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.
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Video...BeatHawk, Demoing The MELLO Pack (With New Twist To Thread)
I do love the Meelotron sound
Comments
Sounds great, Doug @thesoundtestroom
Love the Mellow pack but haven't used the sounds in a track...yet. Also I had not considered doing a track full of "Mellotronical" sounds (LOL), so this Let's Compose has helped to open up some new ideas for me. As usual, great work from Doug here.
Nicely done and don't mind the slurps.
Sounding good as always, Doug. But what it also shows me is how much the app is geared toward musicians like yourself, as opposed to dabblers. Nothing wrong with that, of course, all I mean is that without music keyboard skills he app is harder to get the best from.
I had this app loaded for ages, and bought a bunch of IAP's. But a combo of technical issues whenever IOS was upgraded, and just not getting on with it as I'd hoped - likely due to what I describe above - caused me to delete it in the last space saving cull.
Aw, I don't know about that. That's what the step editor is for. I've had people thinking I know how to play piano for years, but it's playing around with dots on a screen, mostly.
Haha!
Slurp and smack away, Doug - forget the haters and just be yourself. That's what keeps us tuning in. I really enjoyed the 180 degree turn your little ditty took with the sudden Flute Drop!
I'd marry my M3000 if I could. But it only gets a few updates here and there. Mellotrons make me smile. Part of me wonders if investing in this modest, but great sounding, pack might be worth it at some point. I would recommend it to someone who hasn't already invested $70+ into the mighty M3000.
Not to go too far OT, but this needs to be asked ... @omeniesoftware, you'll never let the M3000 become abandonware ... right?!?
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Yes, I see your point and probably need to put in more effort. Except, I get sidetracked by the many apps that I find easier to use and get results with.
Sure. I really shouldn't wish my methodologies on anyone, actually. It's a laborious slog, though satisfying when finished.
[Mawwaige]
I'm pretty much down to two things for composing music these days, one is obviously the iPad, my favourite DAW is Cubasis but only because I'm used to using it and it gets looked after by Steinberg, and the other is Reason for desktop work, again because I've used it for years and years and I know it well. I like that I can use Reason then easily get that into Cubasis, then I can use any app I like, then drop it all back into Reason as separate Stems or whatever, I work this way a lot, if any of you are familiar with mine and Colin's albums then you would here this in action, I also like to work very very fast as does Colin, I can't be precious about a piece of music, I just can't agonise over the mix, sounds, levels etc etc.
There is something magical for me to look at a blank DAW be it Cubasis or Reason and wonder what will happen in the next few hours, a lot of stuff gets scraped after the first ten minutes because it ain't workin'.
Another thing I like to do is when I have something that I like I like to see it through before I move on to the next one.
Here's another thing, I love presets, I love the idea that someone who is way better than me has bothered to create a sound that I can use, that saves me time, and also sometime a particular sound will influence the whole direction of a piece.
This is particularly true of the next album that me and Colin are working on now which is shaping up to be quite a radical departure for us sound wise.
Anyway the whole point of this post is that I find mind bogglingly interesting how we all work as music makers. So please let's turn this thread into just that, I want to know everyone's thoughts and workflow ethic.
Here's another thing I believe with all my heart, anyone who commits noise to a recording system, wether it be tape or digital, is in my eyes a musician, just listen to mine and Toz Bournes Fuzzy Logic album, very little "musical" going on in there yet we think it's music, we set out to intentionally disregard melody and rhythm.
Thoughts...anyone.........please
Whenever i start to feel sniffy about presets I just think about Prince who frickin' LOOOVED presets and painted with them so wonderfully. God bless a preset!
@thesoundtestroom -- I too find learning how others get their music made very interesting. That's why I love your Let's Compose vids so much.
We have so many inexpensive and varied tools available on iOS that it makes sense to try many things and then see what works. I'm fascinated by LoopyHD, have had the app a long time, but I've never managed to make anything decent out of it. I do admire the folks that are into it, and I keep thinking that one day I'll get back to it and then it'll click.
Doug you mentioned, "Another thing I like to do is when I have something that I like I like to see it through before I move on to the next one." For the most part this is where we differ. I tend to have multiple projects going at any given time. My standard work is usually done in Cubasis, Gadget, or GB...making one track at a time. But then I get into something like KRFT and I'm kinda all over the place; make a little bass riff, maybe add some drums, back to the bass, then muck around with sounds for a pad...then more drums. For me, it's a totally new way of working; it's still an evolving process but I'm digging it, A Lot!
And yes, I'm a preset lover too, but I do sometimes like to twiddle the knobs and come up with something different, sometimes quite different than the starting preset. I even on occasion will start with an init patch (gasp) and create a new sound...but that's a very rare event.
Total chaos here, I mix and match stuff. Love to start something in AUM and just layer it up, improvising away.
Sometimes I'll start up Blocs/Launchpad and grab some canned sounds, sometimes I'll make something completely new in Borderlands/Samplr. I have Auria Pro but it's a bit too rigid for my mood right now, great stuff, awesome effects but doesn't fit with my current improv/jam mindset.
I think this comes from not being able to dedicate time to a "session" at the moment so I take the opportunity where I can get it. iOS is great for this and I'm thankful we have such a diverse array of talented devs to make it happen.
If it sounds good it is good, I don't care what has been employed to make it so.
Blocs Wave was the breakthrough app for me, Doug. Once I had that, it all fell into place. The way I use it is to make up tunes plundering many different soundpacks and adding stuff I've played and imported. I generally use all six banks, then duplicate the work as part two, and adjust from there. The end result is exported in twelve sections to Dropbox, then imported into Auria Pro over several tracks.
BTW, I hate the way that AP will not remember which directory it was in, even during the same session, but the developer either can't or won't fix this. Anyway....
I use AP mainly for Fab Filters, which as you know have really good presets that even a cloth eared fool like me can tweak and get very good results. Once mastered in AP, tracks are usually good to go! I also dabble extensively with dozens of apps, messing around in AudioBus and AUM, recording for use in my mainstay, Blocs Wave. Via this method I was able to add a convincing sax solo to a track - playing Sensual Sax - with zero knowledge of how to play a real saxophone, just following the harmony in my head. I couldn't tell you every note played, only that it sounded good.
Thanks, Doug. That means a lot. I recently had an unpleasant exchange on MusicAppBlog with a fellow who describe Blocs Wave packs (and by association those using them) as 'random crap.' I pointed to a superior example on YouTube of something made mostly with BW, plus original elements, and challenged him to provide a link to his own work that was equal or better. As you may guess, no such link was forthcoming. So, when someone as skilled as you validates what us dabblers are trying to do, your words are well received.
On a personal note, I know that music helps you get away from your medical issues. Making music is also playing a big part in keeping me going, too. A few weeks ago I had major emergency surgery - it was that or die - and I'm currently recovering at home, hooked up to a portable unit that sucks exate from an open wound. Progress being made and prognosis good, but not the easiest of times.
Hope you get better sooner rather than later and keep making the music.
I have zero problem using loops that are provided for us to use, that's what they are for, I too have had the same conversation with people who think that apps like BW and Launchpad are cheating, it's not, the world is a musically richer place for all the tools we have.
Best of luck with recovery! Could you share some superior examples of tracks made with BW?
Agreed. I can ditch my sample library and regular hassle with dropbox or NAS and just focus on make something which makes me feel good.
I always start with a synth preset; scrolling through them until I find something I like. Hopefully something that inspires me. Then I try to come up with a ditty or loop which I record into AudioShare via AB3. From there it'll go into Blocs Wave or Egoist to make something that is often unexpected and better than the original that I came up with. And it's this that forms the basis of my track. I then use Blocs Wave to build the track from that point; repeating the process, rather than recording into a DAW. I often "cheat" and add in a stock bassline or drum loop. I don't feel guilty for it. I feel it's more of an improvisational process than a compositional one, but no less enjoyable. It's certainly been a more productive workflow for me, though it can get messy at times.
Nothing wrong with presets, it's what you do with them that really matters. After all, most traditional instruments only have one sound! And something like a Mellotron was basically a preset instrument, didn't stop that becoming iconic.
Exactly
Now if you could just have that tutorial video done by the weekend...
Seriously though, would be great to see how you put the pieces together
If you make music for you, you can only cheat yourself. You know, at the end of the day, if you've expressed something of your own. It doesn't matter what instruments, apps, algorithms, or raw materials made by someone else I use to make music, the end product has to be my music, or it's not going to be as fulfilling.
But the classic era Prince '78-'84 was all him, mostly on just an Oberheim OB8. He was an absolute master at getting the perfect synth patch. Some musician, cant remember who, mentioned getting a hand-me-down keyboard from Prince and being shocked at the detail and intricacy of his programmed patches.
Then the DX7 came along.
You could give Prince a pair of spoons and a tape recorder and he'd have a hit song in 8 hours.