M/S Processor 2 vs Q BIT Crusher
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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/
Q BIT Crusher
This app offers a bit crusher effect with a unique time-hold feature to add grit and character to audio. It allows for creative manipulation of sound slices, offering retro chip-like qualities for modern production. It can be used as a standalone app or an AUv3 plugin.
- Four distinct bit crusher models
- Adjustable bit depth and sample rate
- Time-hold feature with tempo sync
- AUv3 plugin compatibility
- Standalone app for live processing
- Extensive preset library
- Full parameter automation
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Q BIT is a bit crusher with a time hold, now on your iPhone and iPad. The crusher gives your sound its grit. HOLD grabs slices of your track and holds them, on your song's tempo or at its own pace. Q BIT does more than lower the quality of a sound. It reshapes the signal itself, giving it the character and musicality of a retro sound chip while keeping it relevant to modern production: a way to make digital reduction playable. HOLD is the heart of Q BIT. At every grab, a slice of your track plays as it is; then the hold freezes its end and sustains it until the next grab. On a held note it sounds like a tremolo or a pulse; on drums, like a rhythm of short hits and held tones. SEGMENT sets how much of each slice plays before the hold takes over, and in Sync a green arc on its ring shows the settings that keep every hit of the last bars intact. Use it as an AUv3 plug-in in your favorite host (Logic Pro for iPad, GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis and more) or as a standalone app processing live sound from your microphone or an audio interface. KEY FEATURES: - Four crusher models, each showing only its own controls: Linear, flexible bit crushing where you set the bit depth and the sample rate; SP-1200, a punchy, gritty drum-sampler character with a softer top end; M.93, a vintage digital-delay character, clean on quiet sounds and gritty on loud ones; ZX Spectrum 128, a coarse, retro home-computer character - BITS from 24 down to 2 bit and RATE from your session rate down to 2 kHz (Linear) - MULTIPLY 1x, 2x, 4x or 8x (M.93): each step darker and grainier - CHANNELS (ZX Spectrum 128): Mono, like the original, or Stereo, a chip for each side - HOLD: Off, Free (1 to 16 grabs a second) or Sync (1/4 to 1/32, straight, dotted or triplet, on your host's tempo) - INPUT drives the crusher, MIX blends your dry track back in, OUTPUT sets the final level, and the INPUT / OUTPUT Link switch in the menu changes the drive while keeping the level - MATCH holds the output at the loudness of bypass while you adjust the controls, so you judge the sound, not the volume - The display shows your sound as it plays, the sound going in and the stepped sound coming out, with the OUT and IN peak levels one above the other - Type a value: tap the readout of HOLD RATE, SEGMENT, INPUT, MIX or OUTPUT - Mono and stereo - 33 factory presets in six folders (Drums, Extreme, Lo-Fi Machines, Rhythm, Synths and Keys, Vocals and Samples), with descriptions, tags, search and favorites - A/B slots with copy - Made for touch: the help shows while you touch a control, and a long press opens the preset and folder menus - Preset import and export through Files - Full parameter automation in AUv3 hosts All audio is processed on your device. No account, no data collection, no internet connection required. Q BIT is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the makers of the machines its models follow. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Q BIT Crusher at 4 against M/S Processor 2's 1. Q BIT Crusher also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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 M/S Processor 2 against 5.0 for Q BIT Crusher. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 4 respectively.
| Parameter | M/S Processor 2 | Q BIT Crusher |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 44 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ruben Nine Blanco | Pulsar Modular |
In-app purchases
M/S Processor 2
No in-app purchases
Q BIT Crusher
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is M/S Processor 2 free?
Is Q BIT Crusher free?
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