Strange Loop vs RollTab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Strange Loop
This app generates unique, non-repeating music using chaos theory and AI. Users can influence the composition by painting on mathematical attractors and mood pads, choosing from various scales, accompaniment styles, and synthesized sounds. It also functions as an AUv3 instrument and MIDI processor.
- AI-generated, non-repeating music
- Interactive painting on attractors and mood pads
- 26 scales and 7 accompaniment styles
- Sampled grand piano and synthesized voices
- AUv3 instrument and MIDI processor
- MIDI file export
- Real-time visual scopes
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Strange Loop writes its own music. Three coupled Lorenz attractors drive the piece — one proposes pitch, one shapes rhythm, one wanders the emotional plane. A Markov policy then decides what actually plays, learning from its own output and rewarding intervals that sound consonant. Chaos proposes, the policy disposes. Slide BLEND to choose who wins. Nothing is pre-recorded and nothing loops. Every run is new. PAINT ON THE MATHS Both scopes are paintable. Draw on the attractor and the trajectory bends toward what you drew and lingers there, pulling the melody into those pitches. Draw on the mood pad and the feeling follows your strokes — brightening the harmony, lifting the register, pushing the tempo. Set how hard the ink leans, how big the brush is, and how long it lasts before it fades. WHAT YOU GET • 26 scales — major and minor modes, pentatonics, blues, whole tone, harmonic and melodic minor, altered, both octatonics, and folk scales from Japan, China, Egypt, Spain, Arabia and Hungary • 7 accompaniment styles — chaos grooves, jazz comping with walking bass, stride piano, Alberti bass, classical, arpeggios, ambient rolls • A sampled grand piano plus synthesised voices: soft piano, glass, strings, FM bell, AM organ, pluck, fat saw and more • 6 moods on a valence/arousal plane, from serene to tense, driving chord quality, register, tempo and note length • Live scopes — the attractors, the note-probability distribution the engine is sampling from, and the mood point, all drawn in real time • Deep control: key, scale, tempo, chaos rho, rhythm spread, grace notes, chord-tone pull, softmax temperature, per-track mixer • Record a take and export it as a standard MIDI file to the Files app — melody, chords and bass on separate tracks TWO AUDIO UNITS Strange Loop ships as an instrument AUv3 and as a MIDI processor AUv3, so it can either play its own sounds or sequence any other instrument in your host. Melody, chords and bass each send on their own MIDI channel, so one instance can drive three different instruments. Both Audio Units follow your host's transport and tempo — hit play in AUM, GarageBand, Logic, Cubasis or Zenbeats and it locks to the grid. One install registers both. CREDITS Sampled piano: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0).
RollTab
This app transforms your device into an AI-powered piano partner. It listens to your musical phrases and generates real-time continuations using an advanced on-device AI model. You can control various aspects of the AI's output and export your creations as MIDI files.
- AI piano accompaniment
- Real-time music generation
- MIDI keyboard integration
- Adjustable AI parameters
- Live piano-roll view
- MIDI file export
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RollTab turns your iPhone or iPad into an AI piano partner. Connect a USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard, play a phrase, and pause. RollTab continues your performance in real time with a 125M-parameter music model running entirely on your device. • Automatic mode answers after you pause • Explicit mode lets you decide when to generate • Live piano-roll view separates your notes from the AI’s continuation • Adjust temperature, continuation length, timing, and pitch range • Pause, continue, start a new session, and export the result as a MIDI file • No account, cloud processing, or internet connection required A MIDI keyboard is required for live input. You can also generate from silence in Explicit mode. Created by Simon Edwardsson — simedw.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Strange Loop at 100% against RollTab's 0%. Strange Loop also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.0) and ratings volume (9 vs 1). RollTab's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Strange Loop sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. RollTab asks for nothing beyond the download.
Strange Loop holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Strange Loop has 9 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Strange Loop's written reviews are positive against 0% of RollTab's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Strange Loop | RollTab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (9 ratings) — better | 2.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 185 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Soft Brew Mobile | Simon Edwardsson |
Customer experience
Strange Loop
RollTab
In-app purchases
Strange Loop
- Unlock AUV3 Plugin$2.99
RollTab
No in-app purchases







