LE04 | AR-909 Drum Machine App Reviews

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Best developer/best people. Audiokit always manages to make something you will actually use. They cut out the distracting options and give u what u need to make music. 909 sounds good and works without any hassle and without taking up a bunch of space!

Was able to get issue resolved.. After an issue I had with the product, I reached out via email and they provided me with the information I needed to help me understand the product better. Because of that, I wanted to fix my rating as it was resolved promptly to help let others know that if you do recommend or see an issue? This company is quick to provide you with solutions.

I think I found a glitch. For the kick bass when I bring the drop down menu to change the volume on my iPad the decay goes up if I put the volume up on the iPad, to see this happen bring up the drop down settings of the iPad increase the volume of the iPad, get rid of the drop down menu you should hear that the decay has increased and also see it in the knob parameters the decay has gone up without ever touching the decay, if you were on the screen to see the knobs prior to switching the volume of the iPad the decay knob won’t turn but you can still hear the decay has gone up, also this app doesn’t sound like a 909 it’s a new version of 909, it’s a little bit harsher sound which is not terrible if you like hardcore techno, the pattern creation is comfortable to use very straight forward, I have a 909 and this doesn’t do it for me, its still a fun drum machine hope you guys make more we need more instruments on iPados

Has potential, but some serious bugs need addressing. Cons - Like someone else mentioned The clock isn’t synced correctly. No matter what I run it with played on the 1 of the beat it never aligns. This is without any shuffle. 😦 - In GarageBand it doesn’t record midi information as an Audio unit extension. 😞 - The screen doesn’t fit the iPad like others have said. 🙁 - Some Crashing issues. 😕 - in the spirit of the 909 wouldn’t it be nice to be able to route individual outputs from the BD, snare etc to whatever FX sends we wanted in AUM or Audiobus? 🤔☝️(this would be a game changer) Pros - Sounds very good, nice features, nice bread n butter portable house and techno machine. 😀 - Workflow is pretty good. Easy enough to switch between patterns, and pretty intuitive copy and pasting. 🙂 - The price is generous. For less than a cup of coffee you have a faithful software emulation of a 909 that on your phone will fit into your pocket. 🥳 Overall 6.5/10 I think it’s got potential to one of the better bread and butter drum machines on iOS. If the above issues and suggestions could be addressed I think it would have more usability as a tool to play live with. As it stands I think it’s certainly more than equipped to be a decent sketch pad for techno and house tunes. At this price I’m not expecting any more than that.

A great first drum app or next drum app. Devs: I notice when using standalone, always on setting, app goes to pattern 8. If nothing there, it goes silent

Solid app, intuitive gui, fun, +. Besides the clean, efficient interface and solid performance, the bit crusher gives this app a gritty edge, and more sonic terrain to play with.

Hopefully it will get better. Based on the positive reviews I purchased this drum app - It’s not as good as the hype. Some folks even said this was the new best drum apps. I cannot fathom how anyone could come to that conclusion. It’s no where near the top of the list for good drum apps. I like the “vibe it out” and crusher options and that’s about it. This app crashes when I press the save button. It glitches out and kills all audio when I try to solo a track. There is only one drum sample to choose from. There is no ride bell, shaker, or kalimba. There’s no probability options. Limited fx options (give us a reverb and delay bus). Speaking of bussing, there’s no fx busing. No midi mapping as of yet. No randomizer. The decay setting doesn’t really matter when the samples have no sustain information unless you set the tune to 0. Even at zero it has no impact of you want a long snare note (IE: turning the sustain knob to the right is useless) Having a synth engine for bass/snare is worthless when the perimeters only expire a small fraction of the potential range. They may as well be samples for how limited the synth engine is The GUI is very rough for a paid app. Did I mention it crashes when I press save? I have immediate buyers remorse. There’s probably worse drum apps but this does not compete with any of the well known drum app options as if bows

Some bugs but looks like it’s going to be great. So I’ve got some bugs on my 12.9 iPad Pro... no big deal. Thank you for the great app. I’m hoping to get into AudioKit as a programmer in the near future so thank you for setting some standards for us, and wish me well! Thanks again.

Sounds amazing! Love the workflow.. I love this app. Looks great with a smooth workflow. The sounds are excellent. My only issue is it is currently only working as an AU. I have version 1.0.1 installed on an iPad Pro 11 and the app won’t star in stand-alone mode and crashes after launch splash screen. Hoping this gets resolved soon. Stil a great sounding app!

Crashes on save. Have not been able to save a preset without it crashing 😕

Lots of issues on iPad Pro 10.5. Hey. I’m running iOS 14.1 on iPad Pro 10.5 inch. * The ui is not fit to the screen properly. * the buffer issues (crackling sound) seem to occur at 128, but if I set it lower it goes away but causes dropouts. If I set it higher, it causes glitches and dropouts. There are no other audio apps running and I’ve tried rebooting, relaunching etc. * occasionally the sequencer just skips a note. Possibly related to the buffer issue? * bringing in any of the effects section makes audio issues worse. Minor gripes: copy/paste buttons are too small. Full screen button is hard to find/see. I want to like the app, but it’s currently too unstable on my particular device to enjoy using. Looking forward to future updates.

Super Dope. I love what technology is making possible in terms of making music. High quality sounds and the curated beats are excellent. I would recommend this for beginners and pros alike.

Fantastic....but..... This thing is great and sounds great and is definetly worth the money. But... The early version seems not to scale properly on my iPad....(booooooooo).....I’m sure they will update it soon though

Some suggestions. Audiokit Hi, love your apps also long-time user of them. This drum machine is what iOS was missing. Thank you to the whole team for your efforts and smart work. I’m aware of some of the fixes and features you’re working on. I’m excited about it but I’d like to make some suggestions of my own. It be nice for the patterns to be extendable beyond one bar may be up to eight bars to create lengthier patterns. It’d make the workflow smoother yes I know we can toggle between 16 different patterns. The issue that I’m coming across is me being able to listen to my full composition & full drum pattern idea seamlessly while my other arrangements play through there complete cycle. Hope this gets heard. Thx in advance.

Strait forward. Def worth checking out….easy too use and instant fun

Intuitive and fun. Love this app. I use it more than any drum machine app I have. I just wish there was a way to use it with Ableton link.

Fix the kick timing and it’ll be 5-Stars. I love the sound of this app, but it drives me nuts that after more than ONE YEAR, the kick drum is still significantly behind the beat. What is up with that? I love what the AudioKit Team does for iOS development, and I love the sound and spirit of this app, but I’m sorry, leaving such a glaring defect on a drum machine is just bizarre. I hate to slam an app in a review, but no one is taking action despite this being repeatedly reported and graphically measured. It is literally making AudioKit a laughing stock, and I hate to see that. Maybe this’ll get some attention. Maybe.

Surprised tbh. 10 mins with this and I was ready to call it the best iOS drum machine app. Surprisingly flexible/interesting for being modeled after a machine(Roland 909)that is, frankly, boring at this point. The extra options make this a must have. I usually need a extra plug in or two to make drums sound this dirty but this app has that covered. 10/10 worth it.

Sounds Great, plays even better. Another great audiokit app. As someone who is take it or leave it with 909 sounds, I have had a blast using it and coming up with my own. The sequencer is the highlight for me though. I like being able to see where my sounds are placed in relation to one another piano roll style instead of just where all the kicks are, snares are etc. And you can also switch between 16/32 resolution! Pattern trigging is top notch as well and great for coming up with interesting grooves. If they released a sequencing app I’d buy it for sure. Hopefully they will release an 808 version of this too.

Love the app. Great app, really exactly what I was looking for. I think all the ideas people brought up to make a different, more improved app are also excellent. Hopefully you can take the feedback in a positive light and make another drum machine with those features

As expected-. I’ve been waiting for this to drop since the announcement. And 15 minutes in I am already incorporating it into my workflow. Another amazing product from you guys! Thanks!

App crash. Hi there very excited for this but the app seems to crash on the load up screen. Using an iPhone X on the latest OS.

Cant beat it for the price, great fun. Its great to use sequencer on phone with great sounds.

Great sound, auv3 needs work. For the price, these are some of the best, most tweakable and funnest drum machine sounds. While it’s capable of being loaded as an AUv3, it has some difficulty recording the sequence in GarageBand, which is a common use for me

No brainer. Sound engine is good and lasts you go further , sequencer has nice features , great workflow . Price vs function = no brainer

Exceptionally good drum machine.. This is great. It’s easy to use. It sounds great. It’s a classic 909. Even the presets are easy to get an idea of ow to use a drum machine and set your rolls, crashes, pause, etc. Makes the iPhone fun again.

Brings me back. Wow, another quality app from Audiokit. Love the sounds! Take my money please.

More fun than the real thing.. I enjoy this app note than my Roland tr-09 + tr-8. Powerful controls and easy to use. The bomb.

Fun app. Not limited edition. Stop already with the limited edition stuff. It’s embarrassing. Limited edition = you make a certain number of something, then stop. So it’s not really applicable to software to begin with but it could make sense if you were only going to sell the app for 30 days or something like that. Since we know this will be sold forever... why are you calling it limited edition? The app is great, having a lot of fun with it (but I know I’m one of many and that number is in no way “limited”!)

Having so much fun. This is fantastic and I keep coming back to this app. Thank you so much for making it. It’s simple yet profound. I am learning from loading the presets and watching the drum machine progression. Very helpful and again, so much fun! Get it while you can.

It’s great but... That kick timing issue won’t go away. Still it’s killer and worth having!

I likit’A-lot. Just getting started, will get back to you.

Another triumph for AudioKit. These are by far my favorite creators in the iOsphere. We have another fantastically usable instrument with great control, great extras, and more features sure to come. Programmability is super easy. I’ve never had an original 909 but I do have a TR09 and this is way easier to use, WAAAY quicker workflow, and way more portable. I also really love the special touches like a signature panel, and the AudioKit Japan logo. You guys are the coolest. Now that we know you can make a killer drum machine, I hope there are plans for a 606 and an 808.... just sayin 😎

The AR-909. Hey . Wait a minute,wait a minute . What’s this . Lordy bless my rhythmic bones . What a great piece of software . But . Not just any old price of old software , because ——- It can take you anyware . Great job guys . Henry Slater .

Amazing app. Endless idea generator. Easy app design that makes my workflow easy.

Fun App, Major Bug!. I’ve sent several emails about this, but hopefully this manages a response. The app sounds great and is really fun, but unfortunately the feature “Background Audio” isn’t working on my iPad Pro or iPhone 8. This makes it so I can’t have the drums continue playing while I play along in another app. This is frustrating because it appeared that this feature is supposed to be included. I believe it’s just a bug with a simple fix but I’ve been sending emails for a while. Some other apps from this developer have the same Background Audio problem but many work fine. This leads me to believe that it’s a fixable bug. Still a fun app!

Great App. AudioKit continues to put out great apps. This is by far my favorite! Great sounds and a lot of fun to play with! On top of that a great price! Thank you AudioKit! Well done!

Easy to use, sounds great, a lot of choices. This app is so easy to use. You can use the presets or alter them. Easy to edit and create your own sequences. Sounds great.

Intuitive drum machine. Great app. Trying to unite it with Cubasis3 to add depth to my plug-in musical situation, but it’s great fun to noodle around on in the meantime. Highly recommended

Not what i was thinking. This app sounds too mechanical , i thought i could play guitar to some great beats but it impossible. The app doesnt have a real feel to it and all the sound adjustments are not as close to reality as i expected . Just a cheap , drum machine like all the rest , with no rockin sounds to it ! Really very dissapointing

Best Learning not to mention the sounds for the price.. I’m throwing my hands up because this is the best hands-on beat making tool, hands down!

This is on point !. These Cats make some amazing music tools🤩

Why are you deleting my negative reviews?. Posted a negative review yesterday with detailed feedback that any developer would have paid to hear. Not wasting my time writing it again. Avoid this app, it is poorly designed, slow and overall boring.

Audio kit Does It Again. I’ve been a fan of all of your apps. This one continues the trend Thank you!

How do you import sounds?. Good app, but I don’t know how to change the drum sounds into audio files that I have would rate higher if I knew how or if it had a help that would tell you how to?

Audiokit is the best developer on the iOS platform.. Open source software has always been something that was lacking in the Apple ecosystem, especially on iOS. Audiokit sparks hope, and brings the best AUv3 plug-ins in existence.

Another 5 star app. I’m loving the limited series apps so far. This one started as my least favorite but after playing with it for the last few days it’s absolutely belongs with the other Apps that have been released so far. Thank you for these!

Essentially Essential. LOVE IT! Great app you devs: intuitive yet powerful, flexible and hooman vibing. sounds sick in context right out the gate. easily tweak control of user presets? yep. and samples? why yes load yer own! well thought out ui and oh my does it bring the ffffffunk to fingers. it’s just really fun to play. when I touch it my hand feels good. :) **only issues I have are the ui pad view does not quite fit the screen of my gen2 12.9 iPad Pro running 14.2(or 14.1) and the app does hang between screens from time to time. but it will be fixed so whatevs. FEATURE REQUEST: also an alternate skin would be really great! AudioKit Pro your generosity during Covid will not be forgotten !! 4sho some of the best apps out there! Please support AudioKit! Stay safe and healthy!

I like it.. I use it to supplement my drum tracks. I usually lay one of the tracks from this app under another drum machine that has a more natural acoustic sounding drum loops etc. It depends on the style of music you’re doing, if you’re doing house or techno this could be a stand alone drum machine. For me, doing acoustic based indie rock, I usually use it as part of a drum track, just to give my beat an extra special punch or interesting beat. I do use it quite frequently. Overall, I really like it. If I could give it 4.5 I would. Great value!

Ableton Link?. Given that nearly all of the other AudioKit apps feature Ableton Link compatibility, it surprised me to see it omitted from this drum machine. Hopefully we’ll see it added in an update. The 16/32 switch is nice for getting 32nd notes, but I would *really* love the ability to shorten / extend the overall loop length (if this feature is in there then I just haven’t found it yet). So many beat making apps restrict the user to a 4/4 time signature and that’s a huge drawback for the style of music I make. The most important thing though is that this app sounds top notch, and it totally does. I *really* dig the level of control to sculpt each drum’s tone. The “Vibe it out” section is particularly cool and adds a unique (and useful) twist to an otherwise very traditional drum machine. As with any AudioKit app, the interface is absolutely fantastic, and a pleasure to use. Many thanks to the devs for another brilliant yet SO affordable app!

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Misses First Beat. There appears to be a bug with this app in Cubasis 3. After recording, the 909 does not play the first drum hit of the recorded midi clip. Unusable in Cubasis.

Great sound. Love this app. Really enjoy the playability😎Thanks for this!!!

Top app. Thanks guys , this new app is awesome I’m just a beginner , I’ve got so much to learn and I’m this app is fun and you can create so much music , so thank you again 👍👏

Brilliant if it wasn’t so broken.. Very impressive recreation of the TR-909, sadly like many other audiokit apps it’s a buggy mess. Unfortunately this app has some serious issues staying in sync when used with other apps or midi gear. It not so bad when used standalone but when it’s used as an audio unit it becomes mostly unusable.

give this one a miss. cpu/dsp heavy, no sound editing parameters exposed to midi cc or in the au3 wrapper... only midi this takes is notes to trigger the samples inside. stop it with the lame sequencer, 16 steps? it’s 2020! why can yous just make a tight au3 app like DRUM by unklepop?

The Bomb!. Really expressive and versatile - outrageous value! 😀

Great Tool for Minimalist Creative Process. The 909 app truly excels in supporting a minimalist creative process. Its sleek and intuitive design allows users to focus solely on their creativity without any unnecessary distractions. By offering a straightforward and uncluttered interface, the app enables artists to channel their ideas effortlessly, resulting in a seamless and enjoyable creative experience. With its minimalist approach, the 909 app proves to be an invaluable tool for anyone seeking to explore their creativity with a sense of simplicity and ease.

Good but missing features. Haven’t tried the midi yet, but this needs a 64 step sequencer and the ability to start a new sequence at the end of the currently playing sequence rather than starting the sequence immediately when tapping it.

I love all their stuff and it’s cheap so I buy all their stuff. These guys are the best audio plugin instrument makers on the App Store IMHO, not only that but they find great ways of being charitable with their open sourced and free software IP. So when I bought some of their apps I was actually giving to a charity which I like to do and also get something in return. That’s how I like to do business and I like people who do business the way I like to do business. This 909 is fun to play with but I program drums with serious intentions in mind and I know I can fulfil those with this drum machine. It sounds good, I never owned a real 909 but this is probably better IMHO because I’ve seen the 909 and it’s a big plastic clunky chunky space hog on a studio desk and this app fits on both my iPhone 7 and my iPad Pro with ease and is intuitive on both devices. I own a Korg plugKey which I use with both devices and this app works seamlessly with that interface as well as my steinberg UR22 mk2. But not my audient ID44, it doesn’t work with iPads or iPhones at all because it’s too big. But you really need midi on an interface youre planning to use with an IOS device I think anyway. Of course there’s always midi over Bluetooth and exotic forms of wifi midi so scratch that, you could always get an ID4 if you wanted to, nobody’s stopping you, no one would complain.

Solid 909 Sound. I have played with the hardware equivalent a couple of decades ago, and this app truly does it justice. (and then some…) Fantastic! Oh, that kick is so solid.

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Straightforward and smart. I love the design, I love the sound, it doesn’t crash, and it’s an AU…Downsides……hmmmmmm…nope

Audio in pattern recording. This is awesome 909 and a SampLer into the App 909 wouLd be how iWouLd want my sampLer. Good program...

Disappointed with timing. I like all other apps created by this crew and love the concept of a collective app creation team. But the timing in AUM is just....late. Always. Even when dropping down to low buffer rates, and the cpu hit is just so large that it limits what I can create and is always a flam . As a Stand alone machine it sounds great and the claps get close to that 909 phase variation/analog vibe but it needs work under the hood to get performance and timing in alignment with other drum machines when synced. Will hope for more performance updates,down the road and I do look forward to other apps from this team.

Fun to play!. So good. These guys always come with the the quality and this is no different. Best mobile drum machine ever.

Exactly what you get+. 80’s drum machine + many features that aren’t included with an 80’s drum machine, it would be awesome to switch between patterns, like a song mode, it looks like the framework is there for that so I’ll be patient lol!

excellent. couple screen fitting issues, but BY FAR best sounding 909 emulation i’ve heard besides TR-09.

Review. Super cool sounds, easier to use than a standard TR model, and fun fun fun workflow. Try this out! The next level

Great so far. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this app can do so far but I’m loving it. Sounds excellent! Exactly what I was hoping it would be.

Never disappoints, audio kit!. Love everything they put out. Keep it up.

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Another win from AudioKit.. Great app, intuitive layout, worth all the pennies!

Fun but flawed. Sounds great and fun to play with, but I couldn’t get the app to record I GarageBand. 😔

Can’t use in beatmaker 3. GUI doesn’t open when used as AUV3

Amazing musical app. AudioKit Pro makes amazing apps and this one is no exception. Fun and pro app, focused and intuitive. Powerful and sounds great.

Awesome app. This is one of the best drum apps I have ever used. Super easy and fun to make beats. Outstanding!

Fun Beats!. This is a super fun way to make killer beats easily.

AudioKit At It Again. I’m relatively new to music production, but so far this app is on fire. This is a great investment!!!!

More drum sounds. I wish it had more drum sounds.

AR-909. This is a fabulous copy of the original. Great job guys, I’ll get hours of work out of this!

AR 909. Very impressive which you could do a drum beat....

Dirtiest 909 on the planet. This drum machine is filthy. Buy it.

Tempo tapper. I don’t see how to turn on a metronome 😂😂

Ol faithful. Worth every cent

Music makes vibes 🎧✨😎. Endless possibilities, letz get it!!!!!!

Amazing.. But it keeps changing ALL SONGS TO A 240BPM NASCAR WRECK. Can’t find why. Would consider marriage if that was fixed 🤷🏻‍♂️

cool compact. rhythm on the go

Sounds Rad. There is some magick in this app. Best sounding 909 I’ve heard.

Súper good!. Amazing app - highly recommended

Just plain killer. Fierce!

AR 909 is incredible. I use the AR 909 in my home recording studio. It’s amazing. The distortion effect is amazing adds analog bite and the drums are nasty!

Great but......timing. Even with link it’s not that tight

Great company. Best company for IOS!!!!!!!! Simply Love it!

Cool. This is a blast to play with and sounds great!

Sample import.. I can’t import samples from audio share? I tried audio covert to 44.16. Still can’t!!!

Awesome. Speechless not even remotely as awesome as the 808 but it does close

Awesome. The best retro analog drum kit. Period.

Great!. Easy to use.

Can’t record. Can’t save what preset your GB track uses.. Come on, AudioKit. It sounds great, but you guys need to release half as many products and finish writing each one. You ripped me off.

Cool, but..... Probably better than cool, but I have an issue with checking “run in background” but it does not.

I love this all but really limited. In this app I can’t even export my pattern as a midi and save it to cloud and drag on logic or ableton.

Needs work. Would love to be able to import sounds, and create/build banks .

Love it!. Great app, responsive developer!

At-909. Great app surprises at how good this app sounds. Owned a 909 hack in the day. This is great.

Nostalgia. I took a nice trip down memory lane with this one. Thanks.

Doesn’t have different drums?. I thought it would have different drums.