Comparison

Xkey Piano vs XPad

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

Head to head
About

Xkey Piano

This app transforms your iPad into a mobile piano, offering a full-size MIDI keyboard experience. It's designed to work seamlessly with a CME Xkey keyboard but can also be used on its own for musical exploration.

Highlights
  • Use iPad as a mobile piano
  • Connect and use CME Xkey keyboard
  • Select various instruments
  • Adjust tempo and use metronome
  • Experience polyphonic aftertouch
Features
Read full description

Have you ever dreamt using your iPad as a mobile piano? Xkey Piano is a free iOS app that requires a CME Xkey keyboard to get maximum user experience. Xkey is a thin and beautiful USB MIDI keyboard with 25 or 37 full-size keys, made for mobile musicians. If you don’t have any, you can still play around and have fun on your iPad only… Just bought an Xkey? Get started and don’t lose time looking for other MIDI compatible apps ! * Learn how to plug and use your Xkey with your iPad * Select instruments * Change the tempo and use the embedded metronome * Experience polyphonic aftertouch * And much more coming soon! Xkey sets you free!

About

XPad

This app provides professional pad sounds for keyboardists, aiming to replicate warm analog synth tones with advanced digital features. It offers intuitive glissando control, real-time sound morphing, and extensive MIDI compatibility for a dynamic playing experience.

Highlights
  • Modern pad sounds
  • Realistic glissando control
  • Tone Width morphing
  • Sensible sound controls
  • MIDI remote control
  • Extensive sound library search
Features
Read full description

XPad is a professional sound module app and Audio Unit v3 plugin with focus on modern pad sounds for iPad. Goal was to get the warm and vibrant sound of analogue synths onto the convenient platform of an iPad and combining those sounds with the benefits of state of the art digital features while still preserving that analogue tone and feeling. Glissando XPad introduces a new way that we were developing for our apps to achieve realistic large interval Glissando. You can glide a tone continuously e.g. from the lowest octave up to the highest octave and vice versa, in any desirable speed and without causing an artificial impression to the listener. We were also thinking about how to improve the usability aspects for playing Glissando in a much more intuitive & convenient way for a keyboard player, while still preserving the player's full control. Foremost this app allows you to mix Glissando with regular polyphonic notes (e.g. chords) simultaneously or switch between these playing styles quickly at any time without leaving your hands off the keyboard. For instance you might be playing and holding a chord with your right hand while playing a Glissando slide with your left hand and punching through the right hand's chord from an octave lower than the chord, up to some octave higher than the chord. Tone Width Replicating some analogue boutique pad synthesizers is nice, but what about having a huge stack of them? That's where "Tone Width" control comes into play. Especially the important pad sounds of this app allow you to morph the sound with the "Tone Width" knob in real-time steplessly between a very thin and clean sound up to a huge and fat tonal sound as if an army of pad synths was working under your finger tips. Sensible Control Controls for the individual sound aspects is good. But it should be in a sensible way. Nothing is hard wired here. Every sound of this app presents controls that make sense for the individual sound. All controls presented are always fine tuned to the individual elements of that sound. You can alter all controls remotely by MIDI e.g. with sliders at your keyboard. The most important controls for each sound are mapped to things that you are most likely using anyway at your keyboard. For instance all sounds use the Aftertouch information of your keyboard to bring more dynamic behaviour into the sound even while just holding some notes. And just grab your modulation wheel at your keyboard to bring in some more variance. Never Lost XPad offers up to 462 sounds, but don't worry, it never lets you down and always assists you finding just the sound you need in a glimpse. You can quickly search for sounds with any combination of several criteria like sound characteristics, articulations, controls and more. Connectivity Like all our apps, XPad is very easy to use and start with. Just connect your keyboard with your iPad and you are ready to go. And of course if needed, you can simply tweak the setup, e.g. use a Bluetooth MIDI wireless connection to your keyboard instead of a cabled one, restrict MIDI input to certain devices or apps, connect to other apps with Inter-App Audio or use the sounds of this app as Audio Unit v3 plugin directly in the DAW app of your choice. Recorder The app comes with a built-in MIDI recorder that allows you to quickly record your musical ideas. You can share them as audio files with other people or transfer them as MIDI files for further work e.g. on your Mac. Sound Sets XPad is divided into 14 optional sound sets of different sound categories and provide up to 462 sounds in total. Even though the app is focused on pad sounds, this is not all this app has to offer sound-wise. The "Atmo" pack for instance contains atmospheric sounds for generating very emotional sound bases and backgrounds e.g. for film and entertainment. The "Perc" sound set contains drums and percussive sounds. The "Silicon" sound set covers synthesizers also offside the pad field, and much more.

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: XPad at 3.8 against Xkey Piano's 3.1. XPad also leads on review sentiment (50% vs 20%) and ratings volume (24 vs 7). Xkey Piano's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and iOS requirement (7.0 vs 12.0). On price, ads, monetization model 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. XPad sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Xkey Piano asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

XPad holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 24 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 20% of Xkey Piano's written reviews are positive against 50% of XPad's.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Xkey Piano versus XPad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterXkey PianoXPad
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.1 (7 ratings)3.8 (24 ratings) — better
Positive reviews20.0% of reviews50.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings724 — better
Update frequency—Every 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS7.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB1.2 GB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperESI Audiotechnik GmbHChristian Schoenebeck d/b/a Crudebyte

Customer experience

Xkey Piano

All ratings7 ratings
Positive42.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative57.1%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive20.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative80.0%

XPad

All ratings23 ratings
Positive73.9%
Neutral4.3%
Negative21.7%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral16.7%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

Xkey Piano

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

XPad

One-time10
  • Metal Sound Set$3.99
  • Bass Sound Set$3.99
  • Choir Sound Set$3.99
Show 7 more
  • Altro Sound Set$3.99
  • Percussive Sound Set$3.99
  • Vintage Sound Set$4.99
  • Atmo Sound Set$5.99
  • Space Sound Set$5.99
  • Nature Sound Set$5.99
  • Sequence Sound Set$5.99

Questions

Is Xkey Piano free?
Xkey Piano is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is XPad free?
XPad is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Xkey Piano or XPad?
XPad is rated higher. Xkey Piano averages 3.1 out of 5 from 7 ratings, while XPad averages 3.8 from 24 ratings.
Do Xkey Piano or XPad have ads?
Neither Xkey Piano nor XPad shows ads.

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