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.
Are bluetooth midi dongles worth it?
I bought a NanoDrum and a Microfreak late last year but I hardly ever use them because I cannot be bothered plugging everything it - it ruins the vibe. Has anyone tried the midi bluetooth plugins? I was looking at this one here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AXSYSLU?pf_rd_r=J4KT1164MDJ921DD27YV&pf_rd_p=e632fea2-678f-4848-9a97-bcecda59cb4e . Do they work well enough? I would love to not have to mess around with wires, if at all possible. My new hardware is gathering dust!
Comments
I have the Yamaha MDBT01 and I am totally fine with it. Of course there's somewhat latency, but that is something you have to cope with anyway.
Using it for live played midi and for roundtrip midi with hardware synths.
I would get another one, too.
I use the Quicco mi-1 wireless BT with a Deluge and a MC-707. They are a lot smaller than the Yamaha and working really great. I can not notice any latency.
@nuno_agogo and @Pierre118 - ok, thanks, that settles it, then. I’ll get a couple of these. Many thanks for your reply. I’ve got two brand new devices - drum machine and synth - that is just gathering dust at the moment. This will be better 🙂
I too have the Yamaha MDBT01, love it, no probs.
Brilliant, thanks.
What about audio out, though? Presumably I’d have to still use audio cables for the Microfreak, for example? I like the hardware but mostly just want to settle down of an evening to some music-making - but without all the cables.
You will still need cables for audio.
Yeah, I couldn't figure out a plausible way around these, either! Thanks for your reply. Maybe the synths are going to stay in the corner a while longer yet (!).
I‘ve thought about it several times and I always end up making the decision not to buy either a 5 pin or USB adapter for Bluetooth MIDI. I suppose one of the biggest problems is the keyboard I want to work with it most is too low voltage for 5 pin and isn‘t class compliant for USB. The 5 pin Yamaha version needs 5v midi, which most things have. Some have 3.3v and don‘t work.
I’ve used this to wirelessly send audio
Got Quicco mi.1 and MD-BT01, both work flawlessly and with low latency.
Sometimes the connecting app has to be restarted to recognize them but I guess that's the issue with anything Bluetooth.
Don’t get into modular synths, then
The soon to be available CME Widi Master 5pin midi Bluetooth adapter is supposed to work with 3.3v devices.
The Yamaha ud-bt01 is now discontinued and getting hard to find. A shame as it’s the only USB midi adapter, I’m hoping Yamaha will bring out a successor.
You can make such an adapter using a raspberry pi -- not battery-powered (though you could make it battery powered) but cheaper than the commercial adapters:
https://neuma.studio/rpi-as-midi-host.html
I use one so that my Boss Katana amp and iPad can talk together via Bluetooth.
I saw this on sale today and wondered if it could be used for wireless iOS music stuff...
https://www.twelvesouth.com/products/airfly?variant=30720749109305
Probably the pro model, but I didn't see any specs on latency.
My other idea is to make a cheap IR audio transmitter/receiver pair. Or maybe RF, but I like the IR line of sight idea.
With the bluetooth MIDI transmitters, is it possible to have one master keyboard transmitter and send MIDI to different synths without swapping the receiver? Being able to play multiple synths at once, or even just pick and choose which synth I wanted to control would be a real bonus for me.
If you think running around the living room naked jamming on a keytar is fun then yes they are worth it
Absolutely, I like standing on the back of my sofa acknowledging the invisible crowd
Thanks. I’ve got one of these - I’d just forgotten that I had!
Haha. I know. I do like modular synths on my iPad, just not when I’ve stopped my actual day job and want to make some music, only to find I’ve got to play something akin to a meccano set instead! Don’t get me wrong, I love the modular stuff in principle because the experimenting is great - it’s just not that practical for me personally.
That looks good, though I now realise I already have an audio dongle. Like many things I have, it’s gathering dust under a pile of wires somewhere. Time to dig it out 🙂
It's not just a receiver or transmitter, it is both.
I just have one wireless BT device, but I think that what you are asking is possible. In the AUM midi matrix you can create midi-from and midi-to connections, so it looks doable. Maybe someone with 2 wireless BT devices can test this? I'm interested too.
@rs2000 I read that you have 2 wireless BT devices, maybe you can test this?
what is that?
It’s a device than can wirelessly send audio to a Bluetooth receiving device. I’ve used it to send audio from a gameboy so I didn’t have cables hanging
No problem, could you please describe in detail what exactly you want me to do with them?
@Tarekith asked this : 'With the bluetooth MIDI transmitters, is it possible to have one master keyboard transmitter and send MIDI to different synths without swapping the receiver? Being able to play multiple synths at once, or even just pick and choose which synth I wanted to control would be a real bonus for me'
Would rtpMIDI via network be a free solution without BT?
You can use a keyboard with Bluetooth transmitter to control as many synths as you like, just make sure the MIDI receive channels match the send channel of the sending keyboard.
If all synths (no matter if IAA or AUv3) receive on the same MIDI channel and in case of IAA, background audi is enabled, they will play simultaneously.
Why swapping the receiver? The iDevice has the BT receiver built in.
It is but you need a PC and you get lots of latency.
Wirelessly? Maybe, if latency and occasional glitches aren't an issue. It can be OK for control surfaces, etc, but for sequencing or playing not so much. To get anywhere near acceptable performance you really need to set up a separate network and not go through a home router. Midi just don't like flying around through the air along with Eve Online gaming, Pandora, and Netflix all that much. But even with a direct peer-to-peer network I could only make use of it effectively for control surfaces.
Also, even though most apps show "Network Session" as a selection, relatively few actually work with it. I ended up needing to use MIDIFire to do the bridging to Network Session in most cases.
Might work over ethernet though, but then you need to shell out for ethernet adaptors for the iOS devices, and are stuck with wires anyway.