Hi Organ vs Sampledex Effect Shift
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hi Organ
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Hi Organ turns your iPhone or iPad into a real arranger keyboard - the kind of instrument where you hold a chord with your left hand and a complete backing band plays along with you. WHY HI ORGAN Most keyboard apps give you a piano and stop there. Hi Organ gives you the whole instrument: four keyboard parts, an auto-accompaniment engine with eight independent tracks, a mixer, effects, drum pads, and recording. Everything you would expect from a hardware arranger is brought together in one app, with controls arranged in a familiar, performance-focused layout. Hi Organ is also designed to feel at home on the latest Apple devices. On iOS 26 and later, the app features a dedicated Liquid Glass interface with translucent panels, layered depth, soft reflections, dynamic highlights, and responsive glass-style controls. The result is a cleaner, more immersive workspace that keeps important performance controls easy to see while giving the instrument a distinctly modern iOS look. Whether you are practicing, arranging, performing, or simply exploring new sounds, Hi Organ combines the depth of a full arranger keyboard with a visual experience built for the newest generation of iOS. THE KEYBOARD - Full 88-key range with smooth scrolling and zoom - Adjustable split point: left hand plays chords, right hand plays the melody - Three upper layers plus a lower part, each with its own voice, volume, octave and pan - Multi-touch with glissando, and velocity that follows where your finger lands - Note names as letters, solfege or numbers - or hidden AUTO-ACCOMPANIMENT - Eight tracks: drums, percussion, bass and five accompaniment parts - Intro, four variations, fills, break and endings - exactly like the hardware - Start/Stop, Synchro Start, Synchro Stop, Tap Tempo, Fade In/Out, Auto Fill - Chord recognition covering major, minor, sevenths, sus, diminished, augmented, slash chords and more - The accompaniment follows your chord in real time YOUR OWN STYLES - Import style files (.sty, .pst, .bcs) with full CASM support, so chord transposition follows the rules the style was authored with - Import standard MIDI files and map the tracks yourself - Bring files in from the Files app SOUNDS AND CONTROL - 128 General MIDI voices plus drum kits - Nine-fader mixer for keyboard parts and accompaniment tracks - Reverb, chorus, filter cutoff and resonance, ADSR envelope, portamento, shake and repeat - Sixteen drum pads and four assignable phrase pads - Metronome, transpose, octave shift, tempo lock - Four keyboard sets to store and recall your whole setup RECORD AND SHARE Record what you play, listen back, then export it as an audio file or as MIDI to keep working on it elsewhere. PREMIUM Hi Organ is free to play. A single one-time purchase - no subscription - unlocks unlimited style imports, all 128 voices and drum kits, recording and export, the advanced effects section, and removes ads. Buy once, keep it forever, on every device signed in to your Apple ID. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Sampledex Effect Shift
This app offers a versatile audio effects suite with 50 distinct effects, seven macro controls, and a seven-band EQ. Shape sounds with various parameters, explore factory presets, and integrate into your music workflow via AUv3 extension or live input processing.
- 50 effect choices
- Seven hands-on macro controls
- Seven-band Bender EQ
- 51 factory presets
- AUv3 audio effect extension
- Live input processing
- EQ A/B comparison
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Give your sound a new direction. Sampledex Effect Shift brings 50 effect choices, seven hands-on macro controls and the seven-band Bender EQ to iPhone and iPad. Add drive to a drum loop, movement to a synth or space around a melody, then shape the result to fit your track. FIND A STARTING POINT Choose from 51 factory presets: Default plus a starting sound for each of the 50 effects. A factory preset recalls a complete sound. Use the separate effect menu when you want to change the algorithm while keeping your other settings. CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER Explore drive, digital textures, filters, chorus, flanging, phasing, tremolo, ring modulation, delay and reverb. Start with an effect, then turn Amount, Tone, Time, Mix, Dimension, Sparkle and Output to make it your own. SHAPE IT WITH BENDER EQ Follow seven colored band curves and their numbered handles. Select a band to adjust frequency, gain and Q directly. Use Fine for smaller graph movements, or lock dragging to frequency or gain. High-pass, low-pass and Prism controls give you more ways to shape the response. COMPARE AND KEEP YOUR IDEAS Use EQ A/B to compare two settings and copy a favorite into the other slot. Save the full sound as a preset and import or export preset documents when moving between your workflows. Each instance keeps its own sound in your host's project state. BUILT FOR TOUCH Move between Effects, Bender EQ and Advanced pages. Scroll to reach every control, enter a precise value or turn a textured macro knob. Switch Light or Dark directly from the touch header, or use the theme menu in Advanced. Your theme and settings return when the instance is restored. BRING IT INTO YOUR MUSIC WORKFLOW The included AUv3 audio effect extension loads in compatible hosts. The containing app also offers live input processing: connect headphones or an audio interface, then enable live input. Microphone permission is requested when you enable input. Your host manages audio when you use the extension. GO FURTHER Explore HoloRune character, spatial modes, EQ routing, parallel mix and Mid/Side levels in Advanced. Sidechain ducking requires a compatible host and a routed sidechain source.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Sampledex Effect Shift at none against Hi Organ's 4. Sampledex Effect Shift also leads on ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. Hi Organ sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Sampledex Effect Shift asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Hi Organ | Sampledex Effect Shift |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 79 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nguyen Hieu | Robert Clemons |
In-app purchases
Hi Organ
- Weekly Premium$0.997 Days
- Monthly Premium$1.991 Month
- Yearly Premium$4.991 Year
- Premium Lifetime$5.99
Sampledex Effect Shift
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Hi Organ free?
Is Sampledex Effect Shift free?
Do Hi Organ or Sampledex Effect Shift have ads?
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