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.
Is there any difference between the free and paid versions of iGrand?
I am wondering: What did I just pay for? Is there any difference between the free and paid versions of IK Multimedia’s iGrand Piano? I cannot seem to find any. I bought the paid version of iGrand for iPad and it seems identical to the free version.
On the IKM website it says that the free version only plays 49 notes but that actually seems wrong - I notice (now that it’s too late) that the free version of iGrand for iPhone and the free version for iPad both seem to play all 88 notes.
I also see that even the paid iGrand does not support audio units. I knew that going in but it’s still too bad.
Comments
Supposedly, the paid version adds 6 instruments.
I had iGrand Piano Free three years ago, but abandoned it due to some annoying bad notes. D4..E4 (C3=60) at high velocity have a jingly aftertone not present on other notes. This is independent of volume or release settings. A3, Ab3, and A4 also have some of this. This makes it difficult to play.
There are much better sounding sampled pianos available now, starting with the soundfonts at Soundfonts4U. And, of course, Ravenscroft and Colossus.
Oh dang, I didn’t know about the bad notes. That really stinks.
I just saw that 6 additional pianos are mentioned in the App Store description, that the paid version is supposed to have 8 instruments and the free version is supposed to have 2. But actually it turns out that the free version also has all 8 instruments (both the free iPad and free iPhone versions have all 8). The free and paid versions have the exact same 8 pianos - I certainly wish I had noticed this before buying.
I actually own Ravenscroft. I really like it and I realize that its sampling is better and quite a bit more recent than iGrand’s, but there’s something I like about the timbre of the iGrand. Not exactly sure what it is, but I think that I like its edge, if that makes any sense.
I didn’t know about that Soundfonts site. Thanks, I’ll have to check it out.
@LeftyChris Are you sure about the 8 pianos in the free version? I just re-downloaded the free version, and I still have only 2 pianos, with all the rest greyed out. But I think free and paid are essentially the same app, so once you've unlocked the other instruments, they may be available in both apps.
Certainly, the full range of notes is available in free, to the on-screen KB, and to MIDI (checked).
I agree with you about the timbre. It's very clear. I liked it quite a lot, originally. And just now, I was unable to excite those noises that bothered me, but they might still be lurking somewhere.
Oh, that’s interesting. I just checked again and all 8 pianos are available on all 3 of the apps I downloaded: paid for iPad, free for iPad, and free for iPhone (I cannot download the paid for iPhone because I didn’t buy it).
Maybe it is because I bought the paid iPad iGrand app, but actually, that would surprise me, because if buying just one of the paid apps unlocked all 8 pianos on all of the apps, it wouldn’t seem to make sense for IKM to sell separate iPhone and iPad apps.
But maybe it’s just a glitch - if you only see 2 pianos in the free version, maybe it’s just a glitch that I have all 8 (and they are all playable) in both free versions of iGrand. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time IKM had a glitch.
Incidentally, you can buy the additional 6 pianos inside the free app, so that is one way to make the free app the same as the paid app. But the paid app is still listed separately on the App Store, so there are two ways to get all 8 pianos (unless one already has all 8 in the free version!).
Yes, clear, I think that describes what I like about the timbre too. That’s nice to hear that you weren’t able to get those bad noises again - maybe there was some sort of update where they fixed them.
It occurs to me that maybe the issue of the free vs. the paid apps boils down to flakiness. If you look at the IKM site they still say that the free version is limited to 49 notes, which I know is false because I had all 88 notes when I only had the free versions, and now you’ve said the same thing. Take a look:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/igrandios/
“A free version of iGrand Piano is also available. It gives you one piano (another one can be unlocked when you register your app), that's limited to 49 notes. You can upgrade to the full version from this free version or even jump straight into the full collection.”
This is an App Store review of the paid iGrand for iPhone. Perhaps some people are getting all 8 pianos in the free version and some people are only getting 2. Who knows.
iGrand is my first choice for piano. With a full 32GB iPad I haven't the room for a "better" sampled piano. I only wish IK would update it as an AUv3.
My second choice is the base piano in korg module pro, which can now be used as an AU.
I sure wish they would add AUv3 too. iGrand is also my first choice. I just love its timbre.
I was really glad that Korg added AU to Module Pro. Maybe IKM will follow suit.
+1
I really like the jazz piano in iGrand.
If it were auv3 I would be really happy
or even if they were to switch of global midi input.
Joint second choice are Korg Module and Soundfonts.
Here's the link to some free soundfonts from soundfonts4u.
https://sites.google.com/site/soundfonts4u/
Thanks so much for posting that link! I am completely new to Soundfonts.
No problem.
The Soundfonts dev is very responsive as is the curator of Soundfonts4u.
Both maintain regular updates.
Does anybody know if IKM plans to add AUv3 to iGrand? I sincerely hope that iGrand has not been abandoned by IKM. There are comments on the App Store that iLectric has become abandonware.
@ikmultimedia are the best ones to answer your question.
True, although in my past experience, they don’t always respond to inquiries. But that was several years ago, so maybe they’re more responsive now.
Nah, it seems they're not interested in iGrand anymore
or they're keeping schtumm on what's coming.
They were on here yesterday in regards to MixBus
otherwise I wouldn't have tagged them in the discussion.
I saw the news about MixBus and was disappointed that they didn’t also update some of their older products. I also like iLectric but that one is probably even more abandoned than iGrand.
Let's look at this a different way.
MixBus is a very complex app.
iAmplitube and SampleTank are also getting replaced by newer versions.
iLectric and iGrand are both older apps so it would take time
to port or in both of these cases rewrite the code to fit auv3.
It most probably requires huge development time and many iOS departments
from the larger companies only have small teams of dev's or less to focus
on iOS apps.
What us users find frustrating is the lack of communication
in regards to the future of these apps or simply confirmation
that the apps will not be developed any further.
Personally speaking???
I am biased towards the independent dev's.
The independent dev's respond to questions, have regular updates
and if or when they decide to stop updating an app they explain why.
They are good communicators.
I had a conversation with Eventide in a thread last year and
though they are one of the larger companies on the iOS platform
they explained quite one clearly their position in regards to the
support they have for the iOS platform and the development of their apps.
I respect that.
They also are good communicators.
I messaged the dev from Audio Evolution Mobile Studio.
Equally responsive.
These are the things I respect.
I couldn’t agree more. Independent developers are far more communicative, and they are passionate about their products.
In fact, this is something that I really learned in the past few weeks. On the main AEM discussion page on this forum, I mentioned that it would be cool if Audio Evolution added MIDI time-stretch. Davy responded right away and within about 2-3 days, he had added a working version of MIDI time-stretch to AEM!
You sure won’t get that from some big, faceless software company.