Sean's Strange Box vs Recursion by folina
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sean's Strange Box
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Sean's Strange Box is a polyphonic house synth with a step sequencer that jacks. Part of Time2Jack's Architect Series, it brings hands-on sound design, pattern writing and live performance to iPhone and iPad. THE SOUND Two oscillators with SHAPE, DEFORM and SYMMETRY, a sub and noise, and up to four-voice UNISON with DETUNE and stereo SPREAD. Shape the sound with LP12, LP24, high-pass and band-pass filters, two ADSR envelopes and three LFOs, including Lorenz and Rössler chaos. A twelve-slot modulation matrix connects the LFOs, envelope, velocity, XY pad, pressure and tilt to your sound. Chorus, phaser, ping-pong delay, reverb and a three-band EQ run in the order you choose. Sixteen-voice polyphony. STRANGE AND BENT STRANGE moves from subtle instability, filter motion and stereo drift into deformation, deeper modulation, effects movement and rhythmic variation. BENT focuses on timbre. Variations evolve every bar, and the same gesture produces a repeatable performance. FREEZE and REPEAT add momentary delay and rhythmic effects. THE SEQUENCER Build patterns up to 64 steps long with velocity, accent, probability, ratchets, ties and slides. Put up to five notes on a step, or let CHORDS generate a progression in your key and scale. Record four automation lanes. Eight scenes, A to H, change on the bar line, and CHAIN plays them in the order you choose. GENERATE offers a new house bassline when you need a starting point. JAM AND PERFORM JAM gives you a note matrix, two octaves of keys, a metronome and recording into the sequencer. Lock your key and scale to stay in tune. PERFORM brings the XY pad, macros and effects together for live playing. EZ AND PRO Two control surfaces share the same instrument. EZ groups sound design into SOURCE, TONE, SHAPE, MOTION and SOUND, plus STRANGE. PRO opens the full set of controls. Switching surfaces preserves your sound, pattern and playback. 58 FACTORY SOUNDS Explore house basses, acoustic-inspired instruments, unison and chaos sounds. Search, tag and audition presets, or HYBRIDIZE two sounds into something new. PLAY TOGETHER Use Ableton Link, DJ SYNC and MIDI input to play in time with other gear. MIDI Learn connects controls to your controller. The included AUv3 instrument runs in compatible iPad music hosts. Save a complete sound, modulation matrix and all eight scenes in a .strange project. Runs on iPhone and iPad. No account, subscription, ads or in-app purchases. Make music offline; enable local-network sync when you want to play together.
Recursion by folina
This app creates evolving echoes and feedback effects by mutating sound over generations. It offers unique control over timing, memory, and signal degradation for creative sound design. Explore subtle echoes to unstable ambient spaces.
- Self-mutating recursive delay
- Generational sound evolution
- Independent control over recursion depth
- Continuous drift and instability
- Smearing for evolving washes
- Tear events for abrupt mutations
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Recursion is a delay and feedback effect built around inherited mutation. In a conventional delay, a sound repeats. In Recursion, it evolves. Each generation passes through a changing recursive system before becoming the source for the next. Timing drifts. Memories smear together. Sudden tears disturb the signal. Those disturbances are then inherited by everything that follows. The result can move from subtle animated echoes and strange doubling to deteriorating rhythmic patterns, unstable ambient spaces, and dense halls of increasingly distant memories. Seven controls keep the process immediate. Memory determines the spacing between generations. Recursion determines how deep the family tree grows. Decay determines how long those generations survive. Smear, Drift, and Tear determine how faithfully—or badly—the signal remembers its past. Recursion isn't designed to be a perfectly behaved delay. It's designed to remember. Incorrectly. Features: Self-mutating recursive delay and feedback processing Each generation inherits changes from the generation before it Independent control over recursive depth, memory spacing, and decay time Continuous bounded drift and instability Smearing that transforms distinct echoes into evolving washes Tear events introduce abrupt mutations into the recursive history From subtle animated echoes to deeply unstable feedback structures Designed for drums, synths, guitars, vocals, sound design, and ambient processing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Behavior Note: Recursion is intentionally less predictable than a conventional delay. At high Mix settings, more of the immediate dry attack is replaced by the delayed recursive signal. Short sounds may therefore seem quieter as Mix approaches fully wet. Around 50% Mix is recommended when you want to preserve the original attack. Recursive processing can also produce occasional abrupt transient or crackle-like textures as generations mutate and interact, particularly with sustained material, aggressive settings, or parameter movement. These behaviors are part of Recursion's unstable character.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Recursion by folina at $3.99 against Sean's Strange Box's $4.99. Recursion by folina 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
Sean's Strange Box costs $4.99 and Recursion by folina $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Sean's Strange Box | Recursion by folina |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $3.99 — better |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Irwin Eberhart | Jeremy Phillips |
In-app purchases
Sean's Strange Box
No in-app purchases
Recursion by folina
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Sean's Strange Box free?
Is Recursion by folina free?
Do Sean's Strange Box or Recursion by folina have ads?
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