Comparison

DM1 for iPhone vs iOptigan

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

DM1 for iPhone

Transform your iPhone into a powerful beat-making machine with this advanced vintage drum machine. Create intricate rhythms with a step sequencer, play beats on drum pads, and apply a wide range of real-time effects. Easily compose songs and export your creations.

Highlights
  • 154 electronic drum kits
  • Step sequencer
  • Drum pads with quantized recording
  • Mixer with channel controls
  • Real-time FX trackpads
  • Song composer with timeline editing
  • Instrument mode for melodies
Currently charting
Read full description

DM1 is an advanced vintage Drum Machine. It turns your iPhone into a fun and creative beat making machine. Easy and fast to use, loaded with 154 superb electronic drum kits and beautiful hyper-realistic graphics, DM1 has been designed for a lot of instant fun. As electronic musicians ourselves, we, at Fingerlab, have developed DM1 with the intention of delivering the perfect mix between fun playability and powerful sonic capacities. We always keep in mind the importance of a beautiful design with the right balance of powerful abilities while avoiding clumsy, overbusy interfaces. Check our 154 electronic drum kits. 42 classic vintage drum kits plus 112 in-house produced electronic kits, edited and mastered at Fingerlab professional studio. DM1 offers 5 main sections: 1 - THE STEP SEQUENCER frees your imagination with a smart use of the multi-touch screen. Just turn on and off steps in your sequence with the tip of your fingers to create cool beats, or unexpected rhythms! 2 - THE DRUM PADS simply lets you play and record the beat that tickles your fingers. No need to be a first-class drummer, automatic quantize does the work for you. 3 - THE MIXER for quick and subtle sound mixing of your drum kits. Featuring settings for volume, pitch, sample length, custom drum kit element for each channel, mute and solo mode. 4 - THE FX TRACKPADS a creative FX trackpad to distort, modulate and transform your beats. The effects include: Overdrive, Delay, Reverb, Phaser, Formant, Dalek, Filter, Compressor, Envelope follower, Dub Delay, Texturizer, Robotizer, and Noise Gate. 5 - THE SONG COMPOSER allows you to quickly make a song with the beat patterns you have created. Just drag and drop the patterns onto the timeline. Fast and easy. Specifications: - Retina Display - Graphic design by Jonas Eriksson - Smart ergonomy for fast creativity and fun - 108 vintage and produced drum kits, mastered at in-house Fingerlab Sound Studios - 48 additional drum kits available with In-App Purchases - Instrument mode allowing to add bassline, chord and melody - 3 instruments: Piano, Korg MicroPreset and Cello Strings - 3 other instrument (Clavinet, Marimba, MiniLogue) are available with In-App Purchases - Step Sequencer with multi-touch matrix - Mixer page with pitch, length and level rotary controls, pan controls, and custom drum kit per channel - 9 Drum pads, quantized recording - FX Trackpad for real-time sonic destruction - 16 or 32 Steps per patterns - The Randomizer tool - Extra fast drum kit loading - Playable pattern selection for extra creativity - Mode song with intuitive editing - High-quality export to SoundCloud, DropBox, Email, iTunes shared folder, AudioCopy or any other apps - Audio background mode - Audiobus support - Import & Export your song project (DropBox, Mail, iTunes folder) - Full Midi implementation - Inter-App Audio support Watch DM1 video trailer on YouTube Fingerlab's channel: http://www.youtube.com/fingerlab Feel free to let us know what you think and what you'd like to see in the next DM1 update. Enjoy! Watch us : vimeo.com/ fingerlab Visit us : fingerlab.net Follow us : twitter.com/ fingerlab Contact us : contact@fingerlab.net Powered by Fingerlab http://www.fingerlab.net

About

iOptigan

Experience the unique lo-fi sound of a vintage optical organ on your iOS device. This app faithfully recreates the original instrument's sound and functionality, allowing you to play chord patterns and explore different musical styles. It includes a virtual spring reverb, metronome, and MIDI capabilities for expanded creative control.

Highlights
  • Authentic lo-fi optical organ sound
  • Virtual spring reverb
  • Optical metronome
  • MIDI in/out and chord detection
  • Sequencer with record/playback
  • Audio and MIDI file sharing
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

This is the Optigan for iOS. The Optigan, short for Optical Organ, was a chord organ from the early 1970’s. It is remembered today for its unique system of sound reproduction using optical discs. These LP-sized film discs were optically encoded with 57 concentric tracks, which contained loops of musical combos playing chord patterns in different styles. Each disc contained a specific style of music (Bossa Nova, Big Band etc) which the user could control by pressing the chord buttons. Changing the discs was as simple as putting a new record on your turntable. Think of it as the 1971 version of GarageBand. Despite this novel technology, the scratchy sound of the Optigan left a lot to be desired. The iOptigan we present here truthfully recreates that lo-fi sound. 25 of the original 40 discs are included, the remaining 15 can be purchased individually or all together in the Complete Pak. Specifications and Features: • Disc loading rigth-side-up or upside-down • Spring Reverb (virtual) • Optical Metronome • Audio Demo for each Disc • MIDI in/out • MIDI chord detection • MIDI File Import • Sequencer with Record and Playback • Sharing for songs as Audio and MIDI File • iTunes File Sharing • Inter-App Audio • Smart background audio • Help overlay • Headphone optimised stereo (optional) • Radio Mode for Chord Buttons or Keyboard • Comfortable speed control in semitones or BPM

Screenshots

DM1 for iPhone4 screens
iOptigan3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: iOptigan at 4.8 against DM1 for iPhone's 4.1. iOptigan also leads on review sentiment (92% vs 73%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.6). DM1 for iPhone's advantage is price ($4.99 vs $5.99). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

DM1 for iPhone costs $4.99 and iOptigan $5.99 up front. DM1 for iPhone sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and iOptigan sells 16 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iOptigan holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 80 and 114 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of DM1 for iPhone's written reviews are positive against 92% of iOptigan's.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
DM1 for iPhone versus iOptigan: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDM1 for iPhoneiOptigan
Price$4.99 — better$5.99
Rating4.1 (80 ratings)4.8 (114 ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.3% of reviews92.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings80114 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#157#75 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.68.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size253 MB179 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperFingerlabStefan Stenzel

Customer experience

DM1 for iPhone

All ratings79 ratings
Positive75.9%
Neutral5.1%
Negative19.0%
Written reviews341 reviews
Positive73.3%
Neutral12.6%
Negative14.1%

iOptigan

All ratings114 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral4.4%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews64 reviews
Positive92.2%
Neutral6.3%
Negative1.6%

User reviews

DM1 for iPhone

From 80 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💎 Best drum machine app
  • 🎨 Great variety of drum sounds and kits
  • 🎚️ Intuitive and easy to use interface
  • 🔊 High-quality sound
  • 💰 Excellent value for money

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • 📱 Compatibility problems on newer devices
  • 🔋 Battery drain
  • 🔇 Lack of individual track export
  • 🕰️ Inaccurate tempo and timing

iOptigan

From 114 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤩 Incredible sound quality
  • 🎶 Unique musical instrument recreation
  • ✨ Dream come true for musicians
  • 🎹 Great for experimentalists
  • 👍 Well-executed and fun

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Stuck/phantom keys
  • 🐛 Audio clipping issues
  • 🐛 Left-only headphone audio
  • 🐛 Touch issues on bottom row
  • 🐛 InterApp Audio broken in Garageband

Bugs and requests

DM1 for iPhone

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes on launch
  • Audio distortion and glitches
  • Sync and timing issues when exporting to other apps
  • Unresponsive controls and UI elements

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add support for more time signatures (3/4, 5/4, etc.)
  • Implement Ableton Link for better sync with other apps
  • Allow importing and using custom samples
  • Add more effects and per-channel processing
  • Implement a save/revert function to avoid losing progress
Show 2 more
  • Improve tempo controls with finer adjustment and tap tempo
  • Provide individual track export options

iOptigan

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • Stuck/phantom keys on M1 iPad Pro
  • E major plays D Diminished sample
  • Bottom row of controls unresponsive
  • Audio level clipping, especially when slowing playback
  • Left-only headphone audio output
Show 5 more
  • InterApp Audio broken in Garageband
  • InterApp Audio buggy in n-Track Studio Pro
  • App doesn't fill modern screen sizes
  • Vamp loop section bug with 5th switch
  • Gay 90's Waltz disc has incorrect flasher count

Requested features

19 requests
  • Update codebase with AudioKit Engine
  • Allow app to run in background
  • Add AudioUnit Extension support
  • Include newly released sound packs
  • Clarify chord identification methods
Show 14 more
  • AUV3 version
  • Audiobus compatibility
  • Virtual MIDI support
  • Ableton Link support
  • MPE support
  • Stacking discs for combined playback
  • Add Orchestron sounds
  • Add iChliton
  • Add Talentmaker discs
  • Update for larger screen compatibility
  • Export WAV functionality
  • Limit loudness of pops and scratches (equalizer?)
  • Set release of keys
  • MIDI program changes support

In-app purchases

1 purchases

DM1 for iPhone

One-time1
  • All Packs$3.99
16 purchases

iOptigan

One-time16
  • Champagne Music$0.99
  • Country Waltz$0.99
  • Romantic Strings$0.99
Show 13 more
  • Big Top Marching Band$0.99
  • Polynesian Village$0.99
  • Singing Rhythm$0.99
  • Rollin’ Easy$0.99
  • Movin'$0.99
  • Cathedral Organ$0.99
  • Vox Humana$0.99
  • Country Sunshine$0.99
  • Down Home$0.99
  • Gospel Rock$0.99
  • Guitar Boogie$0.99
  • New Orleans Blues$0.99
  • Complete Disc Pak$5.99

Questions

Is DM1 for iPhone free?
DM1 for iPhone costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is iOptigan free?
iOptigan costs $5.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, DM1 for iPhone or iOptigan?
iOptigan is rated higher. DM1 for iPhone averages 4.1 out of 5 from 80 ratings, while iOptigan averages 4.8 from 114 ratings.
Do DM1 for iPhone or iOptigan have ads?
Neither DM1 for iPhone nor iOptigan shows ads.
Which is more popular, DM1 for iPhone or iOptigan?
DM1 for iPhone currently peaks at #157 in the App Store charts, and iOptigan at #75. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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