ORPHEUS vs M/S Processor 2
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ORPHEUS
Create music by tapping cells on a glowing grid, which plays them back as a loop. Build melodies, bass lines, and countermelodies on multiple layers with adjustable patterns and instruments. Turn your loops into full songs using a sequencer, with no musical training required.
- Grid-based touch instrument
- Multi-layer pattern creation
- Adjustable loop lengths and scales
- Song sequencer for chaining patterns
- Multiple playing modes
- Built-in guide and customization options
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ORPHEUS is a musical instrument you play by touch. Tap cells on a glowing grid and it plays them back as a loop. Columns are time and rows are pitch, so a pattern you can see is a melody you can hear. No musical training needed. THREE LAYERS, PLAYING TOGETHER Build a bass line, a melody and a countermelody on three separate layers. Each has its own pattern, loop length (4 to 16 steps), instrument, scale and octave. Give the layers different loop lengths and they drift in and out of step, so the music keeps changing. SIX WAYS TO PLAY • Sweep: tap notes on and off while the playhead loops across the grid. • Floor: every lit cell becomes a bouncing ball that strikes a note each time it lands. • Order: your notes play one at a time, in the order you tapped them. • Draw: drag a finger to paint a melody that plays for a few loops, then fades away. • Hold: touch and hold to sustain a note, and slide up or down to change its pitch. • Free: play the rows live, like a keyboard, or slide across them for a run of notes. A SEQUENCER FOR WHOLE SONGS A single grid is a loop. The sequencer turns your loops into a song: chain your saved patterns into a series and they play back to back with no gap between them, each one at its own tempo, starting again after the last. A sequence holds up to 80 patterns and there are 100 sequences to fill, so a verse, a chorus and a bridge can live side by side. Tap any pattern while the song plays and it carries on from there. FIVE INSTRUMENTS Standard piano, kalimba, marimba, plucked string and bell, all synthesized on the device for quick, responsive sound. EIGHT SCALES Chromatic, harmonic major and minor, major and minor hexatonic, major and minor pentatonic, and the Japanese hirajoshi scale. Pick a pentatonic scale and every combination of notes sounds good together, which is perfect for children and first-time players. AN 88-KEY PIANO One tap turns the grid into a full 88-key piano keyboard. Slide your finger for a glissando, or switch to two keyboards side by side and play a duet with a friend. PATTERNS THAT COME ALIVE Turn on Life and your pattern evolves by the rules of Conway's Game of Life, a new generation every loop. Mirror symmetry paints each note in mirror image, left and right, top and bottom, or both at once. MAKE IT YOURS • 100 save slots for your patterns, each with the date and time of its last save • Everything saves automatically as you play • Seven colour themes and square or round cells • Tempo from 60 to 180 BPM • A full-screen mode with nothing between you and the grid • A built-in guide behind the question-mark button Works on iPhone and iPad, upright or sideways. No ads, no account, and no data collected: everything stays on your device.
M/S Processor 2
This app allows you to manipulate the mid and side components of a stereo audio signal. You can adjust their levels, mute them, or flip their polarity before recombining them. It functions as an Audio Unit (AUv3) within music production hosts or as a standalone application.
- Mid/side stereo signal splitting
- Independent level control for mid and side
- Mute and polarity flip for mid/side
- Inline, decode, and encode modes
- Automation support
- Adaptable layout for various screen sizes
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Your stereo image, in two parts. M/S Processor 2 splits a stereo signal into its mid (what both sides share) and its side (what sets them apart), lets you turn each up or down, mute it or flip its polarity, and puts them back together. Rebuilt from the ground up, it runs as an Audio Unit (AUv3) inside GarageBand, AUM, Logic Pro and any other host, and on its own with an audio interface. THREE WAYS IN AND OUT • Inline: left and right in, left and right out. Widen a mix, narrow it, or bring a centered voice forward. • Decode: record with a mid/side microphone pair, a cardioid facing the source and a figure-8 across it, and hear it as left and right while you play. • Encode: turn left and right into mid and side for the effects that come after it, and decode them back at the end of the chain. EVERY PART UNDER YOUR HAND • A fader for the mid and one for the side, from −48 to +24 dB, each over its own meter. • Mute and polarity for each, and a link that moves both gains together. • Swap left and right before anything else, and bypass to compare. • Input and output meters named by what they carry, L and R or M and S, with held peaks and clip indicators. • Every control can be automated from your host. • A notice when the input is mono, which leaves the side with nothing to work on. MADE FOR EVERY SCREEN M/S Processor 2 lays itself out for the space it's given: an iPhone upright or sideways, an iPad, iPhone Duo folded or open, and a plugin slot in a host, from GarageBand's compact strip to a whole panel. QUIET BY DEFAULT On its own, the app starts with its output muted, so a microphone never feeds back through the speaker next to it. A LONG STORY Alan Blumlein described mid/side recording in his 1931 stereo patent, and engineers have relied on it ever since. M/S Processor first came to the iPad in 2013; this is its second life. From Monolith DSP. Terms of Use: https://monolith-dsp.com/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://monolith-dsp.com/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: ORPHEUS at 15.0 against M/S Processor 2's 17.0. 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for ORPHEUS against 5.0 for M/S Processor 2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
| Parameter | ORPHEUS | M/S Processor 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | HYUNG MIN SON | Ruben Nine Blanco |
In-app purchases
ORPHEUS
No in-app purchases
M/S Processor 2
No in-app purchases









