Comparison

Ensemble Composer vs Drumline Designer

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Compose drumline music
  • Realistic recorded drum sounds
  • Play along and practice
  • Share and edit compositions
  • Support for any time signature
  • Customizable rhythms
Features
Currently charting
Read 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

About

Drumline Designer

Create and edit drumline sheet music directly on your mobile device. This app offers an intuitive grid system for note entry, automatic beaming, and support for complex rhythms and articulations. Export your compositions as PDFs, audio, MusicXML, or animated videos.

Highlights
  • Intuitive grid-based note entry
  • Automatic beaming and placement
  • Support for tuplets and complex rhythms
  • Add accents, staccatos, marcatos, and legatos
  • Instant playback for review
  • Export to PDF, Audio, MusicXML, and video
  • Create animated video clips
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Notate sheet music for drumline directly from your phone! Drumline Designer is the app that lets you easily enter notes into a grid and have your sheet music automatically be created. Perfect for hobbyist and professionals! Export PDFs, Audio, MusicXML, and videos of your music! Drumline Designer uses an accessible grid design system, allowing you input notes easily. Each note is automatically beamed and placed inside of your sheet music. The grid can also work with tuplets, allowing you to write more complex rhythmic lines. Add accents, staccatos, marcatos, and legatos to your music, shaping the way everything plays and sounds. Playback is instant, allowing you to listen and make changes as you go. Each piece of music can be exported to other notation softwares, allowing you to easily implement your drumline music into Sibelius, MuseScore, Dorico and other notation software! Show off your music by exporting animated videos, making both portrait and landscape clips so you can share your work on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media.

Screenshots

Ensemble Composer4 screens
Drumline Designer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Ensemble Composer at 4.6 against Drumline Designer's 4.0. Ensemble Composer also leads on ratings volume (275 vs 2) and price ($14.99 vs $19.99). Drumline Designer's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (100% vs 77%). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and chart position 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

Ensemble Composer costs $14.99 and Drumline Designer $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Ensemble Composer holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ensemble Composer has 275 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 77% of Ensemble Composer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Drumline Designer's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ensemble Composer ships an update every 2 months, Drumline Designer every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 15, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Ensemble Composer versus Drumline Designer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEnsemble ComposerDrumline Designer
Price$14.99 — better$19.99
Rating4.6 (275 ratings) — better4.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews77.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings275 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#181#178 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.614.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB213 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperN. WheelerChristian Price

Customer experience

Ensemble Composer

All ratings275 ratings
Positive90.5%
Neutral2.2%
Negative7.3%
Written reviews84 reviews
Positive77.4%
Neutral7.1%
Negative15.5%

Drumline Designer

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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 more
  • 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 more
  • 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

Drumline Designer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Ensemble Composer

No in-app purchases

None

Drumline Designer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ensemble Composer free?
Ensemble Composer costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Drumline Designer free?
Drumline Designer costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Ensemble Composer or Drumline Designer?
Ensemble Composer is rated higher. Ensemble Composer averages 4.6 out of 5 from 275 ratings, while Drumline Designer averages 4.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Ensemble Composer or Drumline Designer have ads?
Neither Ensemble Composer nor Drumline Designer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ensemble Composer or Drumline Designer?
Ensemble Composer ships an update every 2 months, and Drumline Designer every 6 days. Most recently, Ensemble Composer was updated on October 15, 2026 and Drumline Designer on October 15, 2026.
Which is more popular, Ensemble Composer or Drumline Designer?
Ensemble Composer currently peaks at #181 in the App Store charts, and Drumline Designer at #178. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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