Comparison

Ensemble Composer vs Drumr Notate

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

Drumr Notate

Create and share drum music compositions quickly. This app offers a comprehensive set of notation tools for various drum instruments, allowing you to hear your music and export it as a PDF or MusicXML file. It integrates with a practice tool for enhanced learning.

Highlights
  • Compose drum music with detailed notation
  • Multiple instrument palettes (Drum Kit, Marching Snare, Tenors, Bassline)
  • Playback with built-in drum sounds
  • Export scores as PDF and MusicXML
  • Integrates with Drumr for interactive practice
  • Keyboard shortcuts and intuitive interface
Features
Read full description

Compose your own drum kit and drumline music, fast. Write your part, hear it back, and share or print a PDF. Try editing free for 7 days. No account required. Write It. Hear It. Share It. Compose - Note values from whole notes to 32nd notes - Tuplets — triplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets, and ninelets - Dynamics from ppp to fff, crescendo and decrescendo hairpins, and score-wide Accent/Tap dynamics - Accents, marcatos, tenutos, flams, diddles, ghost notes, and open hi-hat markings - Add sticking and text to explain how the part should be played. - Per-measure tempo marks from 30 to 300 bpm and time signatures from 2/4 to 13/8 - Beams group themselves from the meter, compound meters included, with manual override - Rests consolidate automatically - Duplicate measures, repeat notes, and copy and paste to build patterns fast Four Complete Instrument Palettes More than 100 sound and technique combinations across four instruments. - Drum Kit — snare, bass drum, hi-hats, toms, and cymbals, plus cowbell, tambourine, clave, and gock block - Marching Snare — rimshots, cross-sticks, buzz and press rolls, backsticks, stick shots, stick clicks, ping shots, gock blocks, cowbell, and ribbon crasher - Marching Tenors — all six drums, with rim clicks, rimshots, buzz and press rolls, crossovers, stick shots, stick clicks, and skank - Marching Bassline — all five drums, with rim clicks, rimshots, buzz rolls, stick clicks, and unison hits Hear It Back Play your score with built-in authentic drum sounds — playback follows the tempo marks you write, from 30 to 300 bpm. Share It Share or print a PDF of your scores. Scores live in the Files app and iCloud Drive, and every score is a standard MusicXML file you can use in your notation workflow. Made for Speed Tap, drag, or use full hardware keyboard shortcuts. Drag a note and Notate previews the valid placements before you drop it. Appearance Choose Light, Dark, or System to match your device. Practice It in Drumr Tap Open in Drumr to turn your score into an interactive practice tool — follow along note-for-note, slow the tempo or use speed training to build stick control, loop the hard parts, get practice feedback, and see your progress. Requires a Drumr Premium subscription with a free 7-day trial. — Help/feedback: support.drumr.app Privacy: privacy.drumr.app Terms: terms.drumr.app Apple EULA: apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

Screenshots

Ensemble Composer4 screens
Drumr Notate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Drumr Notate at Free against Ensemble Composer's $14.99. Drumr Notate also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 2 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Ensemble Composer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (275 vs 3). On 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

Drumr Notate is free to download; Ensemble Composer costs $14.99 up front. Drumr Notate sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Ensemble Composer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Drumr Notate holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ensemble Composer has 275 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Ensemble Composer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Drumr Notate's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ensemble Composer ships an update every 2 months, Drumr Notate daily. The most recent releases landed on September 13, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Ensemble Composer versus Drumr Notate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEnsemble ComposerDrumr Notate
Price$14.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (275 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings275 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#194 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB44 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperN. WheelerDrumr Inc.

Customer experience

Ensemble Composer

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

Drumr Notate

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 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

Drumr Notate

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Ensemble Composer

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Drumr Notate

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly7 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Ensemble Composer free?
Ensemble Composer costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Drumr Notate free?
Drumr Notate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Ensemble Composer or Drumr Notate?
Drumr Notate is rated higher. Ensemble Composer averages 4.6 out of 5 from 275 ratings, while Drumr Notate averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Ensemble Composer or Drumr Notate have ads?
Neither Ensemble Composer nor Drumr Notate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ensemble Composer or Drumr Notate?
Ensemble Composer ships an update every 2 months, and Drumr Notate daily. Most recently, Ensemble Composer was updated on September 13, 2026 and Drumr Notate on September 29, 2026.

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