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
Going to start reviewing even though I've yet to post my track. I'm afraid of getting too far behind all these great submissions!
@richardyot
Always love the immediate groove, and it often vaguely reminds me of Talking Heads (in the best way). And of course your singing. And the xylophone-ish effect after the first chorus was tasty. I also appreciate how carefully it's orchestrated, with just the right amount of elements, each having their focus at the right time, without competing with one another. I like the chorus doubling, too. Honestly, I really liked this track a lot, and think it's one of your better that I've listened to in awhile (admittedly, I don't listen every month).
@klownshed
Love the burbly synth in the intro with some metallic hits surrounding it. It was sort of a crazy soundtrack, maybe (possibly the vocal sample and piano contributes). I liked that aspect a lot, plus how it drives through. More of a cool, dark soundscape for me than a traditional song, which is totally OK. Could definitely hear that as a backing track for some creepy sh*t happnening on screen. Or end credits.
@bitcrusher
Immediate points for tasteful distortion out of the gate. Hmm. Almost like there was some... bit crusher applied! I really loved all the sounds and the sparse, brutal (but not painful) groove. I do wish it had a touch more structure/progress to it. But, I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. Other than the intro, I quite like the ~3:20 mark, and when that same sound picks up later.
@crony
I didn't want to register or click things, and I don't have a Spotify et al account. Any chance you can post a direct link?
@davidenglish
Those vocal samples are fantastic. So soulful and beautiful. Holds it all together. I do wish the music found a little bit more consistency behind it, at least the groove - maybe just for slightly longer stretches earlier in the track. I think the part after it fades out around 1:20 and after worked a little better together. Definitely some beautiful moments in the track.
@iammane
Enjoying the glitchy behind the guitar sample, and, of course, the vocals are very nicely done. Nice production, too. Damn, I wish I could sing like that (or richardyot). Not that vocals are easy, but they sure make it easier to glue a track together. I thought this was an enjoyable, modern track. On the mellow side in a nice way, but the electronics keep it busy, filling in behind the vocals. Well done.
Awesome, love it lol. Love the washed out guitar toward the end, awesome riffing. Goats are crazy!! lol
Really well played with the classical instruments, I've found it incredibly difficult to get anything nice sounding like flutes and stuff in Gadget. Is this mostly the KAPro collection stuff? There's really great stuff in there.
Love the pacing of the track, enough variation to keep things rolling along nicely and keep my interest up. The mix is real nice too! Another thing that can be a real pain in the ass in Gadget lol... great work!
Super smooth, I love the bass sound. A bit easier listening than normally what's in my wheelhouse but it's structured well, so I cannot complain
Clean mix so it's nice and easy on the ears! Great job
Sorry it's taken me so long to get round to reviewing this - I was really busy last week.
This is a very melodic track, with a lovely mellow vibe. I like the fact that it's interesting and varied, and the synthesized acoustic instruments give it an otherworldly vibe - not quite real, just slightly synthetic.
The arrangement takes you on a journey, and moves through different moods, I especially like the sad sounding horn towards the end, before the finale.
A solid and engaging instrumental.
This one is like an old-school soundtrack, nice smooth keys playing and lots of fun melodies. A lot of variation and different themes being developed, it's a pretty interesting listen, and I love the variation in the electric piano sounds.
@spyrogaia : Nice Song. I think have to redownload gadget. Nice Brass sounds. Want to use this snare too. Kick has too much effects for my taste. Good work!
@iammane
I'm not familiar with KAPro collection. If you meant the Korg Module Pro collection; well, that's something I have wanted but currently cannot afford.
Except for the Bass (which was Madrid gadget) and Drums (Gladstone) all the other instruments that come and go are Darwin (the iM1 gadget) of which there are 11 instances.
@richardyot
I really like your notion of it having an "otherworldly vibe". It made me listen to it differently. This entire piece was an experiment for me to explore the sounds of Darwin gadget having delved into the more "synth" style gadgets when I first began using Gadget in January this year. Having said that, I'm also learning a bit of music theory for the first time for which this track became sort of a sandbox. I wanted to try modulating to a different key from F major, which the track is in. Hence the sad horn section you mentioned. That section is in Bb - the sad bit being the Cm in there. I'm really happy how it worked out in the end.
@Franketti
Hey, your mention of the too much effects on the kick has really made me listen to the kick. Never before this. And I think you maybe right!
I'm so happy you found the song nice.
Thank you all for the great feedback and thoughts.
It's been submitted to Spotify etc. so I'd stop agonizing over the tiniest details.
I went full retro "electro-industrial dance" from the '90s on this. It just happened - I didn't set out to do it. I just started with the bassline in Repro5 and then got a beat going and it spiraled downward from there (and I had to include the OB-6, too, everywhere else). I did all the sampling myself, which was fun, after the word "platelets" popped into my brain from out of nowhere. Clearly inspired by Front Line Assembly and The Retrosic - their more melodic stuff, not the brash and abrasive.
WARNING: If you or someone you love or know has suffered from COVID19, this may not be the best time to listen to this track, as it includes samples related to the disease. Because I'm terrified.
http://callforsubmission.bandcamp.com/track/platelets
I'm finding critiquing surprisingly hard when I'm trying to second-guess what a track is supposed to sound like especially when it's a style of music I don't usually listen to.
So what I've attempted to do is imagine I've been hired as a producer and these are the demos we are to work on; My comments are what I think my first suggestions would be, but with the intention that that would just be a starting point for discussion; I'd enjoy the back and forth to get something new.
@NemanzgbKaj
Nicely played and recorded. I do feel that I'm waiting for the vocal to kick in. I'd want to work on the rhythm track a little and get a bit more feel going with a driving bassline to underpin the guitars.
@spyrogaia
Again, very nicely played and recorded. A bit too nice for my taste
I would prefer the sounds to be either more synthetic or more organic (or a mix of the two). In terms of the mix everything sounds clear and has it's place but could do with sounding a little more like it's all being played in the same space. I'd also work on the drums to make them more live sounding and less robotic (or more robotic and less live sounding :-)
@Franketti
A bit like the song above, very similar style, again very well played and recorded. Again I'd want to work on the drums to make them sound more like a real drummer (or again, less real sounding and more synthy).
@vitocorleone123
I like it. From the description I was expecting it to be a bit harder hitting, but it's cool. There are a couple of sections where everything seems to be playing the same rhythm (around the 1:00 mark for example) where I'd want a bit more 'groove', perhaps just by adding a little delay line to one of the synths to get it a bit more bouncing along.
If I was mixing it I'd make the drums nastier and louder, but that's to suit what I was expecting (FLA style :-) I like the vocal sample that comes in at the end, that lifts that section nicely. So very nice.
I'd just want to make it a bit nastier :-)
FWIW, my track in this thread started off with the bassline which I thought I could make into an FLA/F242-ish type of track but ended up going into a different direction, so I failed totally in my original plan and it's nowhere near as nasty as I wanted it to be :-)
Listening back to my track it sounds really flat and lifeless on SoundCloud. I tried for ages to re do the final mix to make it punch more but couldn't get it any louder without it sounding bad. Then I realised I may have made it too loud for Soundcloud.
I ran it through a site called loudness penalty analzer and yup; I have penalties of -2.5 for YouTube (soundcloud not listed).
So just a tip and a note to self; Make sure you haven't overcooked the super-maximiser-instant-mastering-plug-in before uploading :-)
I made another mix which gets a zero penalty but I don't think it's worth uploading it to soundcloud. It's only there for this thread :-)
I'm so glad the loudness wars are over :-)
The Loudness Penalty site will tell you how much the streaming services will turn your track down when doing loudness normalisation - they normalise the volume of all the songs they stream so that listeners don't experience sudden jumps in volume when shuffling between tracks. Soundcloud isn't listed, because SC doesn't do any volume normalising, a track on SC won't have its volume reduced if it's mastered to be "loud".
But yes what you experienced is normal: a brick wall limiter makes a track louder by reducing the peaks of the loudest transients, which means the quieter elements can become proportionally louder, so the overall loudness of the track subjectively increases. The price you pay is those squashed transients: the "louder" your track, the less punchy it becomes, because the transients are getting crushed.
In the age of streaming it's much better to use a compressor on the master bus to achieve the desired level of punch and impact: the reason being that a compressor can be set to a slower attack than a brickwall limiter, resulting in much punchier transients.
Ah ok good to know. I thought my track sounded less loud and a bit muffled played form SC compared to the same mp3 played in the files app.
I’m probably ‘hearing’ differences that aren’t there :-)
It might be because of MP3 type compression that SC applies to non-premium accounts, that will also mush the transients and blur the high-end.
Thanks! My main reference track was Synthetic Forms from Implode. More melodic (I edited my post to indicate it was more on the melodic side). That said, I'm not FLA and didn't try to totally clone them - just took inspiration. I thought about decimating the drums now and then, but really liked the groove. It takes me a long time to make a song, and I probably end up leaving some things out that would make it better because I get to the point where I get tired of it and have to move on to something else. Some day I'd like to work with another person to see if 1) anything can get finished, and 2) if the end result is more completed, assuming anything can actually get finished.
My favorite sound is right after the first chorus, behind the vocal sample that plays (which was also fun to screw with). I was messing around on the OB-6, cranked up the delay etc., and ended up with the really cool, Puppy-like metallic chaos. Had to get it into a song as soon as possible, even though when I created the patch I had no idea how I'd work it into one.
The bass line is delicious, a very nice analogue sounding synth patch. This is definitely the highlight of the track for me.
The spoken word samples work well, and they're suitably creepy, and help to give the track a narrative structure.
All the synth sounds are well crafted and chosen, and the production overall is very strong.
My only minor crit is that the drums are a bit static, but overall it's a good track.
The main issue for me is I’ve never been good at making tracks as loud as commercial releases. I can do it, but not without squashing the bejeezus out of it. I always end up rolling it back and having to swap ‘loudness’ for better sound.
The track in this post would be considered too loud for most streaming services yet it sounds quiet when you play from the music app straight after. As I said, I know what I’m supposed to do, just can’t mix it loud without it sounding horrible :-)
Mastering is a skill, for sure.
@vitocorleone123
It sounds cool as it is. It’s always easier to see things you’d change in somebody else’s track though :-) I thought I’d imagine myself as a producer (lol) and what I’d say to the band when they play the demo. I wouldn’t expect everything (or indeed anything) I said to be agreed with.
Finishing tracks is always tricky. You do indeed need to know when to stop.
I find using Hardware synths makes that easier In one way as you have to just commit at some point, record it as audio and move on. When the Midi is there playing a soft synth there’s just way too many things to keep tweaking sometimes.
I enjoy the mixing/mastering aspect, though it can be torturous, as well - such as figuring out how to tame the 8-12k frequencies in this track (and the low end is always a challenge, since I can only use headphones). I have a feeling I'll get to know my EQs very well with the OB-6 in the house, given how it can push really low and really high frequencies at the same time. Also tortuous - exporting to hopefully sound tolerable on streaming. I'm an "analytic creative" in general... in my day job I do UX design AND user research and analysis. Maybe I'm good at both, but great at neither one! Ha.
For this track, I liked it loud at -11 LUFS. With more time (but lost sanity), I probably could've found how to do that in the track rather than at the end, in terms of the overall sound with the limiter. I ended up messing around with what I liked best in order to export with -2dbTP or so and it was 99% as good at -13 LUFS integrated and -2dbTP.
Using hardware more is definitely helping overall, in terms of minimizing the endless note/synth setting tweaking. I try to apply that more to softsynths, as well. With the hardware, I find myself recording a few times to get something close enough, with at least one round of me tweaking notes in the DAW because I can't play worth a damned and have no timing to speak of, and then, later, coming back and re-recording again once I have more of the track in place when I find that where I'd left it maybe needs to be tightened up or otherwise manipulated in a way that just adding an effect plugin won't address.
Finally, if anyone is interested, I'm open to a collaboration attempt, to whatever extend that could be done. I'm also open if anyone wants to send me some stems to having a go at mixing/mastering (or, better yet, all the tracks individually). No promises on either, but I'm game for new experiences
Vocalists welcomed.
@vitocorleone123 actually for mixing low-end, headphones are objectively better, because there are no room modes when using headphones, so mixing bass is one of their strengths. Unless you are in a really well-treated room, you can't trust speakers to accurately reproduce bass.
I'm doing something right!
I use DT 880 Pro 250ohm -> Focusrite 6i6v2 -> DAW/ASIO -> Sonarworks Headphones (~65% dialed in on the average profile). Somtimes I'll add in Goodhertz CanOpener Studio ahead of Sonarworks. I have a tendcy to have a little too much energy < 60Hz, and not enough around 120 Hz, give or take. Too much boom, not enough punch. Depends a lot on the drum samples, though, and if they're acoustic or synthetic.
Well with excellent semi-open headphones + sonarworks your monitoring should be pretty solid.
Headphones are pretty great for mixing IMO, except for transients (which they tend to exaggerate), and reverb, which should always be checked in the context of a room, because the room and the reverb add up, so it's all too easy to overdo the reverb with headphones because you don't account for that effect.
Live mixed with some crackles (sorry)
Could have used a bit more mixing and mastering (and probably another part)
@richardyot Clean, airy production. Solid vocals. I particularly liked the interludes. It grooves strongly and the harmonic rhythm of the Rhodes gives it some nice energy. I'd prefer a slightly pared beat for the first half of the verse, with the ghosted snares reserved for the build. But it definitely grooves. Enjoyable listen!
@klownshed High energy driving track. I appreciate the level of detail that's gone into the presentation of the instruments. For me the hero is the piano motif that arrives in the second half. I'd prefer to hear it earlier so that the first half of the song evolves a little quicker. Quality production.
Thanks for the listen and the review!
@kitusai
Great intro. I'm also a sucker for a nice sounding female voice. And en Francais! Nice alternating vocals, and the guitar-xylophone sounds keep it rolling. Very different from what I listen to. It was refreshing.
@motmeister
I liked the bongos (?) and hat sound, as well as the plucky synt/guitar over the top. I'd have to say the clangorous guitar strumming felt disconnected and floating alongside it. Perhaps they could be turned down to be an effect "behind" the rest? A good start to something, specifically or directionally.
@dukewonder ?
Poof! Where'd it go?
@nemanzgbkaj
The real guitar recorded sounds very good - mixed well, too. The drums could be picked up a bit more (snare?), but I do love me some drums. Had to say I ended up watching the music and video parts separately as they didn't seem to go togehter - at lesat not until the scene with the animals running. That seemed to fit the music better to me.
@spyrogaia
Mine also all start as experiments, never "I'm going to make a song now!". A pretty intro lead in. Which Gadget has the guitar? I liked the little moments throughout, where they build up, then let go, then build up again. My favorite part was 1:12 - 2:14 or so. Pleasant to listen to. Well done.
@franketti
Defintely way outside my genres :-) This could definitely be on a smooth jazz radtio station. The hats/cymbals may need a little more control is all as they're a bit hot - the rest sounds nicely layered to me. A tiny bit of delay or reverb on some of the drums, or maybe just EQ to soften the high end might make them sit even better, and allow the instruments to stand more in front. Nice playing of the keys and the like.
@audiblevideo
It's live! Live jams are fun to watch. Toss a compressor and then limiter as the last two plugins on a mixbus channel all the other channels route to for more control. An EQ before or after the compressor can help, too. That was a lot to manage live. Well done. I would encourage you to repeat the performance if you can, and then edit it down to ~5min instead of 9. It was definitely long. Alternatively, you'll probably want to come up with passages where lots more change and have variation. You have the elements to do either one of those. Keep going!
@vitocorleone123
thanks for listening. Yes this should be for smoth jazz genre or something like that. It was an exercise. I like the hats hot;-). I wish Icould play hats like eric moore. Thanks for your comment!
Ha! I tend to like snares hot in my mixes. I get it
@vitocorleone123
I’m a terrible person and revises the song again lol.