BeatHawk vs iSymphonic Orchestra
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
iSymphonic Orchestra
This app provides sophisticated, realistic orchestral sounds for musicians. Connect a MIDI keyboard to your device to access a wide range of instruments for live performance or composition. It supports advanced audio and MIDI connections with other apps.
- Realistic orchestral instrument sounds
- MIDI keyboard connectivity
- Audio Unit and Inter-App Audio support
- Low latency audio engine
- Integrated effects with presets
- MIDI recording and playback
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The ultimate orchestra sound app for sophisticated musicians by award-winning sound designer Kurt Ader, designed as professional sound module for your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch by connecting an external MIDI keyboard, using the Apple USB camera adapter or another adapter supported by Apple.¹ Listen to the demo videos on our product website! This app supports Audio Unit and Inter-App Audio for audio & MIDI connections from/to other audio apps, as well as Bluetooth LE MIDI ! iSymphonic Orchestra was designed with the goal to deliver you superb, extremely realistic and stunning orchestra sounds, instantly with the first key being pressed by you on your MIDI keyboard. Just select a sound and you are ready for your live performance or for a boost of creativity while composing new songs. The sounds used in this app were explicitly recorded to fulfill these requirements and involved several months of recording and post processing under supervision of Kurt Ader and included a variety of innovative, new recording techniques. So far these sounds were only available to very few, famous movie composers. Now they are finally available for the first time to everybody. The supreme quality of these sounds, combined with the unique way they were recorded and assembled, gives us confidence that you haven't heard anything comparable as of to date, even not on Mac or PC. 25 Sounds included with base App: • Orchestra Strings Spiccato & Legato 1 - 4 • Orchestra Strings Slow 1 - 3 • Chamber Arco Strings • Legato Orchestra Strings 1 • Full Sordino Strings 1 - 2 • Legato Orchestra • Staccato Orchestra 1 - 3 • Tremolo Orchestra • Pizzicato Strings • Full Strings • Tremolo Strings • All Brass 1 - 2 • Trombone Section • Cello & Woodwinds • Horns & Strings • Full Legato Orchestra 297 additional sounds available as 15 optional in-app purchase sound sets: „Pro-", „Arpa-", „Canto-", „Boato-", „Vento-", „Ottone-", „Voce-", „Varia-", „Perla-", „Aulos-", „Keys-", „Cupra-", „Organ-", „Tosca-" and „Corda Sound Set". You find a detailed sound list & demo videos on our product website. General Features: • Low latency disk streaming. • Very efficient audio engine. • Polyphony of several hundred stereo voices.² • Audio latency down to 1 ms. • Integrated effects with 18 presets. • 16 parts. • Scale Tuning & Master Tune. • MIDI velocity response curve editor. • App States: Save app's entire state as user presets. • Interactive, easy & quick sound finder. • 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. • Hermode Tuning: Imitates the tuning behavior of well educated musicians of i.e. orchestras and choirs. • Audio Unit v3 Plugin included. • Supports Apple's "Inter-App Audio" (IAA) system. • 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 MIDI channel per track. • Unlimited recording and playback length. • Open MIDI (.mid) files directly from other apps (i.e. from Safari, Mail). • Metronome • Use the "Tempo Zoom" dial knob to i.e. slow down playback at any time and learn your favorite songs easily. ¹ For more information about supported adapters and MIDI keyboards, please visit our product website. ² 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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: BeatHawk at 4.3 against iSymphonic Orchestra's 3.8. BeatHawk also leads on ratings volume (394 vs 103) and iOS requirement (9.3 vs 12.0). iSymphonic Orchestra's advantage is chart position (#200 vs unranked). On price, review sentiment, 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
BeatHawk costs $9.99 and iSymphonic Orchestra $9.99 up front. BeatHawk sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and iSymphonic Orchestra sells 12 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
BeatHawk holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 394 and 103 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of BeatHawk's written reviews are positive against 63% of iSymphonic Orchestra's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BeatHawk | iSymphonic Orchestra |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | $9.99 |
| Rating | 4.3 (394 ratings) — better | 3.8 (103 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 67.1% of reviews — better | 62.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 394 — better | 103 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #200 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.3 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 981 MB | 1.3 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | UVI | Christian Schoenebeck d/b/a Crudebyte |
Customer experience
BeatHawk
iSymphonic Orchestra
User reviews
BeatHawk
From 394 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Intuitive and easy to use
- 🎨 High-quality sounds and sound packs
- 💻 Works well as an AUv3 plugin
- 🎶 Excellent for creating beats and music ideas
- 🔥 Powerful and flexible
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues, especially on older devices
- 🔍 Difficult to navigate and find samples/packs
- 💰 Sound packs are expensive
- 🖼️ Interface could use better visual clarity and customization
- 🔌 Bluetooth connectivity problems
iSymphonic Orchestra
From 103 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎵 Exceptional sound quality and realistic orchestral samples
- 👍 Easy to use and intuitive interface
- 🎹 Highly responsive to MIDI keyboard input and expression controls
- 🔌 Seamless integration with DAWs like GarageBand, Cubasis, and AUM
- 🎼 Wide variety of articulations and instrument combinations
Room to improve
- 💰 Expensive in-app purchases for additional sound packs
- 🐛 Crashes when used as AU plugin with multiple instances
- ⚠️ Random loud distortion artifacts at unpredictable times
- 🎹 On-screen keyboard is too small and difficult to use
- 🔊 Inconsistent volume levels across different notes and instruments
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
iSymphonic Orchestra
Reported bugs
14 issues- App crashes when using multiple AU instances in AUM
- GarageBand integration fails during export and audio merging
- Audio cuts out or plays only partially during export
- Track deletion causes complete app crash and data loss
- Reverberation artifacts on specific notes (C4, C5)
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- Loud distortion spikes occurring randomly
- MIDI keyboard connection freezes or stops working
- Settings menu becomes garbled with accessibility features enabled
- App freezes when connecting to certain MIDI controllers
- Audiobus compatibility issues despite advertised support
- Sound packs fail to download or load correctly
- Stuck MIDI notes when changing channels with pedal depressed
- Glitching and connection loss in multi-instance setups
- Export functionality broken in GarageBand AU version
Requested features
15 requests- Ability to hide unowned sound packs for easier navigation
- Zoom function for keyboard section
- Adjustable attack and release envelope controls
- Filter to show only owned sounds
- Dedicated save/record/play controls on main screen
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- Bundle pricing option for all sound packs
- Separate woodwinds, horns, and strings-only IAP options
- Improved AU plugin UI closer to standalone version
- Microphone placement and mixing options like Spitfire Labs
- Favorites or custom sound folders
- Better orchestral percussion sounds
- Ability to import files from device without USB
- Export preset functionality between devices
- All-off MIDI signal for all channels simultaneously
- Cheaper entry-level sound pack bundle
In-app purchases
BeatHawk
- World Percussion$1.99
- Latin Percusion$1.99
- 808$1.99
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- 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
iSymphonic Orchestra
- Arpa Sound Set$8.99
- Vento Sound Set$8.99
- Pro Sound Set$11.99
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- Canto Sound Set$11.99
- Boato Sound Set$11.99
- Voce Sound Set$11.99
- Varia Sound Set$11.99
- Aulos Sound Set$11.99
- Perla Sound Set$11.99
- Cupra Sound Set$16.99
- Corda Sound Set$16.99
- Keys Sound Set$24.99









