Pixelsynth vs Magnetic Echo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pixelsynth
This app transforms musical input into a vibrant visual experience, allowing users to see and shape their sound in real-time. It offers a playful and immediate way to create music, with all controls and feedback displayed on a single screen. Designed by a Deaf musician, it prioritizes visual feedback as an integral part of the instrument.
- Real-time visual sound shaping
- Interactive 16-pad grid
- Adjustable waveforms, filters, and envelopes
- LFO, delay, and reverb effects
- AUv3 instrument compatibility
- Offline functionality
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Make a sound in seconds—and shape it while it plays. Pixelsynth turns taps, drags, melodies, and chords into a colorful instrument you can understand by watching it. Everything you play lives on one screen. Touch a note and start exploring. FROM THE DEVELOPER OF PIXELBOOP Pixelsynth is a new visual instrument from the maker of Pixelboop. Both apps share a love of playful grids, immediate feedback, and musical ideas that begin with one touch. PLAY FIRST. LEARN BY WATCHING. Sixteen pads invite you to find a melody, hold a chord, or strum across the screen. Notes light up as you play, and every sound control moves in front of you. You can see what each gesture is doing while you hear the result. SHAPE THE SOUND LIVE • Switch waveforms to change the character of your sound. • Sweep the filter from bright and open to soft and focused. • Shape attack, decay, sustain, and release for crisp plucks, swelling notes, and long tails. • Add motion with LFO, repeating echoes with delay, and depth with reverb. Each control is a colorful tank. Touch higher or lower inside it to set the value directly. Values in the upper half stay where you leave them; notes in the lower half drain away after you lift. It feels immediate because the picture and the sound follow the same gesture. MADE TO BE SEEN Created by a Deaf musician, Pixelsynth treats visual feedback as part of the instrument. The entire musical surface is drawn on a 40 by 24 pixel grid—just 960 pixels—so every control stays visible and every change has a visual response. PLAY IT YOUR WAY Open Pixelsynth as a standalone instrument on iPhone or iPad, or load the included AUv3 instrument in a compatible iOS music host. Your host can send MIDI notes and save the instrument state with your project. A compatible host is available separately. FREE TO EXPLORE No account. No in-app purchases. No third-party ads. The instrument works offline. The standalone app may occasionally show developer news or an introduction to Pixelboop, which you can close immediately. Pixelsynth does not track you or collect the music you play. Open it. Touch a note. See where it takes you.
Magnetic Echo
This app offers a vintage-inspired multi-head tape delay and spring reverb effect for mobile devices. It recreates the warm echoes, ambient trails, and analog textures of classic tape echo machines, with adjustable feedback and saturation for unique soundscapes.
- Multi-head tape delay
- Spring reverb effect
- Wow and flutter simulation
- Feedback and saturation controls
- AUv3 plugin compatibility
- Dub and ambient soundscapes
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Magnetic Echo is a vintage-inspired multi-head tape delay and spring reverb effect for iPhone and iPad, built for warm echoes, ambient trails, dub feedback, and evolving analog textures. Inspired by classic tape echo machines of the 1970s, Magnetic Echo combines the movement and imperfections of magnetic tape with the flexibility of a modern AUv3 plugin. TAPE DELAY Three playback heads create layered and rhythmic repeats, from short slapback echoes to spacious multi-head patterns. SPRING REVERB A dedicated spring tank with adjustable decay and tone, for that unmistakable splashy, metallic space. WOW & FLUTTER Real tape isn't perfect — subtle pitch drift and mechanical wobble give every repeat organic character. FEEDBACK & SATURATION Push the feedback path from gentle repeats into self-oscillation, with saturation adding color and character on every pass. FROM DUB TO AMBIENT Create warm guitar echoes, psychedelic textures, washed-out ambient trails, rhythmic delays, and dub-style feedback. HOST READY Works as an AUv3 Audio Unit plugin inside AUM, Audiobus, GarageBand, Cubasis, Logic Pro for iPad, and any other AUv3-compatible host. %100 FREE No subscriptions, no in-app purchases, and no ads.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Pixelsynth at 3 against Magnetic Echo's 1. On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Pixelsynth against 5.0 for Magnetic Echo. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.
| Parameter | Pixelsynth | Magnetic Echo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | de Bastion, Inc | Baturay Koc |
Customer experience
Pixelsynth
Magnetic Echo
In-app purchases
Pixelsynth
No in-app purchases
Magnetic Echo
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pixelsynth free?
Is Magnetic Echo free?
Which has better reviews, Pixelsynth or Magnetic Echo?
Do Pixelsynth or Magnetic Echo have ads?
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