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 StoreLoopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.
Producing on an iPad after using Ableton
Decided to finally make an account after lurking for quite a while. Been searching for a thread with relevant info but no luck as of yet... So here it goes
I've used Ableton on my Mac for years now - I feel comfortable with it. However my current living situation (Africa) has forced me to downsize to an iPad. I'm looking to get back into production (electronic music primarily; aphex twin, flying lotus, nosaj thing, etc are major influences). I've been playing around with iMachine 2 and like it, but am looking to upgrade to a more standard DAW.
My question: what DAW would you recommend? Seems Cubasis 2 or Auria Pro? Any word on Ableton iOS DAWs on the horizon?
Starting from scratch so any pointers are welcome.
Using an iPad Pro 9.7 if that's relevant.
Cheers!
Comments
Cubasis is probably the closest.
Welcome to the funhouse @project.ion. It does seem (with exceptions) that the DAW decision these days is between CB and AP. Some take the easy way out by having both (guilty).
There are many threads here which discuss (mostly politely
) their relative merits. Many of them, when distilled, focus on the personal balance, and thus preference, of workflow and end product. Both will get you a long way there, especially compared to a few short years ago.
IF you're going to end up buying one or the other I would at least suggest you wait to see what the upcoming update to AP looks like (due very shortly). If I had to select only one at this point it would be AP, but I also know in my heart of hearts that a talented me would beat the socks off the regular me with either
We are understandably very focused on what comes out of the machinery, but less so sometimes with the absolute limiter of what initially goes in
For Ableton style producing on an iPad, Gadget is probably the closest workflow. For building up loops similar to Ableton session view, either Gadget as a closed system, or Modstep or Infinite Looper for a more open system to sequence other apps. Cubasis for more traditional DAW capabilities.
Oops...
Hello, and welcome.
As far as the best DAW, that is a matter of preference. Yes, Cubasis and Auria are the big 2, but there are other other options. As @JohnnyGoodyear said, most have been discussed and debated here quite extensively, so I would suggest some searching. Google is your friend as the forum search is not very user-friendly.
I don't own it, but LoopTunesHD looks to be a good clip launcher, and the dev is active on this forum.
See this thread:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/15484/looking-for-a-clip-launcher-with-midi-implementation/p1
Auria pro is bit more like a professional desktop daw, but you can do most with cubasis as well. Auria pro is bit outdated compared to cubasis(which just got updated), but its getting an update soon as well.
Personally i would choose auria any day, but some prefer cubasis. I have them both, but moved back to ableton due to everything just being too much of an hassle with ipad. Modstep is also definitely worth looking at, its not a daw like auria or cubasis, but you can do the midi sequencing there nicely, and then put the song together in a daw.
I'm in a similar situation, and I have to warn you, using an ipad to produce that type of music will be close to impossible. Or at least, you'll suffer excruciating pain while attempting it.
The ipad has many great noise making machines, and it certainly can suffice as a multitrack recorder, if you play live and only need a few tracks with minor editing. But to edit intricate midi, audio and automation on a touch screen is a nightmare, if possible at all. Maybe with the pencil it can be more accurate, but I seriously doubt it will make it any more usable because there is not one single app that does it all, like ableton live. You would be better off with a cheap windows laptop, or if you want a touch interface, with something like bitwig which now supports it.
And be prepared for a lot of app switching, track bouncing, and in the end exporting all the tracks to a proper desktop daw, and wondering why it took you so long to be back at square one. And did I mention the norm is 44.1kHz/16 bit? And that you will have to be constantly moving things around and running into space problems? Lots of file redundancy also, because of the sandboxed nature of iOS apps.
Don't get me wrong, I love my air2, but it is merely a musical toy, and the notion it can replace a desktop or even a laptop for serious EDM production is laughable.
If I were you I'd take the opportunity to focus on sound designing, loop making, sample recording, and all those preparation steps, and save the real production for when you're back on a real computer.
/rant
Welcome @project.ion . Since there are many different ways to use Ableton Live, it would be helpful to hear how you used it. Did you use it as a linear daw? If so, Auria or Cubase might work for you. Did you use session view a lot? If so, using Gadget is better for that sort of thing. Modstep has a lot of similarity to Ableton but it's primarily a MIDI sequencer and arranger.
@pedro my experience is similar.
Forget everything you know and assume from working with any other laptop / PC music software. Then find your way on iOS and the wonders of touch screen apps. Then go and make a new form of music that makes people go WOW
All helpful advice! Especially @pedro - the hard truth is exactly what I was looking for.
I used Ableton primarily as a means to automate VSTs and trigger drum samples. I would make clips then arrange them in the linear mode to create a finished track.
Seems after all this discussion that the best option may be to go with ModStep for the time being then later down the road buy either CB or AP depending on updates and compatability issues. Is this a bad idea for someone with a very limited sound/synth library?
I don't get why people come here to piss and moan about no Ableton Live for iOS. If only Ableton Live works for you, buy a Surface Pro or some other Windows tablet. Sheesh.
As you are going to be in Africa, and therefore I assume you will be spending a lot of time running from the local wildlife, you want something easy to open and close, for those moments where speed is a necessity.
It is with this in mind I would recommend Korg Gadget. You can get a very long way with a sequenced/looped music using it and it alone. It has a wealth of available sounds so will expand your library also.
It also has an Ableton Live export option, so you can easliy port anything you do over to Ableton when you get the chance.
Either of the 2 big DAWS will do a job for you if you want it, but as others have said it would be hard to recommend one over another without knowing exactly what it is you want from the DAW.
Although I do wish there was an Ableton Live app, I'm pretty stoked for something new. I used to use LSDJ on an old school game boy (look it up) and found the new, and somewhat limiting, workspace to actually inspire me in ways Ableton couldn't (even with all its bells an whistles)
Yes!
If you mean me, I'm not complaining about the lack of AL on iOS, if I want ableton live I'll, well, use ableton live. But bitwig has a wonderful touch interface, so it can be done (and perhaps in a distant future it will)
What I was saying is "don't expect to be able to do complex midi/audio/automation editing on iOS", unless you're a masochist and are willing to take 10x more work and limitations than a simple laptop running AL would provide.
The iPad has other strengths that make it a valuable musical instrument in itself, and unique in lots of ways. For me the ideal combo is a laptop and an ipad, connected via something like audiomux. That way you can have the best of both worlds.
It wasn't really directed at anyone in particular, more of a cumulative effect. But I will say your reply I'm quoting here is much more reasonable than your "excruciating pain," "musical toy," and "laughable" statements.
@project.ion - hearing more about your workflow, another tool I'd throw into the mix for consideration is Multitrack DAW. It's a very stripped down audio only linear DAW. So if you used other tools like Modstep and some synths to create audio, you could use Multitrack DAW to arrange the audio on a timeline. Cubasis and Auria do this but also a lot more and are a lot more expensive than Multitrack DAW.
@project.ion
Welcome to it!
As @ecamburn notes, if you're interested in a Live-like cliplaunch working style, that includes timeline midi and audio recording and editing, you can achieve this using Modstep and one of the DAWs mentioned above. Modstep exposes 8 audio tracks via IAA, and I know of three DAWs can make use of them (with caveats see below)
Cubasis or Auria Pro (when it's updated for iOS 10) becomes your timeline page, and Modstep (loaded with AU or IAA FX and instruments, or the onboard Synth and Sampler) is your cliplaunch page, sending multitrack audio via IAA into Cubby or AP. Multitrack DAW works for the timeline page as well, but it lacks midi sequencing.
MultitrackStudio is another great DAW, imho it's audio and midi editors are not equaled on iOS...its timeline based, but it's sampler (which is the most internally- and device- integrated among all the DAWs) affords a sample launching capability. It doesn't yet allow multitrack audio-in via IAA unfortunately, but I use it extensively because its cross platform (I record projects on two other platforms and tweak them on iPad). It has its idiosyncrasies, but don't they (we) all?
well, my first answer was cubasis, because i feel it's full featured as ableton, in that it has a good synth, pretty good fx, and has au, so you can get other synths and drum machines and fx and have them be part of the session, not "hacked" in. in one environment i can go from idea to finished track.
now, and people are probably going to be getting sick of hearing me repeat it, gadget rules. since i got it any new idea has started there and gets mostly fleshed out before going to cubasis, mostly due to ease but probably the biggest factor is that it works on the iphone, which is with me more. also, i tend to do a lot of stuff in the veins you mentioned and gadget is awesome for automation. you touch the automation window and EVERYTHING, from velocity to cutoff to decay to every single knob/button/slider is already set up for you to quickly draw in, or what i like to do, which is grab muy korg keystudio, hit record at the start of the song, and record in my automation which i can then go back and tweak. however i need more stuff to mix, plus extra synth/drums that i can add in cubasis. i am new to ios though and have only tried 5-6 things, but i'm an ableton guy myself and gadget was instant for me. plus i prefer one or two programs, integration, keeping it simple stupid.
I'll be honest here. Modstep. Specially if you use Session view a lot in Ableton. While its not technically a Daw
and its nowhere near as powerful as Ableton its a lot easier for me to adjust to than Cubasis and Auria Pro.
That being said most people seem to stumble to understand modstep so take my advice with a
grain of salt.....
Modstep+AUM is just icing on the cake for me.
The thing that trips me up with Modstep is the lack of an audio looper and a "play next scene" function. And as hard as I've tried I still haven't figured out how to use a MIDI clip to drive an IAA audio looper. Too bad. It's really close to the full enchilada for me.
Maybe i dont know exactly what you are saying but If you set the number of loops for a scene to anything but infinite it will go to the next scene.
ableton live on iOS would be wonderful, no doubt about it... you might want to try out garage band with it's new loop trigger features it just might be your huckleberry.
I trust that Ableton will seize the right opportunities. They appeal to me as one of the more sensible developers on the scene. Ableton Link proves they're doing a damn, fine job of paying attention.
@AudioGus yep, I'm aware of how the preset measures work but when playing live, sometimes your want to draw out a slamming jam, you know? Live has the handy "play next scene" feature that handles this nicely.
And I can get the Sampler to act as an audio clip launcher until the tempo changes. Then it all falls apart because there's no time stretching.
Gadget+AUM and a few other apps (sector, the sugar bytes, animoog, thumbjam, steppolyarp, fugue machine and a folder full of iaa/AU fx ) for me
The lack of linear audio and midi editing are a blessing for my creativity
Not a clue!
Huh. (i don't know ABeLive, and didn't know that 'play next scene' was a feature in it, so i just took what you said literaly as regards Modstep)
Quite.
Buy Gadget.
I think you'll have a lot of fun with it.
Also buy Samplr and watch some videos of people using it creatively. Especially given the types of music you're referencing.
You'll then own two of the best music making iOS apps going. They will come in useful even if you decide to go back to Ableton.
You'll then figure out if/how you produce a final track on iOS. Personally I do this mostly inside Gadget (and I find ways round the annoying sample length limitations on bringing external samples in) because I really like arranging and polishing tracks in Gadget (and the channel FX are now much better).
Gadget is so amazingly fast to work in once you get to know it. And it's on iPhone too. The internal instruments will cover most sounds you'll want to make. With possibly the exception of some synth drum stuff (get Elastic Drums or similar), some mangled audio stuff (get
Samplr and maybe Borderlands and/or iDensity) and Animoog type sounds (get Animoog).
But alternatively you could take everything out to something very simple like MultiTrack DAW. Or one of the big iOS DAWs mentioned like AP or CB or MTS. You could then apply some very nice iOS effect apps like the AUFX range, the Sugarbytes FX etc...
I would say, think about production more in "stages" (bouncing to audio) and (with the exception of gadgets loaded in Gadget, which works amazingly well), forget the idea that you can have lots and lots of tracks all loaded up with different apps (loaded like VSTs) all running live off midi at the same time. That will just take ages to set up each time you switch on and cause all sorts of mysterious crashes and issues (or at least that's what I find).
I tried to go all or 90% ipad several times over the past four years, always waiting for the next thing to save me. MF2K (Matt) speaks true in many respects!
I am also into Aphex Twin, love Tipper etc. Anyway, I had to cough up recently for a little laptop (Asus Zenbook, which I love) running a PC DAW. Still a HUGE percentage of my work/play is done on iPAd while commuting and it is much more fun and better now that I work in both. I love doing lots of long sketches and then chopping and pasting the results together on PC. There really isn't anything for this type of aproach on iPad esspecially if you want lots of tight controlled edits etc.