Comparison

Vaporloop vs 1981 FM

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

Head to head
About

Vaporloop

Transform any audio into a unique generative instrument. Manipulate sound with granular time-stretching, independent pitch and tempo control, and a suite of character and mixing effects. Record and export your creations in various high-quality formats.

Highlights
  • Granular time-stretch engine
  • Independent pitch and tempo control
  • Tape wear and warble effects
  • Pitch and speed LFOs
  • Parametric EQ and reverb
  • Delay with tap tempo
  • Import various audio/video formats
  • Export WAV, MP3, AIFF
Features
Read full description

VAPORLOOP turns your audio into a generative instrument. Drop in a song, a voice memo, a field recording, or anything you screen-record — then set a loop and start mangling it. Built around a granular time-stretch engine, VAPORLOOP lets you slow a loop to a crawl without dropping the pitch, or shift the pitch two octaves without touching the tempo. The two are completely independent. When it finally sounds like something, hit record. VAPORLOOP captures the live performance — every knob move included — and saves it as WAV, MP3, or AIFF. THE ENGINE - Granular time-stretch — speed from 10% to 300%, pitch ±24 semitones, fully independent - Grain controls — size, density, interval rate, spray, and stereo spread - A/B loop points set by tap or dragged by hand, with pinch-to-zoom for fine editing - Reverse playback THE CHARACTER - Tape wear — jitter, mechanical noise, dirt, and dropouts - Warble — independent wow and flutter, each with rate and depth - Pitch LFO — sine, triangle, saw, square, and sample & hold - Speed LFO — sweep playback rate without touching pitch THE MIX - Four-band parametric EQ with a drag-to-shape response curve - Reverb with decay and size, up to cathedral-scale tails - Delay with tap tempo, note divisions, self-oscillating feedback, and its own time LFO WORKING - Import MP3, WAV, AIFF, M4A, FLAC, MOV, and MP4 - Share audio straight in

About

1981 FM

This app generates complete, unique musical tracks using chaotic mathematical principles. It offers various styles, modes, and keys, with customizable FM synth sounds and effects. Tracks can be recreated using seeds and exported via MIDI.

Highlights
  • Chaos-driven track generation
  • Four-operator FM synth engine
  • Multiple musical styles and modes
  • MIDI export and input
  • Customizable effects (chorus, delay, reverb)
  • Offline functionality
Features
Read full description

1981 FM writes complete tracks. Press generate and you get 64 bars with an intro, verses, choruses, a break and an outro, played by a four-operator FM synth. Lead, bass, arp, pad and a drum machine, through chorus, delay and reverb. Nothing is sampled. Every note is made on the fly and no two tracks come out the same. The music comes from chaos maths. A Lorenz attractor shapes the melody, rhythm and mood. A Hénon map keeps the arpeggio moving. A logistic map handles the drum fills: turn it down and they repeat every bar, turn it up and they never do. Chaos on its own is noise, so a small model filters it. It gets rewarded for consonant intervals and practises over the chord changes before it writes anything. The CHAOS / POLICY slider decides how much say each one gets. Ten styles, and they are properly different. Funk plays a 16th-note slap line with ghost notes between the backbeats. Bebop walks the bass and puts the ride in charge of the time. Bossa runs a clave. Space strips the kit back to a pulse. Every track is built from its seed. Write the seed down and you can have that exact track again, note for note, whenever you want it. You can play over it, too. The pads are the notes of the song's key rather than a piano keyboard, so nothing you touch is wrong, and the sixteen-step lane runs in time with the song and follows your host. Both play any part you like: lead, bass, arp or pad, through that part's sound and out on its MIDI channel. Choose which sections the lane plays in - just the choruses, say - and preview it on its own without starting the song. Turn on RADIO and it keeps playing, picking a new key, mode, style and tempo for each track. You also get: • 10 styles, 6 modes, 12 keys, tempo and density • Four-operator FM engine, 6 algorithms, 11 presets, random patch • Five-part mixer, chorus, delay, plate reverb and filter • A PLAY panel: pads in the song's own key, and a 16-step lane running in time with the song and only in the sections you pick • MIDI in, so your keyboard plays whichever part you have selected • MIDI export: five tracks, one per part • Live spectrum, waveform and a view of the chaos engine at work Two Audio Units, an instrument and a MIDI processor. Each part sends on its own MIDI channel, drums on 10, so one instance can drive five instruments. The MIDI version passes your keyboard through instead of swallowing it. Both follow your host's tempo and transport. One install registers both. The app is free and nothing in it is held back. Using the Audio Units inside other apps is a one-time purchase, and each AUv3 session plays for two minutes first so you can try them properly. No account, no ads, no subscription. Works offline.

Screenshots

Vaporloop4 screens
1981 FM4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: 1981 FM at Free against Vaporloop's $1.99. Vaporloop's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On rating, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

1981 FM is free to download; Vaporloop costs $1.99 up front. 1981 FM sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Vaporloop asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Vaporloop against 5.0 for 1981 FM. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Vaporloop versus 1981 FM: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVaporloop1981 FM
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings33
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperScott HsiungSoft Brew Mobile

Customer experience

Vaporloop

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

1981 FM

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Vaporloop

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

1981 FM

One-time1
  • AUv3 Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Vaporloop free?
Vaporloop costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is 1981 FM free?
1981 FM is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Vaporloop or 1981 FM?
Vaporloop and 1981 FM are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Vaporloop or 1981 FM have ads?
Neither Vaporloop nor 1981 FM shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Vaporloop or 1981 FM?
Vaporloop ships an update every 2 weeks, and 1981 FM every 2 weeks. Most recently, Vaporloop was updated on October 24, 2026 and 1981 FM on October 24, 2026.

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