Sightlines vs 2099 Techno
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
2099 Techno
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2099 Techno writes complete tracks. Press generate and you get 76 bars with an intro, builds, two main sections, a breakdown and an outro, played by a virtual-analog engine and a 909-style drum machine. Bass, acid, stabs, pad, a lead line and the kit, through a dub delay, chorus and reverb. Nothing is sampled. Every note is made on the fly and no two tracks come out the same. The music comes from chaos maths. Three Lorenz attractors shape the melody, the rhythm and the mood. Three separate logistic maps run underneath the drums, the bass and the acid line, so they wander independently: turn the logistic control down and the hats and perc repeat every bar, turn it up and they never do. Chaos on its own is noise, so a small model filters it. It gets rewarded for consonant intervals and rehearses two hundred notes over the changes before it writes anything. The CHAOS / TASTE slider decides how much say each one gets. Eight styles, and they are properly different. Detroit rolls an off-beat bass under syncopated stabs. Dub Techno holds one chord for four bars and lets the delay do the work. Acid runs a 303 line with slides and accents. Hard pushes past 140 with a Reese bass and the drive up. Minimal takes most of it away. Every track is built from its seed. Write the seed down and you can have that exact track again, note for note, whenever you want it. You can play over it, too. The pads are the notes of the track's key rather than a piano keyboard, so nothing you touch is wrong, and the sixteen-step lane runs in time with the track and follows your host. Both play any part you like: bass, acid, stabs, pad or lead, through that part's sound and out on its MIDI channel. Choose which sections the lane plays in - just the breakdown, say - and preview it on its own without starting the track. Turn on RADIO and it keeps playing, picking a new key, mode, style, sound kit and tempo for each track. You also get: • 8 styles, 6 dark modes, 12 keys, tempo and density • Two-oscillator analog voice with sub, noise, resonant filter and glide • 22 presets and 9 sound kits, from Warehouse to Game Boy, plus random patch • Six-part mixer, dub delay, chorus, plate reverb and a global sweep filter • A PLAY panel: pads in the track's own key, and a 16-step lane with accent and slide, running in time with the track and only in the sections you pick • MIDI in, so your keyboard plays whichever part you have selected • MIDI export: six tracks, one per part • Live spectrum, waveform and a view of the chaos engine at work Two Audio Units, an instrument and a MIDI processor. Each part sends on its own MIDI channel, drums on 10, so one instance can drive six instruments. The MIDI version passes your keyboard through instead of swallowing it. Both follow your host's tempo and transport. One install registers both. The app is free and nothing in it is held back. Using the Audio Units inside other apps is a one-time purchase, and each AUv3 session plays for two minutes first so you can try them properly.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: 2099 Techno at Free against Sightlines's $7.99. 2099 Techno also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). Sightlines's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On ads and device support 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
2099 Techno is free to download; Sightlines costs $7.99 up front. 2099 Techno sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Sightlines asks for nothing beyond the download.
Sightlines ships an update weekly, 2099 Techno every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sightlines | 2099 Techno |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Aqeel Aadam | Soft Brew Mobile |
In-app purchases
Sightlines
No in-app purchases
2099 Techno
- AUv3 Unlock$2.99








