Comparison

MIDI Aid vs MIDIRack

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

Head to head
About

MIDI Aid

Features
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MIDI Aid is a MIDI monitor: connect your MIDI devices and see every incoming event in one clean, technical view. Whether you are debugging a synth patch, checking a controller mapping, or just curious what your gear is sending, MIDI Aid shows you what is really happening on the wire. CAPTURE • Live event log with precise timestamps • Start, pause, and resume capturing at any time • Clear the log with one tap • Follow mode keeps the newest events in view UNDERSTAND • Every event decoded into plain language: notes with names and velocities, controllers with their standard names, program changes, aftertouch, pitch wheel, and more • Raw status and data bytes side by side with the decoded event • Hex or decimal display, your choice • Tap any event for a detail view including the full raw bytes FILTER • Focus on what matters: filter by device, event type, and MIDI channel • Channel events, system common events, and system real time events can be toggled individually • Mute noisy events like Timing Clock or Active Sensing with one tap DEVICES • Works with USB MIDI devices out of the box • Network MIDI sessions and Bluetooth MIDI devices set up at system level appear automatically MIDI Aid supports all 16 MIDI channels, running status, and System Exclusive messages. No account, no ads, no tracking. Your MIDI data never leaves your device.

About

MIDIRack

Design custom MIDI control surfaces with a variety of instruments and sequencers. Unlock advanced features like a visual MIDI processing graph for complex routing and generative music creation. Use it standalone, as an AUv3 plugin, or to control desktop DAWs.

Highlights
  • Customizable touch surface design
  • KB-1 keyboard suite with MPE support
  • Advanced step and matrix sequencers
  • Visual MIDI processing graph
  • Built-in instruments and samplers
  • Connects to desktop DAWs via USB or Bluetooth
Features
Read full description

MIDIRack is a MIDI toolkit for iPad. Build a custom touch surface from the KB-1 keyboard suite, an all-new sequencer suite, knobs, faders, buttons and more — then unlock a visual MIDI processing graph (one time in-app purchase) and wire it into anything, from a simple custom controller to a full-on groovebox or a self-playing generative composer. Play it on its own and send MIDI anywhere, as an AUv3 plugin in your favourite host or a standalone instrument. THE BASE APP — PERFORMANCE SURFACE Design a custom control surface on a snapping grid: • The KB-1 keyboard suite — piano, diatonic chord pads, scale-locked keyboard, MPE Seaboard ribbon, MPE Strings grid (4ths), and a 4×4 GM drum-pad grid. Each is its own routable node with latch and octave shift. Successor to the KB-1 Expressive Keyboard Suite. • A suite of sequencers — drum, melody, chord, analog and CC step grids and a Matrix note grid, with a moving playhead, swing and microtiming. Per-step velocity, probability, tie and trigger conditions; pattern chaining and 4-pad scene switching for full arrangements; a knob-per-step analog machine that re-roots live as you play. • Knobs, faders, XY pads, buttons and live visualizers — bind to raw MIDI CC or graph parameters. On its own: a rich custom control surface builder — send MIDI and CC to any synth, app or hardware, no graph required. WITH YOUR DESKTOP DAW Expressive MPE hardware costs hundreds. MIDIRack turns the iPad you already own into a controller for Logic, Live, Bitwig, Cubase or any desktop DAW: • Two MPE surfaces — the Seaboard ribbon and the Strings grid send per-note pitch bend, slide and pressure to any MPE-capable instrument on your desk. • A controller that changes per track — MPE ribbon for the lead, drum pads for the beat, chord pads for the progression, faders mapped to CC for a mix move. Rearrange in seconds; save a surface per project. • Sequence it too — clock the step lanes to your DAW and drive its tracks. • Easy to connect — one USB cable to a Mac via IDAM (Inter-Device Audio and MIDI), or wirelessly over Bluetooth MIDI. No driver, no helper app. UNLOCK — MIDI GRAPH (in-app purchase) Wire MIDI In → processors → MIDI Out on a visual canvas: • 60+ node kinds — arpeggiators, scale/key quantizers, transposers, chords, echoes, swing, humanize, euclidean rhythms, random/generative melodies, LFOs, CC tools, an analog knob-per-step sequencer, a Matrix sequencer and a Counter. • Built-in instruments — Synth, Drums, a Sampler and a loop Slicer make sound right in the graph; no external synth required. • Emergence generators — Conway's Game of Life, Turing machine, Wolfram rules, Markov, bouncing balls, Lorenz attractor — for evolving, living patterns. • Presets — factory patches grouped by category (control surfaces, generators, keyboards, utilities): Amen Engine, Starfield, Conway Choir, Turing Bass, Cellular Drums… Save your own. ROUTING & MPE • MIDI Out exposes all 16 channels plus an MPE connector — multitimbral, multi-instrument setups. The built-in synth responds to MPE. • Every keyboard is its own node — process and route each one independently. PLAYS OUT OF THE BOX • Built-in polyphonic synth, drum kit, sampler & slicer or send MIDI to your gear via CoreMIDI and an always-on virtual port.

Screenshots

MIDI Aid3 screens
MIDIRack4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: MIDI Aid at $0.99 against MIDIRack's $14.99. MIDI Aid also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1). MIDIRack's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 35 months). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

MIDI Aid costs $0.99 and MIDIRack $14.99 up front. MIDIRack sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. MIDI Aid asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MIDI Aid ships an update every 35 months, MIDIRack every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 7, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
MIDI Aid versus MIDIRack: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMIDI AidMIDIRack
Price$0.99 — better$14.99
Rating—4.8 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings—8 — better
Update frequencyEvery 35 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTobias WissmuellerKai Aras

In-app purchases

None

MIDI Aid

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

MIDIRack

One-time1
  • Graph Editor Unlock$7.99

Questions

Is MIDI Aid free?
MIDI Aid costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is MIDIRack free?
MIDIRack costs $14.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Do MIDI Aid or MIDIRack have ads?
Neither MIDI Aid nor MIDIRack shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MIDI Aid or MIDIRack?
MIDI Aid ships an update every 35 months, and MIDIRack every 4 days. Most recently, MIDI Aid was updated on October 7, 2026 and MIDIRack on October 7, 2026.

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