Rehearsal Pro vs blablabla: which iOS rehearsal app fits your workflow

Rehearsal Pro has been on the App Store since 2009. I used it for years before I built blablabla. It is a good app. I want to say that plainly up front, because the rest of this post draws lines between what each tool does well, and I do not want those lines to sound like I am dragging a competitor.

The short version. If you want an app that records you reading every part and plays your own recordings back so you can rehearse, Rehearsal Pro is built exactly for that. If you want an app that reads the other characters' lines for you, in voices that are not yours, and waits for you to say yours, blablabla is built for that.

They are not the same job.

How Rehearsal Pro works

You import a script. You go through it and record yourself reading every character's lines. Then during rehearsal, the app plays back your own recordings of the other characters, pausing on your lines so you can say them live.

The value is real. Recording every character's part once is a form of rehearsal on its own. You make choices. You hear how your own voice shapes the other parts. You notice things about the scene that silent reading misses.

How blablabla works

You import a scene. You pick your character. You cast each of the other characters with a different voice from a list of premium voices. Then during rehearsal, the app speaks the other lines aloud in those voices and waits for you to say yours. You do not record anything first.

Four modes take you from cold read to off-book: Listen, Read, Practice, Perform. The last two use on-device speech recognition to detect when you have finished a line and auto-advance the scene without a tap.

When Rehearsal Pro is the better choice

• You already know you rehearse best when you record the other parts yourself in your own voice
• You want to hear your own interpretation of the other characters while you practice
• You want a one-time purchase instead of a subscription
• You have the time to pre-record every scene before you start rehearsing

Rehearsal Pro has a decade of users who swear by the record-your-own-voice workflow. They are not wrong. That workflow teaches you the scene in a way that just reading it does not.

When blablabla is the better choice

• You got sides last night and you do not have half an hour to record every part before you can rehearse
• You want a different voice per character, so the scene sounds like more than one person in the room
• You want the app to listen for when you have finished your line and keep the scene moving without you tapping anything
• You rehearse in more than one language (blablabla supports 74)
• You want a free tier to try before you decide

The Golden Rule of blablabla is that it never cuts the actor off. It only speaks the lines on the page. No coaching, no extra text. It waits as long as you need.

The one honest difference

Rehearsal Pro asks you to do the work of making the scene audible before you can practice it. blablabla does that work for you so you can get straight to your own performance.

Neither of those is wrong. Some actors want the first step because the first step is its own form of rehearsal. Some actors want to skip straight to the scene because they already know what they want to do. Different tools for different approaches.

I built blablabla because I wanted the second one and could not find it done the way I wanted. That is all. If you already use Rehearsal Pro and it works for you, keep using it.

If you have not decided yet, the free tier on blablabla gives you two voiced scenes, lifetime, with no subscription. Try a scene you already know. You will know pretty fast if it fits how you work.