We analyzed 22 negative reviews from the top 5 Sound Design apps on the App Store. Here's what users hate most.
Ranked by frequency — how often each complaint appears in negative reviews.
36% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"Crashes on launch, won't load as an audio unit in anything, even after the latest update, this is the one app I regret buying."
"App keeps crashing in all my favorite DAWs like Cubasis 2 and BeatMaker 3"
18% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"if their website goes down the synth will not load as long as your wifi is on...you need to put Airplane mode on... So much for connecting to the rest of your studio via wifi"
"Can't enter my already registered name and email."
23% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"Sounds great but the IAP is buggy and inconsistent, would not allow me to buy some expansion packs but allows others, sometimes the bought packs don't show up"
"it's business practices are shady at best and deserve 1 star for the doubling of charges they do in the IAPs section"
18% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"Every few minutes I get stuck notes with external controllers, regardless of what I'm playing. Only in this app and no others"
"MPE simply doesn't work with this app. Slide gesture doesn't work at all and Press gesture is intermittent at best"
9% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"audio issues prevent this from being useful for me (at least on my iPhone 11 pro max, haven't tried on my iPad yet) - keep getting digital clicks when I p"
5% of negative reviews mention this issue.
"every time I go to use my iPad the battery is draining and it says it this app Also I couldn't get the recording feature to stop running"
Design and usability issues driving negative reviews.
Users cannot reliably load, save, or access presets. Random preset loading crashes the app, custom presets won't reload, and cloud access is unreliable.
"I've purchased some preset packs in-app, and now the app crashes whenever I use the load random feature. Basically unusable for me since I rely on that feature"
Projects show false 'missing AU' errors requiring users to recreate tracks and manually drag MIDI notes to workaround the issue.
"Every time I reopen my project I get an error message saying I have a missing AU ( which is not true ). I would then create a new SM1 track underneath the non working one, and drag down the midi notes"
Users discover after purchase that the app doesn't qualify for refunds, creating buyer distrust.
"When I tried submitting a refund request from apple it says that Synthmaster One doesn't 'qualify' for a refund. Figures. Now I am going to have to rethink any future app purchases from apple"
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