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.
Not quite perfect
Ok, I can’t be the only one that literally hops from one DAW to the next, looking for the ‘one DAW to rule them all’ - and although there’s some amazing apps, nothing ever seems to tick all the boxes without needing more apps to complete the picture for me.
Does anyone else go around in circles, hanging out for just the right update to give you that missing feature to complete your IOS workflow perfection?
Firstly, I’m an older experienced synthy, tech type. I understand complex MIDI & audio setups fairly well. In my quest for simplicity and minimalism (of sorts), I yearn for the perfect DAW that ticks all MY boxes without needing secondary apps but haven’t found it yet. I love and appreciate what these clever devs are coming up with, but everything always seems to fall short in one way or another. Here’s my experience with a handful of apps...
GarageBand - Probably my fave for creating beats, and does MIDI clock out. But doesn’t do MIDI out easily, only does 44.1kHz renders (I prefer 48kHz), and needs better MIDI control and better integration to the outside world in general. Really wanted this to be the one because I tend to come up with interesting stuff fast in it. That beat sequencer is killer to me and I like to combine it with some groove weirdness from BramBos Ruismaker Noir. My fave combo for beats.
Gadget - the closest to perfection for me, BUT, no AUv3, and no MIDI clock out. And although there’s a great collection of synths, I always perceive the results as a bit generic and lacking in bonafide weirdness or character (just how I perceive it).
Cubasis - I started on Cubase on an Atari so this should be perfect right? Well, it’s certainly full featured, BUT, doesn’t seem as fun or as ‘quick’ to bang out beats, compared with say the Beat Sequencer in GB (which I love). Also, like Gadget, I find it harder to eek some “character” out of my work in it.
NanoStudio 2 - Appears stable, efficient and robust. Great synth, effects, great method of controlling external synths BUT no MIDI clock out.
Modstep - Has potential but get the feeling the DEVS are winding it back or not updating very often. Unsure about its future.
Drambo - maybe? I’m almost exhausted from exploring and trialing. Anyone willing to chime in on its positives?
So there, I said it. Nothing’s perfect (well da). Anyone else almost laughing at themselves or in tears of frustration with this first world problem?
Comments
Have you tried “dawless” ?
AUM with AuV3 sequencers, synths & fx.
Drambo is awesome and keeps getting better.
definitely in the same boat. wish there was a perfect daw that does everything on ios but everything has it's pros and cons. i find myself jumping back and fourth from BM3 to Cubasis. all of my creating is dome in BM3, then i export loops into cubasis 3 to sequence and mix. dont get me wrong, beatmaker 3 has PLENTY of cons, but for me the creative energy is in there more than anything else. crossing my fingers for an update for BM3 though, whether its just general bug fixes, or a complete overhaul. either would make me happy.
i think the thing i miss the most in daws is working and messing with audio directly on the timeline. i know some daws kind of do it, but none do it to the extent that some daws on PC do.
I guess it's because I'm a guitar player and have always had to mess around with amps, cables, stomp boxes, power, DI boxes, mics, broken strings, tuning, ground loops, dirty power, not being able to hear myself in the monitors, not being a good enough player, etc, etc, etc. ... and since I started this DAW stuff back in the last century when it was all hard ... I just don't expect perfection. When making music isn't totally difficult in every way, I'm happy.
Over time I've settled into two most-used modes depending on whether I'm just jamming or trying to get something more permanent down. I do not think for even one second about what isn't "perfect" about either. The rest of the time I just experiment with other things for fun.
I consider myself lucky to have all that I do at my disposal.
You should checkout Roland Zenbeats (formerly Stagelight). It doesn't call itself a DAW, but it matches up well against the DAW's you've tried, and it is available on Android, iOS, Mac, and PC, with purchases that are portable across platforms.
For a DAW-free workflow, I recommend apeMatrix, or AUM, depending on what you're doing.
What's slowed down my IOS music productivity is not perfectionism but just having other stuff going on in life.
I don't mean to diss peeps with perfectionist tendencies though. Everyone has their own path, their own struggles, etc.
For the moment I'm just working with miRack because I saw a modular video that motivated me enough to fire it up and have a play.
DAW hopping is a (fun) habit I picked up on iOS and carried over to desktop. Cubasis 3, Nanostudio 2 and Gadget are the big 3 for me on iPad. As someone else mentioned though, “dawless” is a powerful way to go on iOS and very fun way to experiment with different tools.
AUM + Drambo, Atom Piano Roll, Rozetta, Enso and maybe Multitrack Recorder AUV3 - does almost everything I’d want in an iOS daw. I just wish something like Atom had CC automation lanes w/ live recording and editing.
I find a lot of inspiration and enjoyment by mixing it up and working in different platforms, depending on need or mood. I’m using everything from Ableton, Reason, Maschine, to, recently Bitwig and even Logic on mac.
Has Zenbeats matured much since it was Stagelight and is it stable now? The early versions of Stagelight looked so promising, but I experienced so many crashes that I gave up and haven’t touched it in a year. (same story with BM3, sadly—probably because I’m a heavy plugin user)
The AU support in Zenbeats has improved tremendously though you'll still be able to find a few AU that don't agree with it.
Sincere thx for the considered responses peeps. Seems I'm not alone. Perhaps "perfect" is a frought word that I shouldn't have used. I mean "perfect" in the sense that its perfect for my intended use or even yours. With decades experience as a producer bought up on hardware and then on to sophisticated pro Mac and PC apps, I sort of take for granted and expect trivial matters such as clock sync to be a given in what often looks like a semi-pro type app for example.
But even just MIDI clock seems more a "nice to have" and even an after thought on IOS for many devs and users. I'm ok with that, but I'll always look for apps now with MIDI clock so it syncs nice with my hardware. Many apps can do it. Just not all. Then there's my hard to let go 48kHz preference. Probably just my OCD. The Octatrack always niggled me with that and so does the fantastic Deluge. But it appears I'm fighting a losing battle on that one. CD's are dead yet the 44.1kHz legacy remains the strongest and often the only sample rate option while 48kHz remains an industry standard for film and TV. The audio world insists on keeping 44.1kHz as its main format. I understand thats a minor or non-gripe for most.
Anyhoo, first world problems. I think you devs are making amaze balls stuff and I feel privilegd to be in a position to enjoy such clever creations and whinge about some 'pro' shortcomings. I love the synth and audio processing power and sheer genius of you devs and what your imagination comes up with. Just wish I could have no bullshit MIDI Sync in and out, and professional sample formats so I can use an iPad as a master brain, sample librarian and routing centre for my semi-pro, 48kHz-orientated hardware setup.
Drambo = no MIDI CLOCK support = no integration with my hardware
Zenbeat = has MIDI CLOCK capability and native 48kHz = hallo!
It sounds like you’d be better off with Ableton or Logic. Logic now has the GarageBand beat sequencer, and it’s even more powerful. Only useful if you have a Mac though
Exactly this!
You’re right. I somewhat agree, and I have a pimped out Mac (with everything). But I like to bang out beats in bed, on the couch, in my yard, etc. And I genuinely love the genius of what’s coming out on iOS. I want in on this cutting edge iOS shit. AudioShare and AUM are now staples for me (among others). So an iPad is with me permanently as a bonafide music tool now, and I wish to scale back to a minimal hardware setup one day, but not yet.
It’s so good, that it can almost replace my somewhat unloved and under used desktop as the centrepiece. It comes oh so close, but often just falls short in one way or another, hence my musings.
Mojozart reminded me to have a closer look at Zenbeats again which I’m playing with now. Seems to to tick my boxes on paper at least.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not that wanting, or even hard-complaining. I have enough gear and tech to create and finalise conveniently enough. I just find the iPad a wonderfully creative thing and so tantalisingly close to also being a highly portable and pro or semi-pro studio brain. Which, it already can be to a degree. Just needs more complete integration with the outside world, IMO. It’ll get there eventually. It’s already close enough for most practical scenarios.
Zenbeats next on my quest.
Mentioning cutting edge iOS shit, I'm curious who agrees that iOS apps are in fact more cutting edge than what is happening on desktop. Opinions welcome.
I definitely agree, not just the interface innovation but things like mozaic, while available on desktop are usually parts of massive suites of software that would take an age to get into, whereas I managed to pick to basic messing about within an hour or two... I actually got so put off with desktop workflow about fifteen years ago that I pretty much stopped making music apart from noodling on the guitar. I dabbled with a few iOS synths over the years but it wasn’t until I read an article about AUM last summer that my interest was piqued. A few months later and I’m a bit appoholic, mainly cause I feel like I’m catching up with tears of missed innovation I think but my music productivity is through the roof and of a completely different type than when I was a fruity loops/ logic laptop gigger - more live playing and recording, just need to nudge myself more into the arranging / finishing stages.. I may return to desktop for that and have got basic versions of live and bitwig awaiting me
My philisophy is to embrace the imperfections and get to work ...
Often true ... not least of all because iOS is multi-touch, whereas desktop apps are usually designed for single touch\click. Take Samplr, TC11 or Borderlands Granular for example. They would not easily exist on desktop without specialised hardware input devices whereas on iOS it's there right out the gate.
Me too. Just use what’s available and get on with it.
Collaborate with someone that already knows the DAW you'd like to evaluate.
Stick with it until the project finishes. The fact that someone is waiting for you to
contribute will prevent you from NOT finding a solution or workaround to any
issue that surfaces.
It sounds like a ZenBeats collaboration would be a good idea at this point.
Check out these videos 😎
https://www.youtube.com/user/Intesall
Reading your list of gripes, I would say the 48Khz vs 44.1KHz should (in theory) be the easiest to let go of. The difference between the two is not audible; it's merely a different convention from the olden days (CD audio versus DAT audio) with virtually identical quality.
The workflow that I've been exploring is experimenting with musical ideas created by Piano Motifs and other MIDI generating apps, capturing MIDI and audio files, then using Zenbeats to put the audio together on a timeline.
If I ever get to a stage where I feel truly ready to release something on Bandcamp or whatever, I plan to send my mixes to a friend who is a known expert in mastering, because time is money and I'm not motivated to spend the time learning how to properly master.
Me. Not sure if it’s because I’ve just stopped looking at new desktop stuff. Or if it’s just the proliferation of clever iOS apps. But I defs think that iOS has inspired a whole range of outside-the-box thinking to audio and sound manipulation. Some of it blows my mind. I think it was SamplR that was one the first things that floored me in its uniqueness and creativity.
And then there’s Brambos. First of all, sincere thank you for your contribution to this wave of iOS wonderfulness we’re all enjoying. I think I have most of your creations. Re your point, yeah, I’m trying to come to terms with it. Makes no sense, but I’m defs fighting a losing battle. What do the movie & tv musicians do? Just resample again? I have a degree in Music Tech and was taught to minimise unnecessary processing for highest quality. I was also taught that 48kHz wavs will transcode better to common MP3 formats - related to the math when kHz is converted to Mb/s. Though I admit I can’t remember the equations. So I have it ingrained in me that 44.1 was the wrong road to take. But I think you’re right. I should just let go of it. It’s virtually inaudible in difference. And it appears 44.1 isn’t going anywhere soon.
Thank you. Will do.
Wise. I do my own mastering but it is a deeply misunderstood and dark art.