Review Insights · App Store
Appcompanist: Vocal Training
Appcompanist, LLC · 199 ratings · ★ 4.5
4.5
★★★★★
199 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 12 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"subscription"
6 negative reviews mention this · 50% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Useful but bugged. UI is really bad for Apple users around subscriptions" - Blackhand12
2
"doesn"
4 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "6 song Subscription doesn’t work. Great selection of songs and helpful for any singer, but the subscription model is buggy. when I hit restore subscription, my app crashes and I can’t access what I paid for. Unfortunate, there’s not a lot of resources like this." - antonia is here
3
"access"
4 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "6 song Subscription doesn’t work. Great selection of songs and helpful for any singer, but the subscription model is buggy. when I hit restore subscription, my app crashes and I can’t access what I paid for. Unfortunate, there’s not a lot of resources like this." - antonia is here
4
"recordings"
4 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Great selection, but features are lacking. It’s great to see that this app has grown significantly since the last time I used it. I had it for a few years back when it first started, and I’m finding out why I canceled it now that I’ve decided to give it another go. The selection is…" - AdamMachart
5
"know"
4 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Keeps saying it can’t access my subscription when it clearly shows songs I used last month. I love this app. But only when it works. At least once a semester so far, it disconnects from my Apple ID and then tells me I’m not connected to my Apple ID when I clearly am. I have restarted my phone, restarted the app, deleted the app an…" - ionaNC
6
"accompaniment"
4 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Sometimes good. At other times wildly incorrect. I’ll just focus on one aria ( although several have similar problems). Your accompaniment of Sarastro’s aria, “ O Isis Und Osiris “ from Mozart’s Magic Flute has an abrupt tempo change right before the lyrics “ Lasst sie der Prüfung Früchte…" - fred1962
7
"tempo"
4 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Sometimes good. At other times wildly incorrect. I’ll just focus on one aria ( although several have similar problems). Your accompaniment of Sarastro’s aria, “ O Isis Und Osiris “ from Mozart’s Magic Flute has an abrupt tempo change right before the lyrics “ Lasst sie der Prüfung Früchte…" - fred1962
8
"apple"
3 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Useful but bugged. UI is really bad for Apple users around subscriptions" - Blackhand12
9
"song"
3 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "6 song Subscription doesn’t work. Great selection of songs and helpful for any singer, but the subscription model is buggy. when I hit restore subscription, my app crashes and I can’t access what I paid for. Unfortunate, there’s not a lot of resources like this." - antonia is here
10
"work"
3 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "6 song Subscription doesn’t work. Great selection of songs and helpful for any singer, but the subscription model is buggy. when I hit restore subscription, my app crashes and I can’t access what I paid for. Unfortunate, there’s not a lot of resources like this." - antonia is here
11
"songs"
3 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "6 song Subscription doesn’t work. Great selection of songs and helpful for any singer, but the subscription model is buggy. when I hit restore subscription, my app crashes and I can’t access what I paid for. Unfortunate, there’s not a lot of resources like this." - antonia is here
12
"helpful"
3 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "6 song Subscription doesn’t work. Great selection of songs and helpful for any singer, but the subscription model is buggy. when I hit restore subscription, my app crashes and I can’t access what I paid for. Unfortunate, there’s not a lot of resources like this." - antonia is here
📋 All 12 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Worthless
Might be great if I could get a confirmation code sent to me.
Poor customer support
I forgot my password and requested technical support twice and received no response. I had to cancel my subscription since I can no longer use the app.
Sometimes good. At other times wildly incorrect
I’ll just focus on one aria ( although several have similar problems). Your accompaniment of Sarastro’s aria, “ O Isis Und Osiris “ from Mozart’s Magic Flute has an abrupt tempo change right before the lyrics “ Lasst sie der Prüfung Früchte sehen “. Not good. But it gets worse because your tempo continues to grind even slower over the next few measures. The effect is that the second half of the aria is twice as slow as the first. Mozart did not write this and you will not hear a professional recording of this. I’m lucky: I know my rep and have great coaches. But this is not fair to young or new singers. Please correct these musical errors.
What a really bad app😡😤🤬
So I hate the app I could give it 0 star… you have to pay for everything!! Sorry but this app is horrible
Frustrated
I was relying on this app to help me make recordings this fall for young artist programs. Sadly, it ended up being more frustrating than helpful. The biggest issue I have with it is that many of the recordings of standard opera rep have unpredictable accelerando and rubato played in. I ended up spending hours trying to undo the erratic tempo changes in my pieces using the custom version tool, so that I could sing and record the pieces my way instead of the pianist’s. I also had trouble making my audition videos using the app because the custom version tool, although a really great idea, doesn’t allow for the fact that fermati and cadenzas are going to be slightly different each time you sing something. I know you can always override using the fermata tool, but I couldn’t do that while making a video of myself. This caused more frustration when I inevitably would sing something either a little longer or shorter than I had when I made the custom version, and couldn’t predict when the next downbeat would come. This app has so much potential to be such a fantastic resource- the tools are awesome, they just need to be executed better. Why not record the piano parts senza rubato or accelerando, even when written in the score, to then allow the singer to make the adjustments as they create their own version? That way we won’t have to undo someone else’s version of the piece. It would also be really helpful to have some kind of visual tool (more than the fermata lighting up and then turning off) so one can see how soon to expect the accompaniment to come back in after a fermata.
A waste of your hard earned money
WARNING: Do not use these tracks for any auditions if you are home in quarantine, unless you want to set yourself up to fail. This applies for this recent season of Young Artist Programs.
I have to say, I was optimistic when I heard there was an app that was a lexicon of timeless works in your pocket. During this pandemic of COVID-19, it is more imperative then ever to have a virtual pianist on the go. Unfortunately, I have given just about every rendition a try with one glaring problem..... The Musicianship. I don’t know about you, but paying a monthly subscription for recordings that lack any sense of musicality and let alone basic pulse is infuriating. Sure the “custom versions” feature is great for making a hack job quick rubato section or fermata, maybe tempo change here and there, but none of that matters when there isn’t a steady tempo to begin with. Some egregious cases of this exist in La Calunnia from Barber of Seville, and Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from The Magic Flute. These both are without a doubt the absolute worst renditions of these pieces I have ever heard. Both have horrible transitions, erratic, nonsensical tempo changes, and unnecessary additions to the accompaniment line. I truly am not over exaggerating here. I tried to give this app a chance a number of times, but the amateur quality of what you are paying for is hard to ignore. While pursuing my Masters, almost every rendition I have brought into a lesson or coaching has been met with bewilderment or even laughter at the poor quality of performance in recordings from my mentors. It’s that bad. Good luck trying to sing with any sense of musical collaboration whatsoever. Save your money and hire a pianist who will do the tracks just for you.
Trust me. I am not one to waste my time writing reviews, but I need to do my fellow musicians a service.
I have to say, I was optimistic when I heard there was an app that was a lexicon of timeless works in your pocket. During this pandemic of COVID-19, it is more imperative then ever to have a virtual pianist on the go. Unfortunately, I have given just about every rendition a try with one glaring problem..... The Musicianship. I don’t know about you, but paying a monthly subscription for recordings that lack any sense of musicality and let alone basic pulse is infuriating. Sure the “custom versions” feature is great for making a hack job quick rubato section or fermata, maybe tempo change here and there, but none of that matters when there isn’t a steady tempo to begin with. Some egregious cases of this exist in La Calunnia from Barber of Seville, and Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen from The Magic Flute. These both are without a doubt the absolute worst renditions of these pieces I have ever heard. Both have horrible transitions, erratic, nonsensical tempo changes, and unnecessary additions to the accompaniment line. I truly am not over exaggerating here. I tried to give this app a chance a number of times, but the amateur quality of what you are paying for is hard to ignore. While pursuing my Masters, almost every rendition I have brought into a lesson or coaching has been met with bewilderment or even laughter at the poor quality of performance in recordings from my mentors. It’s that bad. Good luck trying to sing with any sense of musical collaboration whatsoever. Save your money and hire a pianist who will do the tracks just for you.
Trust me. I am not one to waste my time writing reviews, but I need to do my fellow musicians a service.
Useful but bugged
UI is really bad for Apple users around subscriptions
6 song Subscription doesn’t work
Great selection of songs and helpful for any singer, but the subscription model is buggy. when I hit restore subscription, my app crashes and I can’t access what I paid for. Unfortunate, there’s not a lot of resources like this.
New Update won’t let me access my subscription
This app has been so amazing and helpful, but the new update made it completely unusable. After the update, I logged back in and had to recreate a profile. I tried purchasing the low cost subscription, but it told me I already had that subscription. When I click “restore subscription” nothing happens. When I try adding a song to my pick six monthly it says there’s a server error and they were unable to connect to my Apple ID. Please fix this! I was using this for auditions.
Great selection, but features are lacking
It’s great to see that this app has grown significantly since the last time I used it. I had it for a few years back when it first started, and I’m finding out why I canceled it now that I’ve decided to give it another go.
The selection is pretty versatile, but the app isn’t great for self tapes. We typically use our phones for taping, and would be immensely more useful if they had a computer version of the app. The video feature they added is pretty rough and doesn’t solve that fix. The audio isn’t loud enough from the phone speaker, and if you plug into a speaker, the mic moves over to the speaker (which makes your recording incredibly track dominant).
The custom song feature is also incredibly glitchy. The cuts rarely work and often revert. Would love to see improvements to make it easier for taping - it ends up being more cost effective to hire pianists to make custom tracks or find recordings on YouTube than pay for a subscription.
For those who just want to practice along and learn songs in Appcompanist’s catalogue, 5 stars, so this review is purely for limited access on audition side.
The selection is pretty versatile, but the app isn’t great for self tapes. We typically use our phones for taping, and would be immensely more useful if they had a computer version of the app. The video feature they added is pretty rough and doesn’t solve that fix. The audio isn’t loud enough from the phone speaker, and if you plug into a speaker, the mic moves over to the speaker (which makes your recording incredibly track dominant).
The custom song feature is also incredibly glitchy. The cuts rarely work and often revert. Would love to see improvements to make it easier for taping - it ends up being more cost effective to hire pianists to make custom tracks or find recordings on YouTube than pay for a subscription.
For those who just want to practice along and learn songs in Appcompanist’s catalogue, 5 stars, so this review is purely for limited access on audition side.
Keeps saying it can’t access my subscription when it clearly shows songs I used last month
I love this app. But only when it works. At least once a semester so far, it disconnects from my Apple ID and then tells me I’m not connected to my Apple ID when I clearly am. I have restarted my phone, restarted the app, deleted the app and redownloaded. Nothing works. The last thing I tried, which was deleting the app, caused it to fully log out of my subscription with accompanist. I clicked restore subscription and it says it can’t connect with servers, again because of my Apple ID. I checked my Apple ID and it clearly states that I still have access to my subscription. It’s clearly not my fault, and I need this fixed ASAP. Otherwise, the app is great. Love it but when it doesn’t work it’s ridiculous and infuriating. I get it, if you’re doing updates maybe that make the app not work for a bit or something, but if that’s what this is at least let us know.
Good but there’s one major flaw
I think this is an excellent app, but my one big complaint is that a lot of the recordings aren’t in tempo making them very difficult to practice with. It’s one thing if the singer is creating the rubato but when the accompanist is doing it it’s quite difficult to follow especially since in a lot of romantic pieces the accompaniment can be sparse making tempo impossible to predict. If these are meant to be used for practice, they should be strictly in time so the singer is able to count properly.
Sentiment summary
86%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
12%
Negative (1-2★)