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'm with you there but I enjoyed how this thread developed in spite of. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I even get the 20-80 thing at all; Does 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration fits into that calculation?
I honestly live by the Pareto principle and I've been on a huge kick with this lately.
I've pretty much relegated myself to using Gadget for production and have taken it a step further by only using Darwim/iM1 for every track. This has really opened me up to focus on my real weakness which is arrangement and get back into mixing. I was so focused on sound design with all the apps/gadgets I have that I was spending more time tweaking presets, learning about interfaces, studying synthesis types, finding "optimal" workflows I stopped making music.
I'm really enjoying the stuff I've been making since I decided to work within these confines. I also let myself use another gadget/instrument or two if needed, but I try to keep it really focused.
There are NO rules when it comes to making music..
I’ve also enjoyed this thread. Your idea about a container to put your imagination into really resonates with me. As a person who frequently lacks focus, that’s what boundaries and limits do for me.
Reading how other people approach their music and the creative process is enlightening. I guess it’s different for all of us. As a hobbyist I’m sure my approach is different from someone who is creative for a living. I like being able to create when and how I want. Having a weekly prompt gives me something new to work with and having a deadline helps me focus, but for some that might feel like a job. Sometimes the weekly prompt doesn’t appeal to me so I spend a week exploring the apps I have and occasionally stumble onto something musical.
As far as apps go, I’m sure my wallet would appreciate it if I would learn to just work with the 20% of apps I use the most.
I am with you completely. Didn't mean to inject venom into this thread. I just much prefer to hear from music makers like we have here.
As for percentages for success, I'll go with Ted Lasso's demand when he was coaching Tottenham: All he was asking for was 60 percent effort FOUR THOUSAND PERCENT OF THE TIME.
This thread keeps getting better and better! Maybe we can start doing prompts here... What do you all think?
Good enough is good enough.
Perfection is a waste of time...
...unless you’re an app developer on this forum.
I'll work for 20 minutes and then take an 80 minute break.
I've tried the reverse game plan and the results are the same.
Yeah this thread has turned out really interesting.
It's a complicated thing and will vary person to person. Some people are very creative but completely scattered and may benefit from more focus. Others are more rigid and probably benefit from a freer approach.
Any concept, no matter what should always be taken as a tool to be applied selectively when and where appropriate. At other times it needs to be set aside.
If your goal is fun, not creativity then the pareto principle would just be, what things have given me the most fun, OK, let me do more of those things.
It all depends what your priorities are. Language learning is a good example. In the time it takes you to really master one foreign language, you could have become very good (but not perfect) at 5 foreign languages. Same would apply to instruments or using deep apps.
But even then, if you are just focusing on one thing, let's say becoming the next Glenn Gould, you will need to make decisions about how best to spend your time.
When it comes to creative pursuits, 'wasting' time and 'messing around' can be very 'productive'. Or they can just be a waste of time 😂. It's messy...
I’ve found in the past that it’s a fun challenge to use only one app with the goal of making a song. You spend less time questioning what apps to use and only focus on making something that somehow works musically.
Taking that a step further you can work with a synth with a randomizer (like Kauldron for example) and set up an AU instance into your DAW of choice for recording. Once you’ve hit the randomize button you have to use what you’ve got and so on with the following tracks. You’re left having to creatively problem solve with sounds you probably wouldn’t normally choose and usually ends with some interesting results.
You could try other unconventional apps like Patterning where you have to use it for everything including the melody.
Just some ideas that I’ve found creatively stimulating.
Oh and if you guys are wanting prompts you could easily create a randomized prompt creator with the built in Shortcuts app and fill it with a myriad of words, or even a list of apps. For example, you could have it spit out 4 random apps you have when you click the button, and a different button with genres of music, or themes.
Now that is an inspirational video 👍
Also along the lines of being more productive, I’d definitely recommend reading the book Atom Habits by James Clear! It’s definitely helping me and might be useful to others out there who have a lot of unproductive habits or who procrastinate a lot.
He also has a great newsletter that he emails out twice a week.
https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1/refer?rh_ref=
PS, that’s a referral link but you can also sign up through his website if you’re interested. All I get is a free PDF if you use it.
Wow that sounded like some lame marketing spam, but it’s really some great stuff (at least for me)
Yeah, I am a prime candidate for James Clear's approach as I am a SERIOUS chronic procrastinator. Of course what happened in the end was that I read a chunk of his book and liked it but never worked through it systematically.
I have a vague feeling that might have posted this in this forum before, not sure, but this was something I read by James Clear, very short, that really resonated for me and is very valid to this thread, well worth a few minutes of your time:
https://jamesclear.com/diderot-effect
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett
I would try to focus 80% on the music and 20% on the instruments, apps and tools.
WWSBD?
Always worth asking.
Absolutely.
Words to live by.
Or try to.
I generally am suspicious about things like this, but the Pomodoro Technique is the one thing that helps me get work done. You basically set a timer and do ONE THING for 25 minutes. No cheating. Then you get a break. Then you set the timer for another 25 minutes and do it again. It's pretty good.
Loving this thread. My own recent production mega-boost is this: every night after putting my son to bed I sit in the same living room chair in total darkness and use Koala, Audioshare and headphones. That’s it.
I prepare themed sample packs on my computer for these sessions. After decades of endless desktop / hardware investment limiting myself to purely Koala to arrange / compile / experiment is producing the most Finished music (I.e. Rendered - and that’s a finish line).
I grew up with MPCs and sp303 / 404 in addition to serious software obsessiveness so Koala genuinely feels like revisiting familiar terrain while also being faster and more simplified which for me is key: you must love the workflow itself and ideally that workflow is increasingly invisible over time. When making music on desktop I spend 95% of time to get 5% finished output (at best) and with the mentioned curated-samples x Koala sessions spend 5% of time preparing to get 95% finished output. Within iOS I’m currently using 2% of my total apps to make 100% of my music. Percentages!
Would pay to witness this process from start to finish, starting with the curation/preparation of sample packs!
I remember reading somewhere that Danny Elfman used to compose like that - basically blast out loads of ideas, then start taking bits of it away.
Thinking of Danny Elfman's music, now you've said it, it really sounds that way at times. Lots of intertwined figures going on, ideas coming in a out a lot.
This is right up my alley. Thanks for the idea.