spool. – Tape Synth
Kristopher Yang Music iPhoneiPadiPod touch
spool. – Tape Synth is a free Music app for iPhone and iPad by Kristopher Yang. Rated 5.0/5 from 7 ratings. Requires iOS 17.0. Updated August 8, 2026.
- Rating
- 5.0
- 7 ratings
- Price
- Free
- on the App Store
- Size
- 2 MB
- Age 4+
- Updated
- Aug 8
- 2026 · v1.0
Screenshots
About spool. – Tape Synth
Make a whole song on your phone. Spool is a pocket music studio inspired by the joy of hardware grooveboxes — play, sample, sequence, and record to tape, all in one playful instrument. Fourteen sound engines. From punchy FM and fat subtractive Pulse to shimmering Cluster, plucked String, granular Cloud, the TALK vocoder, the WIDE stereo engine, THUMP bass, a Sampler, and two drum machines — each with its own animated, touchable visualizer and four hands-on controls. Sample anything. Record straight from the mic into the sampler or drum kits, trim it, and play it across the keyboard. Drums & beats. Build kits, chop a sample into a playable kit, and lock in grooves with the step sequencer. Playful sequencers. Pattern and arpeggiator to start; unlock Stream, Taps, and the bouncing-ball Gumball machine for happy accidents. Six minutes of 4-track tape. Record, overdub, varispeed (including reverse), scrub, and bounce your jam to a finished mixdown — export to WAV. Your tape is saved with your project. Effects & mixer. A deep rack — delay, spring reverb, drive, compressor, chorus, multimode filter, phaser, tremolo/auto-pan, beat-repeat stutter, and a pitch-shifter/harmonizer — many tempo-syncable. Plus a master EQ and brickwall limiter so it always sounds finished. Plays with your gear. Connect a USB or Bluetooth MIDI controller and play Spool like hardware. AUv3 plugin support is planned for a future update. Free to download and make music with a starter set of engines and sequencers. A single one-time Spool Pro purchase unlocks the full instrument — all engines, sampling, every effect and sequencer, unlimited projects, export, and MIDI. No subscription. Spool is an original, independent work by a solo developer — affiliated with no hardware maker.
Ratings & reviews
5.0
7 ratings
App privacy
The developer, Kristopher Yang, reported these privacy practices to Apple.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Alternatives to spool. – Tape Synth
Looking for apps like spool. – Tape Synth? Here are 6 similar apps on the App Store. The highest rated is Ringo Beats: Chaos Drums (5.0/5), and all 6 are free to download.
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| App | Rating | Price | Last updated | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| spool. – Tape Synth | 5.0 / 5 (7 ratings) | Free | August 8, 2026 | |
| Ringo Beats: Chaos Drums | 5.0 / 5 (6) | Free | Oct 12, 2026 | Compare |
| ThermVoltSilicon | – | Free | Aug 4, 2026 | Compare |
| 2099 Techno: Generative Synth | 5.0 / 5 (2) | Free | Oct 20, 2026 | Compare |
| 1981 FM: 80s Track Generator | 5.0 / 5 (3) | Free | Oct 20, 2026 | Compare |
| Contour — Ambient Morph Synth | 4.0 / 5 (2) | Free | Oct 7, 2026 | Compare |
| Beat Kitchen Harmonic Synth | 4.8 / 5 (12) | Free | Oct 9, 2026 | Compare |