Comparison

BeatHawk vs Heavy Brass

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

Head to head
About

BeatHawk

Create, record, and mix music on the go with this portable production studio. It offers a vast library of sounds, instruments, and effects, allowing you to import your own samples and collaborate with other apps. Export your creations in various formats or share them directly to social media.

Highlights
  • Create beats and compose tracks
  • Sample, record, and sequence music
  • Mix and arrange your own music
  • High-quality UVI sounds and effects
  • Import your own samples
  • Export mixes, stems, and MIDI
  • Share on YouTube and SoundCloud
Features
Read full description

Portable Music Production Studio : create beats, compose whole tracks, sample, record, sequence, perform, mix and arrange your own music! » Packed with high-quality UVI sounds, instruments and effects » Use included UVI sounds, your own samples, or high-quality expansion packs » Use with other Apps that support Ableton Link. Audiobus, AudioCopy and AudioUnits » Export your mixes, stems, MIDI tracks or as Ableton Live project files » Share with your friends on YouTube or SoundCloud » Get your ideas out quickly, efficiently and sounding great no matter where you are! STUDIO GRADE » Designed to put professional quality UVI software into a lightweight and fun performance-oriented package » Delivers extreme sonic fidelity rivaling desktop products » Power, speed and flexibility make for ultimate ease-of-use » Ensures fast, intuitive and professional quality music production SOUNDS » Including 2 factory sound packs with 2,000+ samples, 290 presets and dozens of loops » Import your own sounds (support for MP3, WAV, AIF, FLAC, and M4A) » Record using built-in mic, line-in or external devices » Edit and tweak sounds with high-quality effects and ADSR envelopes » Integrated sound expansion store (Acoustic Grand, Atlanta Urban, Funk, Brass Riffs, Asia, World Percussions, Vintage Blues Guitar, Electric Organs, Electro Pop, and much more…) CONNECTIVITY » Ableton Link, Inter-App Audio, Audio Unit v3 Plugin, Audiobus and AudioCopy support » Transfer files via. iCloud, Google Drive, DropBox or OneDrive » Paste audio directly to pads with AudioCopy » External keyboard and MIDI-over-LAN support via CoreMIDI » Jam with multiple devices using WIST Sync over Bluetooth » Export stereo mix, stems, MIDI tracks or Ableton Live project file (file format: 44.1kHz 24-bit WAV) » Share your music on SoundCloud and YouTube FEATURES » 16 track sequencer with up to 16 patterns per part » Pad, keyboard and pattern performance modes » High-quality pitch and time stretching » Numerous scales playable in Pitch mode » Step Editor mode with Note and CC » Record using built-in mic, line-in or external devices » Edit and tweak sounds with high-quality effects and ADSR envelopes » Choke groups and One-Shot sample modes » Bind parameters to MIDI CC with MIDI Learn » Perform and record arrangements in realtime SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS » iOS 9.3+ » iPad 4 or newer » iPhone 5 or newer (iPhone 6 or newer recommended) » 1.7 GB of disk space www.beathawk.com

About

Heavy Brass

This virtual instrument app provides realistic trumpet, trombone, and saxophone sounds for music production and live performance. It offers a wide variety of articulations and sound categories, supporting integration with other music apps and external MIDI controllers.

Highlights
  • Trumpet, Trombone, Saxophone sounds
  • Multiple brass section samples
  • Switchable and crossfadeable articulations
  • Audio Unit v3, Inter-App Audio, Audiobus support
  • External MIDI keyboard and controller support
  • Integrated effects with presets
  • MIDI player and recorder
Read full description

Heavy Brass delivers the most flexible and innovative approach to modern brass sounds ever provided by a virtual MIDI instrument!¹ With this ultimate brass app your productions and live performances will gain such powerful and amazing tone you previously were only able to retrieve from a real brass section! This app contains the following instruments: Trumpet, Trombone and Saxophone sampled in four different brass sections. Watch and listen to the demo video on our product website! Minimum requirement: at least iPad 3 / iPad Air 1 / iPad mini 2. This app supports Audio Unit v3, Inter-App Audio and Audiobus, so you can directly use it with other apps as well! External MIDI keyboards and controllers are supported as well of course, both via Lightning/USB cable connection, as well as wireless via Bluetooth LE MIDI.¹ There are 3 fundamental sound categories: „Singles“, „Switches“ and „Combis“, where „Switch Sounds“ allow you to either switch or crossfade between configurable articulations. Some „Combi Sounds“ allow you to switch or crossfade between predefined articulations as well. 24 Single Sounds: Solo Trumpet, Solo Sax, Solo Trombone, Heavy Brass 1-4, Section 1, Section 2, Section 3, Section 4, Crescendo, Growl, Doiks, Shaker 1, Shaker 2, Staccato 1, Staccato 2, Staccato Sax 1, Staccato Sax 2, Falls 1, Falls 2, Falls 3, Falls 4. Switch Sounds: Five base sounds: Section 1, Section 2, Section 3, Section 4 and Crescendo, which are switchable or crossfadeable to four alternative articulations: Shaker, Growl, Doiks or Falls. 16 Combi Sounds: Sections Velocity Layer 1, Sections Velocity Layer 2, Sections Velocity Layer 3, Sections Velocity Layer 4, Sections Velocity Layer 5, Sections Velocity Layer 6, Sections Modwheel Layer 1, Sections Modwheel Layer 2, Staccato Layer 1, Staccato Layer 2, Staccato Round Robin 1, Staccato Round Robin 2, Staccato Round Robin 3, Sections & Staccato Round Robin 1, Sections & Staccato Round Robin 2, Sections & Staccato Round Robin 3. General Features: • Low latency disk streaming. • Polyphony up to several hundred stereo voices.² • Configurable audio latency down to 1 ms. • Integrated effects with 18 presets. • App States: Save app's entire state as user presets. • 16 parts. • Provides Audio Unit v3 plugin version of this app, which allows it to be used as virtual instrument directly within third-party multi-track DAW apps. • Support for Apple's "Inter-App Audio" system. • Audiobus support. • MIDI velocity response curve editor. • Master Tune & Scale Tuning. • App can keep running in the background, so you can play on your keyboard while e.g. using Safari or another app to display scores or surfing the Internet. • Virtual on-screen piano keyboard with velocity support, scalable & scrollable. MIDI Player / Recorder: • Record, save and load your songs in standard MIDI file format. • Share your songs easily as audio file. • Unlimited amount of tracks. • Configurable target MIDI channel per track. • Unlimited recording and playback length. • Open MIDI (.mid) files directly from other apps (i.e. from Safari, Mail). • Download or upload MIDI files with iTunes. • Load your favorite songs as MIDI files from the Internet, and watch at the virtual keyboard how to play it. • Metronome. • Use the "Tempo Zoom" dial knob to i.e. slow down playback at any time and learn your favorite songs more easily. ¹ For more information about adapters and connecting external MIDI keyboards: https://doc.crudebyte.com/iOS/External_MIDI_devices/ ² Various sounds are using several voices per note. Polyphony depends on the exact device model being used. You find a polyphony table on our product website. Anti-Spy Commitment: We take your privacy very seriously. None of our apps contain so called „spy” behaviors and we committed ourself to a very high privacy standard. For more information read our „Privacy Policy for Mobile Apps”.

Screenshots

BeatHawk4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Heavy Brass at none against BeatHawk's 10. Heavy Brass also leads on review sentiment (81% vs 67%). BeatHawk's advantage is ratings volume (394 vs 37) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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

BeatHawk costs $9.99 and Heavy Brass $9.99 up front. BeatHawk sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Heavy Brass asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for BeatHawk against 4.2 for Heavy Brass. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BeatHawk has 394 ratings behind it against 37, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of BeatHawk's written reviews are positive against 81% of Heavy Brass's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. Both last shipped on September 29, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
BeatHawk versus Heavy Brass: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBeatHawkHeavy Brass
Price$9.99$9.99
Rating4.3 (394 ratings) — better4.2 (37 ratings)
Positive reviews67.1% of reviews81.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings394 — better37
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS9.3 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size981 MB353 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUVIChristian Schoenebeck d/b/a Crudebyte

Customer experience

BeatHawk

All ratings394 ratings
Positive82.2%
Neutral6.6%
Negative11.2%
Written reviews252 reviews
Positive67.1%
Neutral12.3%
Negative20.6%

Heavy Brass

All ratings37 ratings
Positive83.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.2%
Written reviews32 reviews
Positive81.3%
Neutral3.1%
Negative15.6%

Bugs and requests

BeatHawk

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Repeat Quantize setting not working properly
  • Saving and loading projects can be unreliable
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS devices
  • Latency and performance problems when used as an AUv3

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more pad banks and sample editing capabilities
  • Improve file management and integration with cloud storage
  • Implement MIDI learn and more advanced MIDI functionality
  • Add built-in synth engine and more effects
  • Enhance song mode and multi-track capabilities

Heavy Brass

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

BeatHawk

One-time10
  • World Percussion$1.99
  • Latin Percusion$1.99
  • 808$1.99
Show 7 more
  • Trip Hop$3.99
  • Atlanta Urban$4.99
  • Funk$4.99
  • Guitar Loops$4.99
  • Acoustic Drums$4.99
  • Choirs$7.99
  • Acoustic Grand$9.99
None

Heavy Brass

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BeatHawk free?
BeatHawk costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Heavy Brass free?
Heavy Brass costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, BeatHawk or Heavy Brass?
BeatHawk is rated higher. BeatHawk averages 4.3 out of 5 from 394 ratings, while Heavy Brass averages 4.2 from 37 ratings.
Do BeatHawk or Heavy Brass have ads?
Neither BeatHawk nor Heavy Brass shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BeatHawk or Heavy Brass?
BeatHawk ships an update every 2 months, and Heavy Brass every 2 months. Most recently, BeatHawk was updated on September 29, 2026 and Heavy Brass on September 29, 2026.

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