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.
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Comments
Thank you. I'll remember Zenbeat and try to learn a little more BM3.
This app may be useful if I give up the same operability as desktop DAW:)
Thank you. I like that too:)
Thank you. I’ll continue to look for new workflows, but also will continue to use desktop workflows. I hope to find a good combination:)
I use a mix of:
NS2
AUM
GB
I make the most progress with NS2 for pure iOS electronic music production. It's been intuitive and relaxing to use from the start.
I invested a lot of time into BM3 at one point but it's not for me.
Yah it is relaxing. The tunes I make in NS2 have a feel to them I Just cant get with other iOS makers. this is the only one where I can just aimlessly drift along with creatively and still be really productive without having to be super aware / constantly considering workarounds and hacks around every corner. That being said until audio tracks and au fx automation arrive I do feel a bit too confined.
I have put a ton of time into BM3 as well and have grown to love the obstacle coarse of hacks and workarounds around every corner but it can get tiresome. If only internal recording to audio tracks were reliable, that would be a quantum leap in workflow.
I try to just embrace what I have but right now I am in a bit of a holding pattern thinking about Cubasis 3 one day working and NS2 getting audio tracks.
So, here's my thoughts.
Beatmaker 3 is an excellent DAW, even though it may not look like it. It's where you can place all your ideas.
Gadget 2 seems to get recommendations here and I'll have to agree with it.
But my main workflow is actually
Groovebox->Blocs Wave -> LaunchPad -> GarageBand
I can substitute Groovebox with any instrument app. But here's my go-to
Blocs Wave allows me to test ideas. I have not seen an app that rivals its usefulness aside from Audioshare (but I say get both).Beatmaker may sneak under this category as well, and maybe Korg Gadget if I unlock more gadgets but I digress.
Launchpad allows me to use an Ableton Live loops flow. I can send projects from Blocs directly to Launchpad and make a live performance (mistakes and all). GarageBand live loops work similarly (although it is a pain to drag and drop loops)
Then it's to GarageBand OR Beatmaker 3 OR NanoStudio or possibly Ableton (lite) /Logic (don't have) for finetuning.
Here's a video explaining my workflow.
I use it for all genres of music ( I've actually done more EDM with this workflow but strangely haven't posted much - Listen to JC, SEONN - My Angels Remix by #SEONN on #SoundCloud
)
I left bm3 behind me (once again) these days my go to's are gb, gdget and ns2.
Once I stopped trying to replicate my Logic workflow on the iPad everything just clicked.
I use a combination of apps and the main concept for me is when I’m using iOS I don’t worry about the mix Or arrangement. I just like to make short sections or sometimes just play with sound design. But I don’t get bogged down trying to arrange, produce and mix as I go anymore. That is crucial to my enjoyment of using iOS.
I’m gonna continue behind a spoiler as this getting long and I don’t want to take up too much room boring people :-)
When I get anything I like I record the stems. On desktop I never commit anything. Right up ti exporting a final master everything is editable and tweakable. I like to do the opposite with iOS and use it the way I used to make music on multitrack tape. Commit and move on.
I like to use AUM with rozeta sequencers to make loops. I usually use all soft synths on iOS, rarely anything sample based.
I import the stems into BlocsWave on my iPhone, usually for future use.
Then I can load blocs on my iPhone and can be putting together my loops in no time. BW is time of fun and I use it to explore arrangement ideas and jam with loops never originally intended to go together. I often get nice results using the loops at vastly different tempos to the original loops.
Once I have a germ of an idea I usually export the Blocswavd project and import the audio into Logic where I finish the track. Hopefully!
I often fire up my phone to get some ideas down for the track when inspiration strikes.
I do not like using my iPad as a logic replacement.
I feel like I’ve found a way of working that suits me and uses the devices to their strengths. I don’t like working around limitations that are unhelpful musically. By that I mean fiddling with a piano roll that is much more fiddly and slower to use than I’m used to on desktop isn’t creative. It’s just frustrating. I’m 10x quicker on logic and iOS DAWS make me feel like I’m trying to play piano wearing boxing gloves.
However, limiting myself musically works for me. When I’m lacking inspiration, starting at an empty arrange window on a 27” screen just sucks all inspiration away and I have so much content on the computer option paralysis can quickly get in the way. I can lose hours I don’t have to spare just auditioning synth sounds then I forget what I wanted the sound for.
If I’m using AUM on my iPad I tend to limit myself to a fairly small track count and this can be fun. I don’t feel the need to keep adding tracks for example, I concentrate on the more important aspects.
iOS DAWs are very limited and frequently frustrating when trying to use them the way I use logic. So I don’t use them that way.
I use all the tools available to me on iOS to just have fun and this makes me much more creative. I can load up NS2 or AUM add a handful of synths and a couple of drum synths and just play.
Sometimes this results in nothing. But often I find some bits I like which I record as audio and add to my library. Commit and move on.
When I come to use these loops at a later date I often have no recollection of making the loop and can’t remember how it was made. So I don’t worry about it and use it as I would any sampled loop.
This method suits me today as I have a very different life to when I started using computers and synths to make music in the late 80s. I don’t have the time I used to have and iOS has been essential into getting me back into making music again. But to repeat what I said at the start I had to change my priorities with iOS to avoid frustration and become creative. I started off trying to do everything on iOS and make full songs. I now use iOS the way I’d use a guitar or piano with band mates in the past. I use it to actually write music and just use logic once I’ve already got a song to record.
Best of both worlds.
But my advice isn’t to copy anything I do but to find your own way. iOS has given me so many different ways of making music. Explore them all and just have fun.
Here’s a relatively recent example of a song I made like this:
All drums are from iOS. Mostly Ruismaker. The synth at the beginning with the sample and hold style modulation was made on iOS; it’s a Lorentz sound I modulated with stepbud. The chorus synths and vocoder were made in Logic.
The loops went back and forth; I often put the logic stems back into BlocsWave so that I could work on arrangement ideas. This resulted in a much simpler arrangement. The first few tries in logic were far more complex and had different drum loops all over the place. By using BW on my iPhone I discovered I really liked the simple arrangement with fewer changes. Anyway, I hope that this helps spark some ideas and takes you off into a completely different direction.
Try Caustic.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/caustic/id775735447
Regarding Caustic - beware of one particular detail - all (or almost all) it's Synths have wrong implementstion of LFO > Filter and ENV > Filter modulation (also AudioKIT Synth One and D1 are suffering by same issue). Basically if you modulate filter CutOff with LFO or Envelope, cutoff itself works like "modulation amount" and mod amount knob works like cutoff - their functionality is effectively switched, so if you are used to program other synths which are working correct way, this one can be pretty much confusing.
A good time to get into Sunvox
. Now it's an AU and more updates are coming eg AU midi out.
Desktop version is free and a VST version is planned too. Host in AUM etc.
Using Caustic for years and have never seen this.
Are you using the android version or something ?
It is not version related. Actually this bug is there for years, i reported it shortly after first iOS version and Caustic dev admitted there is such problem but obviously he never had enough will to fix it, actually he duplicated issue to other new added synths...
As i said - AudioKIT synths are suffering with same issue and obviously alsmost nobody cares, so looks like this is something which is annoying probably just for people like me - sound designers level infinity nerd
))
It's very easy to reproduce it. Create patch like this - simple saw with LP filter and KFO-> utoff modulation
now turn cutoff down. On normal (correct synths), when cutoff is on zero you hear still deep modulation because mod amount knob is on max... not in caustic, you don't hear any modulation.
This wrong implementation is affecting also other modulation destinations, not just filter cutoff, so it's very hard to do some meaningful sound design if you are used to work with synths where modulation works correctly. You are expexting something, ut caustic does something completwly different..
On other side, for new people it's even worse because they learn bad habits and they starts understanding how modulation works in wrong way - this is also reason why i'm never suggesting to anybody AudioKIT synths as starting synths to learn synthesis - it's not good to learn with something which isn't working right
Interesting is that also Beatmaker 2 suffered by this kind of issue, just with small difference - after you added LFO or ENV midulation to cutoff, cutff stopped redponding completely, tweaking of it didn't affected filter behaviour in any way. I reported this years ago in Intua forum but they never fixed it (BM3 is ok, there us no such issue)
The LFOs in Caustic are I don't remember wrong are 'uni-polar' which can cause confusion if/when a user is used to 'bi-polar' LFOs. (In short uni-polar = 0-1 bi-polar = -1 to +1). Both definitely have their use-cases...
(Trying to modulate pitch with a uni-polar square wave is a nightmare when it comes to tuning while it's super easy with a uni-polar square-wave).
@Samu nope. Even uni polar LFO should "add" to cutoff when cutoff is on zero which is not the case in Caustic - cutoff works effectively as modulation amount closed cutoff == no modulation. Or to be more general - if mod destination is on zero value, there is no modulation at all. It is same also with envlope not just with lfo.
As i said, i reported it on Caustic forum and DEV actually replied that he is aware of wrong modulation implementation. That was few years ago;-)
Oki, so it's like a 'logic error' if the value is zero multiplying a modulation value produces no change
I'm in a process of cleaning out apps I no longer use and Caustic is/was one of them...
(Although I liked the sample editor with its unlockable sfx generator).
You can try it with AudioKIT Synth One or D1 - they have exactly same issue... Didn't tried FM player - if there is filter and modulation, i guess it will be same there too...
Oh no!!!
You’re right!!!
I still love Caustic though.
@klownshed : nice track!
Thank you :-)
Thanks for teaching me very carefully.
The rozeta sequencer sounds nice. I installed BlocsWave.
I'm still not sure what this is, but I’d like to use it soon.
I don’t intend to use BM3 as a substitute for Ableton Live.
And I will not be able to substitute.
I use the iOS DAW to create attractive iOS synths and sequencers that can never be used on the desktop.
I think it is like a bridge to connect to desktop mixing environment from the beginning.
I don't like piano roll whether it's iOS or desktop,But I’ll have to use it somewhere. In that case, if possible, the desktop is better, but since we can’t use iOS devices there I’m wearing boxing gloves and painting automation for mood or Ruismaker on BM3. I'm very frustrated, but I don't deal with audio and I focus on real-time synthesis in production, If I’d like to use iOS synths, I have to compromise.And maybe I'll get used to it.
It's important to get used to one DAW. That's why I value the choice of DAW.
BM3 was probably not a failure. The functions of the sampler that I don’t need are full of waste, That doesn't hinder synthesis.
As you say, I'm not good at starting with an empty arrangement window on my desktop too.
And I try to avoid synth presets as much as possible. These methods are probably the last century methodologies, and will only continue to mass produce similar, routine music.
I also would like to get nice AUM into my workflow, but I can't find a better way at the moment. For now, AUM has just become a playground for me. Well, it will eventually be linked to work on BM3.
It can be a big point at what point I can tolerate terrible audio files for electronic musicians who like synthesis.
Thank you for the introduction of the song. This track is like classical techno and I like it.
Electronic music has exploded in sampling from some point, But In classical techno we can hear the charm of synthesis itself. A while ago, hardware modular synths became popular, or may be related to that.
What you told me was so helpful. Thanks again:)
Yes! I want to do it. But how hard to start it is! Definitely a great monster...
Thanks for the rundown of your iOS music making methods.. truly best of both worlds.. and keeping it F-U-N, as a high priority, is how I see it too..
The way you use BlocsWave is how I use Ableton and why I love it so much.. bring in all the loops you’ve created and then just experiment with the arrangement until the cows come home.. on the fly, similar to how they used to do a final mixes to 2 track tape using a big console and half a dozen pairs of hands 👐 adjusting faders and knobs.. that mix will be a one time only performance, never to be repeated.. and happy accidents are welcome!
I loved the comment of re-using loops that you have no recollection of making in the 1st place.. Ha! Totally been there and love discovering those hidden jems (usually somewhere deep within AudioShare).. completely out of context of when you first captured them.. days, weeks, months later..
“Commit and move on” is also great advice.. cut down on the options and simply capture the idea.. so much time gets wasted while you tweak or search for a sound.. get the germ, find the sound later IF it really needs changing..
I know.. sometimes the sound is the spark for the idea.. the idea wouldn’t have appeared if the sound wasn’t already there.. hey, chicken < - - - > egg scenario.. ALL good! Keep on truckin’..
I think your rundown would be a great 1st read for newer iOS musicians that are coming from a desktop environment.. so much frustration could be avoided if people came at it with this attitude.. use the strengths + beauty of touch on iOS combined with the strengths (+ power + bigger screens etc...) of desktop, and things can be relatively painless and ultimately, enjoyable..
@klownshed Thanks again.. you’ve given me a nudge to try bringing my loops into BlocsWave (instead of always going with Ableton) and.. see what happens..
For me.. Simplification is next in line, after FUN, while making music..
make it fun.. make it simple.. = 🙂
@swiperrr I hope you’re able to find your way of working + playing on iOS.. lots of great suggestions here - BUT- when all is said and done, the journey will be different for everyone..
That is a major strength of iOS music apps.. many ingredients + many recipes for making that pie..
@swiperrr @royor
:-)
i talked about some daws i like earlier in this thread but i still mostly use AUM with steppolyarp/ fugue machine / etc and rozeta for everything midi. spa is the piano roll basically where everything gets sequenced.
Also using AUM, but with the following:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/multitrack-recorder-plugin/id1483833410
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/riffer/id1435691909
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atom-piano-roll/id1455200044
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/quantichord/id1439713799
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/streambyter/id1398712641
My choices are Ableton Live and Logic Prox.Ableton is more intuitive an it is faster as a process but Logic sounds a little better.
glad to hear i'm not the only one having issues with getting into Beatmaker 3. I've invested a lot of time, waiting for it to "just click" but so far only been frustrated
I'll probably investigate Zenbeats and Nanostudio 2 as alternatives, based on advice in this thread.
Yesterday, i had the opportunity to try out my iPad with BitWig studio on my iMac. It was possible to record loops in BitWig from AUM on my iPad. Ableton Link works good, and i can even Record Arm from the timeline indicator. I only have to press Play in AUM, and Bitwig start recording in sync. Now i can Noodle with AUM and Use it directly in BitWig. This way i can try out different loops. Mention that i'm using the IConnect Audio 4+