Contour vs KAGARIBI
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Contour
This app is a unique musical instrument played by touch. It uses a visual interface where your finger's position determines the sound, offering a novel way to create drones, textures, and pads. It also functions as an AUv3 plugin for use in other music production apps.
- Touch-based sound generation
- Perceptual distance mapping
- Eleven distinct sound sheets
- MIDI input and ribbon controller
- AUv3 plugin support
- Recording functionality (Pro)
- Customizable sound sheets (Pro)
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Contour is an instrument you play by walking. Four neural decoders sit at the corners of a square. Your finger somewhere in the middle is a blend of all four, and the square is drawn as a survey sheet. The contour lines are not decoration. They come from what those four decoders actually produce, laid out so that equal distances on screen are equal perceptual distances in sound. Cross a line and the sound has changed by a measured amount. THE SHEETS Eleven of them, each a different set of four corners, each chosen by measuring the whole library rather than by ear. They are grouped by what the measurement found: BRIGHT — HEHUAN, the brightest, where all four corners hold their own. CONTRAST — BEIYIDUAN, the widest corner spread at 8.2 times. BREATH — NENGGAO, the breathiest. DEPTH — MABO, the deepest at 53 dB. RANGE — YUSHAN, the widest at 66 semitones; JIAMING, the most focused at 17. They are named after Taiwan's high mountain traverses. PLAYING IT Touch the sheet to sound it. The ribbon underneath sets pitch, or send MIDI and play it from a keyboard. Press harder and the note opens up — the contact patch of your finger is the dynamic. Hold on empty ground to drop a mark you can come back to. The readout above the ribbon tells you where you are while you are there: brightness, noise, the grid reference, the frequency. IN A HOST Contour is also an AUv3 plug-in. It runs in AUM, GarageBand, Cubasis, Logic for iPad and anything else that hosts Audio Units, with the position automatable as two parameters and the sheet recallable with your session. The plug-in draws the same map the app does, laid out for the window a host gives it. WHAT IS FREE Three sheets — BEIYIDUAN, NENGGAO and YUSHAN — with the whole instrument: the map, the ribbon, MIDI, reverb, marks, and the plug-in. No time limit and no account. CONTOUR PRO A single purchase, once, unlocks: • All eleven sheets • Recording, straight to a file • The envelope panel — attack, decay, sustain, release • Composing sheets of your own from the library, 4,845 combinations of four corners, with the map baked for the pitches they share Requires iOS 16 or later. iPhone and iPad.
KAGARIBI
This music creation tool allows users to shape and understand sound with a powerful synthesizer and an integrated sound anatomy feature. It offers extensive sound design capabilities, MIDI support, and advanced tuning options for both standalone use and as an AUv3 instrument.
- Dual oscillators with analog waveforms and wavetables
- Extensive modulation matrix and effects suite
- Integrated Sound Anatomy for sound explanation
- Support for MPE and MIDI 2.0
- Advanced tuning systems beyond 12-TET
- Offline WAV export
- Live Safe mode for reduced audio dropouts
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Play a sound. Shape it. Understand why it sounds that way. KAGARIBI is a free synthesizer for iPhone and iPad with no ads, tracking, account, or network connection required. Play it standalone or load it as an AUv3 instrument. CREATE YOUR SOUND • Two oscillators with analog waveforms and six wavetable families • Up to seven-voice unison, FM, ring modulation, and hard sync • Six filter types, three envelopes, two LFOs, and an eight-slot modulation matrix • Drive, phaser, chorus, delay, reverb, compressor, and limiter • Arpeggiator and four performance macros UNDERSTAND IT — SOUND ANATOMY Sound Anatomy reads the patch you are playing and explains why it sounds the way it does. Connect what you hear to unison, filters, envelopes, LFOs, effects, and more—without leaving the instrument. PLAY AND PRODUCE • 30 factory presets • Multitouch keyboard, Hold, and Arpeggiator • MPE and MIDI 2.0, plus USB and Bluetooth MIDI input • AUv3 host automation for 95 parameters • One preset library shared between the app and AUv3 • A/B comparison, search, favorites, and a recoverable trash • Offline 48 kHz / 24-bit WAV export BEYOND 12-TET Explore 16 included tunings—from just intonation and Pythagorean to Japanese scales, 19/24/31-EDO, and Bohlen–Pierce. Import Scala .scl and .kbm files and set reference pitch from A=415 to 466 Hz. READY FOR LIVE PLAY Live Safe watches real-time processing headroom and adjusts the voice limit when needed to reduce the risk of audio dropouts. Choose Studio or Offline HQ when the session calls for more detail. Your data stays on your device. KAGARIBI includes no third-party ad SDKs, tracking, or network transmission.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: KAGARIBI at 4.5 against Contour's 4.0. KAGARIBI also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume 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. Contour sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. KAGARIBI asks for nothing beyond the download.
KAGARIBI holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 4 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 0% and 0% positive.
Contour ships an update weekly, KAGARIBI every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Contour | KAGARIBI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (2 ratings) | 4.5 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 108 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chih Han Lin | Code and DESIGN inc. |
Customer experience
Contour
KAGARIBI
In-app purchases
Contour
- Contour Pro$6.99
KAGARIBI
No in-app purchases






