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.
MixBox - Big Players coming to iOS. Happy or scared?.
Hi,
I just discovered IK Multimedia’s MixBox for iOS.
https://apps.apple.com/es/app/mixbox-cs/id1530701566?l=en
My initial thought was “wow”. It looks awesome, reminds of Slate digital rack which I’ve seen in a lot of tutorials but never actually owned.
Some obvious pros:
- 70 effects for 43€ (Intro price), that’s a deal.
- You get the effects you know and love in desktop. The classics: 1176 & LA2A comps, Neve style eqs, etc, etc. Vocal track?. You stick the 1176 > LA2A > eq chain. Tried and true classic. Less headaches and fiddling around.
- Self contained chains and presets you can move around. From AUM to DAW.
- Really good UI
- Quality? Haven’t got it yet but I bet it’s good. Obviously this is crucial and I can’t compare. But I’m assuming it at least competes with other iOS offerings, say 4pockets (more on NuRack later), Bleass, AudioDamage, FAC, DDMF (that’d be an interesting contest as DDMF seem iOS royalty )... I won’t count FabFilter here since they’re also “big”.
🥵🥲😱😱😱😱
The scary/doubts part... Is this the beginning of big players coming to take over?. Is that bad?.
Am I gonna use NuRack after getting MixBox?. What about Tape pro?. My brand new DDMF 6614 is ever gonna be used?. I mean, this thing does it all in a more convenient way.
I’m scared for these great devs having to compete. I can only imagine how much effort is put into NuRack. That’s one guy (Paul) or a tiny team doing a terrific job. How can they compete with IK?. Will they suffer a huge blow?.
If there’s one thing I love about iOS music is the community aspect. This forum is the perfect example. These devs interact with users, they listen, we complain, they take it, they deliver, we ask for more, they deliver again, we complain... it’s small, it’s “cute” and friendly. Will this be over when the big ones jump in?.
😀😌👏👍
On the other hand... Should these “small” devs be devoting their time to do a compressor when there’s 200 compressors in desktop that could be ported?. I’m thinking of SAMPLR, or GeoShred or Borderlands, LK, legendary Loopy, and yes, Drambo... apps that are unique and/or make a specific use of the touchscreen. They propose something different. Or more specific “non-standard” effects, iOS or not, like RatshackReverb (😍). Maybe these devs should be “liberated” to do something new instead of their own version of a legendary compressor. I mean, there’s not a decent audio file player for iOS, DAWs are lacking, virtually no audio editing... Yet there’s 20 new synths and Fx that don’t really add anything, just trying to port to iOS what already exists in desktop. Did I say audio editing sucks?. So maybe this will make devs focus on what’s really missing. IK is probably not interested in investing resources in iOS “exclusive” aspects, the market is not worth it. One thing is porting algorithms, like FabFilter have famously done, but to develop iOS exclusive stuff is a different matter. Again samplr, Bram Bros, Loopy or other really interesting devs are already “scaled” for this market, it might be the model to follow.
I wanted to express my mixed feelings about this. Would love to hear your opinion. Cheers!
Spoiler: I’m probably gonna get MixBox. I’m not a huge believer in “you can make a difference”, my solitary boicot would mean f**k all, and I do miss a 1176 and LA2A.
Comments
Ik multimedia have been on iOS pretty much since day 1
Why would this scare me? Apple itself is one of the biggest players (see: wealthiest companies) on the planet. I personally welcome any/all “big players” from the audio world. Ableton where you at? Protools? Universal Audio? PLEASE come to iOS and raise the bar.
True. But this one really “overlaps”, as in taking up a lot of space. Maybe the title isn’t too accurate.
The point is once I get it, am I/are we gonna keep using the “other” plugins?.
A typical channel for me would include something like: Bleass Comp, eq (6144 eq or Nembrini) and Tape pro or LoFi... MixBox would do all that and more, maybe even better. Certainly in a more convinient way. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have bought half the plugins in Black Friday week, it’s certainly gonna impact sales of all these smaller devs. That’s my point about specialization.
Good point. That’s sort of what I meant in the “👍” argument. iOS needs some serious work in audio editing, daws and so on. If these companies come along and take care of all these great emulations and “standard” Fx, which they already have from desktop, maybe the efforts can be put in what’s really missing. Which is “raising the bar” as you say.
It should make no difference. Programming time is programming time (money) whether it's a team in a big company or an individual developer. They all gotta make back their investment, or do it for some other motivation. For an indie developer, if there's not enough return on investment then they're doing it for personal satisfaction. For a company, it's either got to be for profit, or for some other reason like name-brand exposure, interesting people in buying higher priced desktop versions, etc.
The only advantage for a bigger company is if they have existing apps that take significantly less time to port to iOS than developing something from scratch. That is probably the case much less often than you would think, especially for older projects. Also $ cost per developer is much higher for a company. They can have overhead for so many things like health and retirement benefits, regulatory requirements, corporate taxes, facilities, insurance, etc.
Yup, and not without controversy.
Korg, Roland, Moog, FabFilter etc ios has had big players for years, much bigger than IK.
Live feed here:
Happy or scared? Indifferent really. The CS part makes it seem like it will be a store front like every other thing they do. Seems like a good deal but more than I'm willing to spend after BF. I thought I saw it was auv3 which is promising. The other IK apps I have don't get used anymore because I got sick of the constant barrage of marketing within a purchased app. I can't imagine this won't go the same way as that seems to be their product model.
That's what I dread... an addictive product that taps right into my brain and programs me
to spend money. Right now the Forum serves that "need" for free. Ooh... new app on sale.
Just like 5 I bought earlier this year but new.
I was thinking CS stood for Channel Strip here?
IK Multimedia puts "Custom Shop" on most of it's products to indicate a special
version. The free products tended to be called "Lite" while the ones with a lot of
"Store" add-ons were called the Custom Shop. Since Apple created the In-App Purchase
model the shop tends to be Apple's iTunes and Custom Shop has lost a lot of it's original meaning. Free with IAP's is a model many larger shops have move towards (like Sugar Bytes for example). Free to be exposed to the UI ad a few sounds and then one or more IAP's.
"LK for Ableton Like Clip Launching" is free with limited access to 6 IAP's... all 6 add up to a
$28 app. Currently on sale for 50% off by the way.
The TH-U amp simulation "store" can really tap into your bank account if you go ala carte.
And then there's a steady stream of "Rigs" in their store from 3rd party geniuses that model the best guitar gear.
So, the store with-in the app termed a "Custom Shop" is one of the best ways to incrementally pull revenue from a user base. I think the original Custom Shops were the
Gibson and Fender guitar divisions that made special instruments for the pro's... typically
handmade models with unique combinations of hardware features and pickups or beautifully crafted woodworking.
There is no in-app messaging/advertising on MixBox CS nor Hammond B-3X. Edit - and the Product Manager tells me they don't plan on it either.
I never thought of that because I thought everything else was CS. Plus most channel strips I've seen are devoid of modulation and spatial effects. I tend to think of channel strips as including a variety of channel options from different desks or theoretical channel components. Could well be wrong here.
That's good to know and I appreciate the information. But having been an IK user of many products since Amplitube 1 I'm just saying I won't be surprised when/if the IAPs and pop up advertisements start to appear.
Glad about this. I also hate the constant ads for IAPs. Tell the product manager to keep his/her word!.
Btw I got MixBox, who was I fooling. Really like it. Easy to use, familiar layouts and controls... on first impression I really liked the Chorus (blue one specially), preamp and Saturator-x. Pretty elegant stuff, it doesn’t “drill your brain” or sound harsh. Also quite fond of the EQ Comp channel strip, it’s sort of dark in a good way. Overall it’s gritty sounding, as you’d expect, but very well done. Good to feel at home with the 1176 and the “wrong way around” controls. Good purchase.
To me this is sort of a big moment in iOS apps. This is some solid ground for all emulations and sort of every “standard” effect you need (and not so standard). So these smaller devs can go on to develop new stuff, as in new and different.
I agree with this. It does change things quite dramatically. Enjoyed the video!.
If they keep their word then this looks like a fantastic app. Unfortunately, and I'm not trying to be negative, just factual, but past experience is the only thing making me hesitate to buy it. If this was a new release by Bram Bos or Bleass I would buy it. I can't see me buying this any time soon because I am just not able to accept the app won't change.
Well, if they never update or improve the app from todays build I'd be happy for quite some time.
You mean you can't resize that Ad thing out on the right? If it stays there the whole time that's very unfortunate..what's the point if you've already paid 40 - 60 bucks for the app?
EDIT: it wasn't there when he opened it in NanoStudio in the video above..
That’s from some YouTube video, there aren’t any ads in the app/plugin.
cool. sounds pretty damn good. have a feeling people would pay this price for the LA2A & 1176 alone.
Could someone please do sine sweep tests?
Interested to see if there is aliasing.
+1 for sine sweep tests .
.
perhaps this has been done for the desktop version?
Are there still ads for stuff in the IK apps at all? I thought that stopped a long time ago. I don’t remember pop ups in amplitube when I’ve used it. If there are still pop ups, then I seem to remember there is an option in those apps to disable that.
Also, I haven’t gotten the impression that IK is a particularly large company, they just have a wide reach with their products and advertising. But it’s not as if they are owned by harman or something like that. @ikmultimedia Peter, you can confirm that better than me I guess, but I seem to remember it saying that.
Anyway, mix box looks like a cool product. I don’t need it because I’m usually mixing on the computer now, and I have a lot of other plugins (including some IK stuff), but mixbox would be a great suite of effects if you don’t have any yet. The models of the classic stuff are very good.
Yup
The models of the classic stuff are very good.
Yes - the Pultec is very nice - and not scary - it sounds great
Mainly in free apps when you don't have IAPs, it has come WAY down. We are not tiny, but not huge like Korg or Roland either. And thank you for the kind words about MixBox.
I have been loving the newer IK products, they won me back with Syntronik, modo bass, HammondB3... wait for sales and get for a discount.. no regerts
This is the sale price.
33% off List and going up 50% to List after some fraction of a year.
There is $20 at risk.
At $40 each processor/effect costs about $0.57. But you have to adopt all 70 to avoid
breaking up the family.
I tried to wait on the B-3X and paid $99 at the last minute and they dropped it to $79.
So, they owe me $20.
Still... I want to hear @flo26's guitar demo when he posts. And figure out how to hide another $40 purchase right after the Black Friday craze. "But it's just once a year. I save so much money it can last a while." How short can "a while" be?
So, I'm Happy and Scared.