Pixelsynth vs SL Radio Mini
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.
SL Radio Mini
This audio effect plugin transforms vocals, drums, and loops into a radio-style sound. It features a touch-draggable FM tuner and local AI for realistic radio character, offering control over interference and signal mix. It functions as both a standalone app and an AUv3 audio effect for music production.
- Touch-draggable FM tuner
- Local AI radio character
- Signal and Mix controls
- Animated tuner glitches
- Standalone app and AUv3 effect
- Runs fully on device
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SL Radio Mini is an AUv3 audio effect for music-making apps, not an internet radio player. Insert it on an audio track in a compatible AUv3 host to give vocals, drums and loops a radio-style tone. Drag across 88-108 MHz to move between cleaner station lock, narrow radio tone, flutter and interference. Signal controls reception character. Mix blends the result with the original sound. Radio Match v2 is a compact trained neural model embedded in the app. It runs entirely on your device. Audio is not sent to a server, and no processing account is required. Features: - Touch-draggable FM tuner - Local AI radio character - Signal and Mix controls - Animated tuner glitches and grille smoke - Standalone app and AUv3 audio effect - Runs fully on device The standalone app does not automatically monitor the built-in microphone through the speaker. Use AUv3 inside a compatible host for live audio processing.
Screenshots
Verdict
Pixelsynth and SL Radio Mini are too close to call on the numbers: across 9 compared parameters — price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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 SL Radio Mini. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 3 respectively.
Pixelsynth ships an update every 9 days, SL Radio Mini fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | Pixelsynth | SL Radio Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | de Bastion, Inc | VIACHESLAV ZHILTSOV |
Customer experience
Pixelsynth
SL Radio Mini
In-app purchases
Pixelsynth
No in-app purchases
SL Radio Mini
No in-app purchases







