Comparison

PolyrhythmLab vs MultiComb

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

Head to head
About

PolyrhythmLab

Create complex, evolving musical rhythms and dynamic visual performances. This app offers a unique polyrhythmic engine for sound layers and a live visual mixer with customizable effects and camera controls. Export audio, MIDI, or video of your creations.

Highlights
  • True polyrhythm engine with independent step/pulse counts per layer
  • AUv3 plugin support for DAWs like GarageBand and Logic
  • Live MIDI output for driving external synths
  • Integrated VJ mixer with audio-reactive visuals and effects
  • Song mode for arranging patterns into full tracks
  • Save and reload groovebox patterns and VJ setups as presets
  • Export audio, MIDI, and video recordings
Features
Read full description

PolyrhythmLab is a groovebox built around true polyrhythms: every sound layer gets its own step count, pulse count, and rotation, so layers of different lengths interlock and drift in and out of phase instead of locking to one shared grid. NEW IN 2.0 — AUv3 PLUGIN Use PolyrhythmLab as a real instrument inside GarageBand, Logic, AUM, and any other AU-compatible host. Four independent polyrhythmic layers, each exposed as automatable parameters, real MIDI output so your performance actually records as a MIDI region, and its own compact control panel with a live pattern wheel, a randomizer, and optional sync to your session's tempo. NEW IN 2.0 — LIVE MIDI OUTPUT Send a real Note On/Off for every layer hit straight from the main app — one MIDI channel per layer, over a virtual MIDI connection — to drive another synth, app, or piece of hardware in real time, not just sync tempo. NEW IN 2.0 — CAST VJ MIX Send the VJ Mix visuals to a TV or projector over AirPlay or a wired adapter, while your device keeps the full set of live controls. Save and reload VJ Mix setups — visual styles, effects, camera moves, and their LFOs — as named presets, same as patterns. GROOVEBOX • Euclidean-style rhythm engine — set steps, pulses, and rotation per layer • Drums, glitch/textural one-shots, classic synth voices (piano, bell, pad, bass), and melodic synth patches • Per-layer filter, reverb, delay, pitch, and LFOs on every parameter • Randomize engine biased toward musical, playable combinations • Chord modes, scales, and modal note selection for melodic layers SONG MODE Arrange your saved patterns into sections and chain them into a full song. VJ MIX A live visual performance surface: blend two audio-reactive visualizations, layer on real-time color and shader effects — RGB split, kaleidoscope, pixelate, glow, trail — and a 3D camera with zoom, pan, orbit, and tilt, each with its own LFO. Randomize the whole look by hand, or hand it to an autonomous "robot" that keeps remixing itself. Record the performance in real time via ReplayKit, or export a styled video clip. PRESETS Save and reload both groovebox patterns and VJ Mix setups as named presets. EXPORT Render your patterns and songs to audio, or export them as MIDI. No account, no ads, no analytics. Everything is stored locally on your device.

About

MultiComb

Features
Read full description

MultiComb turns a bank of moving comb filters into a playable sound-design effect. Four independent comb voices create shifting resonances across the stereo field, each moving with its own timing, spacing, and character. Smooth modulation keeps the bank alive while Bite introduces stepped sample-and-hold disturbances that push individual combs into new resonant relationships. The result can move from hollow coloration and subtle animation to metallic ringing, mechanical movement, fractured resonance, and unstable tonal textures. MultiComb works across drums, vocals, pads, guitars, percussion, and full electronic textures—but it especially comes alive on leads, basslines, arpeggios, plucks, and other short-note sequences. Individual notes excite the comb bank differently, turning simple melodic or rhythmic patterns into animated, resonant phrases. Teeth reshapes the fundamental comb structure. Motion keeps it moving. Spread pulls the voices apart. Feedback lets resonances ring. Color moves from dark and hollow toward bright, steel-like character. And then there’s Bite. Bite introduces independent stepped disturbances across the comb bank. At restrained settings it adds little irregular catches and tonal shifts. Push it harder and the resonances begin snapping into fractured, metallic relationships of their own. Seven controls. Four combs. Lots of teeth. Features Four independently animated comb-filter voices Moving, evolving resonant structures Independent sample-and-hold disturbances across the comb bank Wide stereo spreading and voice separation Dark, hollow through bright, metallic tonal character Controlled high-feedback resonance Smooth continuous motion combined with stepped instability Particularly expressive on leads, basslines, plucks and short-note sequences Factory presets ranging from subtle coloration to fractured metallic textures

Screenshots

PolyrhythmLab4 screens
MultiComb1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: MultiComb at $2.99 against PolyrhythmLab's $4.99. MultiComb also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

PolyrhythmLab costs $4.99 and MultiComb $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
PolyrhythmLab versus MultiComb: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPolyrhythmLabMultiComb
Price$4.99$2.99 — better
Rating1.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size401 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMartin AdlerJeremy Phillips

In-app purchases

None

PolyrhythmLab

No in-app purchases

None

MultiComb

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PolyrhythmLab free?
PolyrhythmLab costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is MultiComb free?
MultiComb costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do PolyrhythmLab or MultiComb have ads?
Neither PolyrhythmLab nor MultiComb shows ads.

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