AD vs Sightlines
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AD
This app emulates a classic 1983 micro synthesizer with modern enhancements like MPE and eight-voice polyphony. It offers a rich sound engine with multiple oscillators, filters, and a comprehensive drive section for unique sonic textures. Enjoy extensive modulation options and a built-in keyboard for immediate creativity.
- Eight-voice polyphony
- MPE support
- Classic four-pole lowpass filter
- Comprehensive drive section
- AUv3 and standalone operation
- Preset manager with favorites
- Built-in chicklet keyboard
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We rebuilt the legendary micro composer of 1983, then gave it everything the original owners wished for: eight voices, MPE, a sequencer worthy of the name, and a couple of new dirty tricks. The voice is the one you know: a single fat oscillator with sawtooth and pulse (manual, LFO, or envelope PWM), a three-mode sub oscillator, and a noise source, mixed and driven into a classic four-pole lowpass filter. One snappy ADSR, switchable env/gate VCA, and an LFO with triangle, square, stepped random, and noise shapes, complete with onset delay, tempo sync, and retrigger. Portamento with the proper on/auto/off modes, and gate, gate+trig, and LFO trigger modes, exactly like the hardware. And the a sequencer: eight patterns of up to 64 steps, drawn right on the panel, with accent, slide, and octave per step, follow actions and repeats, swing, and tools to randomize in a key and scale, mutate, copy, and rotate. Play a pattern from a held key, transpose it from the keyboard, lock it while you browse presets, and run it from its own clock, the host transport, or an Ableton Link session in the standalone. Sequences save with your presets. • Eight-voice polyphony, or the original mono behavior with the flip of a switch • MPE support with per-note pitch bend and pressure, four aftertouch destinations (VCO mod, VCF mod, filter freq, LFO rate), and adjustable pressure smoothing • MTS-ESP microtonal tuning, retuned continuously while notes sound • SPREAD for stereo voice panning, and AGE, which drifts each voice like forty-year-old components • A full drive section: pre-filter saturation, filter drive, post-VCA distortion, and a tilt EQ • Velocity to filter and amp • A chicklet keyboard with latch and octave shift, playable right on the panel • Full preset manager with favorites and a factory bank • Five faceplate colors, including one for console cowboys • AUv3 and standalone, with an interface that fills whatever window your host hands it AD-202 works everywhere iOS makes noise: AUM, apeMatrix, Logic Pro, GarageBand, Cubasis, and any other AUv3 host, plus a standalone app with its own audio and MIDI settings, Ableton Link, and background audio. No subscriptions. No accounts. No nonsense. Buy it once, own it forever.
Sightlines
Shape sounds with a playable harmonic filter. Add motion, stereo spread, and unique textures to noise, samples, or synths. Tune it like a resonator or control it with MIDI for endless sonic possibilities.
- Harmonic filter bank
- MIDI control
- Sample loading
- Noise and synth sound sources
- Modulation capabilities
- Built-in chorus, delay, and reverb
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Make noise, texture, and percussion sing. Add motion and stereo spread to basic sounds. Load samples and sculpt them endlessly. Leave your mark on any sound with harmonic filtering. Sightlines is a playable harmonic filter. Built from a collection of resonant bandpass filters tuned to the harmonic series, designed to bring out a customizable set of musical frequencies in any sound. Tune it to a fixed frequency like a resonator, or send it MIDI to make it come alive as an instrument. Sightlines can be loaded as an instrument or an audio effect. As an instrument, use it with samples, noise, or oscillators to construct sounds never heard before. As an effect, add movement and interest to any sound, and even impart tonality onto unpitched input. SOUND SOURCES • Noise – filter variable color noise and random noise bursts for Sightlines’ simplest and quickest output. • Samples – send samples through resonant filters as one-shots or infinite looping versions of themselves, great for found sound and tonal samples alike. • Synth – skip the filters entirely and use Sightlines as a harmonic synth, where you can customize and modulate the proportion of each harmonic in the signal. • Audio effect – use Sightlines as an audio effect on any track. MOVEMENT AND EFFECTS • Manipulate overtones – stretch, bend, and reimagine the harmonic series to retune Sightlines’ output into realistic or indescribable sonic spaces. • Quantize frequencies – snap all of Sightlines’ filters to a scale, to impart that key quality onto any sound. • Balance bands – maneuver through the harmonic space by scanning, tilting, or spreading Sightlines’ bands. • End of chain – make your output shine with a built-in chorus, BBD-style delay, and reverb. FEATURES • Modulation – modify any control in Sightlines with multiple LFOs, sequencers, smooth random sources, and performance effects. • Presets – full preset control over every parameter in Sightlines. Cross-platform preset format for sharing with friends. • Waymaker – connect to Sightlines’ sibling application, Waymaker, for direct sequencing of Sightlines’ without MIDI routing. Also available for macOS and Windows in VST3 / AU / AAX formats from Aqeel Aadam Sound.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Sightlines at 5.0 against AD's 4.7. Sightlines also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and review sentiment (100% vs 86%). AD's advantage is price ($6.99 vs $7.99). 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
AD costs $6.99 and Sightlines $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sightlines holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of AD's written reviews are positive against 100% of Sightlines's.
AD ships an update every 3 weeks, Sightlines weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | AD | Sightlines |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 — better | $7.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (12 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 85.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 12 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 74 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Audio Damage, Inc. | Aqeel Aadam |
Customer experience
AD
Sightlines
In-app purchases
AD
No in-app purchases
Sightlines
No in-app purchases









