Comparison

FrankenJazz vs iSimpleLoop

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

Head to head
About

FrankenJazz

Features
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Write a jazz progression, hear it immediately, and study what makes the changes connect. FrankenJazz is a private lead-sheet and harmony workshop for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Enter chord symbols in a compact chart, choose a key and tempo, then play the form with a responsive chord-tone piano. The app reads Roman-numeral context, traces guide-tone movement, and lets you compare five practical voicing families. Use the bundled progression library as a starting point or build your own. Change the key, tempo, groove, instrument, and voicing while the chart remains editable. Playback includes seeking and looping for close listening and practice. When the chart is ready, export a FrankenJazz document, plain text, or a standard MIDI file. Local recovery protects the current session if the app closes unexpectedly. FrankenJazz works without an account or network connection. It includes no telemetry, advertising, sample downloads, or cloud processing.

About

iSimpleLoop

Record and layer multiple audio tracks to create songs. Features built-in instruments like guitar, keys, and pads, along with editing tools and effects. Export your creations as audio or MIDI files.

Highlights
  • Multi-track recording
  • Built-in guitar, keys, and pads
  • Audio and MIDI export
  • Song arrangement and editing
  • Effects and EQ
  • Lyrics and note editor
Features
Read full description

iSimpleLoop is a pocket sketchpad for songs. Record a loop, stack takes over it, play the guitar, the keys and the pads on top, keep the lyrics in front of you — and take the result out as audio or MIDI. Everything runs on the device. No account, no subscription, no cloud, no internet connection. LOOPER • Up to 8 tracks. Looped tracks follow the master loop, linear ones run the whole length of the song. • The first take sets the loop length; an overdub stops itself after one lap. • Count-in, metronome, and a per-track input: microphone, the app's instruments, or both. • Latency compensation, so a take lands where you played it. INSTRUMENTS • Guitar: strum and pluck six strings with your fingers, chords of the chosen key, power chords, capo, four tones from nylon to overdrive. • Keys: a polyphonic synth with piano, e-piano, pad, bass and lead, sustain and an octave shift. • Pads: 16 pads, 62 built-in sounds, pitch, filter and decay knobs, reverse. • Sampling from the microphone straight onto a pad, plus import of WAV, MP3, M4A, AIFF and FLAC with a trim screen. ARRANGEMENT AND EDITING • The whole song on one timeline: bar ruler, waveforms, playhead, scrubbing. • Select a fragment and trim, cut, silence, fade, normalise, reverse or nudge it by a beat — or drag it onto another track. • Three-band EQ and pan on every track. EFFECTS • Inserts on each track: compressor, overdrive, chorus and flanger. • Two project-wide send buses: a tempo-synced delay and a reverb. • Live instruments sound with the effect but are recorded dry, so the decision stays reversible. LYRICS • The lyrics live in the project, split into sections, and can sit next to the guitar while you play. NOTE EDITOR • Piano roll for the keys, a drum grid for the pads and six-line tabs for the guitar. • Move, stretch, copy, quantize, change pitch, fret, string and velocity — the track rebuilds from the notes right away, so you hear the change in the mix. • Undo and redo; cancel brings the track back exactly as it was. SLICE • Chop a sample by hits, into equal parts or on the tempo grid, drag the markers, tap a slice to hear it. • Slices land on consecutive pads — optionally together with a notes track that plays them in the original order. CHORDS • Any chord on any of the eight buttons: major, minor, 7, maj7, m7, sus2, sus4, add9, 6, m6, dim, aug. • Playable shapes are found automatically; pick a variant or place your own fingers on the fretboard. HARDWARE • USB audio interfaces: choose the input and the channel to record; other sample rates are converted on the fly. • MIDI keyboards over USB and Bluetooth play the synth and record like the on-screen keys; channel 10 plays the pads. • Foot controllers: MIDI Learn for play, record and stop; keyboard-style page-turner pedals work out of the box. EXPORT • WAV 24-bit, M4A (AAC) and MIDI — a track per instrument, pads on channel 10. • A home screen widget records a sample straight into the library. Landscape on iPhone and iPad. Interface in English, Russian, German and Italian.

Screenshots

FrankenJazz1 screens
iSimpleLoop4 screens

Verdict

The call

FrankenJazz and iSimpleLoop are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
FrankenJazz versus iSimpleLoop: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFrankenJazziSimpleLoop
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequency—Every 3 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJeffrey EmanuelArtem Kolchin

In-app purchases

None

FrankenJazz

No in-app purchases

None

iSimpleLoop

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is FrankenJazz free?
FrankenJazz is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is iSimpleLoop free?
iSimpleLoop is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do FrankenJazz or iSimpleLoop have ads?
Neither FrankenJazz nor iSimpleLoop shows ads.

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