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
I didn't realize that there wasn't a dedicated lightning cable available yet for these devices. Thanks for clarifying that.
Actually, you DID write what trackwerker quoted, Derek.
@MusicInclusive said:
No big deal, and I see you qualified the statement later, just didn't want it to seem like trackwerker took something out of context....
Oh oh oh ! - @Zymos and @trackwerker - my bad - I said it here in the forum above. (I knew I didn't say it that way in the review!!! :-) )
My apologies. I took it for granted that I was saying that in the context of the review which I thought was already clearer to that point and I genuinely forgot I'd said that above - I scoured the review instead for it :-).
I'm sorry - no offense intended in any way and no intention to make an affirmation in every case. Sure - I already appreciated that some had had particular issues with the 30-pin to lightning. Qualified the review to point that out.
But the fact is it does work fine - when it works fine. To be clearer, the contrast is with, say, video out from lightning which does not work with the adapter, but bidirectional audio does - in general - and (for most people) in this case in particular - or at least with the 2+ for those who have them already and use it that way. That's what I had in the back of my mind.
:-)
My thinking in the review was to say - as I did originally -
'should work'
vs.
'will work'
which are two different things of course.
Anyhow - thank you for calling me on that @Zymos and pointing it out again - and @trackwerker - I appreciate your pointing out the original too - and I did act on what I thought you meant ;-)
You are a public figure- every word is scrutinized and analyzed!!
Thanks for coming clean about your role in Adaptergate....
Adaptergate - funny :-D @Zymos
@musicinclusive no worries, in some ways i hope that they sell loads of icm4s and loads more people hit the same issue that i've got, it may create the pressure on them to provide a working cable as standard - they've had over a year to resolve this and to blame apple adaptors is pretty poor imho.
@trackwerker
i second what your saying. I did own an ICM2+ and it just did not work with my Ipad 4 and lightning connector. error msg - Device not supported. Support tells me they are working to fix the problem however now they are shipping the ICM4+ with a presume the same 30 pin cable.
Part two of the review: Video review / demonstration now up here:
http://www.musicinclusive.com/blog/iconnectmidi4_preliminary_review_part_2_video_overview_and_use/
Trying to take into account the various observations in the forum here, I made a comment on the YT page that indicated that some folks have experienced issues with the 30 pin to lightning connector and to contact iConnectivity for further information, but also indicated that I had not experienced that with either the 2+ or 4+.
This is still not available for order! Maybe pre order, but I can't find one in stock anywhere.
Hi Derek,
Thanks for the video. I still don't think I get the audio part of this device. I get the multi-port midi hub thing. Looks cool and I can probably dump my midisport 8x8.
What I don't get is the audio. I saw in your video that it works but I didn't get how and in which directions!
Say, I have 2 ipads and I'm controlling a synth on each... audio from both show up.... where exactly? What if I have 2 synths on each ipad (4 total)... all mixed together and they show up... where exactly? Is it one combined stereo bus running around everywhere waiting for something to ask for it? Different bus for each device?
I'm sure this has all been gone over but I've missed it. If they had a manual up, I wouldn't bug you!
Is it possible to plug a USB audio into this chain somewhere? I get that it couldn't be used on more than one iOS device but perhaps between the ICM4+ and an ipad with an additional USB hub?
Cheers.
+2 on syrupcore's questions...
I am preparing an answer but I am going to move to my other studio setup before I reply :-)
Derek can answer better than I, but to your apps it looks like any other audio interface- you'll see something like iConnect4+ 1, iConnect4+ 2, etc, depending on how many tracks of audio you have enabled. If you open any app that can take an audio input or send audio out, you will pick from all those inputs.
I'd say to download the configuration app and take a look at how the setup and routing works, but unfortunately it won't actually open unless the device is connected. There is a manual for the 2+ if not the 4+, and it's basically the same- check it out and maybe it will all make more sense....
Hi @Syrupcore , @Zymos
OK. Each iPad at 16/44.1 has 4 audio channels of input and 4 of output. You can use them as 4 mono channels or 2 stereo pairs. That's 2 pairs of stereo in and 2 pairs of stereo out - per iPad. And - you have the same on the PC/Mac connection, i.e. two pairs of stereo in and two pairs of stereo out. As you change the bit depth / sample rate combinations in the iConfig setup up or down you will affect how many audio channels you can combine together. I have used - and been happy with using - the default which is what I just described, but, for example, if you take the bit depth higher to 24 or the sample rate higher to 48 or more, you will reduce the number of simultaneously supported audio channels per iPad and for the PC/Mac connection.
This is a reasonable compromise in my mind, because if you consider that not only is the box streaming this audio bidirectionally in whatever combination you select in the iConfig audio patchbay, it's also handling potentially multiway bidirectional MIDI as well. So, it's pushing a lot of data around at the same time.
Either in the next video demo (or the one after) I hope to show the iConfig app in a bit more detail. In this first one I was just showcasing what can be done.
As far as the output is concerned from the iPads. Let me take Cubasis as an example. If you look at the Cubasis output routing, you'll probably know you can send the audio output of a given track to whichever output channels you have supported by external hardware. For jack output this is normally a single stereo pair. With the iCM4+ connected, and using the default setup I've described above a given track could be sent to one of two possible stereo pairs (nominally 1+2 or 3+4 in Cubasis). You can then route those in the iConfig app, and in your DAW to different stereo input channels.
However, the PC/Mac connection also only has 4 channels (or if you like again, 2 stereo pairs for input and 2 for output) - not 8 - so you can route 2 channels of stereo from an iPad on port 1 (as in my Cubasis example above) or 2 channels of stereo from an iPad on port 2 or a combination of a stereo pair from each, or any other combination up to 4 channels of audio - e.g. mono from iPad 1 (say for a guitar part) + 3 from iPad 2 (say for a bass + stereo synth).
Here's a couple of screen captures of the audio patchbay the way I currently have it configured - which is a stereo output channel from each of the iPads to a stereo pair in to the Mac (USB 3). I also show the drop down for the first of those USB 3 connections too so you can see what you can route:
@syrupcore - short answer, AFAIK, is nowhere with only two iPads and no desktop DAW. Other than that some iOS DAW's allow concurrent use of the headphone output. Auria even allows for different mixes on them. But I got Derek to try that with the icm4+ and it nearly blew his speakers through his head. I managed to make it work with a Behringer UCA202, but that's no help here.
@MusicInclusive
thank you for all the details i am just going through it right now and i am really hoping the ICM4+ will work with my Ipad 4.
My biggest question: it sounds like the icm4+ acts as an audio and midi interface for an iPad connected to it. iOS doesn't allow more than one USB audio interface at a time, so can the icm4+ be configured to NOT be an audio interface, so that we can use our Focusrite 18i20 (for example), in combination with the icm4+ as a very nice MIDI-only router? Is there a configuration or a way of connecting things (using a USB hub, if necessary) that lets us do it? I have to assume there is.
@MusicInclusive thank you for that detailed reply. I really appreciate it. The total number of busses makes perfect sense.
@dwarman, that's what I feared.
And @sonosaurus's question is my next fear. If so, and no reasonable way to get audio into the system, this sounds like a no go for me.
Either way, cool tech.
@syrupcore - no way to get audio into the system directly if you have two iPads attached. True. (The Audio4+ will be a better choice for direct audio in if that's your focus).
But, nothing to stop you passing audio from, say for sake of argument, a mic attached to an audio interface connected to the PC / Mac and routing that via your DAW and the iCM4+ to the iPad.
Or, sending the audio from a VST / AU into the iPad (which you can do with the iCM2+ too).
But I guess you want to do it directly. Directly will require the iConnectAudio4+
However, I still have one experiment to try, where only 1 iPad is connected, and no PC. For that I need a cable I don't have to hand and need to go and purchase to do a test. If it works, I'll report back here and on the blog. It came up on the iPad Musician FB group as well and it spurred this new idea. But, I haven't had time to check it yet. Will do as I am able.
Also - for me, having two iPads connected where I can use different synths on each and/or sequence from a 3rd attached via DIN, and control synth hardware is a big plus. Plus the ability to use it PC/Mac-free in say a live rig sequencing other DIN MIDI hardware. Plus the ability to route audio between iPads. All a big win! :-)
Cheers @MusicInclusive. Would love to hear how the single ipad experiment works.
And I totally agree, the box seems to have an awful lot of win built in. I don't actually use a laptop very much for music these days, and almost more importantly, I don't want to have to in order to get audio into my iOS world.
If I can disable the audio parts and still use an actual usb audio device, then I can evaluate purchasing it on all the win included. If I have to unplug the thing (and thereby all of my hardware midi connections) any time I want to record a guitar, it's basically a no go. Not slagging it in anyway - that's not going to matter to a lot of people who will likely love this device.
I think many of us will probably be better off waiting for the audio4+. I do expect them to have a direct lightning cable ready then, otherwise I will not buy it. They should have got this sorted by now, it's been around long enough.
I just realized that the audio4+ doesn't allow two computing devices and the USB host port to be used simultaneously. There is a switch on the back to select one or the other. Bummer.
@MusicInclusive said:
Does it support charging both iOS devices simultaneously? The midi4+ has 3 computing device ports and a USB host port. I wonder why they limited the audio4+ to either USB host OR dual computing device and not both? If the midi+4 accepted an external audio interface over that USB host port it would totally be the way to go.
@Ringleader Yes - it will support charging two iDevices simultaneously (or, I should say keeping them charged).
However, I did find that the iPad 3 I used on port 2 might discharge if I already started using it when it was about 1/2 full of gas.
If I plugged the iPads into the ports when they were nearly fully charged they stayed fully charged just fine - soak tested it overnight running a MIDI sequence on both iPads with the display on on both constantly.
I guess the trickle current has a threshold though under which it can't keep things topped up if the device is also being taxed. I don't find that an unreasonable use case or compromise for the price point / functionality however.
Thanks, this is what I suspected. Running at 12v I suppose there was a possibility of it supplying enough juice to reliably charge two newer iPads (which each require 5v @ 2.1A minimum) but it doesn't appear that they allocated enough juice to the charging ports for this. Trickle charge is better than nothing I suppose.
This sounds great!
But hope its not so long waiting till its realy shipped...
The site is wide open empty too...?....
Not sure what you mean @obiwahnkentobi - "the site" ?
Just got a call from Sweetwater and they are coming this week Friday I'm guessing. I'll hopefully have one in my hands next week.
The Internet "site"
http://www.iconnectivity.com/iConnectAudio4plus
@bootsy this sounds good, you mean the midi+?.
I will wait for the audio4+...
@musicinclusive can you tell us about the timeline / cost?
Hope this year ;-)
I can only speculate that the Audio4+ will be out in the summer sometime @obiwahnkentobi. But it's good to hear the Sweetwater news @Bootsy! :-)