Ensemble Composer vs DropSpin Metronome
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ensemble Composer
Create custom drumline music with realistic recorded sounds. Compose street beats, stand jams, or entire musical books. Play along, practice, share, and edit your compositions.
- Compose drumline music
- Realistic recorded drum sounds
- Play along and practice
- Share and edit compositions
- Support for any time signature
- Customizable rhythms
Read full descriptionHide full description
A whole drumline in the palm of your hand! Compose a street beat, a stand jam, or even your whole book. Play along, practice, share, and edit. With amazing real recorded drum sounds and the ability to create any rhythm over any time signature, this is the real deal. Compose and play along with the actual battery drum line sounds of the Paul Rennick 2012 Santa Clara Vanguard, as recorded by bass tech Brian Lowe - tuned the way they sounded on finals night. Best used with Headphones About Telephonic Amusements: Nicholas Wheeler, software engineer, marched Sky Ryders, Velvet Knights, and UNT - taught at Pioneer and UNT; David Croy, designer, marched Sky Ryders and tech’ed under Paul Rennick at Sky, VK, and has provided visual consulting for UNT and Dynasty Drums. Like us at https://www.facebook.com/DrumlineApps
DropSpin Metronome
A versatile metronome app designed for musicians, offering advanced features like custom count-ins, speed adjustments from 10% to 1000%, and loopable segments. It integrates with a suite of rehearsal products for comprehensive practice sessions.
- Customizable count-ins
- Speed control (10%-1000%)
- Loopable segments
- "Last Time" auto-stop
- MIDI playback
- In-depth rehearsal analytics
Read full descriptionHide full description
DropSpin can be used as a standalone metronome or as a partner to our full suite of rehearsal products including bluetooth modules, score-reading software, rehearsal analytics tools, and much more. In depth rehearsal analytics Custom count-ins Rehearse from 10%-1000% speed "Last Time" auto-stop Halftime and other custom behaviors Loopable segments MIDI playback
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: DropSpin Metronome at Free against Ensemble Composer's $14.99. DropSpin Metronome also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). Ensemble Composer's advantage is ratings volume (275 vs 66). On review sentiment, update cadence, 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
DropSpin Metronome is free to download; Ensemble Composer costs $14.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
DropSpin Metronome holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 275 and 66 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Ensemble Composer's written reviews are positive against 82% of DropSpin Metronome's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ensemble Composer | DropSpin Metronome |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (275 ratings) | 4.8 (66 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.4% of reviews | 81.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 275 — better | 66 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | N. Wheeler | Alex Crowley |
Customer experience
Ensemble Composer
DropSpin Metronome
Bugs and requests
Ensemble Composer
Reported bugs
16 issues- New update prevents opening older files
- Audio stutters and cuts off in faster rhythms
- Triplet rolls don't sound even
- Bass drum subdivisions not working
- Tenor section drums moved to incorrect positions
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Scroll feature is choppy and laggy
- Rhythmic accuracy issues
- Cymbal sounds bleed into each other
- App crashes with certain subdivisions
- Polyrhythm and odd time signature issues
- Saving functionality fails intermittently
- Split feature freezes and causes progress loss
- Files duplicate unexpectedly
- Export format incorrect (.mxl instead of .xml)
- Tempo synchronization issues
- App crashes on startup
Requested features
16 requests- Revert snare sounds to pre-update quality
- Multiple sound option choices for drums
- Hi-hat option for cymbals
- Single tenor drum section option
- Separate tempos within drum sections
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Undo/redo functionality
- Auto-save feature
- iCloud or cloud backup support
- Different drum tuning options
- Legato and staccato buzz options
- Smoother and longer buzz roll sounds
- Sixtet tenor configuration option
- Video export/share functionality
- In-depth tutorial documentation
- Accent dynamics improvements
- Rim click sounds for tenors
DropSpin Metronome
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Ensemble Composer
No in-app purchases
DropSpin Metronome
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Ensemble Composer free?
Is DropSpin Metronome free?
Which has better reviews, Ensemble Composer or DropSpin Metronome?
Do Ensemble Composer or DropSpin Metronome have ads?
Which is updated more often, Ensemble Composer or DropSpin Metronome?
Other comparisons
