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
Please,please, pretty please with a cherry on top: add MIDI clock sync!
Hi Everybody,
Brendan from Psicada checking in … Thank you all for all the support and interest, I'm very glad you're enjoying the app! With regards to the feature requests - duly noted, and they are much appreciated. It helps prioritize my development efforts.
-Brendan
This is quite an intriguing and original concept, pretty difficult to grasp at first (at least for me), but because of this reason i'm going to try to share my limited understanding of it, and hope to get some input that might make things clearer.
The way I see it, this is a very clever multi sample player coupled to 2 different sequencers: an effects sequencer and a step sequencer.
You can select a number of samples that are to be played simultaneously, and for each sample you may then sequence 7 different effects (such as pitch shift, gain, filters etc) by drawing them along a horizontal bar that represents a relative timeline. This is then the first sequencer.
The length of this relative timeline (with the sequenced effects on it) then stretches to fit the duration of the 4 vertical strips on the main screen, with the bottom of the strip corresponding to the beginning of the timeline and the top to the end. You define the duration of each strip (and thus the timeline of the first sequencer) in bars. The strips basically represent loops.
Now the second sequencer comes into play, and things get more complicated. Each of the 4 strips can then be divided into smaller intervals of different lengths and the starting point of these sub-intervals become steps in the sequence, which define the rhythm of the loops.
When you touch a vertical strip with just one finger, these steps trigger the playback of the samples modulated by the first sequencer at the position your finger is touching the bar. That means that when you keep your finger steady, you're going to hear a rhythm made of identical sounds.
When you touch the vertical strips with two fingers, the interval between your fingers defines the range of the first sequencer: you basically select a portion of your drawing of the effects from which the rhythm steps of the second sequencer take their value. How exactly these values are picked from the first sequence is controlled by a vertical slider that each step from the second sequencer has. By moving the sliders up and down you can better define the sound that each step of the second sequencer produces.
I understand this may sound confusing, but that's all due to the beauty of this app (and nothing to the fact that I can't explain properly, no no): it is complex enough that you cannot easily predict what the results will be, so it will keep surprising you, but at the same time there's nothing random in what it does.
I shouldn't forget, my favorite part of this app is the way you define the steps in the step sequencer. The whole "select, divide and stretch" is a thing of beauty, don't you think? That, and the fact that it looks like an epilator.
I'm holding back till midi sync and audio copy.
Really enjoying this@Psicada any chance for Landscape orientation for all of us dock users??
@supadom said:
Thanks for keeping the pressure on.
Signed,
Someone who couldn't resist.
Beautifully written and explained @Crizzy
@Zymos said:
The way I look at it is, make the purchase, put a little extra $ in the developer's pocket now. Maybe that all adds up and gives the developer a little extra headroom to add extra/requested features, like midi sync and audio copy (hint, hint to @ Psicada)
Sometimes it seems to work, sometimes not. But, I always get the extra time with the app, which is a good bonus.
I wonder if I could talk my wife into dl-ing this on HER iPad... :-]
@Crizzy
Thanks for this writeup, it was great to read. Here's how I would describe Earhoof to someone who wasn't late for a meeting or doesn't have anything on the stove:
Even though the separation of sound and rhythm is mostly a philosophical one, let's go ahead and do that for the sake of thinking about this app.
Imagine tapping around on an acoustic drum membrane with your finger. The sound changes as you move closer and away from the middle (just due to the physics of the membrane). It's a sort of continuous gradient of sound. By moving your tap a little bit, you can subtly change the sound - or you can move to a new location on the gradient and get a larger difference. This concept is the basis for the layering and "sonic gradient" part of the app, but Earhoof uses arbitrary samples and a whole collection of DSP effects, plus the ability to hand draw whatever curve you like. It was also inspired by dynamic articulation techniques used with samplers --- different velocities create different sounds. There's no pressure sensitivity on the iPad, so I realized that the best way to implement such a thing is to do it spatially. I guess I would call it "spatial modulation". I'm not sure if that's a real term or not.
Now onto rhythm. I knew I wanted to create a rhythmic instrument, but here's the thing about rhythm and iPads: glass makes a horrible playing surface. There's no bounce to it, so it's hard to play, and it's easy to sound utterly whack. Plus I wanted to make it easy to play complex rhythms consistently, so that led to the app being based around a sort of "auto playing" mechanic. The use of the sequencer in Earhoof is a bit different from sequencers in other programs. Traditionally, a sequence has events, these events have sounds attached to them. Earhoof's sequencer events aren't so much about playing a specific sound, they're about playing a specific location - the location between your pinched fingers. The sequencer serves as a way to "strike" or "hit" the playing surface, and the sounds that are generated are a result of where these strikes are located.
The idea of having a set of rhythms (the four columns) was partly inspired by the sounds of weird night critters. I had noticed a lot of animals have a set of a few different communication calls which they do, and they're always seamlessly switching between them. It's a sort of "legato" rhythm mode like you would find in Ableton Live.
Interesting comment about the epilator. I think you're describing how the gradient behind the flat panel controls is constantly changing. It took a little bit of trickery to get this detail working efficiently (as you devs know, you can't be redrawing everything all the time). So far this app has been compared to a bathroom scale, a toaster, and an epilator. I actually was going for a sort of space-station-Sears vibe.
Not to get all teenybopper on you all, but I hope to get a chance to make some videos or posts about cool little tricks - so anyone who is interested, please "Like" the Facebook page at facebook.com/psicada . It's also a good way to stay informed about feature updates and fixes for things that turn up broken. It's still only v1.0.0 after all!
Thanks!
-Brendan
Very cool explanation Brendan
"space is that which results from places taken together" Gottfreid Leibniz
Eh?
@Zymos said:
Haha, I'm also holding it back because I wasn't hugely impressed by the sounds of any videos that I've seen. Of course there is a good chance that if I used my own samples things would change. In a way the same thing happened to me with Sampler. I got it, I like it, I loaded up quite a few of my own samples. Found a great workflow using loopy as a sampler then export via audio copy, cool. However, I pretty much always leave a half baked idea within the app and don't take it further because of the lack of midi sync.
Many people won't touch an app if it doesn't have AB, I'd go further, I won't get an app if it doesn't sync with others. The decision was born out of frustration of having many amazing apps that don't play with each other. Like having a band of amazing musicians that just don't get on with each other. Futile.
@SpookyZoo haha nice!!
@supadom duly noted on midi sync, and i do plan on doing some more videos - so you can hear more sounds at that point if you're interested. thanks for the feedback, it's worth more than a sale to a developer
This app is totally sick, incredible.
@Psicada thanks Brendan...it made me laugh at least.
Cool app btw, mucho funo!
That's brilliant @Psicada. It's good to see developers hanging around here. I think it is a smart move as this forum gets a lot of traffic from people wanting advice on IOS music.
...and thanks, looking forward to the vids/midi sync.
It looks cool and I probably will buy it, but it does look like a top view of my toaster.
@Psicada You should definitely hang around. Rhism, the developer of Guitarism, got the thread for that app up to well over 1,000 posts because he engaged with his users big time. The feedback he obtained here even informed the way he further developed his app, and he kept asking us very specific questions about possible new features, which made us feel involved. So the Audiobus forum can definitely be a good promotional outlet. If you engage with your customers, they will want you to succeed!
@Psicada
A brilliant app! My hope is that more improvements are on the way (ie. midi sync and better user sample import.) I'd like to suggest adding a feature that records and automates movements on a touchstrip & the ability to shift and play an other sample simultaneously. Is there any reason why at present Earhoof is iPad only? I'd love to have a version playable on iPod touch.
Thanks.
Does anyone else have problems with Earhoof and IAA? Auria and Audioshare for example.
Yes, there are some issues with launching Earhoof via IAA when the app is not already running. You could try starting Earhoof and keeping it in the background, and see if that helps. This issue and Audio Copy / Paste are my two top priorities for updates. Sorry for the trouble @Fitz
@Kandavu As far as being iPad only, it was a decision based out of performance and project/design complexity. I'm not sure how well the current design "shrunken down" would work on a tiny device. It might not be so bad to some, but I didn't want to have a painful, microscope-needing experience on a tiny screen. I figured it'd be better to get this product out there rather than delay it by making it iPhone compatible. I agree it'd be cool though.
Definitely love that Audiocopy/paste is showing up in an update! I'd like to +1 a request for MIDI-sync In (imo this is just as much a performance instrument as a sequencer, personally I need MIDI sync for any kind of live performance aspect)
Also, kudos for the sound quality of the samples with this app. I've been quite impressed.
+1 for Audioshare or open in Earhoof support. Would make it a no-brainer for me...
@CalCutta so with MIDI sync, what you're looking for is essentially a sort of trigger quantize to keep you on beat? i'd be curious what people would expect, and will definitely ask you all once i can get deep into this subject. although i guess i just asked.
for instance, when sync'ed the sequencer could put the start of the rhythm on the closest note value (either delay its onset or the opposite). or, it could be that, when synced, the sequencer is always running but you don't hear anything until you create a range with your fingers. that'd be pretty cool too - your fingers serving as a gate for the events.
General pasteboard support should take priority over Audioshare, since Audioshare support requires a customer to a buy another app. Both would be nice I guess, not needed to move a sample from here to there.
This app is way fun, fantastic rhythmic instrument . All I want is for the 5 samples to be freely assignable between each ribbon. And perhaps down the line, being able to have more then one sequence triggered when locked, for some extra craziness
Btw, why is everyone on about midi sync? Just set the tempo and play away, or am I missing something?
Edit:
"the sequencer is always running but you don't hear anything until you create a range with your fingers. that'd be pretty cool too - your fingers serving as a gate for the events" /Psicada
Ah ok, kinda makes sense, nothing too crucial tho
I know I've brought this up a million times already, but MIDI Clock sync.
Your app already is tempo based, it simply needs to lock to MIDI clock.
Why is everyone on about it?? Because we use multiple apps/external instruments simultaneously and want them in sync.
I want midi sync on my acoustic guitar