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.
#021 JS Bach GeoCello Suite No. 1 (Prelude)
This was the first piece of music I thought of when GeoCello was released in October last year and I have been learning to play it on and off since then. Not helped by me not reading music 🎶
Thank goodness for YouTube!
Any mistakes are just to prove it is a human playing it rather than an app 😊
Comments
This is my favorite piece by Bach.
Sounds great!
I used to play that on guitar, and always felt disappointed that it didn't sound as good as cello. Kudos to you for learning it by ear. If I had a better memory I could spend the rest of my life playing nothing but Bach and be perfectly happy. I've learned so many Bach pieces but I always forget them eventually.
Good try.....well done.....vibrato and phrasing would make it even better....
Just a thought as a string player.....
Thanks @horsetrainer , @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr and @IOSSOS . Makes you wonder what Bach would have done with an IPad? @IOSSOS , of course you are correct. Tried my best with the phrasing... I applied a blanket vibrato but agree that some variation would have been better.
Tony, what sequencer do you use? In Cubasis you can record over the track and add the expression. Not sure with other software. Nice playing, but sounds a bit lifeless. I’m disappointed with how the SWAM strings sound compared to the brass. Maybe it will be better in the upcoming standalone.
Beautiful rendering of an amazing composition. Now I see why Yo-Yo Ma really milks the
lowest note of every chord to make it ring through and support the harmony of the notes
above that bass note. But I do prefer the mezmerizing effect of the accurate rhythm and tend to prefer cello performances that respect even use of time. This had true for all my Bach... I'd rather hear the notes like a clockwork than the fast-slow interpretations of some
performers. It's good to have both and favor the one you prefer.
With computers we can cheat and not send the "note off" for the lowest notes and create a performance that an actual cellist could NOT provide since some of the notes are not on adjacent strings which would be needed to keep the lowest note sounding.
I suspect making that lowest note ring though on GeoShred would also make the performance a lot harder leaving one finger down longer and managing to keep the other
8 upper notes happening on time.
You must have put a lot of time in mastering this gem.
Hold the bass notes for arppegiated patterns is pretty common in Bach keyboard music like Prelude #1 in C.
Just lovely ... especially the passage centring on the high A and and the parts beyond ... you really got the rocking rolling feeling of a bow working in there ... makes me puffed just listening.
But this 6 string lurk ... hmmm? 4 strings and that high A passage has you reaching down near the bridge all while you're bowing like a weed whacker.
Really well done - great ears ... a suitable homage to the master .... now for the rest!> @GeoTony
I have a lot of recordings of the cello suites played on guitar and really like them. And they work on many instruments. I used to play some of them transcribed for alto recorder and they even worked well on that. I could imagine some purely synth voices now that I think about it. hmmm. Yes kudos for learning it by ear but learning to read the music could be easier.
Thanks all for listening and your comments.
@LinearLineman , I record audio straight into AUM. I think you can only do what you suggest if using Midi but happy to be proved wrong ? I found it tricky to add expression at the same time as just getting the right notes. For some playing I prefer the Cello in ThumbJam as I think the bowing sounds are more realistic.
@McD , I listened to loads of versions and you are right, there are loads of interpretations. Some of them I found almost unlistenable. Also a lot of variation in speed, I used this
as my main source and overall I prefer slower versions. Holding the Bass note is tricky as GeoCello is monophonic but I’ve just realised I could have probably got round that by driving a second instance on the lower strings.
@Soundscaper , the high A part was the last bit I learned as when I listened to it it initially it made no sense but I got there eventually. The fingering and the 6 string, 16 fret layout just evolved especially when I realised I had to have the higher G and lowest C on the screen at the same time. Downside was that it made the frets a bit small😊
@Stochastically , you are absolutely right I should have tried to learn to read the music. Made a bit trickier by the cello Bass clef which is something I am not used to. Like a complete plonker I actually transcribed the music to a notation of my own making which of course is madness!
Please don't feel compelled to re-record this since I'm sure you felt great finishing this version. You set the bar very high and don't need to start again.
FYI: I took your Youtube example and played in in AUM using Tube AU and added a lot of reverb. Then I made a screen video and imported the audio into Koala Sampler and sped up the tempo... this example show the tempo
dramatically increased just to see if the audio starts to sound artificial using Koala's STRETCH feature. I only used about 7 bars of the original so it sounds
almost natural:
Ha, no chance of that @McD . You wouldn’t believe how many attempts I made before the one I posted!
There’s something about pressing the record button that makes me go to pieces, can’t believe the pressure I feel, the further you get the more pressure... but hey it’s all good practice and there are far worse things to worry about.
What you published is wonderful @GeoTony ! I too prefer the rhythmical, “correct” version that’s true to the original, and I think that’s what you’ve done here. Amazing glass skills my friend!
I think what @LinearLineman is saying is that if you had recorded this in Cubasis 3 (for example), you could go back and record the just expressions on top of the recording you already have.
I liked it too, @GeoTony and your video is perfect for visual learning. Thanks 🙏
Thanks @Intrepolicious and @despego .
Don’t have anything like CB3 that I know of. Will the forthcoming Atom 2 allow the post recording expressions thing?
I see what you mean about visual learning but the fretboard layout, fingering and octave switching I used really came about by chance so I’m sure you could do something better. Good luck.
Not so crazy; I was thinking more about this and I thought about how Geoshred would probably be difficult to play while trying to read music so my comment wasn’t that helpful. I was mostly thinking about how all of the suites are so great that you’d want to play more of them. Anyway, you made me want to go back and keep trying with Geoshred.
The lack of tactile feedback is the biggest problem with geoshred and similar interfaces. They are very expressive, but you have to keep your eyes glued to the screen so you don't clam. It's difficult to even play harmonies, because some of your fingers will be blocking your view of the notes you need to be able to see in order to play cleanly.
@Stochastically and @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , I agree that GS is hard to play due to lack of tactile feedback but isn’t that the same for say string instruments without frets, trombones or swannee whistles (you can tell I’m struggling to find examples) .There is positional feedback I.e. edges of the IPad so I think that with (a lot) of practice you could probably do it. Don’t think I will bother though😊
@Stochastically , the rest of the suites are great but the prelude only has one chord in the last bar which is one of the reasons I gave it a go. Not sure that the monophonic nature of GeoInstuments lend themselves to the other pieces.
... or the human voice. For a monophonic line I can use my ear. I turn off the snap-to-note in GS anyway, so I have access to all the microtones. Single note lines you just need to stay in the row, but occasionally I slip out of the row when using finger expression and get an unwanted note.
It’s when playing chords that the screentar becomes too unwieldy. Screentar is my appellation for glass controllers such as GS, Velocity KB, etc. It really is a new instrument, unique to ipad.