Comparison

Chip's Jack Machine vs Wave Slicer

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

Head to head
About

Chip's Jack Machine

Create classic house music with this pocket-sized drum machine. Features a 16-step sequencer, hands-on controls, and the ability to load your own samples. Export your creations as WAV or individual stems.

Highlights
  • 16 synthesized and sampled voices
  • Per-voice sound shaping controls
  • 4 scenes with instant switching
  • 16/32-step patterns with swing
  • Step recording
  • Load custom audio samples
  • Export WAV or stems
Features
Read full description

Chip's Jack Machine is a pocket-sized classic house drum machine — 16 voices, a 16/32-step sequencer, and the hands-on knob-per-function workflow of the original hardware, with no menus to dig through. Most of the kit is synthesized live rather than played back from a sample library, so every knob genuinely reshapes the sound instead of filtering a recording. A few voices are built from recordings where a real one simply sounded better. FEATURES • 16 voices — bass drum, snare, low/mid/hi tom, clap, closed and open hat, cowbell, rim shot, maracas, low/mid/high conga, claves, and cymbal. • Per-voice TUNE, DECAY, TONE, SNAPPY, LEVEL, PAN and VERB — every one of them live. • 4 scenes (A/B/C/D) with instant switching, copy and paste. Each scene keeps its own pattern, bar length, mute/solo state and knob settings. • 8, 16 or 32-step patterns with swing. • Step recording — arm RECORD and play the pads in. • Load your own audio into any voice with SAMPLE. • Low-latency audio engine built for playing, not just playback. • Export a pattern as WAV, or export every voice separately as stems. • Save and load projects as .house files and move them between your devices — the same format the whole Architect Series uses. Runs on iPhone and iPad. Buy it once and it's yours. No subscription, no account, no ads, no in-app purchases, and no network connection — the app works entirely offline, forever. Part of the Time2Jack Architect Series.

About

Wave Slicer

Precisely cut audio samples by zooming to individual waveforms. Apply a full effect chain, draw custom amplitude envelopes, and create seamless loops. Export high-quality WAV files directly from your device.

Highlights
  • Precise waveform editing
  • Full effect chain
  • Custom amplitude envelopes
  • Seamless loop creation
  • High-quality WAV export
  • Direct microphone recording
Features
Read full description

Wave Slicer cuts a sound down to the piece you actually want. Load a track, record something, or send a file to it from anywhere on your phone — then zoom in until you can see the individual samples and cut exactly there. WHAT IT DOES A waveform that stays smooth on a ten-minute file and keeps going down to sample level. Drag the edges of a selection, slide the whole selection along, or draw a new one. Every edge snaps to a zero crossing, so a cut never clicks. A full effect chain that you hear while you turn it. Transpose by semitones, high-pass and low-pass with resonance, tanh saturation, bitcrush and sample rate reduction, echo with feedback, and a reverb that can ring out for eight seconds past the end of the slice. An amplitude envelope you draw by hand. Tap to add a point, drag to move it, bend the curve between two points. The same envelope drawing as the pitch curve in Drum Rack. Fades on both ends, and a loop crossfade that folds the tail over the head so a loop comes round without a seam. Export as a 16 or 24-bit WAV, with TPDF dither on 16-bit. The file lands where you choose to save it, named so you can find it again in a DAW browser. Record straight from the microphone when you want to sample something in the room. Echo cancellation and noise suppression stay off, because those are built for speech and ruin anything worth sampling. Twelve sounds are built in to start with, including two drum loops on the grid, so there is something to cut the moment you open it. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO No account. No sign-in. No advertising. No analytics. No tracking. Audio you load, record or export never leaves your device. The app asks the internet for exactly one thing: a small text file holding the current links shown on the last screen. FROM THE LAB Wave Slicer is part of Lumlux Art Lab, a set of free browser tools for people who make music. The same slicer runs on the website, so you can try it before installing anything. Made in Antwerp by FDR-Sound.

Screenshots

Chip's Jack Machine4 screens
Wave Slicer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Wave Slicer at Free against Chip's Jack Machine's $4.99. Wave Slicer also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On rating, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

Wave Slicer is free to download; Chip's Jack Machine costs $4.99 up front. 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 Chip's Jack Machine against 5.0 for Wave Slicer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Chip's Jack Machine versus Wave Slicer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChip's Jack MachineWave Slicer
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings11
Update frequency—Every 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperIrwin EberhartFrank De Rop

In-app purchases

None

Chip's Jack Machine

No in-app purchases

None

Wave Slicer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chip's Jack Machine free?
Chip's Jack Machine costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Wave Slicer free?
Wave Slicer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Chip's Jack Machine or Wave Slicer?
Chip's Jack Machine and Wave Slicer are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Chip's Jack Machine or Wave Slicer have ads?
Neither Chip's Jack Machine nor Wave Slicer shows ads.

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