Comparison

Tako Kick vs Sightlines

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

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.

Highlights
  • Harmonic filter bank
  • MIDI control
  • Sample loading
  • Noise and synth sound sources
  • Modulation capabilities
  • Built-in chorus, delay, and reverb
Features
Read full description

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

Tako Kick4 screens
Sightlines1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Tako Kick at Free against Sightlines's $7.99. Sightlines's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs monthly) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.6). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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

Tako Kick is free to download; Sightlines costs $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Tako Kick against 5.0 for Sightlines. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 9 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tako Kick ships an update monthly, Sightlines weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Tako Kick versus Sightlines: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTako KickSightlines
PriceFree — better$7.99
Rating5.0 (5 ratings)5.0 (9 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings59 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRadii ResearchAqeel Aadam

Customer experience

Tako Kick

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Sightlines

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Tako Kick

No in-app purchases

None

Sightlines

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tako Kick free?
Tako Kick is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sightlines free?
Sightlines costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Tako Kick or Sightlines?
Tako Kick and Sightlines are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 5 and 9 ratings respectively.
Do Tako Kick or Sightlines have ads?
Neither Tako Kick nor Sightlines shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tako Kick or Sightlines?
Tako Kick ships an update monthly, and Sightlines weekly. Most recently, Tako Kick was updated on October 31, 2026 and Sightlines on October 31, 2026.

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