Little Drum Machine vs Tako Kick
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Little Drum Machine
Create beats quickly with a 16-step grid, velocity control, and genre presets. Load your own samples, shape sounds with envelopes and effects, and arrange patterns into full songs. Supports MIDI out and AUv3 hosting.
- 16-step drum grid with velocity
- Load custom samples
- Shape samples with envelopes
- Delay, reverb, and drive effects
- Polyrhythms and polymeters
- MIDI out and AUv3 support
- Genre presets and randomization
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Little Drum Machine is what the name says: a drum machine for your iPad. Easy to use, with all the necessary bits to give you fast results. We wanted something fast and simple to work with in our own studio, without the complexity other tools often bring, so we built it. Now we want to share it with you, for free. Tap a beat into the 16-step grid, drag up or down for velocity, add a little swing, and you have a groove. Start from one of 31 genre presets, or hit Randomize when you'd rather not face a blank grid. Make sound your way: use the built-in kits, load your own samples, or send MIDI and let your favourite synths and drum apps do the talking. Features: • 16-step drum grid with 8 lanes and per-step velocity for accents and ghost notes • 32 samples across 8 drums included: four variants each, swappable per lane or even per step • Load your own samples and build your own kits • Shape every sample: pitch, fine tune, volume, and a start/attack/length/decay envelope • Delay, reverb and drive effects with per-drum sends: 4 delay modes, 7 reverb modes, 5 drive characters • Give any lane its own step count and loop length for polyrhythms and polymeters • Musical Randomize for instant grooves; Mutate to create variations of your patterns • 16 scenes per preset, chained into full arrangements in the Arranger • Built-in mixer with per-lane EQ, panning, mute and solo • Master EQ and a glue compressor with attack, release, ratio and parallel mix • Swing to get groovy • MIDI out to trigger external synths and drum apps • 31 genre presets: Techno, House, Hip Hop, Drum & Bass, Jazz, and more • Save and manage your own presets • Light and dark themes • Little Drum Machine runs on its own or as an AUv3 instrument in any suitable host. Free, no strings attached.
Tako Kick
This app is an eight-voice generative drum machine that creates complex polyrhythms. Users can independently shape each voice's rhythm and sound, build evolving grooves, and explore synthesized kits. It offers performance controls and the ability to save and share presets.
- Eight-voice generative drum machine
- Independent voice shaping
- Synthesized drum kits
- Evolving groove creation
- Performance and mixing controls
- Preset saving and sharing
- AUv3 instrument support
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What if an octopus could play drums? Tako Kick is an eight-voice generative drum machine excelling in musical polyrhythms. Shape each voice independently, tuning its rhythm and sound across a range of synthesized kits. Build evolving grooves with pattern, density, pitch, accents, and feel controls. Explore each kit’s timbre, and add movement with built-in modulation sources. Keep rhythm and sound independent in each voice's left and right columns - change the timbre without affecting the beat, or change both at once. Performance controls allow interactive mixing/soloing/muting, and global control over drum assignments and pitch. Save and share complete presets to recall your rhythm, tuning, modulation, kit, and mix settings. Presets can be dynamically loaded for another element of in-time performance. Play Tako Kick standalone on iPhone and iPad, or load it as an AUv3 instrument in AUM and other compatible hosts. Sync to the host and use it with MIDI. Tako Kick is a tactile rhythm instrument for finding grooves. Use it to practice drums, get ideas, make beats, or just to have fun.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Little Drum Machine at weekly against Tako Kick's monthly. Little Drum Machine also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Little Drum Machine against 5.0 for Tako Kick. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 5 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Little Drum Machine ships an update weekly, Tako Kick monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Little Drum Machine | Tako Kick |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (8 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Snorkel Audio, Inh. Michael Kaisser | Radii Research |
Customer experience
Little Drum Machine
Tako Kick
In-app purchases
Little Drum Machine
No in-app purchases
Tako Kick
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Little Drum Machine free?
Is Tako Kick free?
Which has better reviews, Little Drum Machine or Tako Kick?
Do Little Drum Machine or Tako Kick have ads?
Which is updated more often, Little Drum Machine or Tako Kick?
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