Comparison

Chip's Jack Machine vs TONAUT

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

TONAUT

This app is a powerful music creation tool that combines a synthesizer, drum machine, sequencer, and eight-track tape recorder. It's designed for intuitive, hands-on playing rather than complex programming, allowing users to easily create and record music.

Highlights
  • Nine synth engines with deep editing
  • Over 500 sounds including sampled instruments
  • Four drum engines with 43 kits
  • Eight-lane sequencer with 16 patterns per lane
  • Eight-track tape recorder for recording and playback
  • Live performance features with X/Y pad
  • MIDI input/output for external controllers
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Tonaut is a synthesizer, drum machine, sequencer and eight-track tape recorder in one instrument, made to be played rather than programmed. Pick a sound, tap out a pattern and record it to tape, all on one panel that feels more like hardware than an app. IPHONE DUO • Folded, one octave on the outer screen. Half folded, the screens above the keys. Open, the whole instrument. Folding never stops the music SOUNDS • Nine synth engines: virtual analog, six-operator FM, wavetable, pulse, modeled string, a seven-oscillator swarm, grains, a classic analog poly and a sampler • Every engine has a 3D screen that moves with your playing, or a classic view • Over 500 sounds, from warm pads to glassy bells and growling bass, including 147 sampled instruments • Edit every sound in depth, save your own, and star your favorites • Load DX7-style SysEx banks into the FM engine • Four effects on every sound from sixteen types, from tape echo and huge reverb to distortion, pump, phaser and lo-fi • A master effect, a master EQ and an EQ on every lane DRUMS • 43 kits on three drum engines: kits made from real recorded drums, synthesized kits where every pad is its own drum, and slice kits • Knock and Cinder kits drawn in 3D, moving with every hit • A groove player: hold any pad and the whole kit plays one of sixteen grooves • Make kits from your own recordings or from audio files, one per pad KEYS AND CHORDS • Pick a key and scale and its keys light up; LOCK keeps every note in key, per lane • CHORDS plays a whole chord from one key, and works with the arpeggiator and the sequencer • Chord pad: seven chords from your key and a stick that turns each into a 7th, 9th, sus, dim and more, with strum and bass, also from a MIDI keyboard SEQUENCER • Eight lanes, each with its own sound and sixteen patterns of up to 64 steps • Write step by step or record live, with chords, slides, ratchets and chance • STEP REC: each note or chord you play fills a step, with rest and tie, also from MIDI • Pattern Play: queue the next pattern and every lane moves on together • Copy, swap and transpose patterns, and reorder lanes • An arpeggiator on every synth lane PLAY IT LIVE • A Perform page with TONE and SPACE for every lane, which glide back when you stop • An X/Y pad that bends pitch and moves the sound under one finger • One-tap mutes, tap tempo, click and count-in TAPE • Eight tracks of 20 minutes each, or six tracks of 30 minutes, chosen per project • Record every lane to its own track, or several onto one • Loop, reverse, stutter, brake and catch the last 30 seconds you played • A tape mixer, and pinch to zoom from a few bars to the whole song SAMPLING • Sample with the microphone, a USB interface, or Tonaut itself • Link your sample folders once, tap a file to hear it, and load it onto a pad or into the sampler • Drag audio files in from other apps onto a drum pad or the sampler MIDI • Play Tonaut from USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboards and controllers, on the selected lane or with each lane on its own channel • Send any lane to your own synths and drum machines, with clock and start/stop SHARE AND EXPORT • Share a loop from the tape as a vertical video or as audio, ready to post • Send a whole song, samples and all, as one file a friend opens in Tonaut • Export a stereo mix, separate stems as WAV files, or MIDI files of every lane • Optional iCloud sync between your iPhone and iPad One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo, each with its own layout, in six looks: Light, Dark, TN-1, TN-1 Dark, TN-XY and TN-SIGNAL. No subscription, no account, and Tonaut collects no data. Your music stays yours. REQUIREMENTS • An iPhone with an edge-to-edge screen: iPhone XS, XR or newer, iOS 17 or later. Not the iPhone SE (its screen is too small) • iPad (6th generation), iPad mini (5th generation), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Pro (2017) or newer, iPadOS 17 or later Questions? Write to hello@coastcreative.studio or visit tonaut.app.

Screenshots

Chip's Jack Machine4 screens
TONAUT4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Chip's Jack Machine at $4.99 against TONAUT's $14.99. TONAUT's advantage is chart position (#33 vs unranked) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Chip's Jack Machine costs $4.99 and TONAUT $14.99 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 TONAUT. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Chip's Jack Machine versus TONAUT: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChip's Jack MachineTONAUT
Price$4.99 — better$14.99
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings13 — better
Update frequency—Daily
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#33 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB108 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperIrwin EberhartRichard Rogers

In-app purchases

None

Chip's Jack Machine

No in-app purchases

None

TONAUT

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chip's Jack Machine free?
Chip's Jack Machine costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is TONAUT free?
TONAUT costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Chip's Jack Machine or TONAUT?
Chip's Jack Machine and TONAUT are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Chip's Jack Machine or TONAUT have ads?
Neither Chip's Jack Machine nor TONAUT shows ads.

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