Sparkle and Output to make it your own. SHAPE IT WITH BENDER EQ Follow seven colored band curves and their numbered handles. Select a band to adjust frequency, gain and Q directly. Use Fine for smaller graph movements, or lock dragging to frequency or gain. High-pass, low-pass and Prism controls give you more ways to shape the response. COMPARE AND KEEP YOUR IDEAS Use EQ A/B to compare two settings and copy a favorite into the other slot. Save the full sound as a preset and import or export preset documents when moving between your workflows. Each instance keeps its own sound in your host's project state. BUILT FOR TOUCH Move between Effects, Bender EQ and Advanced pages. Scroll to reach every control, enter a precise value or turn a textured macro knob. Switch Light or Dark directly from the touch header, or use the theme menu in Advanced. Your theme and settings return when the instance is restored. BRING IT INTO YOUR MUSIC WORKFLOW The included AUv3 audio effect extension loads in compatible hosts. The containing app also offers live input processing: connect headphones or an audio interface, then enable live input. Microphone permission is requested when you enable input. Your host manages audio when you use the extension. GO FURTHER Explore HoloRune character, spatial modes, EQ routing, parallel mix and Mid/Side levels in Advanced. Sidechain ducking requires a compatible host and a routed sidechain source.

Screenshots

Tape Death4 screens
Sampledex Effect Shift4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Sampledex Effect Shift at 3 against Tape Death's 1. Sampledex Effect Shift 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 3 level
Tape Death versus Sampledex Effect Shift: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTape DeathSampledex Effect Shift
PriceFreeFree
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS17.015.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size3 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperColton HarkerRobert Clemons

In-app purchases

None

Tape Death

No in-app purchases

None

Sampledex Effect Shift

No in-app purchases

Questions

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

Other comparisons