Touch it and it becomes music.
Ariata is an instrument for people who never learned one. The screen is a lattice of glowing rows; every touch lands on a note that fits the harmony, and the harmony moves on its own. There are no wrong notes — not because they are forgiven, but because they cannot be played.
What the instrument does
- No wrong notes
- Harmony runs itself
- Loop a phrase
- Share a sound
- Export BGM
Three things happen the moment you touch it.
Every touch lands on a note that fits
The rows are the scale of this moment and the bright ones are the chord. Pitch snaps to a chord tone on strong beats, time snaps to the grid. Wrong notes are not discouraged — they are unrepresentable.
The harmony moves without you
A four-bar classical grammar advances underneath your playing, and the lit rows move with it. You never choose a chord. The one harmonic decision you own is the cadence button, and it waits for the bar line so your timing never has to be exact.
Keep a phrase and play over it
One tap keeps what you just played — four, eight or sixteen bars, whichever your playing spanned — and loops it in place, re-fit to the harmony as it moves. Share the link and the phrase travels with the sound.
An instrument, not a toy.
Ariata quantizes everything a beginner would get wrong and leaves everything expressive in your hands: where you touch, how hard, when to run, when to close.
Every note fits
Pitch snaps to a chord tone on strong beats and a scale tone on weak ones; time snaps to the grid. Wrong notes are not discouraged — they are unrepresentable.
Harmony runs itself
A classical four-bar grammar advances underneath your playing: statements, answers, echoes, and cadences. You never choose a chord; you play over one.
One button closes a phrase
The cadence button is the one harmonic decision you make. It lands on the next bar line, so the moment you press it never has to be precise.
Loop what you just played
Play something you like, then keep it: one tap loops it at the length your playing spanned — four, eight or sixteen bars — re-fit to the harmony as it moves, and you play on top.
Share the sound — or the phrase
A preset is six numbers and a name, so it travels as a link. With a loop running, the link carries the performance itself, and it starts playing on arrival.
Export background music
Auto-play, record, and land on a musically finished ending — a real cadence with a clean fade, written to M4A for your videos and projects.
AirPods as expression
Optional head tracking shapes register and resonance: look up to rise, tilt for ring-out. Slow, continuous, and never destructive — a nod can never fire anything.
A mood becomes a preset
Type "the morning after rain" and Apple Intelligence fills the six knobs — key, mode, tempo, accompaniment, brightness, resonance. The model never touches a single note.
The instrument is free. All of it.
Pro is for what you make with it — longer takes, more timbres, and moods in your own words.
Free
$0
The whole instrument. Not a demo of one — every note, every mode, every key.
- The complete instrument
- Auto-play, harmony and cadences
- Phrase loops, and links that carry them
- Recordings and video, up to 30 seconds
- AirPods head control
- No account, no ads
Pro
$1.99/mo
For what you make with it. Both plans start with a free trial; the yearly works out at $1.08 a month.
- Everything in Free
- Takes and background music with no limit
- Harp, music box and felt — and the timbres to come
- Presets from a mood (Apple Intelligence)
- Your name or handle in the video
- Video options: ripples and row contrast
Lifetime
$24.99
One payment. For people who would rather not think about it again.
- Everything in Pro
- One payment, no renewal
- Every timbre that arrives later
Prices are in US dollars; other storefronts follow Apple’s equalized pricing. Subscriptions renew until cancelled, and you cancel them in Settings, Subscriptions. Every plan unlocks the same features — the only difference is how you pay for them.
Frequently asked questions
If you have anything else you want to ask, reach out to us.
Do I need to know music theory?
No. The instrument quantizes pitch and time for you: every touch lands on a note that fits the current chord, and the harmony advances on its own. What is left in your hands is the expressive part — where, how hard, and when.
What do the glowing rows mean?
Each row is a note of the current scale, and the bright rows are the notes of the chord sounding right now. Touch anywhere; brighter rows sit deeper in the harmony.
What is the yellow button?
The cadence. It is the one harmonic decision you make: press it and the music closes the phrase on the next bar line, the way classical music ends a sentence.
How does the loop work?
Ariata keeps a rolling buffer of what you play. One tap keeps it and plays it back in place — four, eight or sixteen bars, whichever your playing spanned — re-fit to the harmony as it moves, while you play on top. Tap again to stop.
What does a shared link contain?
A preset is six numbers and a name — key, mode, tempo, accompaniment, brightness, resonance — so it fits in a URL with nothing stored on any server. If a loop is running when you share, the phrase itself rides along and starts playing when the link is opened.
What is the BGM export for?
It plays, records, and ends properly: a real cadence, a soft final tonic, and a clean fade, written to an M4A file. Use it as background music for videos, streams, or anything that needs a few minutes of original music.
Do I need AirPods?
No — they are optional. With AirPods that support motion, looking up and down shifts the register and tilting your head shapes the resonance. Everything else works identically without them.
Does the AI write the music?
No. The mood feature turns free text into a preset — the same six knobs you can set by hand — using on-device Apple Intelligence. The model never touches notes, rhythm, or harmony, and the app is fully usable without it.
What iOS version do I need?
Ariata requires iOS 26 or later.