Ample Juice vs Sean's Strange Box
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ample Juice
This app simulates a guitar amplifier, cabinet, and microphone setup, allowing musicians to shape their tone with intuitive controls. It offers a range of sounds from clean to heavy distortion and includes a built-in tuner and preset saving.
- Simulated amp, cabinet, and microphone
- Adjustable gain, EQ, and mic positioning
- Pulp and boost effects
- Built-in chromatic, guitar, and bass tuner
- 25 factory presets
- AUv3 effect and standalone app
- MIDI and automation support
Read full descriptionHide full description
Plug in. Tune up. Play a chord. If it needs more bite, turn it up. If the low strings need to hit harder, add Pulp. If the top end is getting in the way, move the microphone. Ample Juice works like the rig you already understand, because playing guitar should not feel like programming one. ONE SCREEN, LIKE AN AMP The whole signal path is in front of you: gate, boost, drive, amp, 4x12 and microphone. No pages to remember and no puzzle of hidden settings. Start with the controls you know, turn them until the guitar sits right, and leave the rest alone. FROM CLEAN ENOUGH TO LEAD READY Juice covers the ground between edge-of-breakup rhythm and a full lead voice. The first part of the dial adds body and sheen. The middle is where crunch lives. The last stretch opens quickly for sustain and saturation. Even when the gain is up, chords keep their notes instead of folding into one fizzy block. Pulp sits before the amp, where your boost pedal would. It trims low end before the clipping starts and leans into the midrange, so palm mutes land firmly and down-tuned riffs do not spread across the floor. Throw the Clean lever and the drive section steps aside; throw it back and every dirty setting is waiting where you left it. POSITION THE MIC BY TOUCH OR MOUSE No need to translate what you hear into studio jargon. Put a finger on the mic and move it, or grab it with a mouse. Position it toward the cone centre for cut, toward the edge for warmth, farther back for space, or off-axis to soften a sharp pick attack. The cabinet picture is the control—move what you see and listen as the tone follows. READY WHEN THE RIFF ARRIVES Use it as an AUv3 effect in your host or open the standalone app and choose your interface input. It adds no latency, so the note stays under your fingers. The tuner is already at the front of the rig, presets can save without stopping playback, and every control can follow MIDI or automation. 25 factory presets give you useful starting points for clean, crunch, metal, lead and more. Save the sounds that belong to your songs and take them across your devices. SPECIFICATIONS - Audio Unit v3 effect and standalone app - iPad, Mac, iPhone and Apple Vision Pro - Mono or stereo, zero added latency, no tail - 44.1 / 48 / 96 kHz as a plug-in and in the Mac app; 44.1 / 48 kHz in the iPhone and iPad app - All 22 controls automate and assign to MIDI - 25 factory presets across eight categories - Built-in chromatic, guitar and bass tuner - True bypass, click-free and safe to automate - Built-in user manual
Sean's Strange Box
Read full descriptionHide full description
Sean's Strange Box is a polyphonic house synth with a step sequencer that jacks. Part of Time2Jack's Architect Series, it brings hands-on sound design, pattern writing and live performance to iPhone and iPad. THE SOUND Two oscillators with SHAPE, DEFORM and SYMMETRY, a sub and noise, and up to four-voice UNISON with DETUNE and stereo SPREAD. Shape the sound with LP12, LP24, high-pass and band-pass filters, two ADSR envelopes and three LFOs, including Lorenz and Rössler chaos. A twelve-slot modulation matrix connects the LFOs, envelope, velocity, XY pad, pressure and tilt to your sound. Chorus, phaser, ping-pong delay, reverb and a three-band EQ run in the order you choose. Sixteen-voice polyphony. STRANGE AND BENT STRANGE moves from subtle instability, filter motion and stereo drift into deformation, deeper modulation, effects movement and rhythmic variation. BENT focuses on timbre. Variations evolve every bar, and the same gesture produces a repeatable performance. FREEZE and REPEAT add momentary delay and rhythmic effects. THE SEQUENCER Build patterns up to 64 steps long with velocity, accent, probability, ratchets, ties and slides. Put up to five notes on a step, or let CHORDS generate a progression in your key and scale. Record four automation lanes. Eight scenes, A to H, change on the bar line, and CHAIN plays them in the order you choose. GENERATE offers a new house bassline when you need a starting point. JAM AND PERFORM JAM gives you a note matrix, two octaves of keys, a metronome and recording into the sequencer. Lock your key and scale to stay in tune. PERFORM brings the XY pad, macros and effects together for live playing. EZ AND PRO Two control surfaces share the same instrument. EZ groups sound design into SOURCE, TONE, SHAPE, MOTION and SOUND, plus STRANGE. PRO opens the full set of controls. Switching surfaces preserves your sound, pattern and playback. 58 FACTORY SOUNDS Explore house basses, acoustic-inspired instruments, unison and chaos sounds. Search, tag and audition presets, or HYBRIDIZE two sounds into something new. PLAY TOGETHER Use Ableton Link, DJ SYNC and MIDI input to play in time with other gear. MIDI Learn connects controls to your controller. The included AUv3 instrument runs in compatible iPad music hosts. Save a complete sound, modulation matrix and all eight scenes in a .strange project. Runs on iPhone and iPad. No account, subscription, ads or in-app purchases. Make music offline; enable local-network sync when you want to play together.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Sean's Strange Box at $4.99 against Ample Juice's $7.99. Ample Juice's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On ads, in-app purchases 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
Ample Juice costs $7.99 and Sean's Strange Box $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Ample Juice | Sean's Strange Box |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | $4.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Christian Thompson | Irwin Eberhart |
In-app purchases
Ample Juice
No in-app purchases
Sean's Strange Box
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Ample Juice free?
Is Sean's Strange Box free?
Do Ample Juice or Sean's Strange Box have ads?
Other comparisons















