Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.

What is Loopy Pro?Loopy Pro is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive live looper, sampler, clip launcher and DAW for iPhone and iPad. At its core, it allows you to record and layer sounds in real-time to create complex musical arrangements. But it doesn’t stop there—Loopy Pro offers advanced tools to customize your workflow, build dynamic performance setups, and create a seamless connection between instruments, effects, and external gear.

Use it for live looping, sequencing, arranging, mixing, and much more. Whether you're a live performer, a producer, or just experimenting with sound, Loopy Pro helps you take control of your creative process.

Download on the App Store

Loopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.

Some question on StepPolyArp used with computer

edited October 2016 in App Tips and Tricks

Im thinking of getting this app to be used with ableton + push. Mostly for like midi from ableton to steppolyarp triggering synths on ipad which would send the sound back to ableton for recording(via studiomux). I might also want to use it with some synths on ableton itself.

So heres a ew questions i need to know before buying(im new to using arpeggiators):

I only see it working over wifi and that it can be connected to interfaces. But also i have read that using it over wifi isnt always very reliable. Can it also be used via usb? Would be silly for it not to be, but couldnt find any info about that, so i want to make sure. Or has the stability over wifi been fixed?

If i have ableton push set to some scale like A diminished (half-whole). So does that +2 mean that its +2 on that scale, or 2 half steps on that particular scale? If its +2 half steps, are there shit tons of scales on steppolyarp, so that i dont have to worry about not being able to use it on some scales?

If i trigger a note on push in rhythmic fashion, instead of just holding a note down, does the arp start at the beginning(retrigger), continue freely, or what? Can this be controlled from the app?

I might figure out more questions later, but those are my main concerns.

Comments

  • yes you can send midi back and forth between abelton and iPad. you can use a network wifi, but for me it always has a lot of latency.
    I use a I connect midi 2+ and can send midi and audio back and
    forth between my iPad. I treat it as my iPad is just another plugin within abelton. it's is awesome. I the words of Ferris Bueller "If you have the means to do so, I would highly recommend, it is so choice. "
    hope
    that helps you.

  • I don't own Ableton Push or SPA, so I may be of little help. This is what's listed on the SPA website.

    Full Midi connection support

    • Midi over Bluetooth
    • Midi Wifi Network (RTP Midi)
    • Apple USB camera connection kit
    • Any Core Midi compatible interface
    • Virtual Midi ports
    • Ableton Link (sync)
    • Inter-App Audio (Midi, audio, sync, transport control)
    • Audiobus support (audio, transport control)

    Here's a list of Ableton Link enabled apps: https://www.ableton.com/en/link/apps

  • @telecharge said:
    I don't own Ableton Push or SPA, so I may be of little help. This is what's listed on the SPA website.

    Full Midi connection support

    • Midi over Bluetooth
    • Midi Wifi Network (RTP Midi)
    • Apple USB camera connection kit
    • Any Core Midi compatible interface
    • Virtual Midi ports
    • Ableton Link (sync)
    • Inter-App Audio (Midi, audio, sync, transport control)
    • Audiobus support (audio, transport control)

    Here's a list of Ableton Link enabled apps: https://www.ableton.com/en/link/apps

    Virtual midi ports means midi over usb? Like ipad hooked to my computers usb port

  • For USB, you need the CCK (Camera Connection Kit).

  • @telecharge said:
    For USB, you need the CCK (Camera Connection Kit).

    I dont want to connect the ipad to interface, but to my computer with the supplied lightning to usb cable

  • @ToMess said:
    I dont want to connect the ipad to interface, but to my computer with the supplied lightning to usb cable

    You don't need to connect to an interface. It's just an adapter.
    http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter

  • I use an iConnectAudio4 but I'm almost certainly sure it'll work with the Studiomux app via a usb cable.
    It's a great app. It doesn't have a huge amount of scales built into to the internal keyboard but you can always use another app to drive SPA via it's midi in so add more scales that way.

  • @ToMess said:
    I dont want to connect the ipad to interface, but to my computer with the supplied lightning to usb cable

    You can use it with a USB hub, too. Not sure if that's the missing piece.

  • @Carnbot said:
    I use an iConnectAudio4 but I'm almost certainly sure it'll work with the Studiomux app via a usb cable.
    It's a great app. It doesn't have a huge amount of scales built into to the internal keyboard but you can always use another app to drive SPA via it's midi in so add more scales that way.

    The idea is to drive it with ableton, using ableton push controller. So the +2, +5 etc are not half steps, but it somehow figures out the scale i have set up on push?

  • Does it have to from iPad to Mac?

    There are lots of great arps as VST/AU you can use straight in Ableton

    Cthulhu and Nora are among the best in my opinion but there are also good free ones like BlueARP

  • edited October 2016

    @jn2002dk said:
    Does it have to from iPad to Mac?

    There are lots of great arps as VST/AU you can use straight in Ableton

    Cthulhu and Nora are among the best in my opinion but there are also good free ones like BlueARP

    Well not necessary, but i like the interface of steppolyarp. But if it fails to meet my requirements, ill look into some AU or m4l arps. Been having my eyes on this one incase steppolyarp idea fails http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/3545/arpeggio-designer , but will look into other ones as well

  • edited October 2016

    @Carnbot said:
    It doesn't have a huge amount of scales built into to the internal keyboard but you can always use another app to drive SPA via it's midi in so add more scales that way.

    I read that it doesent work that way. I mean i want scales for the arp, not for its keyboard(i will have scales selected on ableton push, which would use to trigger it). Can you tell me what scales it has besides the major scales? Couldnt find this info anywhere, even their manual doesent list them :/

  • @ToMess said:

    @Carnbot said:
    It doesn't have a huge amount of scales built into to the internal keyboard but you can always use another app to drive SPA via it's midi in so add more scales that way.

    I read that it doesent work that way. I mean i want scales for the arp, not for its keyboard(i will have scales selected on ableton push, which would use to trigger it). Can you tell me what scales it has besides the major scales? Couldnt find this info anywhere, even their manual doesent list them :/

    yes I see what you mean, you can input a fixed scale of notes in the arp so can put a scale in that way but they won't be transposed by the keyboard. Here's the scales on the keyboard.

  • edited October 2016

    @Carnbot said:
    yes I see what you mean, you can input a fixed scale of notes in the arp so can put a scale in that way but they won't be transposed by the keyboard. Here's the scales on the keyboard.

    Oh i thought the scale was universal for the arp and keyboard, this is much better. Thanks

    Can you tell me if the arp gets retriggered everytime when i send a new note to it(from external keyboard), or if it just goes through the notes and then starts over, or if tit gets retriggered when its not hearing any note(so that i can continue the arp sequence changing the "root" without it being retriggered)?

  • edited October 2016

    double

  • @ToMess said:

    @Carnbot said:
    yes I see what you mean, you can input a fixed scale of notes in the arp so can put a scale in that way but they won't be transposed by the keyboard. Here's the scales on the keyboard.

    Oh i thought the scale was universal for the arp and keyboard, this is much better. Thanks

    Can you tell me if the arp gets retriggered everytime when i send a new note to it(from external keyboard), or if it just goes through the notes and then starts over, or if tit gets retriggered when its not hearing any note(so that i can continue the arp sequence changing the "root" without it being retriggered)?

    You can set it to either retrigger on each midi note in or follow song position without retriggering, I always have it set on "follow song position" mode so that the timeline carries on, synced by Ableton Link even when no notes are playing so that it carries on in the arp sequence and yes you can change the root note throughout the sequence.

  • @Carnbot said:

    @ToMess said:

    @Carnbot said:
    yes I see what you mean, you can input a fixed scale of notes in the arp so can put a scale in that way but they won't be transposed by the keyboard. Here's the scales on the keyboard.

    Oh i thought the scale was universal for the arp and keyboard, this is much better. Thanks

    Can you tell me if the arp gets retriggered everytime when i send a new note to it(from external keyboard), or if it just goes through the notes and then starts over, or if tit gets retriggered when its not hearing any note(so that i can continue the arp sequence changing the "root" without it being retriggered)?

    You can set it to either retrigger on each midi note in or follow song position without retriggering, I always have it set on "follow song position" mode so that the timeline carries on, synced by Ableton Link even when no notes are playing so that it carries on in the arp sequence and yes you can change the root note throughout the sequence.

    But i cant set it so that it continues the sequnce if i play a new note before releasing the previous note, but retriggers if i let go of a note before playing the next note? Or is this how it behaves in retrigger mode?

  • @ToMess said:

    @Carnbot said:

    @ToMess said:

    @Carnbot said:
    yes I see what you mean, you can input a fixed scale of notes in the arp so can put a scale in that way but they won't be transposed by the keyboard. Here's the scales on the keyboard.

    Oh i thought the scale was universal for the arp and keyboard, this is much better. Thanks

    Can you tell me if the arp gets retriggered everytime when i send a new note to it(from external keyboard), or if it just goes through the notes and then starts over, or if tit gets retriggered when its not hearing any note(so that i can continue the arp sequence changing the "root" without it being retriggered)?

    You can set it to either retrigger on each midi note in or follow song position without retriggering, I always have it set on "follow song position" mode so that the timeline carries on, synced by Ableton Link even when no notes are playing so that it carries on in the arp sequence and yes you can change the root note throughout the sequence.

    But i cant set it so that it continues the sequnce if i play a new note before releasing the previous note, but retriggers if i let go of a note before playing the next note? Or is this how it behaves in retrigger mode?

    oh yeah that's how it works in trigger mode :)

  • @Carnbot said:
    oh yeah that's how it works in trigger mode :)

    Nice, thanks for you help. Sounds like it does what i need it to

  • edited October 2016

    I see nobody answered the question about Virtual MIDI ports.

    There are four styles of MIDI ports in iOS. Apps like MidiFlow (highly recommended btw) help to abstract the differences:

    CoreMIDI - connection throught the CCK to USB MIDI controllers and modules
    NetworkMIDI - connection over WiFi to other devices or computers
    VirtualMIDI - connection between Apps on the same iOS device
    BlueToothMIDI - connection over BTLE.

    Wifi has latency problems where BTLE has serviceably low latency. Setting up both is a little fiddly because the available connections do not show up automatically, you have to configure manually for NetworkMIDI, or use BTLE scanning and advertising, which is supported directly in some later Apps, but is also handled for you in MidiFlow quite cleanly.

    As you get into it you will find that not all Apps implement MIDI to the fullest, and some are very bad denizens indeed, frustratingly so in some cases where the Synth part is superb but the paucity of their MIDI implementation makes them all but impossible to use in a live setup at the same time as other synths, and many will also ignore any connections or filtering your try to insert before their inputs with MidiFlow. Instead they'll play anything from all sources. Some do not even allow for MIDI channel selectivity.

    The external devices may also have issues. iOS is MIDI HID compliant and also Class 2 Audio HID compliant, but there are some hardware out there that are not. ZOOM 8 and 24 track mixers for example (for some reason the 16 track is? may be the 8 that is and the 16 that is not, my momory is hazy there:(. Tascam devices also tend to not be fully compliant. In general things that do not need drivers for Macs will work with iOS, though not always. Older M-Audio controllers are also unlikely to work.

  • @dwarman said:
    I see nobody answered the question about Virtual MIDI ports.

    There are four styles of MIDI ports in iOS. Apps like MidiFlow (highly recommended btw) help to abstract the differences:

    CoreMIDI - connection throught the CCK to USB MIDI controllers and modules
    NetworkMIDI - connection over WiFi to other devices or computers
    VirtualMIDI - connection between Apps on the same iOS device
    BlueToothMIDI - connection over BTLE.

    Wifi has latency problems where BTLE has serviceably low latency. Setting up both is a little fiddly because the available connections do not show up automatically, you have to configure manually for NetworkMIDI, or use BTLE scanning and advertising, which is supported directly in some later Apps, but is also handled for you in MidiFlow quite cleanly.

    As you get into it you will find that not all Apps implement MIDI to the fullest, and some are very bad denizens indeed, frustratingly so in some cases where the Synth part is superb but the paucity of their MIDI implementation makes them all but impossible to use in a live setup at the same time as other synths, and many will also ignore any connections or filtering your try to insert before their inputs with MidiFlow. Instead they'll play anything from all sources. Some do not even allow for MIDI channel selectivity.

    The external devices may also have issues. iOS is MIDI HID compliant and also Class 2 Audio HID compliant, but there are some hardware out there that are not. ZOOM 8 and 24 track mixers for example (for some reason the 16 track is? may be the 8 that is and the 16 that is not, my momory is hazy there:(. Tascam devices also tend to not be fully compliant. In general things that do not need drivers for Macs will work with iOS, though not always. Older M-Audio controllers are also unlikely to work.

    Thanks for this info. Inspired by this i decided to try the midi over bluetooth(have macbook pro mid 2014) with this app and it behaves quite strangely. Maybe you can help if this is some general midi over bluetooth thing, or maybe someone else can? Or maybe its just some fucked up bug.

    First off when let go of a note on push, it keeps playing the arp a bit more than i play on push, and it always plays the arp at least a bit from the beginning(like retriggering the arp 1-3 times for a few notes in the beginning, sometimes some of the extra it plays the arp is the sequence, but always 1-2 times at the beginning also), even tho the sequence doesent go to end. Secondly, only some notes can be held down, it just plays the arps sequence a bit from the beginning(usually like 1/8th to 1/4th of the sequence), before cutting out and then playing the first 2-3 notes of the sequence 1-3 times extra. If i use the apps own keyboard it does the same, except that it can hold down the notes, but still has that thing where it keeps playing extra and plays the beginning few times. This behavior just doesent make sense, since it doesent seem be be just lag. I tried it over usb last night and it behaved normally.

  • @dwarman said:
    I see nobody answered the question about Virtual MIDI ports.

    Good to see you, sir. Hope you're doing well. Thanks for the lesson.

  • @ToMess, unfortunately I do not have a recent enough Mac to run 64 bit Apps and repro your situation. But it sounds like you may be suffering message replication problems, which happen usually because you have both a source -> dest and dest <- source connections set up. You only need one, since both forms pass messages.

    Or it could be something else altogether.

  • @dwarman said:
    @ToMess, unfortunately I do not have a recent enough Mac to run 64 bit Apps and repro your situation. But it sounds like you may be suffering message replication problems, which happen usually because you have both a source -> dest and dest <- source connections set up. You only need one, since both forms pass messages.

    Or it could be something else altogether.

    Ill have to look into that when i have the time, thanks

Sign In or Register to comment.