Comparison

Atmospheres 2 vs Sampledex Effect Shift

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

Head to head
About

Atmospheres 2

Read full description

A frozen cathedral beneath the ocean. A dark night in the city. A garden in the clouds. Atmospheres 2 turns your words into creative reverb spaces. Describe a place, a material or a feeling, then hear how it transforms your guitar, vocals, synths or any other audio. Let your imagination lead. Each prompt inspires a sonic interpretation, with room to explore spaces that could only exist in your music. MAKE A LITTLE MAGIC Type a prompt and create an atmosphere. Try something familiar, something surreal, or a combination of both. English prompts work best. LET RANDOM SURPRISE YOU Tap Random to generate a phrase and a new reverb space. Your Mix stays where you left it, so you can explore without changing your dry/wet balance. ONE KNOB, EASY TO EXPLORE Use the central Mix knob to blend your original sound with the atmosphere you've created. APP + AUv3 Use Atmospheres 2 as a standalone app for live audio input, or load its AUv3 effect in a compatible music app. Your generated sound and Mix are recalled with your host project, including when you copy the plugin to another track. The standalone app remembers your last sound. ENTIRELY OFFLINE Prompt generation and audio processing run locally on your device. No internet connection or account is required. BORN FROM DEEP WATERS 2 Built on the reverb engine behind Deep Waters 2, with water-inspired textures and a simple interface made for exploring. Atmospheres 2 is an audio effect: it processes incoming audio. For standalone live monitoring, use headphones or an audio interface. AUv3 use requires a compatible host app. For iPhone and iPad. Requires iOS/iPadOS 16 or later.

About

Sampledex Effect Shift

Features
Read full description

Give your sound a new direction. Sampledex Effect Shift brings 50 effect choices, seven hands-on macro controls and the seven-band Bender EQ to iPhone and iPad. Add drive to a drum loop, movement to a synth or space around a melody, then shape the result to fit your track. FIND A STARTING POINT Choose from 51 factory presets: Default plus a starting sound for each of the 50 effects. A factory preset recalls a complete sound. Use the separate effect menu when you want to change the algorithm while keeping your other settings. CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER Explore drive, digital textures, filters, chorus, flanging, phasing, tremolo, ring modulation, delay and reverb. Start with an effect, then turn Amount, Tone, Time, Mix, Dimension, Sparkle and Output to make it your own. SHAPE IT WITH BENDER EQ Follow seven colored band curves and their numbered handles. Select a band to adjust frequency, gain and Q directly. Use Fine for smaller graph movements, or lock dragging to frequency or gain. High-pass, low-pass and Prism controls give you more ways to shape the response. COMPARE AND KEEP YOUR IDEAS Use EQ A/B to compare two settings and copy a favorite into the other slot. Save the full sound as a preset and import or export preset documents when moving between your workflows. Each instance keeps its own sound in your host's project state. BUILT FOR TOUCH Move between Effects, Bender EQ and Advanced pages. Scroll to reach every control, enter a precise value or turn a textured macro knob. Switch Light or Dark directly from the touch header, or use the theme menu in Advanced. Your theme and settings return when the instance is restored. BRING IT INTO YOUR MUSIC WORKFLOW The included AUv3 audio effect extension loads in compatible hosts. The containing app also offers live input processing: connect headphones or an audio interface, then enable live input. Microphone permission is requested when you enable input. Your host manages audio when you use the extension. GO FURTHER Explore HoloRune character, spatial modes, EQ routing, parallel mix and Mid/Side levels in Advanced. Sidechain ducking requires a compatible host and a routed sidechain source.

Screenshots

Atmospheres 22 screens
Sampledex Effect Shift4 screens

Verdict

The call

Atmospheres 2 and Sampledex Effect Shift are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters โ€” price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them โ€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

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

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Atmospheres 2 versus Sampledex Effect Shift: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAtmospheres 2Sampledex Effect Shift
PriceFreeFree
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS16.015.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size126 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBenjamin D'ursoRobert Clemons

In-app purchases

None

Atmospheres 2

No in-app purchases

None

Sampledex Effect Shift

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Atmospheres 2 free?
Atmospheres 2 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sampledex Effect Shift free?
Sampledex Effect Shift is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Atmospheres 2 or Sampledex Effect Shift have ads?
Neither Atmospheres 2 nor Sampledex Effect Shift shows ads.

Other comparisons