Comparison

Pruina vs PolyrhythmLab

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

Head to head
About

Pruina

This app captures and sustains audio, transforming it into evolving drones and textures. Explore modes like Freeze, Smear, and Shimmer to sculpt unique soundscapes with effects like reverb and modulation. It functions as both a standalone application and an AUv3 audio effect.

Highlights
  • Spectral audio capture and sustain
  • Freeze, Smear, and Shimmer modes
  • Sound sculpting with Blur, Sparkle, Warp
  • Modulated reverb and spatial effects
  • Layering for chord and pad creation
  • AUv3 plugin and standalone operation
Features
Read full description

Pruina freezes sound. Tap once and Pruina captures the spectrum of whatever is playing, a chord, a vocal, a whole mix, and holds it as an endless, gently evolving drone that never decays. Then shape it into rising shimmer clouds, breathy air, crystalline bells, or a huge reverberant wash. Under the hood it runs a real spectral analysis of your audio and, the instant you freeze, takes a snapshot and resynthesizes it with slowly drifting phase. Instead of fading away, the sound sustains forever and breathes, like a pad you never have to hold down. THREE MODES, ONE ENGINE Freeze: tap to capture and hold the spectrum indefinitely. Smear: continuously blur the spectrum into a soft, washing texture. Shimmer: pitched, regenerating layers that rise endlessly. SHIMMER THAT RISES Choose an interval (octave, fifth, octave plus fifth, or two octaves) and turn up Regen to feed the shimmer back on itself, building infinite cascading clouds. BUILD CHORDS BY EAR Turn on Layer and every freeze adds to what is already held. Stack captures into evolving chords and pads, live, one tap at a time. SCULPT THE SOUND Blur: smear the spectrum across frequency to morph a pitched freeze into breath and air. Sparkle: gate down to the spectral peaks for glassy, bell-like tones. Warp: stretch the timbre. Motion: slow drift and breathing that keep a frozen pad alive. Tone: low cut, high cut, and tilt. SPACE A lush, modulated reverb (Reverb, Size, Damp) wraps everything in a wide, dimensional tail, from an intimate room to a cathedral that rings for minutes. Stereo Spread and Width open it up. 16 READY-TO-PLAY PRESETS Infinite Cathedral, Rising Aurora, Supermassive, Glass Bells, Crystalline, Frozen Choir, Ghost Vox, Vapor Trails, Nebula, Granular Dust, Shimmer Wash, Dark Matter, Sub Bloom, Slow Tide, Chord Builder, and Default. Browse them with the header arrows, tweak anything, and save your own. PLUGIN AND STANDALONE Full AUv3 audio effect for GarageBand, AUM, Logic, and any AUv3 host, with host presets, parameter automation, and reported latency so your project stays in sync. Runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Standalone mode includes a built-in demo pad, live microphone input, and song import with export of the processed result.

About

PolyrhythmLab

Create complex, evolving musical rhythms and dynamic visual performances. This app offers a unique polyrhythmic engine for sound layers and a live visual mixer with customizable effects and camera controls. Export audio, MIDI, or video of your creations.

Highlights
  • True polyrhythm engine with independent step/pulse counts per layer
  • AUv3 plugin support for DAWs like GarageBand and Logic
  • Live MIDI output for driving external synths
  • Integrated VJ mixer with audio-reactive visuals and effects
  • Song mode for arranging patterns into full tracks
  • Save and reload groovebox patterns and VJ setups as presets
  • Export audio, MIDI, and video recordings
Features
Read full description

PolyrhythmLab is a groovebox built around true polyrhythms: every sound layer gets its own step count, pulse count, and rotation, so layers of different lengths interlock and drift in and out of phase instead of locking to one shared grid. NEW IN 2.0 — AUv3 PLUGIN Use PolyrhythmLab as a real instrument inside GarageBand, Logic, AUM, and any other AU-compatible host. Four independent polyrhythmic layers, each exposed as automatable parameters, real MIDI output so your performance actually records as a MIDI region, and its own compact control panel with a live pattern wheel, a randomizer, and optional sync to your session's tempo. NEW IN 2.0 — LIVE MIDI OUTPUT Send a real Note On/Off for every layer hit straight from the main app — one MIDI channel per layer, over a virtual MIDI connection — to drive another synth, app, or piece of hardware in real time, not just sync tempo. NEW IN 2.0 — CAST VJ MIX Send the VJ Mix visuals to a TV or projector over AirPlay or a wired adapter, while your device keeps the full set of live controls. Save and reload VJ Mix setups — visual styles, effects, camera moves, and their LFOs — as named presets, same as patterns. GROOVEBOX • Euclidean-style rhythm engine — set steps, pulses, and rotation per layer • Drums, glitch/textural one-shots, classic synth voices (piano, bell, pad, bass), and melodic synth patches • Per-layer filter, reverb, delay, pitch, and LFOs on every parameter • Randomize engine biased toward musical, playable combinations • Chord modes, scales, and modal note selection for melodic layers SONG MODE Arrange your saved patterns into sections and chain them into a full song. VJ MIX A live visual performance surface: blend two audio-reactive visualizations, layer on real-time color and shader effects — RGB split, kaleidoscope, pixelate, glow, trail — and a 3D camera with zoom, pan, orbit, and tilt, each with its own LFO. Randomize the whole look by hand, or hand it to an autonomous "robot" that keeps remixing itself. Record the performance in real time via ReplayKit, or export a styled video clip. PRESETS Save and reload both groovebox patterns and VJ Mix setups as named presets. EXPORT Render your patterns and songs to audio, or export them as MIDI. No account, no ads, no analytics. Everything is stored locally on your device.

Screenshots

Pruina2 screens
PolyrhythmLab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Pruina at 5.0 against PolyrhythmLab's 1.0. Pruina also leads on price ($2.99 vs $4.99). On ratings volume, 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

Pruina costs $2.99 and PolyrhythmLab $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pruina holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Pruina versus PolyrhythmLab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPruinaPolyrhythmLab
Price$2.99 — better$4.99
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews—0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequency—Every 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB401 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKonstantin Torsten SchutzMartin Adler

Customer experience

Pruina

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

PolyrhythmLab

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

Pruina

No in-app purchases

None

PolyrhythmLab

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pruina free?
Pruina costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is PolyrhythmLab free?
PolyrhythmLab costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pruina or PolyrhythmLab?
Pruina is rated higher. Pruina averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while PolyrhythmLab averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Pruina or PolyrhythmLab have ads?
Neither Pruina nor PolyrhythmLab shows ads.

Other comparisons