KORG Gadget 3 vs Drambo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
KORG Gadget 3
Create music with a comprehensive suite of over 40 virtual instruments and effects. This powerful yet intuitive ecosystem allows you to quickly turn your musical ideas into finished tracks, offering a vast sound library and flexible workflow for various genres.
- Over 40 virtual instruments and drum machines
- New Santa Ana (Guitar) and Sydney (Sampler) gadgets
- 5 new insert effects (IFX)
- Intuitive user interface and workflow
- Genre select system for songwriting
- AUv3 support for iOS integration
- Extensive sound library with 6,000+ programs
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More Powerful Than Ever, Quickly Turn Your Ideas Into Music KORG Gadget 3 - A Complete, Seamlessly Integrated Music Production Ecosystem KORG Gadget has received numerous awards from around the world: • Apple: "App Store Best of 2014" in Japan • #1 in the Top Paid Music iPad App category* • TECH AWARD 2015 "Best Music Production App" • MusicTech's "Gear of the Year: Best App" Gold Award • “Musikmesse international press award 2016” Mobile Music App * USA, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and much more! KORG Gadget is the ideal all-in-one music production software and plug-in suite featuring over 40* small synthesizers/drum machines (“gadgets”), which can be freely combined to create music driven by a powerful yet intuitive user interface. The range of products includes the award-winning iOS version, a Mac version that includes all functions and plug-ins, and a plug-in version that can be used with your favorite DAW on Mac/PC. Now in its third generation, more powerful than ever, the workflow is now more intuitive and easier to use than ever before and there are plenty of new features and new gadgets. KORG Gadget 3 offers an expanded variety of even more features to quickly turn your ideas into music, including two new gadgets, five insert effects (IFX), a new genre select system, and AUv3 support. In addition, the user interface has been brushed up to make the Gadget Browser, IFX page, and Play page even more intuitive. KORG Gadget 3 is the perfect tool to quickly turn your ideas into music. What's New in KORG Gadget 3 • Gadget Instrument Collection with a total over 6,000 sound programs • New gadgets: Santa Ana (Guitar) and Sydney (Sampler) • Improved user interface, making the workflow more intuitive than ever • A genre select function that allows you to create songs from your favorite patterns • 5 new IFX including an 8-Band EQ, Transient Shaper, Stereo Image, Auto Pumper, Pitch Shifter • The Play page: easy arpeggiator use and chord entry • A whole new sound browser that lets you select gadgets by the timbre you want • AUv3 support on iOS, allowing gadgets to be used in other music apps like Garageband, Logic Pro • A huge collection of over 40* gadget instruments Overwhelming sound. Immersive, intuitive and powerful user interface. Unprecedented and innovative quality. KORG Gadget 3 is a collection of over 40* gadget instruments, including compact synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, and audio and MIDI utilities. It has sophisticated parameters that make it easy for you to get to the sound they want, so you can create your own sounds instantly. The new Sound Browser allows you to get to your favorite sounds in the quickest time possible. It is perfectly suited for dance music as well as rock, pop, jazz, and other music sounds and genres. • Get your songwriting ideas with Genre Select The new "Genre Select" feature allows you to select your favorite genre and sound, and then start songwriting by freely combining patterns. 5 x 5 pads are all assigned with phrases created by gadgets, so you can start songwriting by freely combining your favorite patterns. You can start creating a song from a project in which each track's gadgets and scenes have been developed. Choose from the standard genre packs and enjoy a different approach to music production. • Tons of sounds readily available with the New Browser To make it easier than ever to find the desired gadget instrument, we have revised the Gadget Browser and added various functions. New features include displaying gadgets by instrument category, a Favourites function that allows you to group your favorite gadgets, and a search function that allows you to freely search for sounds in each gadget. Using the program search function, it is now possible to quickly and easily preview and search for the sound you wanted from a vast array of sounds. * Some gadgets are available as in-app purchases (IAP) or by purchasing other KORG apps. More info at korg.com
Drambo
This app offers a flexible sound design experience, allowing users to build beats, create synthesizers, and process audio with effects. Its innovative modular system simplifies connections and organization, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced musicians. It functions as a standalone application or a plugin within a DAW.
- Modular sound design
- Intuitive cable-less connections
- Advanced sequencer
- Standalone and AUv3 plugin
- Over 140 modules
- Polyphonic stereo processing
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"Drambo changes the face of iOS music apps." Cult of Mac Drambo is your all-in-one sound laboratory that adapts to your workflow: build beats as a groovebox, design synths, or transform audio with effects, standalone or inside your favorite DAW. At the core of Drambo is a fresh approach to modular design that makes creating with modules easy, fun, and accessible. Connections happen automatically as you add or move modules, so there are no messy cables to slow you down. The interface adapts to your workflow, generating modulation controls when you need them, and even lets modules contain other modules for perfect organization. You’re always free to override the automatic connections, but most of the time, you can just dive in, experiment, and shape sounds without getting tangled in wires. Use a deep and innovative sequencer to compose patterns and whole tracks, for production or live performance. Go beyond simple looping sequences with parameter locking, conditional step components, parameters automation and powerful scene morphing. Drambo works equally well as a self-contained standalone app or audio unit plugin with audio and MIDI connectivity as an AUV3 instrument, audio effect and MIDI effect. You can use Drambo as • A Complete Studio: Produce entire tracks and perform live in a self-contained, multitrack environment. • An Endless modular playground, that allows you to build, modify and store custom instruments and effects. For instance: build a custom synth, sample and resample, build a Theremin using a gyroscope module, or turn your table into a playable surface, by processing microphone input with physical modelling modules. • An Advanced MIDI Sequencer: Control hardware or AUv3 instruments. Generate custom MIDI CC messages or send modulation signals to physical modular synths via DC-coupled interfaces. • The Ultimate AUv3 Plugin: Load Drambo inside other DAWs as an instrument, audio effect, or MIDI processor. Replace dozens of standard plugins by building your own complex modular delays, reverbs, decimators, or modulators in seconds. • A Unified Audio-Visual Studio (Drambo Visual IAP): Arts united. Step into another realm of modular visual synthesis to build complex generative video art, or seamlessly patch your audio and visual engines together for deeply integrated performances. Features: • Polyphonic, stereo processing and audio-rate modulation. All signals are equal. Up to 16 voices per modular instrument rack. • Unique modular concept: cable-less, drag'n'drop, color coding dynamic interface, automatic connections, and customizable compact, rack views. • Directional flow makes Drambo routing and patching straightforward. Signal flows only left to right, so there are no instant feedback routings in Drambo. Delayed feedback is possible using certain modules. • Simple and clean interface, that scales to every size and device orientation • Over 140 modules available, such as: oscillators, samplers, physical modelling modules, LFOs, envelope generators, filters, audio effects, mixers, MIDI processors, sequencers and math functions. (Includes a macro oscillator based on the famous Eurorack Plaits module, with 24 synth engines) • Custom modular racks that can be nested, with presets at the track, rack, and module level. • Clip launcher / song arrager. • 16-tracks, polyphonic sequencer with parameter locks, automation and step components. 8 dedicated step sequence editor types, piano-roll, powerful automation designer with drawing modes and cubic Bezier curves. • Audio Units hosting ( standalone app only ) • Morph groups: you can morph many parameters using a single slider. • Available as a standalone app, AUv3 instrument, effect and MIDI effect. • MIDI and Ableton Link support Drambo is all about control. Control things that other apps don’t even give you access to. Visit the BeepStreet page for help and tutorials, and Patchstorage for community content.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Drambo at $24.99 against KORG Gadget 3's $39.99. Drambo also leads on review sentiment (87% vs 76%). KORG Gadget 3's advantage is ratings volume (2.9K vs 325) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On rating, 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
KORG Gadget 3 costs $39.99 and Drambo $24.99 up front. KORG Gadget 3 sells 11 one-off in-app purchases and Drambo sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for KORG Gadget 3 against 4.8 for Drambo. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: KORG Gadget 3 has 2.9K ratings behind it against 325, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of KORG Gadget 3's written reviews are positive against 87% of Drambo's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.
| Parameter | KORG Gadget 3 | Drambo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $39.99 | $24.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (2.9K ratings) | 4.8 (325 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.2% of reviews | 86.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2.9K — better | 325 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #179 | #150 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.9 GB | 144 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | KORG INC. | BeepStreet |
Customer experience
KORG Gadget 3
Drambo
User reviews
KORG Gadget 3
From 2.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great for creating rave and dance music
- 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
- 🎨 Powerful sound design capabilities
- 💡 Useful for live performance
- 👍 Excellent workflow for sketching ideas
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
- 💰 Expensive with many in-app purchases
- 🔀 Randomized saved project order
- 🔍 Difficult to precisely control zoom and note editing
- 🔓 Issues with restoring purchased content
Drambo
From 325 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Incredibly powerful and flexible
- 🎨 Endless creative possibilities
- 👍 Intuitive and well-designed interface
- 🔧 Modular synth capabilities
- 🎛️ Excellent sequencing and groove box features
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
- 🔒 Limited undo/redo functionality
- 🔊 Audio export issues (pitch/tempo problems)
- 🔀 Lack of dedicated audio track support
Bugs and requests
KORG Gadget 3
Reported bugs
4 issues- Playback issues with latest update
- Imported samples limited to 5 seconds
- Bilbao sampler crashes when importing WAV files
- Gadget instruments not showing up in AUv3 lists
Requested features
8 requests- Add more acoustic drum and bass sounds
- Implement MIDI out functionality
- Allow customizable scales and tunings
- Add a proper sampler with more advanced features
- Improve copy/paste and track management capabilities
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- Implement a linear song mode for non-grid-based compositions
- Add more effects like halftime, sample degrader, etc.
- Allow using AUv3 effects within Gadget
Drambo
Reported bugs
3 issues- Audio cutting out after 5 minutes of use
- Presets and patches not loading properly
- Incompatibility with certain iOS devices
Requested features
5 requests- Stem/track export functionality
- MIDI CC learn and external control
- Ableton Link support
- More parameter control and modulation options
- Improved piano roll and sequencing tools
In-app purchases
KORG Gadget 3
- Bilbao$9.99
- Abu Dhabi$9.99
- Madrid$14.99
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- Gladstone$14.99
- Kamata$14.99
- Lisbon$14.99
- Vancouver$14.99
- Stockholm$14.99
- Otorii$14.99
- Santa Ana$14.99
- Ebina$14.99
Drambo
- Granular extension$4.99
- Waves extension$4.99
- Formants extension$4.99
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- DSP extensions 1$4.99
- Visual extension$14.99









