LivePlay vs Soundboard Studio

LivePlay is a free desktop audio playback app for live shows, designed for live sound operators managing cues. Playlists and cart buttons support cue groups, fades, loops, crossfades, and next-cue actions. Cues can route to channels on one or more audio interfaces. Mixing and monitoring tools include audio buses, EQ, gate, compressor, auxiliary sends, output meters, loudness targets, and a master limiter. Playback control works through mouse, touch, keyboard, MIDI, HTTP, and WebSocket. Media can be added by drag-and-drop or YouTube audio import, with waveform display and LTC timecode output. A desktop controller can connect to a local or remote audio server over a network. LivePlay runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and is released under AGPL-3.0-only. The Free plan costs nothing with all features and no licence fees, subscriptions, or paywalls. Remote control uses plain HTTP and WebSocket; installers are unsigned and macOS builds are not notarized.

Soundboard Studio is an iOS cartwall app for playing audio such as pads, music beds, voiceovers, sound effects and soundbites. It is presented for podcasts, shows and gigs, as well as studio, broadcast and theatre use. Any number of tracks can play at once, with a separate volume control for each. Tracks can be trimmed using a waveform, looped, faded in or out, or set to stop other tracks when played. Automations can play, stop or change the volume of other tracks when a track starts, stops or reaches its end. Audio can be bulk imported from Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud Drive and other sources. The free version allows up to 24 tracks across four boards, but does not include background playback when the app is closed or track automations. Pro adds unlimited tracks and boards, background playback and automations. The weekly option is $6.99 a week and the yearly option is $59.99 a year; both begin with a 7-day free trial. A lifetime Pro purchase is $159.99 USD. The app is described as universal for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Its privacy policy says audio files and track settings are stored locally, and that personal information and analytics data are not collected.