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.
Comments
Absolutely!
The fact that @Virsyn has not replied here to any post for a while now and I didn't even get an answer to my message I've sent over http://www.virsyn.net/mobileapp/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=3
tells me that @Virsyn does not seem to care about his own apps.
I'd be happy to be proven wrong of course.
I don't think @VirSyn is a person. I think it's a company.
@VirSyn has a focus on Desktop DAW plug-ins and they dabble in IOS products too. Finding the IOS Products on their website is really hard. I'm sure they are driven by economics since they do this as a business. If AudioLayer doesn't justify additional effort they may leave it "as is" and take additional revenue to settle sunk costs in making the product better. This implies they just don't think we can be sold using updates.
"As is" AudioLayer is the best available product it's intended use case, IMHO. I can take any IOS App and set up AudioLayer as an AUv3 FX in AUM or any DAW and clone the Apps preset sounds in a sampled instrument with as much detail as I like for pitch shifting one sample to many notes, velocity layering and use the excellent @VirSyn FX channel strip app that's included at no cost.
Lately (while waiting for an update) I've been making instruments using 2 methods:
Import an SF2 library into EXS24 on my mac and export an EXS24 instrument that loads right into AudioLayer (thanks to a great update... they listened).
Loading up my favorite IOS Apps (iSymphonic for example) and making some really light-weight sampled clones. I also find the Filtering, Modulation and Envelope editing controls can let me take a great sound and push it into a variant that's even better than the preset I started with for something I'm making.
There's a cycle on this Forum that pushed the commercial shops away by comparing them to the "quick fix" developers that do well here. I don't think some of the lone wolf developers could make an App like this one and we need more of these tools that rival the $50-300 products Desktop Producers use.
For $15 there's nothing close on IOS. If there is I'll buy it TOO.
So many questions from me:
When I see the AudioLayer UI I notice some notes don't have assigned samples. When I see that I stretch a neighboring sample to cover that note at that velocity. Did you import this one as EXS24? It oftens seems to drop a few samples in the process.
In the AUM demo there are 2 instances. Are they panned to Left and Right or both in the output? I get phasing effects when I have them both on at once so I don't do that it I want a true piano sound.
Keep sharing your work!
As there was an issue with AudioLayer and GarageBand merge, I’ve been in contact with @VirSyn last weeks. They sent me a beta version in which the issue is fixed. They said also they have huge amount of work. I have no other info but will try to have a bit more.
I think we got used to the flurry of updates that happened after the release of the app--safe to say that we've reached a place where Virsyn will proceed with less frequent updates. That's OK with me. I'll echo what @McDtracy said: this is a damn good AU sampler that works very well for my use case. Will I welcome updates to fix some of the annoyances? YEP! But I use AudioLayer daily and nothing else comes close in utility for my use case. Again, I get it that it's frustrating if it doesn't work for your use case, but just saying that there are satisfied customers out here being productive with the app as it is...
This is great news.
I was beginning to assume the App failed to hit some financial targets and sinking more money into it wasn't a good investment.
I'm going to try using the Mac Robot Sampler to make better quality instruments. Imagine if they added functionality in that area:
The AudioLayer runs a program to MIDI notes to a configured App for velocity layers using configurable NOTE intervals.
I’ve installed Mojave on VMware Workstation on my Windows 10 Lenovo Laptop. I’m trying Mainstage 3 in that configuration to export EXS24 instruments for AudioLayer. I have some issues however with OpenGL and screeen résolution as Mac OS isn’t fully supported in VMware WS. @McDtracy are you happy with Mainstage 3 instruments in AudioLayer?
Yes. I can add any SF2 to the EXS24 sampler included in MainStage. Then I can audition the included instruments and export any in the EXS24 format and import then into AudioLayer using the iCloud folder. What's interesting is that I use the "local files" option but the iCloud "import" folder works. I click on the EXS24 instrument file and AudioLayer starts the import.
For complex instruments I seem to miss a few samples but I just edit a neighboring note to cover any uncovered notes.
I have imported about 30 instruments using this process and it's pretty efficient. The longest time is taken up by the import which can take a long time for a lot of samples like the Salamander C5 Piano I downloaded from "SoundFonts4U". That piano has been my "go to" in an AudioLayer AUv3. I find it to be more stable than the $30-50 AUv3 Piano Apps I have purchased. Since I have a Mac it was free. It's going to be awesome if these imports can be done without needing Mainstage and a Mac (running in a Virtual Machine). I think there are probably some Windows products that can let you skip the Mac requirement. I'm looking into the demo Robot Sampler to see what it produces when my Mac is connected to my iPad.
New Instrument uploads. (12 Total)
https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts?q=Lithalean
(New)
1. Trombone
2. Yamaha C7
3. Vibraphone
4. Clavinet
5. Wurlitzer
(Old)
6. Steinway Model B
7. Vintage Drum Kit
8. Church Organ
9. Accordion
10. Upright Bass
11. Classical Acoustic Guitar
12. Marimba
All instruments are in .SFZ format.
Polyphone (Free) - If you want to convert to .sf2
https://www.polyphone-soundfonts.com/en/
Awave Studio (Free Trial) - If you want to convert to .Exs24
http://www.fmjsoft.com/awavestudio.html#main
To be fair....their desktop apps are abadoned and a dead end. They seems to put a lot more work into iOS compared to their dated desktop tools.
Just a side note:
I have recently imported a 1GB instrument with over 600 samples spread over different keys and velocity ranges without using an EXS24 file at all, just by following AudioLayer's auto-mapping file naming scheme:
name_NoteName_velocity.wav
Examples:
AcGuitar_C#3_ppp.wav
AcGuitar_B3_fff.wav
Note that the following velocity ranges are available, in this order from low to high:
ppp
pp
p
mf
f
ff
fff
When I have to reduce a huge instrument that has, say, 24 velocity layers in the original version, I usually pick more samples in the upper velocity range because the lower velocity response can more authentically be approximated by filtering inside AudioLayer.
Also, it's easy to change the velocity of multiple selected notes so you don't really have to worry what exact numbers the velocity shortcuts actually represent.
Converting note numbers to note names and velocity value ranges to these shortcuts can be done by shell scripts, python/basic programs, maybe even Excel or Numbers, if you're into that
Great post! Thanks!
Very useful!!
New Instrument uploads. (18 Total)
https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts?q=Lithalean
(New)
1. Alto Sax
2. Baritone Sax
3. Jazz Kit
4. Jazz Guitar
5. French Horn
6. Trumpet
(Old)
7. Trombone
8. Yamaha C7
9. Vibraphone
10. Clavinet
11. Wurlitzer
12. Steinway Model B
13. Vintage Drum Kit
14. Church Organ
15. Accordion
16. Upright Bass
17. Classical Acoustic Guitar
18. Marimba
All instruments are in .SFZ format.
Polyphone (Free) - If you want to convert to .sf2
https://www.polyphone-soundfonts.com/en/
Awave Studio (Free Trial) - If you want to convert to .Exs24
http://www.fmjsoft.com/awavestudio.html#main
I'm done uploading instruments. I Truly hope someone finds these useful in their endeavors.
Moving forward, I'll upload videos of commercial instruments I get working inside AudioLayer.
https://store.precisionsound.net
I'm an extremely big fan of Precisionsound. Fair prices, and top quality products. MOST come in EXS!
Videos are on the way soon.
Wow. That's incredible. What a great job! Huge thanks and may the angels let gold dust rain from heaven for you
I’ve been using the Autosampler in Mainstage to sample all my synths and create loads of EXS24 patches, but not having any luck importing these in to AudioLayer. When I tap the .exs file in the Files app, it opens in AudioLayer but doesn’t find any samples. I can import the .aif files into it manually using the file name detection, but then I lose all my mappings and loop points etc.
EXS24 files I’ve downloaded from other places import fine, it’s just the ones I’ve made with Autosampler that load without the samples.
Any ideas how to get this working? @VirSyn
I'm currently doing a sampling session using the old AutoSampler and I've noticed that depending on the settings, it will embed wrong file names in the EXS program.
Maybe Apple has ported the issue into MainStage?
Open the EXS file with a binary/text file viewer and check if you can find the file names inside the cryptic strings. I had to play around with the settings to make the EXS work in other apps.
Thanks for the reply! I've actually looked at some of the EXS files in a text editor already, but can't see any differences between my Mainstage ones and the other EXS files which import correctly, except that Autosampler creates .aifs and most of the others are .wavs. There aren't many settings to play around with in Mainstage's Autosampler, but what did you change in your version to get them working in other apps?
In Palette > Naming Palette window, I had
"Always create unique sample names"
checked.
In the export, the sample names were given unique names indeed but the EXS file didn't reflect that - with the effect that the samples could not be found.
I have no idea if anything similar can happen in the modern AutoSampler.
Make sure you can really find the correct sample names in the EXS file. Don't worry about the 4-letter prefixes, but the name string must match.
Don't use Audiolayer at all.
I just got it and compared the same exs patch in Audiolayer vs. Lyra vs. the original wav samples.
1) The Audiolayer sound quality was so much shittier than the other two. Especially the bass response at C-1 and lower octaves. Playing the same notes back to back to back, Lyra matched the level and tone of the original sample perfectly, while Audiolayer sounded much less rich and much more muted.
2) Lyra actually responded to the parameters set in the exs file, i.e. on this patch, the amp eg has a release time of 2-3 seconds. In Audiolayer, it only mapped the sample with no release, as soon as i lifted the key it abruptly cut out.
Shitty solution for exs/sf import. Got fooled by Virsyn yet again. Will never buy another thing they do, for real this time.
Here are links explaining the various formats. Not all apps support all formats. There can also be a way to create various formats using software on macOS or Windows.
DLS
SF2
EXS24
SFZ
An SF2 can contain multiple instruments.
Both EXS24 and SFZ are newer formats with more control options for your samples.
EXS24 was created by Apple and these files can be created using the EXS24 sampler in Logic or MainStage. It’s similar to SFZ in that it has sample files stored into folders which are then referenced by the .exs file versus the corresponding .sfz file which specifies how the sample is to be used. The control .exs files are binary.
SFZ format was originally created by Cakewalk but is now open source. The .sfz control file is a text file which can be opened and edited in a text editor (depending upon the text editor, you might need to change the file name from FileName.sfz to FileName.txt to be able to open/edit it). This means that once you have an .sfz file that works for an app, you can use it as a template for a new .sfz file where you use the text editor to change the names of the samples being used.
Sforzando is free software that can convert SF2, DSL, and acidized wave files to SFZ format on macOS and Windows.
There can be issues of having these formats stored in compressed formats in online archives which may or may not have to be decompressed depending upon the software you’re importing them into. In addition the app may only support a limit subset of the format’s specification.
I don't doubt that you are having issues but I've never noted any quality issues in AL. I play a sample anywhere in iOS (BM3, AudioShare, etc) and play it in AL and it sounds the same. Are you sure you don't have a filter applied? Further, the release is pretty easy to control in AL and works as expected for me. Not saying it's perfect by any stretch but surprised by your observations.
@tja you can import EXS24 files into AudioLayer. I was able to create some EXS24 files in MainStage including multiple layers and round robin.
Hmm they’re defo the correct file names in the text file, can’t work out why it won’t find the samples only for my EXS files created using Autosampler. It doesn’t even say it’s failed, just says searching for a while and then the patch loads up with no samples.
Hope I can figure it out, as the only reason I bought AudioLayer and Mainstage is to get these patches into iOS!
Are you on the latest version of Mainstage, and are you using wavs or aifs in your EXS files? Do your envelope settings and loop points get carried over to AudioLayer?
I keep the .aif files created by MainStage. I will have to create some more EXS24 files with MainStage to detail the process for what works in MainStage versus AudioLayer.
Awesome! Thanks so much for posting these!
Yeah, I don't have an issue with the sound quality of AL either. It's streaming the sample from disk so I don't see how it can be worse quality than those other apps, but interested to know more about this. Although I guess the EXS24 implementation could be improved, I haven't been comparing the instruments to the same EXS24 instrument loaded on a different platform.
In fact, I have loaded my largest instruments in AL by following the samples file naming scheme for key and velocity mapping, and that worked instantly, without any EXS file.
Unfortunately I had to build a shell script that converts velocity ranges to strings like "pp" and "ff".
I'm sure you can set the AutoSampler in MainStage to create custom file names and use numbers for velocity and keys, so you can convert them later, or does MainStage even support these pp/mf/ff codes for velocity?
Here's the naming scheme for direct mapping of samples in AL (copied from another thread),
Here a couple of examples to give the automap the needed infos for three use cases:
1) only note values
basename_c1.wav
basename_e1.wav
basename_g1.wav
...
Automap will will fill the gaps in between which you can see by the graphics animation during import.
2) note and velocity:
basename_c1_p.wav ( p for "piano" )
basename_c1_f.wav ( f for "forte" )
....
Automap looks for the following words for ascending velocities: ppp, pp, p, mf, f, ff, fff
and then fill the gaps...
3) note range ( and velocity )
basename_c1_g1.wav lower key is c1 and upper key is g1
can be of course combined with velocity above, but note that automap anyway always try to fill the gaps.
And it's better to always start with a fresh new layer without zones already lying around.