Comparison

YouCompose vs sub808

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

Head to head
About

YouCompose

Create original music effortlessly with an AI assistant. This app generates unique compositions using music theory and genetic algorithms, ensuring no copyright issues. It offers a wide range of built-in instruments and flexible editing tools.

Highlights
  • AI-powered music composition
  • Original, copyright-free music generation
  • 80+ built-in instrument sounds
  • Over 85 predefined ensembles
  • Multiple creation methods (keyboard, MIDI, grid, score)
  • Classical and jazz harmonization
  • Advanced editing capabilities
Read full description

Meet Aimée, your AI assistant composer, ready to help you create amazing music effortlessly. Aimée: Originality You Can Trust. In the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and creativity, concerns about originality and copyright are paramount. Aimée, the AI-powered assistant in YouCompose, stands out by ensuring that the music she helps you create is entirely original and free from copyright issues. Aimée Doesn't Steal! Aimée's AI isn't trained on existing musical data. Instead, she generates her own unique musical content. This innovation is achieved through the clever use of an expert system that combines music theory with advanced genetic algorithms. As a result, Aimée produces truly original compositions that are not based on or derived from existing works. At the heart of Aimée's originality is an expert system grounded in comprehensive musical theoretical data. This system provides Aimée with a deep understanding of music, enabling her to compose with creativity and precision. Whether you're crafting a symphony or a simple melody, Aimée applies her theoretical knowledge to ensure your music is harmonically rich and structurally sound. Aimée also leverages genetic algorithms, which allow her to evolve and refine musical ideas through a process akin to natural selection. By iteratively improving upon initial ideas, Aimée can explore a vast space of musical possibilities, generating compositions that are both innovative and musically coherent. This approach is crucial in addressing potential copyright infringements. By not relying on pre-existing musical data, Aimée ensures that the music you create with her assistance is genuinely yours. Why Originality Matters? In the realm of music composition, originality is not just a matter of artistic integrity but also a legal necessity. Copyright infringement can lead to significant legal challenges and financial liabilities. Aimée's ability to create original music provides peace of mind, allowing you to focus on your creative process without worrying about potential legal repercussions. Features of YouCompose and Aimée: Built-in Instruments: - 80 instrument definitions with their sounds, including all regular orchestral instruments, keyboards, organs, guitars, basses, chorus, and percussion. - Over 85 predefined ensembles for quick setup, ranging from trios to orchestras. Creating and Editing: - Create melodies using the built-in virtual keyboard, a MIDI keyboard, a grid or score editor, by importing MIDI files, or by asking Aimée to generate them. - Aimée harmonizes your melodies in classical or jazz style, considering your chosen instruments. - Edit compositions by copying, pasting, moving, and deleting movements, segments, and individual notes. - Let Aimée compose a complete symphony or add new movements based on her own or your melodies. - Control harmonization with instrumentation tools, ‘Composition instructions,’ ‘Harmonization Points,’ or leave it to Aimée. - Combine classical and jazz styles within a single piece. - Special tools for entering lyrics, applying melodic transformations, and creating dynamic effects. Sharing and Saving: - Compatible with Audiobus, AudioCopy, and Inter-App Audio for seamless audio recording and integration with other apps. - CoreMIDI compatible for use with MIDI keyboards, sound modules, or synth apps. - Export audio files in MIDI, AAC, M4A, AIFF, CAF, and WAV formats, with M4A files containing iTunes data like ‘artist,’ ‘song name,’ and ‘lyrics.’ - View, print, save or export full scores and individual parts (transposed when applicable) as PDF. - Save compositions to your device, with options to share via iCloud, email, or AirDrop. - Share compositions through email with YouCompose files, audio files, MIDI files, and PDFs of scores and parts. YouCompose also includes several sample compositions featuring well-known melodies, providing a rich starting point for your musical journey.

About

sub808

Create powerful sub-bass sounds with this intuitive instrument app. Explore analog-inspired flavors, fine-tune saturation, and sculpt your basslines with versatile envelope and shaper controls. Compatible across devices for seamless production.

Highlights
  • 50 Factory Presets
  • 4 Analog Flavors
  • 8 Saturation Modes
  • Filter Cutoff & Glide
  • Handcrafted Envelope & Shaper
  • Cross-platform Compatibility
Features
Read full description

Sub atomic bass. Anywhere. For any mix. sub808 is the end result of countless hours dialing in and perfecting the perfect 808 - so you don’t have to! Experience the instant power of sub808 in your productions and sculpt your bass into something uniquely yours with our intuitive interface, all within moments. At its core, sub808 includes 50 Factory Presets, featuring 4 distinct flavors: Smooth, Tape, Gritty, and Nasty. Each flavor comes with its own unique analog character, providing excellent starting points for your creativity. Fine-tune these sounds to perfection with 8 Saturation modes, offering precise control over drive and mix levels. Smooth Easy-To-Dial-in Filter Cutoff & Glide Times: Experience enhanced versatility with a filter cutoff featuring both pre and post saturation modes, enabling you to position your filter precisely within the signal chain. Elevate your bass playability with the added convenience of an easily adjustable glide function, facilitating seamless pitch bending between your bass lines for added depth and expression. Handcrafted Envelope and Shaper: We’ve dialed in a customized amp envelope, giving you just what you need: Attack & Release. To complement this further, a specialized transient shaper that can sculpt your sound from a smooth bass pad, to PUNCH kick drum sound with ease. Collaborate, Anytime, Anywhere, on Any Machine: Wether you have a fleet of production machines, or if you collaborate with music makers around the world, we have you covered with cross-platform compatibility & presets to make switching between any machine fast and easy. Features - 50 Factory Presets covering multiple genres - 4 distinct Flavors with baked in Analog goodness - 8 Saturation Modes w/ Drive & Mix Controls - Punch Control for Smooth or Punchy bass - Sound sculpting Glide & Attack/Release Controls - Preset Manager included for saving, editing, and loading different presets - Standalone app and AUv3 included

Screenshots

YouCompose4 screens
sub8084 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: YouCompose at 70% against sub808's 0%. YouCompose also leads on rating (4.4 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (35 vs 10). sub808's advantage is price ($9.99 vs $12.99) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). On update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

YouCompose costs $12.99 and sub808 $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

YouCompose holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 35 and 10 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of YouCompose's written reviews are positive against 0% of sub808's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

YouCompose ships an update every 4 months, sub808 every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
YouCompose versus sub808: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterYouComposesub808
Price$12.99$9.99 — better
Rating4.4 (35 ratings) — better4.2 (10 ratings)
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings35 — better10
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size399 MB150 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperElstarOSC Audio

Customer experience

YouCompose

All ratings35 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral11.4%
Negative8.6%
Written reviews50 reviews
Positive70.0%
Neutral12.0%
Negative18.0%

sub808

All ratings10 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

YouCompose

No in-app purchases

None

sub808

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is YouCompose free?
YouCompose costs $12.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is sub808 free?
sub808 costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, YouCompose or sub808?
YouCompose is rated higher. YouCompose averages 4.4 out of 5 from 35 ratings, while sub808 averages 4.2 from 10 ratings.
Do YouCompose or sub808 have ads?
Neither YouCompose nor sub808 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, YouCompose or sub808?
YouCompose ships an update every 4 months, and sub808 every 6 months. Most recently, YouCompose was updated on October 9, 2026 and sub808 on September 23, 2026.

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