BambooSilk vs Melodai
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BambooSilk
Explore 12 traditional Chinese instruments with intuitive touch controls or MIDI. Record, shape your audio with effects, and seamlessly integrate into compatible music production hosts via AUv3.
- 12 traditional Chinese instruments
- Intuitive touch performance surfaces
- MIDI keyboard and controller support
- Audio recording and shaping
- AUv3 instrument and effect integration
- Pentatonic scale MIDI processing
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Play 12 traditional Chinese instruments, record a phrase, shape your audio, and continue in a compatible AUv3 host. A breath moves through bamboo. A fingertip wakes a silk string. Bronze rings, a drum answers, and a melody begins. BambooSilk was created for that first musical moment—when an idea is still small, immediate, and alive. Touch the instrument, follow the phrase, record it, then carry it into a larger production without leaving its character behind. FROM ONE TOUCH TO TWELVE INSTRUMENTS Open the app and begin playing. Twelve traditional Chinese instruments are arranged in four families: • Strings: Guqin, Guzheng, Yangqin • Winds: Dizi, Xiao, Suona • Plucked: Pipa, Zhongruan, Sanxian • Percussion: Tanggu, Bianzhong, Paigu Each instrument has its own performance surface. Play multiple notes at once, move between techniques, change octave, and capture a take directly from the portrait interface. Connect a USB MIDI keyboard or pair a Bluetooth MIDI controller to play the selected instrument with velocity, sustain, and pitch bend. A quiet Guqin phrase, a bright Dizi line, a rapid Pipa figure, or the pulse of Paigu can all begin beneath your fingers. LET A RECORDING FIND ITS SPACE Sometimes the story begins outside the app. Import a WAV, AIFF, M4A, or MP3 recording from Files and see it unfold across the waveform. Scrub to the exact moment, listen before and after, then shape warmth, tone, stereo width, echo, resonance, and wet/dry balance until the performance sits naturally in its own space. Your installed AUv3 audio effects can join the same workspace. Scan compatible effects, switch plug-ins, compare with bypass, open a plug-in’s native interface, or use a generic parameter view when needed. TAKE BAMBOOSILK INTO YOUR HOST The standalone app is only the beginning. Three included AUv3 tools let the same musical language continue inside a compatible production host. BambooSilk Effect Give an audio track warmth, tonal shape, stereo space, echo, and a natural tail. Ducking keeps the original performance clear while the effect returns between phrases. Parameters support host automation, preset recall, Mix Lock, A/B comparison, bypass, and state restoration. BambooSilk Instruments Perform all 12 included Chinese instrument timbres from MIDI. It supports 16-voice polyphony, sustain, pitch bend, performance techniques, and an on-screen audition keyboard. Use the MIDI modulation wheel for expressive vibrato on Dizi, Xiao, and Suona. BambooSilk MIDI Scales Turn incoming notes toward Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, or Yu pentatonic modes. Choose the root and target instrument, then shape transpose, quantize strength, velocity, timing, variation, and note probability. The chosen instrument can travel downstream through MIDI Program Change. A COMPLETE PATH FOR A MUSICAL IDEA Begin with touch. Save the performance. Refine a recording. Then continue arranging and automating in compatible hosts such as GarageBand, Logic Pro, Cubasis, and AUM. AUv3 availability and routing options depend on the host. An interactive in-app guide helps you get started with touch performance, USB/Bluetooth MIDI, audio polishing, and plug-ins. From bamboo breath to silk resonance, BambooSilk gives traditional colors a place in a modern music workflow. Supports English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and French.
Melodai
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Melodai is a desktop-class DAW for iPhone, iPad, and Mac: multi-track editing, instruments you can play, a full FX rack, and on-device AI for jam, stems, and sheet scan. The mix stays on your device. RECORD AND ARRANGE Build a song on a real timeline. Audio, voice, loops, and MIDI tracks live in one project. Move, split, duplicate, and snap clips. Record from the mic or into the instrument you have open, with count-in and overdub. Undo walks a change back. PLAY THE INSTRUMENTS Select a track and the dock becomes the instrument: keys, drums, guitar, bass, 808, synth, violin, saxophone, or Guzheng. Tap, play, and record MIDI, then edit notes in the piano roll. MIX AND SHAPE A studio FX rack on every track and on the master: parametric EQ, 10-band EQ, compressor, limiter, reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, distortion, and pitch. Drop in loops from a bundled library filed by drums, bass, keys, guitar, synth, strings, vocals, and genre. Clean a take with on-device noise reduction. ON-DEVICE AI Jam: hold notes, pick a style — Lo-Fi, Dark Jazz, Trap, Orchestral, and more — and generate a take on Apple silicon. Prompt Mixer: blend style terms on faders and generate into the mix you dialled in. Stems: split a song into bass, drums, other, and vocal, then open it as a four-track session. Sheet scan: photograph a piano score and open MIDI you can play and edit. MIDI import: drop a .mid file and it becomes tracks and notes, not a dead bounce. Jam, stems, sheet scan, and noise reduction run with Core ML on your device. Your recordings are not uploaded to finish an edit. Optional text-to-arrangement compose sends only a prompt, never your audio. EXPORT Share MP3 or AAC. Bounce lossless WAV, AIFF, or 32-bit float CAF when the file has to leave as audio. iPhone, iPad, and Mac. No ads, no tracking, no account. MELODAI PRO You can build a song for free. Pro unlocks the full instrument set, piano roll, Pro loops, Jam, Prompt Mixer, stem split, EQ, noise reduction, and lossless export. If a session uses those tools, Pro is required to export. Prices are shown in the app in your local currency. Auto-renewable subscription Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel in your Apple ID account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial, if offered, is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Privacy Policy: https://melodai.youthpe.com/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://melodai.youthpe.com/terms.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Melodai at Free against BambooSilk's $3.99. BambooSilk's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On ads, 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
Melodai is free to download; BambooSilk costs $3.99 up front. Melodai sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. BambooSilk asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | BambooSilk | Melodai |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Update frequency | Daily | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 636 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 宁 徐 | 巧霞 詹 |
In-app purchases
BambooSilk
No in-app purchases
Melodai
- Monthly Pro$2.991 Month
- Yearly$19.991 Year









