Comparison

Grasswhistle vs Grainfold

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

Head to head
About

Grasswhistle

Create unique melodies from chord progressions with a customizable arpeggiator. Offers randomization, performance options, and over 50 presets. Use it as a standalone instrument or a MIDI effect to sequence other devices.

Highlights
  • Customizable arpeggios
  • Chord progression sequencing
  • Randomization features
  • Performance options
  • 50+ factory presets
  • Standalone instrument
  • MIDI effect
Features
Read full description

Customizable arpeggios, right at your fingertips. Grasswhistle is a free arpeggiator from Aqeel Aadam Sound. Build a sequence of notes to arpeggiate your chord progressions in brand new ways. Grasswhistle adapts to whatever chord you throw at it, creating a seamless and recognizable melody from any chord progression. Find instant inspiration with robust randomization features, performance options, and 50+ factory presets. Grasswhistle can be loaded as an instrument or as a MIDI effect. As an instrument, it has a built-in synth voice for quick and easy playback. As a MIDI effect, you can sequence your favorite devices with endlessly inspiring arpeggios. Grasswhistle is completely free, though you can choose to send a tip inside of the standalone app. This is completely optional, but always appreciated! This donation does not unlock any additional functionality. Also available for macOS and Windows in VST3 / AU / AAX formats from Aqeel Aadam Sound.

About

Grainfold

Features
Read full description

Grainfold is a granular synth that turns any sound into an instrument. Record your voice, a glass or the street outside, or import a file, and shape it into loops, playable chords, melodies and evolving clouds of grains. A GRANULAR SYNTH YOU CAN PLAY Granular synthesis cuts a sound into tiny grains and plays them back in new ways. Grainfold makes it hands-on: set how long each grain lasts, how often grains spawn, where they come from and how far they scatter. Reverse them, spread them across the stereo field, give them a shape from smooth to plucked, and play them from the keyboard, MIDI or your fingertips. FOUR REGIONS, LOOP OR GRAIN Mark up to four parts of a sound, each with its own mode, pitch, envelopes, filter and modulation. LOOP repeats a region with fades and crossfade; GRAIN turns it into textures, pulses and harmonies. MELODIES WITHOUT A KEYBOARD The step sequencer plays sixteen steps of any scale in time with the tempo. Or let every grain choose its note: random notes of a scale, a wandering line, a melody that comes home to the key, or a slowly evolving motif. SHAKE TO PLAY In SHAKE mode, balls bounce around the sound as you shake and tip your phone, like a pong ball off the edges of the screen, and the grains follow them. HARDWARE LOOK, CRT SCREEN A silver metal body that catches the light as you tilt your phone, solid keys, big knobs and a waveform on a glowing CRT screen, with bloom and scanlines. Each grain is a spark, as big as it is long. A small spectrogram, an oscilloscope and a 3D spectrogram show what you hear. LOCKED TO THE BEAT Type or tap a BPM. Spawn grains on the beat, set their length, the scan, the LFOs and the delay in note values, and see where every beat falls. A metronome keeps time in any meter. In an Audio Unit host, Grainfold follows the host tempo. MOVEMENT AND EFFECTS Two LFOs per region, ADSR envelopes for notes and the filter, PITCH that keeps timing, SPEED that keeps pitch. Filters, harmonic LAYERS, drive, chorus, DIFFUSE, delay and reverb. PLAY WITH TOUCH OR MIDI In PERFORM, each finger plays a region and moves two parameters; LATCH holds sounds and MOTION loops your gestures. Chords of up to twelve notes from the on-screen keyboard or MIDI, with velocity, sustain, pitch bend and MIDI Learn. RECORD, EXPORT, AUV3 Record your performance as a 32-bit float WAV straight into your DAW's folder. Play Grainfold as an AUv3 instrument in GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM or Cubasis; Grainfold Capture records takes from any track. 40 PRESETS AND 20 STARTER PROJECTS Factory presets in seven categories, your own presets, and starter projects that each bring their own recording, root note and tempo. Share projects as .grainfold files. FREE, AND PRIVATE Every feature is free. No account, ads or tracking: Grainfold collects no data, and your recordings stay on your device.

Screenshots

Grasswhistle2 screens
Grainfold4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Grainfold at none against Grasswhistle's 2. Grasswhistle's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, rating, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Grasswhistle sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Grainfold asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Grasswhistle against 5.0 for Grainfold. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Grasswhistle ships an update every 2 days, Grainfold every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 15, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Grasswhistle versus Grainfold: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGrasswhistleGrainfold
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAqeel AadamMarcin Sewastianowicz

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Grasswhistle

One-time2
  • Small coffee$3.00
  • Large coffee$5.00
None

Grainfold

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Grasswhistle free?
Grasswhistle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Grainfold free?
Grainfold is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Grasswhistle or Grainfold?
Grasswhistle and Grainfold are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Grasswhistle or Grainfold have ads?
Neither Grasswhistle nor Grainfold shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Grasswhistle or Grainfold?
Grasswhistle ships an update every 2 days, and Grainfold every 5 days. Most recently, Grasswhistle was updated on November 15, 2026 and Grainfold on November 13, 2026.

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