COMPA launches September 9 for iPhone and iPad

Give your groovebox a compa. Coming September 9, 2026, COMPA is an iPhone and iPad companion for the gear you already know — ready to help with a recording, an effect, a pattern, or a sound you want to sample.

In Mexican slang, a compa is a close friend. That is the role this app is meant to play beside your gear. It can take on one useful job while the groovebox leads, or handle more of the session when you want it to. You do not have to rebuild your setup around it.

The introductory US price is $24.99 from September 9 through September 30, inclusive. The regular US price is $39.99 beginning October 1. One upfront App Store purchase; no subscription or additional feature purchase. Prices in other storefronts vary.

Built around the groovebox you already own

Connect supported gear and COMPA recognizes it in Session, bringing up its device profile, MIDI defaults, and instrument-specific controls. You do not have to build a controller map from scratch.

The experience changes with the instrument. The SP-404MKII gets its own effect controls. The P-6 gets granular controls. The T-8 gets bass sequencing with accent and slide alongside its drums. The EP-40 RIDDIM gets a pad layout organized around its four groups. The EP-136 K.O. Sidekick gets a view of its main mix and individual audio input pairs.

Supported profiles include:

• Roland: SP-404MKII, P-6, T-8, S-1, J-6, and E-4.
• Teenage Engineering: EP-133 K.O. II, EP-40 RIDDIM, and the EP-136 K.O. Sidekick audio interface/controller.
• Akai: MPC Sample.
• Ableton: Move.

Capabilities are specific to each model. Choose the audio path in ROUTE; cables, interfaces, powered hubs, and hardware USB/MIDI modes still depend on your setup. A MIDI connection is not automatically an audio connection, and a profile for one MPC model does not mean every MPC generation has the same controls.

Leave the hardware at home when you want

Use CHOMP, FETCH’s built-in voices, or a compatible AUv3 instrument on your iPhone or iPad. Clips can keep a loop going while you play; Arrange is there if you want to work on the song. Use those parts when they help. COMPA can also sit alongside your existing host, hardware sequencer, or recording workflow.

CHOMP turns recordings and imported sounds into playable sample pads. Trim, chop, tune, reverse, sequence, and perform them inside COMPA, or use the included CHOMP AUv3 instrument in a compatible host. FETCH + KEYS AUv3 tools are included too. Third-party music apps are separate purchases.

Patterns that follow the instrument

Browse over 1,000 melodic presets and a library of drum grooves, then make the idea your own. COMPA identifies melodic and drum AUv3 instruments and supplies an appropriate note or drum grid, with a manual role override when needed. Compatible MIDI hardware uses the lanes, pads, or native-pattern workflow built for its profile.

Share more than tempo

Ableton Link Audio works between COMPA devices without a computer or Ableton Live. Send a mix or individual sources from your iPhone to your iPad, then select which incoming channels to hear. Both devices need a compatible local-network connection and Link Audio enabled.

Link tempo, Link Start/Stop, and audio sharing have separate controls. Hardware MIDI clock and Start/Stop can also be chosen per device. Wireless audio is buffered and depends on network quality; it is not a zero-latency cable replacement.

Mix it, route it, record it

Balance source levels and pan, add inserts and sends, use solo/mute/record, and process the master. ROUTE can use one supported hardware device for input and a different one for output, with COMPA between them. Available combinations depend on the devices and the route selected by iOS/iPadOS; this does not aggregate arbitrary USB interfaces.

Quota Stems and Quota Kits — included inside COMPA

Quota Stems Standard 4 separates vocals, drums, bass, and other instruments on device. Find a section, work with cue points, and send material into your COMPA workflow. Optional models require an initial download.

Quota Kits helps organize, build, import, and export sampler kits for the tools you already use. Both workspaces are included in COMPA on iPhone and iPad, with no extra feature purchase.

The desktop Quota products and Collection remain separate purchases. Their capabilities are not identical to the versions inside COMPA.

Launch and what comes next

The approved launch release is COMPA 1.0, Build 29. The upcoming update is COMPA 1.1, Build 30; its release date will be announced separately. Screenshots may preview its expanded Pattern catalog and linked-group controls, which are not all in the launch release.

COMPA is available to pre-order for September 9. Downloads begin on release day; pre-order customers are not charged until then. The introductory price runs through September 30, then the regular price begins October 1.

Explore COMPA · Pre-order on the App Store · Read the manual

Thank you to everyone who tested, reported issues, and helped shape the app. We look forward to hearing what you make with it.