Comparison

Real Strings vs Colossus Piano

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

Head to head
About

Real Strings

Experience playing string instruments like a violin, viola, or cello using motion controls. Graphical guides help you play along to a variety of classical and folk songs, making it easy and educational for anyone to feel like a musician.

Highlights
  • Play violin, viola, and cello
  • Motion-controlled instrument simulation
  • Graphical guides for song play
  • Adjustable tempo and speed
  • Extensive song library
  • Educational and enjoyable
Features
Read full description

Imagine yourself playing a violin with an orchestra. Real Strings is "Air-Violin" application with graphical guides. It plays like a real violin. Just tilt, swing and slide your iPhone/IPod as guide bars fall. Control tempo, speed, and strength of your movement, then all the accompanying music will automatically adjust to your lead. Real Strings consists of three string instruments; violin, viola, and cello. You can play music with instrument of your choice. It's easy, enjoyable, and educational that anyone will instantly feel like playing a real violin without learning how. Here are titles of the songs currently available. ********************************************************** Classical Music Collection 1 - Salut d'Amour (Love's Greeting) - Elgar - Suite for Solo Cello No.1 in G major - Bach - Minuet in G WoO 10 No.2 - Beethoven - Violin Concerto in A minor Op.3 No.6 - Vivaldi - Chanson du Treador from Carmen - Bizet - Hungarian Dance No.5 in G minor - Brahms - Minuet Op.11 No.5 - Boccherini - Liebesfreud (Love's Joy) - Kreisler - Violin Concerto in E minor Op.64 - Mendelssohon - Air on the G String - Bach - Serenade Op.3 No.5 - Haydn - La Donna E Mobile - Verdi - Estudiantina Waltz Op.191 - Waldteufel - La Campanella - Paganini - Spring from Four Seasons - Vivaldi Folk Song Collection 1 - Oh, My Darling Clementine - American Folk Song - Santa Lucia - Italian Folk Song - Turkey in the Straw - American Folk Song - Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye - Irish Folk Song - Kalinka - Russian Folk Song Classical Music Collection 2 - Canon in D Major - Pachelbel - Habanera from Carmen - Bizet - Nocturne Op.9 No.2 - Chopin - Humoresque Op.101 No.7 - Dvorak - Voice of Spring - Strauss - Badinerie from Orchestral Suite No.2 - Bach - Serenade from Schwanengesang D.957 No.4 - Schubert - The Blue Danube Waltz Op.314 - Strauss - Swan Lake Prelude - Tchaikovsky - Autumn - Four Seasons - Vivaldi Folk Song Collection 2 - My Old Kentucky Home - American Folk Song - Korobushka - Russian Folk Song - Die Lorelei - German Folk Song - Greensleeves - English Folk Song - Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms - Irish Folk Song - De Colores - Spanish Folk Song - Lighthouser Keeper - English Folk Song - El Condor Pasa - Peruvian Folk Song - Washerwoman - Irish Folk Song - Swanee River - American Folk Song Songs for Kids - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - Alouette - Bingo - Did You Ever See a Lassie - The Farmer in the Dell - Frere Jacques - Head Shoulders Knees and Toes - London Bridge - Mary Had a Little Lamb - My Grandfather's Clock - Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone - Old MacDonald Had a Farm - Row Row Row Your Boat Holiday Season - We Wish You a Merry Christmas - Jingle Bells - Gloria - O Little Town of Bethlehem - Joy to the World - Silent Night - Deck the Halls - Noel - O Christmas Tree - O Holy Night ********************************************************** Real Strings is not for freestyle violin play. Instead, it controls timing, tempo, length, and strength of given notes just like many other rhythm games.

About

Colossus Piano

Experience incredibly realistic piano sounds with a vast library of acoustic and electric piano models. This app offers advanced features like multi-velocity layers, pedal support, and MIDI integration for a professional playing experience.

Highlights
  • 13 high-quality piano models
  • 24 velocity layers per key
  • Sustain, Sostenuto, and Soft pedal support
  • MIDI integration (In/Out)
  • Audio Unit v3 and Inter-App Audio support
  • Low latency disk streaming
  • Adjustable tuning options
Features
Read full description

Colossus Piano sets a new standard in terms of realism, detail and overall quality of piano sounds on your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. There are 8 acoustic piano models available as 8 individual in-app purchases, plus 5 E-Piano legends bundled as 1 sound set with this app, together those 13 piano models make up 30 Gigabyte of sound material. All keys of all piano models were recorded in full length with a recording quality of 24 bit and 96 kHz stereo. Note: this app requires in-app purchases to provide its functionalities! Minimum Requirement: at least iPad 3 / iPad Air 1 / iPad mini 2 / iPhone 5 / iPod touch 6th gen. Recommended: iPad Air 2 / iPad mini 4 / iPad Pro / iPhone SE / iPhone 6s or higher. The dark brown „Colossus Concert Grand” model:³ • 24 velocity layers per key. • Dedicated sustain samples. • Release hammer sound. • Optional pad sound. • 14 GB in size (SSD space). The white „Baby Grand” model: • 12 velocity layers per key. • Dedicated sustain samples. • Release hammer sound. • Optional pad sound. • 6 GB in size (SSD space). The „Upright Piano” model: • 8 velocity layers per key. • Dedicated sustain samples. • Release hammer sound. • Optional pad sound. • 3.4 GB in size (SSD space). The „E-Piano” sound set: • 5 legendary E-Piano models (plus different model generations or configurations). • 17 E-Piano sounds in total. • Optional pad sound. • Optional tremolo effect. • 1.6 GB in size (SSD space). For information about the other piano models, please visit our product website! This app supports Audio Unit v3, Inter-App Audio and Bluetooth LE MIDI ! Software features: • Modulation wheel support for controlling the most relevant sound parameter of the currently selected sound. • Warm pad sound of a well known analogue synthesizer (not available for all models) can be turned on/off as support for the piano sound; volume can be controlled by mod. wheel and expr. controller. • Sustain pedal support for holding notes. • Sostenuto pedal support for holding individual notes. • Soft pedal support for a more gentle sound. • Expression pedal support for controlling optional pad layer's volume. • Hammer sound when releasing keys, uses round robin, can be turned on/off and volume controlled (some acoustic pianos only). • Polyphony of up to several hundred stereo voices.² • Low latency disk streaming. • Configurable audio latency down to 1 ms. • Integrated effects (18 presets). • App States: Save app's entire state as user presets. • MIDI velocity response curve editor. • App can keep running in the background. • Master Tune, Scale Tuning & Hermode Tuning. • Provides Audio Unit v3 plugin version of this app, which allows it to be used as virtual instrument directly within 3rd party multi-track DAW apps. • Supports Apple's "Inter-App Audio" 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. • 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. • Metronome. • Use the "Tempo Zoom" dial knob to i.e. slow down playback at any time, learn your favorite songs more easily. ¹ For more information about supported adapters and MIDI keyboards, please visit our product website. ² Some sounds might use several voices per note. Polyphony depends on the exact device model being used. You find a polyphony table on our product website. ³ Important: the dark brown „Colossus Grand” piano model requires a large amount of main memory, so we only recommend this piano model for device models mentioned as „recommended” above.

Screenshots

Real Strings4 screens
Colossus Piano4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Colossus Piano at 3.3 against Real Strings's 2.7. Colossus Piano also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 41 months) and ratings volume (65 vs 3). Real Strings's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 9). On price, review sentiment, ads and device support 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

Both are free to download. Colossus Piano sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Real Strings asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Colossus Piano holds the better App Store score, 3.3 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Colossus Piano has 65 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Real Strings's written reviews are positive against 54% of Colossus Piano's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Real Strings ships an update every 41 months, Colossus Piano every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on June 12, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Real Strings versus Colossus Piano: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReal StringsColossus Piano
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.7 (3 ratings)3.3 (65 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews54.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings365 — better
Update frequencyEvery 41 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS14.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB384 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMooseok BahngChristian Schoenebeck d/b/a Crudebyte

Customer experience

Real Strings

All ratings3 ratings
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

Colossus Piano

All ratings65 ratings
Positive50.8%
Neutral9.2%
Negative40.0%
Written reviews112 reviews
Positive54.5%
Neutral9.8%
Negative35.7%

Bugs and requests

Real Strings

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Colossus Piano

Reported bugs

27 issues
  • Crashes when exporting to WAV/M4A in GarageBand
  • App crashes when switching piano models
  • Audio Unit extension crashes
  • No sound when exporting to GarageBand
  • Plugin crashes in DAWs during export/freeze
Show 22 more
  • App crashes when loading MIDI files
  • Hammer sound too loud even at lowest settings
  • Low C1 note out of tune
  • Electric Grand F4 note sample start time issue
  • Electric Grand G#4, D5 notes have noise on attack
  • Plugin not loading properly in hosts
  • AUv3 interface scaled back
  • Exporting to WAV results in silence
  • App crashes during export/freeze
  • Japanese Grand has low volume
  • Colossus Concert Grand needs improvement
  • G1 key has loud, annoying noise
  • B flat 3 key sounds too flat
  • Crashing in AU mode
  • Bass notes drop out when holding damper pedal
  • Voice stealing makes piano perform unacceptably
  • Bass is muddy in Concert Grand
  • Note 26 (Bb2) sounds like an upright
  • Subtle nuance playing is nearly impossible
  • App crashes or freezes randomly
  • MIDI player doesn't work with GarageBand
  • Audio Units extension terminates unexpectedly

Requested features

14 requests
  • Add chorus effect
  • Global EQ
  • Release control
  • Tap tempo for modulation speed
  • Save velocity curves
Show 9 more
  • More intuitive UI
  • Zoom function for keys
  • Add release samples
  • MIDI export/import
  • Three-band EQ
  • Layering sounds on multiple MIDI keyboards
  • Ability to save setups
  • Improve AUv3 functionality
  • Add more piano models

In-app purchases

None

Real Strings

No in-app purchases

9 purchases

Colossus Piano

One-time9
  • Vintage Upright$9.99
  • Historic S Grand$9.99
  • Pianino$12.99
Show 6 more
  • Japanese Grand$12.99
  • Classic B Grand$15.99
  • Upright Piano$19.99
  • Colossus E-Piano Set$19.99
  • Baby Grand Piano$26.99
  • Colossus Concert Grand$49.99

Questions

Is Real Strings free?
Real Strings is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Colossus Piano free?
Colossus Piano is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Real Strings or Colossus Piano?
Colossus Piano is rated higher. Real Strings averages 2.7 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Colossus Piano averages 3.3 from 65 ratings.
Do Real Strings or Colossus Piano have ads?
Neither Real Strings nor Colossus Piano shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Real Strings or Colossus Piano?
Real Strings ships an update every 41 months, and Colossus Piano every 2 months. Most recently, Real Strings was updated on June 12, 2026 and Colossus Piano on September 16, 2026.

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