Chiptunes Pro vs GateVerb
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chiptunes Pro
Create retro-style music by wiring together virtual electronic components. No prior electronics knowledge is required to build drum beats, basslines, and melodies. Enjoy a unique blend of circuit design and music creation.
- Create retro music with chips
- Wire together circuits
- Lay down drum beats, basslines, and tunes
- No electronics knowledge needed
- Audiobus support for live streaming
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Winner of the "Most technically impressive" award in the Ray Wenderlich Readers' App Awards 2014! “I never knew how Chiptunes actually worked before playing around with this app. Very cool and definitely got me in a retro vibe!” – Ray Wenderlich “A crazy mashup of circuit design and music making: Wire together circuits to lay down some cool jams.” – Nick Lockwood “SPICE meets garage band.” – Erik Kerber Chiptunes Pro lets you make retro music the way it should be made - with chips! Build your circuit to lay down drum beats, basslines, and tunes. No knowledge of electronics needed! Chiptunes Pro includes all the components that are available in the free Chiptunes app, including those that are only available as in-app purchases. Chiptunes Pro also includes Audiobus support: stream live audio directly to other Audiobus-compatible apps. See http://audiob.us for more information.
GateVerb
This audio effect plugin offers a stereo reverb with a retro sound. It features pre and post-effect filters for tone shaping and a switchable gate for classic gated reverb or reverse reverb effects in real-time. Adjust size, damping, width, and wet/dry levels for customized audio.
- Stereo reverb with retro vibe
- Pre and post-effect filters
- Switchable gate processing
- Gated reverb emulation
- Reverse reverb emulation
- Adjustable reverb size, damping, width
- Adjustable wet/dry signal levels
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GateVerb Gated Reverb Plugin (AUv3) GateVerb is an audio effect plugin that can run standalone, or in any AU compatible host application such as Logic Pro or GarageBand. Overview GateVerb is a super-simple and CPU-friendly stereo reverb with a retro vibe. Pre and post-effect filters provide additional tone-shaping, and the switchable gate processing stage allows the recreation of the gated reverb sound made famous on many an 80's hit, as well as an emulation of a "reverse reverb" effect in realtime. And of course, you can simply switch off the gate, for those times when you just need a straightforward no-frills reverb. Controls Active - Toggles the effect On or Off. You can use this control to A/B your settings with the original signal and this will fade gradually between the two with no distracting pops or clicks! Reverb Controls Size - Varies the size of the emulated reverb from a small room to very large hall. Damping - Varies the amount of high frequency damping applied to the reverb tail. As damping is increased, the reverb effect becomes "softer". Width - Sets the stereo spread of the generated reverb from mono, to wide stereo. Wet - Sets the level of the generated reverb, including the filter processing. Dry - Sets the level of the dry / incoming audio signal. Filter Controls HPF - Sets the cutoff frequency of a high-pass filter, which is applied to the signal sent into the reverb processing. LPF - Sets the cutoff frequency of a low-pass filter, which is applied to the output of the reverb processing. Gate Controls Gate - Turns the gate processing stage On or Off. Like the Active control, this is a "soft" switch so you can A/B the effect. The gate processing is applied to the wet / reverb signal only. Smoothing - Sets how fast the gate processing responds to changes in the input signal. Lower settings correspond to a fast response time, whereas higher settings introduce a lag or damping effect to the responsiveness of the gate. Note that the smoothing time also affects the Attack and Release times, so if you need a really slow attack, try increasing the Smoothing too. Threshold - Sets the signal level required to "open" the gate. Note - If set too high, you might not hear any reverb at all, and if set too low, no gating effect will occur as the signal will be loud enough to keep the gate open all the time. Attack - Sets how quickly the gate opens once triggered. At the zero setting, the gate will open immediately, otherwise it opens up gradually, which can be used to create a swell / pseudo-reverse reverb effect. Sometimes, just having a little bit of a swell prevents the reverb from masking the attack of the dry signal which helps retain clarity. Alternatively, ramp-up the attack for spooky vocal effects! Release - Sets how quickly the gate closes after the attack stage. At zero, it will close very quickly, depending on the Response settings. Longer release times can be quite subtle and allows for some fine-tuning of the reverb tail. Somewhere in the middle is the classic 80's drum type gated reverb effect. For more info and support please visit: www.waverley-instruments.com/robjackson
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Chiptunes Pro at Free against GateVerb's $1.99. Chiptunes Pro also leads on iOS requirement (7.0 vs 12.0). GateVerb's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.0) and review sentiment (100% vs 80%). On ratings volume, 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
Chiptunes Pro is free to download; GateVerb costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
GateVerb holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Chiptunes Pro's written reviews are positive against 100% of GateVerb's.
Chiptunes Pro ships an update every 3 months, GateVerb every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chiptunes Pro | GateVerb |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.0 (7 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Simon Booth | Rob Jackson |
Customer experience
Chiptunes Pro
GateVerb
In-app purchases
Chiptunes Pro
No in-app purchases
GateVerb
No in-app purchases









