Geography vs Octal
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Geography
This app transforms sound into an interactive landscape. Explore a sonic world from Earth's core to space, where each sound grain behaves like a particle. Customize gravity, string materials, and weather patterns to create unique sonic experiences.
- Interactive sound landscape visualization
- Adjustable gravity and string materials
- On-screen keyboard and ribbon controller
- MIDI input and control
- Layered strata with unique weather effects
- Sequencer, arpeggiator, and built-in effects
- Real-time weather integration from Earth's map
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Geography turns a sound into a landscape. The sample is drawn as a cross-section of the Earth, from the burning core to outer space, and every grain of sound is a particle with weight that falls, bounces and sounds according to the layer it crosses. PLAY THE MATTER • Tap the terrain to drop grains, draw strings that ring when they're hit, and tilt your iPad or iPhone to change gravity. • Eight string materials: metal, wood, glass, skin, gut, bronze, bamboo and stone. • An on-screen keyboard of up to five octaves, or a continuous ribbon for gliding pitch. • MIDI: play from your keyboard and map its knobs to the app's with MIDI learn (endless encoders too, like the Akai MPK mini's). Program Change switches sounds. A WORLD WITH A LIFE OF ITS OWN • Six strata, each with its own weather: fire in the core, earthquakes in the geosphere, plants that bloom and release tuned spores, swell and bubbles in the water, wind in the atmosphere, satellites and comets in space. • Rituals: a sequencer of world events. The Moon, in its real phase, and the planets sing too. • Life: the instrument improvises, arpeggiates or mutates the sequence on its own. SEE IT IN 3D • Flat, Ridges, Living ridges, Surface, Point cloud, Planet and Sphere: seven ways to look at the same sound, with aurora, clouds and a free camera. THE LAB • Envelope, filter, two LFOs, echo, reverb, modulation (flanger, phaser, ensemble), scales and a 16-step sequencer/arpeggiator. • A mixer with one channel per sound source in the world, and a Space tab to place each source around your head, with scenes that morph on their own. THE REAL EARTH • Pick a place on the map and its live weather flows into the sound. Earthquakes from the last 24 hours shake the landscape. SAMPLER AND PRESETS • Sampler: record with the microphone or open a file, then trim, normalize, reverse and add fades. Up to 45 seconds, which become a landscape; it exports WAV too. • Save your sound under a name, with its settings and rituals, and export it as a file to move it between devices or share it. ON IPHONE AND IPHONE DUO • On iPhone, the world in full screen and a hidden dock with the essentials: play, draw, gyroscope, Life and the Ribbon. In landscape, Rituals, Earth, the Lab and the Mixer take the whole screen, and two fingers move, zoom and rotate the view. • Made for iPhone Duo too: closed, it is the world with the essentials, to play with one hand; open, the same world, bigger, with a keyboard in the dock and the panels in the middle of the screen. FOR YOUR STUDIO • Audio Unit (AUv3) for Logic Pro, GarageBand, AUM and more: every setting can be automated and is saved with your project. Stereo output, binaural spatial audio with head tracking, or 7.1.4, plus separate stems by source or by stratum. • Thirteen synthesized factory landscapes. You can also open your own sounds, or an image, which you hear as a landscape. Try it free (5 minutes per session). A one-time purchase unlocks everything on iPhone, iPad and Mac. No subscription. No accounts, no ads, no data collected.
Octal
This app transforms your phone into a musical instrument with eight intuitive buttons that always create harmonious chords or notes. Easily record loops, layer beats, and arrange them into full songs. Explore a variety of sounds and share your creations.
- Eight-button chord/note interface
- Loop recording and editing
- Song arrangement
- Diverse sound library
- Undo/history functionality
- Audio file sharing
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Octal turns your phone into an instrument. The eight buttons play chords or notes that always go together, so whatever you press sounds like music. The bead under your other thumb changes their mood or behavior as you play. MAKE A LOOP Press record and play a few bars. Open the wheel, pick drums or a bass, and play over the top. Swipe over to the Loop Deck to see your loop and change it bar by bar. TURN LOOPS INTO A SONG Pinch the Loop Deck and chain your loops into a song. SOUNDS Synths, keys, drum kits, textures and acoustic instruments, a tap away on the wheel. NEVER LOSE AN EDIT Every edit is kept. The history tool lets you wind back to any of them. SHARE IT Send the mix as an audio file, or send the loop or song itself to a friend who has Octal. Making music in Octal is free, with four saved loops and one song. THE FULL VERSION One purchase, no subscription. MIDI and stems to finish your song in a DAW, MIDI out to play other synths, the bead lab to make and keep sounds of your own, and as many loops and songs as you like. PRIVACY Octal collects no data. The microphone is only on while you record a sound or play a Vocoder.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Octal at daily against Geography's every 3 days. Geography's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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
Both are free to download. Geography sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Octal sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Geography against 5.0 for Octal. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
Geography ships an update every 3 days, Octal daily. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Geography | Octal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Luis Diaz-Faes | RYAN JAMES,GALANG ELLIS |
Customer experience
Geography
Octal
In-app purchases
Geography
- Full Geography$22.99
Octal
- Octal, the full version$9.99









