Dot Drummer vs Dawnbeat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Dot Drummer
Easily create music with a variety of sounds and layering options. Save your progress automatically and enjoy a user-friendly experience on Apple devices.
- 12 beautiful sounds
- Up to 12 layers of sound
- 16 steps per measure
- Auto save progress
- Runs on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
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It can't be easier to make beats with Dot Drummer. FEATURES: - Include 12 beautiful sounds. - Up to 12 layers of sound at a time. - Use one measure, 16 steps long. - Run great on any iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. - Auto save your progress.
Dawnbeat
This app lets you create music by sampling and sequencing audio. It offers advanced features like multi-touch pads, an always-recording buffer, and flexible routing for creative sound manipulation. Integrate with external MIDI devices and apply a wide range of built-in and AUv3 effects.
- Multi-touch and draggable pads
- Always-recording buffer (Memorizer)
- Advanced loop manipulation (BRIIKS)
- Flexible mixer with assignable busses
- Polyphonic pads for chords
- MIDI IN/OUT for external control
- AUv3 effects and instrument support
- Auto-slicer for audio chopping
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Dawnbeat inherits the best part of the classic hardware samplers and takes it further by adding features only possible on a multi-touch device. Create more natural patterns by tapping and swiping pads. Focus on creativity, you don't need to select a tempo before hit record to finally play a pattern until you get the right take, just play and forget about to record! Dawnbeat is always recording! Multi-touch and draggable pads: - Pads are multi-touch, play a single pad with two fingers at the same time! - Pads are individually configurable, allowing re-triggering when dragging for amazing fills, tone variations . - Mute and Solo buttons for pads available. - Mute groups. Memorizer: - DawnBeat is always recording pad events, you'll never miss a beat, play and experiment and when you hear something you like, it's already recorded! simply go to Memorizer and select the desired events. BRIIKS sampler: - Advanced loop manipulator. Rearrange and combine your loops. Also available as standalone, AUv3 and MacOS. Mixer: - 4 assignable BUSSES and one MAIN BUS. Assign pads to busses, assign internal effects or AUV3 effects to busses. - Mute and Solo buttons. Polyphonic pads: - Pads can be turned polyphonic, import a piano-like sample and play and sequence chords with a single pad. MIDI IN and MIDI OUT: - Trigger samples from a MIDI controller, play melodies from a MIDI piano. - Sequence hardware drum machines and synths from Dawnbeat. - Use Dawnbeat as an intermediary between a midi keyboard and a synth, save the sequences you are playing. Dawnbeat can save poliphonic sequences! Pattern sequencer with piano editor. - Swing, count-in, metronome. Audio Units: - Dawnbeat support AUv3 effects and instruments! Built in Effects: - Reverb, Delay, Compressor, Flutter, Gate, Tremolo, Noise, Filter, Chorus, Equalizer, Stutter and Tape slow motion. - Effects can be rearranged. Built-In sample browser: - 6 drum kit sample libraries, and 1 bass sample library. Selectable internal sample rate: - Internal sample rate can be changed, choose between HI-FI and LO-FI sample rates. AUTO-SLICER: - AutoSlicer detects hit points and slices audio into individual files minimizing the need for manual editing. Chop up any audio file in a few seconds. Recording sample rate can be selected. Export movies with images and animated GIFs .
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Dawnbeat at 70% against Dot Drummer's 20%. Dawnbeat also leads on rating (4.2 vs 3.0) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 36 months). Dot Drummer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (6.0 vs 15.6). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Dawnbeat sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Dot Drummer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Dawnbeat holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Dawnbeat has 115 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 20% of Dot Drummer's written reviews are positive against 70% of Dawnbeat's.
Dot Drummer ships an update every 36 months, Dawnbeat every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Dot Drummer | Dawnbeat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (10 ratings) | 4.2 (115 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 20.0% of reviews | 70.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 10 | 115 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 36 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 504 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 媛 阮 | Luis Rivas |
Customer experience
Dot Drummer
Dawnbeat
In-app purchases
Dot Drummer
No in-app purchases
Dawnbeat
- Dawn Beat Complete$5.99









