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.
My Top 5 Vocoders Apps and Why | haQ attaQ
My Top 5 iOS Vocoders Apps for iPad and iPhone and my reasons why they’re my favourites. These Vocoders sound very different when compared to one another. Why is that? Well, we’re having a look at the “why” of it and in order to answer that question, we have to look at the “how” of it too. Want to know how a Vocoder works? We’re also having a look at stuff that make each Vocoder app stick out in some way.
haQattaQ
Comments
Hello @LFS when can we expect to see more advanced audio and midi-routing in Cubasis???
We already have a bunch of audio effects supporting midi-input but no way to route midi to them in Cubasis 3.
Support for AUv3's with multiple audio input & output is still missing, It should be pretty high on the priority list.
Hopefully more advanced audio & midi routing is not something in the 'oops we didn't think about it category' and needs a complete re-write...
Thanks for the video @jakoB_haQ
@jakoB_haQ Guess I was a few days too late 😄
https://patchstorage.com/analog-vocoder/
AUv3 FX version:
https://patchstorage.com/analog-vocoder-aufx/
I too found that vocoders sound different so I wanted more control.
@jakoB_haQ what a great video! I have several of these vocoders, but thanks to your in depth video, I have learned so much more. thank you for sharing such helpful info out into the universe. as always i can’t wait for your next video
Ooooo!
I’ll definitely check this out! Thanks for the link!!!
Thank you that really means a lot to me! I’ll try not to take so long with the next one!
I hope that iOS DAW devs catches up with the shifting market. The masses are hurting for AUv3 plugs and so DAW’s and production platforms needs to be more optimised for that.
You're welcome! And don't hesitate to ask for changes or improvements to make it your #1 vocoder, I cannot promise anything but it's certainly worth a try 😌
Edit: You can now load it as an AUv3 Music Effect and play the vocoder with up to 6 polyphonic voices from a MIDI keyboard or MIDI sequence in your DAW.
Works with 6 voice polyphony on an iPad Mini 2.
Reduce the voice count or disable the second carrier oscillator if you want lower CPU load.
V Bot?/
Can’t find in App Store?
Ah found it...
Gonna watch it now. But I would guess there's no Caustic on @jakoB_haQ's list
I love that one. And the iDS-10, which is kinda weird (maybe not even a real vocoder), but awesome
Awesome!
For anyone else having trouble to find it. I usually search for the dev name “Erik Sigth”.
Caustic is not on the list no. I wanted to go into pure vocoder apps. I might do an episode in the future on other apps that contain vocoders though. In that case I’d have to check out apps like Drambo, Caustic and then synths like Synthmaster etc.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll even try it out on the iPad mini 2 over here too. Drambo really is sick!
@jakoB_haQ solid work, really well done and performed
Excellent vid, watched it earlier today. I like that you like iVoxel so much. I also.
Back in the days I used it a lot on this:
The verse vocoding is straight iVoxel as a normal vocoder. The middle eight is a complicated sequence of voxel parametric phrases. I quite liked making the voxels, but they’re a bit time consuming (hence just the middle eight).
Sick amount of work that went into that video man. Good work!
I have Voxsyn...Presumably a predecessor of IVoxel?
Great Haq Attak video....tempted to get them all.....
@u0421793 that video is insanely good fun, but also actually a very catchy track, enjoyed this a lot.
And great video @jakoB_haQ, wow, so much damn time you must put into these, thanks a lot, 🙏🙏
@jakoB_haQ thnx!
The iVoxel voxels seem to me to be parameter rather than audio-based, in that if you did a frequency-domain analysis across periods of time, you’d get a spectral graph of energy currently occurring at various frequencies, which is sort of what you need anyway with the analysis side of a vocoder.
(the frequency-domain = a view of the relative levels of frequency distribution – typically as spectral peaks, little lines going up from zero, as opposed to time-domain which shows you the relative levels of amplitude across the progression of time, such as you’re used to seeing in the normal way you see audio waveforms)
This is also related to what you see in Nave, and Poseidon, in their frequency domain views. The difference in those apps is that the frequency plot shows a wavetable intended to be repetitively read out at an audio rate. Here, we’d be using the frequency-domain parameter data as much longer one-shot ‘tracks’ of energy distribution across the frequency domain, with the intention to apply a vocoding template energy signals you’d normally get in real time from the analysis side of a vocoder). All the app needs to do is take a record of those spectral trails as simple parametric data, not audio. That means you can impart loop points, etc, and in theory also stretch and expand the spectral trails as much as you like with no penalty – it’s now just a lot of parameters, not any kind of repeating audio waveform as the original pre-analysed audio input was.
@u0421793 That's the concept behind speech synthesis.
Which points me at a number of new ideas... 😁
Yeah, all VirSyn apps have pieces of their earlier apps in em I. Some way shape or form.
VoxSyn is really special. Thanks to it’s follow voice/pitch setup is able to create some really interesting sounds.
Yeah this one took a few years to prepare. I’ve always wanted to do a video like this. But back in 2014 there weren’t enough Vocoders. I’ve had to wait until 2019 to start preparing a plan for this video. And then invested a month into pure work m, research, testing. In the end it took about three weeks to actually produce the video.
It’s been one of the most fun videos to make.
Thank you for this well written analysis. Very interesting.
Wow. I think I'll stick with building Drambo patches and recording short demo videos only 😅
I must say that I always liked your videos because you didn't just play around with apps, you really tried to understand what's going on and compare to other apps which is what I'd expect from video reviews.
Please keep up your great work and your own fun!
Actually, another nifty way of explaining vocoders is to consider a graphic equaliser that has a spectrum analyser, a bit like this sort of product which most of us remember there being a lot of:
The idea (completely lost on the home audio hifi enthusiast by the way, they thought it was some kind of fancy tone control) in professional studios and sound spaces was to use a pink noise generator and shove it through the speakers. Then, with an adequately placed mic, analyse the peaks and troughs in the sound space, and use the graphic equaliser to de-notch or boost so that you get a desirably flat enough response. Then you leave it as is. That’s it, job done, don’t fiddle with it any more.
Now, imagine you had such a device, a spectrum analyser that splits the input up into a given number of bands, and gives a readout of the energy in those bands. Imagine you also had an equaliser bank, which splits the input up into the same given number of bands, and can plus or minus the energy going through the eq. Now imagine you had something extra – not in the pictured device above – which instead of you having to laboriously and tediously have to adjust each slider so that the spectrum analyser readout in that corresponding band became flat, imagine a robot did it for you. And repeatedly, all the time (yes, in vocoders there’s a clock rate, governing how often the analysis is sampled and then passed on to the synthesis side) (slower clock rates make you sound more like you’re singing or chanting, faster is more faithful to speech details).
So, this robot that looks at the spectrum analyser lights, and copies the same overall bar graph shape (not the opposite, as you would be if you were flattening a response to pink noise in a room) to the eq sliders, that’s nearly a vocoder. Instead of pink noise, you shove in a high harmonic content rich sound like a chord, but over on the analysis side, it isn’t mic-ing the speakers, it’s an entirely unrelated input from your voice. That’s pretty much a vocoder now. There’s a couple of extra widgets – voiced/unvoiced detection, so that if it can tell you’re doing a labia-dental fricative, it doesn’t let the rich chord input through, but shoves white noise through instead. And a few more circuits for a few similar hacks like that. Kraftwerk’s vocoders were super hot at the voiced/unvoiced detection, you can hear the clicky shh-y enunciation taken to extreme for effect.
Incredible video Jakob....
That’s a lot of work
And your musical utterances very inspiring too...
You are one of the better iOS tech guys on YouTube....
IOSSOS
Wow! Excellent video! I have never even thought about getting a vocoder, or watching a 45 minute video about them - now which one to buy first!
Jakob:
First off, I have to be clear that I am a huge fan of you, the person. You are so engaging and thorough in your thinking, and I imagine you are a thoughtful and kind person as well. You're speaking from an intelligent and rational perspective, but we also get your raw enthusiasm, your excitement, and your passion through your love of making music. I assume you are this way not just about your music. Probably the coolest guy on the internet to listen to, because of these factors, and your area of expertise. But also you just seem like a great guy period. I mean, I think you have to be exciting to be around: an engaging conversation no matter what the topic, a thoughtful friend to others, a good guy to have a laugh with over pizza and a beer. I've been teaching for twenty five years, and I know a great kid when I see one. You're awesome. One thing though... learn to take the compliment: even a sincerely humble guy like yourself has to remember the good things people think of you. You so totally rock.
Second, you are very skilled at selecting orgasmic sounds. This is a skill alongside being an electronic musician many people undervalue, but it is something I regard very highly: Cuckoo has it. Jega, Reinhard Voigt, and Boards of Canada have it. Going back, this is why I respect De La Soul and the Beastie Boys so much for their first two albums: sound selection. You pick some pretty awesome beats and pads, and much respect is due. I fancy myself the same in that regard: as skilled as a player or composer can be, if they're picking a obnoxiosly brassy preset to show off their skills, they lost me. You keep me listening, and I love when you make those faces you make when you find something crisp or intriguing. I love the cutaway to your reaction. Always on point.
...
Vocoders have been part of my music for 20+ years. I've owned nearly a dozen hardware ones, selling them for a different one usually and am down to one (though I really want one back), yet the number one feature I always look for is being able to use my own carrier signal. This is a big deal: robots and square waves are great, but there is so much more to explore if you can have your own carrier. Anyway, I usually use something like the string setting on Samplr as my carrier, looping endlessly while I add my drums to it. Grabbing the kick of a live drummer is my go to... I'm giving away too much.
The second feature is latency. The vocoder I want back (my Metavox I sold out of desperation) had the fastest attack, but not the best at fleshing out sounds. The TC Helicon Synth pedal does carrier signal the best, but is a bit latent. Combining the two in parallel, I found one compensated for the other's shortcomings. Of course, my dream vocoder (the sky soundlab) is out of my reach, although I have no idea about its latency, it sounds so damn good.
Getting to my main issue: latency. The iPad's latency, even in optimal settings, is pretty hard to use live to process external drums. Which of these vocoders had the lowest latency for you? Running live audio in, are any at the point where the latency is not clearly noticable?
Thanks for the video, Jakob.
Have you tried my Drambo vocoder?
https://patchstorage.com/analog-vocoder-aufx/
It's not an FFT based solution and latency is pretty short if you're using small audio buffers.