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 guess it's my timing that sucks...
I would end up with audio offset by a few miliseconds that would take too much work to get right
it's more user error than workflow/technology
Yep those are 2 more of the big ones. I don’t use Samplr as often, though I still love it to death. Borderlands however, is almost worth the price of an iPad alone for me. Use it constantly.
Do you mean when trying to press play and record at the same time, going back to Cubase?
What I would theoretically be doing would be using BM's audio-recorder in threshold mode to sample from Cubase, so no timing issues there. I guess to avoid any timing/sync'ing issues in the other direction, I might have to export the file. But maybe the new Ableton Link feature would make that easier?
Yeah! I've heard the idea of people justifying the price of an iPad for Samplr, alone. But adding Borderlands is a great 'one-two punch'
Obviously we all have different preferences and workflows but I will say I’ve never been happier with iOS than when I stopped trying to sync loads of apps together.
I get that. But I'm only talking about syncing two programs, for a few minutes, at a time.
It only took being confronted with a couple of Beatmaker projects not loading IAA's on startup for me to rethink my approach to this whole iOS music thing. What I'm not gonna be doing is starting up multiple apps before loading a project just to make sure all assets are ready. Maybe state-saving is better in other apps? But either way, I think I'm going to have to commit parts to audio as quick as possible, which, given the level of procrastination I suffer with music-making, can only be a good thing
I think that we both ultimately want the same thing i.e simplicity, but maybe from different angles. Part of that simplicity, for me, is avoiding dealing with the iOS filing system. If I can do that by occasionally hooking up a couple of apps that seems simpler
@el_bo
I’m not trying to stop you :-)
Just sharing my experiences. I spent years from trying to do clever things with audio apps. The result of whuch was very clever setups and no music 🤣
Not being clever and removing as much friction as Possible worked for me. Auv3: helped a ton too.
But we all need to find our own way. As long as you are making music you’re doing it right.
Thanks!
I know you aren't trying to stop me, and I welcome your experience.
I have no way of knowing if what I want to do will work. But I still don't think that getting Beatmaker's audio-recorder to listen to Cubasis' output falls under "trying to do clever things with audio apps"
And while I'm all for everyone finding their/our own way, it'd be nice to not have to re-invent every wheel.
Anyway, it seems nobody has done what I intended to do. And I've gone from not owning one of the two apps involved in that equation, to owning neither. Need to go back tot he drawing-board, or perhaps back to the days when I used to multi-track dub between two cassette-recorders. Aaahhhh! Good times
I was basically after the same with drums, synth, fx in Audiobus, trying to capture stems in Multitrack DAW via IAA as an Audiobus target.
It was a really short affair... gave up after 3 hours while watching the CPU load grow with each track instance
Later I used AUM to play the arrangement with selected tracks „record armed“ and pressed „go“ at the proper location.
AUM then captured the tracks in a folder (project name), which I opened from AudioShare and did the rough editing.
After a short initial learning phase I found it surprisingly quick and precise, in particular auto-zoom when tap-holding and auto naming of edited versions.
After that I selected all intermediate files and trashed them, which was quick, too.
I have used such files in various IOS-DAWs (most successful in Ferrite, btw), but in my case transfer to desktop was on the schedule anyway. I once mimicked my usual desktop workflow with Ferrite (a podcast app, but the closest I could find).
Resulted in about 5-10x more time and (more significant) concentration amount.
(I could use it on train or plane as a last resort... but with freedom of choice... no way)
But that´s specific to my workflow (lots of edits and no time grid), things will certainly be less demanding if you have snippets of regular beats and bars.
Thanks for the detailed answer. I will respond, soon. It'll just be part of a bigger round-up of my current conclusions, and how I need to re-think, going forward. Will try to collect my thought over the coming days.
Until then, I'm currently DAW-less. Might be a good moment to have some fun with AUM
I just realised I missed an important point of your post.
Are you suggesting that what I'm trying to do would be as easy as using Audiobus? Could I sample into BM from other software and also the reverse? (Processor permitting, of course)
Cheers?
It‘s a memory from a time when there was only Audiobus, no AUM yet. Iirc the iPad-2 days.
Current iDevices provide a magnitude of power and there are more options with Audiobus, AUM and AU hosting.
From plain strategy it should be possible to sample into BM3 via AU path and also the other way round, if a recording app hosts BM3... but I dunno the fine print.
There may be obstacles in timing, buffering, context switching, screen estate, etc.
In my case captured regions were supposed to be fine trimmed (and moved around) on the desktop anyway. Trimming in Audioshare was mostly to keep files short or grab only a specific section. But it worked surprisingly quick and smooth once I got some routine.
If BM3 generally appeals to you, invest some more time and patience to get just some kind of routine. Great workflow accelerators are often not obvious at 1st glance.
I‘d even assume that all (except the most simple) apps that „reveal“ immediately without rtfm, in the end will slow down results because they need way more steps to execute.
When I got a cheap MPC Studio (controller), I knew nothing about MPC workflow.
Used it just as a midi entry device, then got familiar with it‘s kit, sample, program, sequence divisions and navigation.
Next discovery was the „Window“ button, that opened context sensitive detail options...
In other words: I went step by step (with no hurry) and the puzzle almost self completed.
Thanks, again
All I want to do is sample from one DAW to another. The idea would be to use BM3's sample recorder in threshold record mode, listening to audio from Cubasis. And at some point to have CB record the audio back from BM, directly to the timeline. Now, if it's true that latency threw off BM's threshold sampling by a few milliseconds, it's not a biggie. Nor would it necessarily be a biggie, on the way back. Unless I'm missing something correcting for these discrepancies shouldn't be too difficult...or am I wrong?
It seems I'm just going against the grain of a very deep groove. It's not for the need to be different. I just wanted to avoid messing around with moving many different files around, via import and export. If I have to do that, then so be it
Anyway, at this point it doesn't really matter so much as I cant test it anyway. In a very stupid moment of panic, in which I thought I would just always be frustrated with BM I claimed a refund. And despite trying to cancel the refund, after calming down, I had the money back by Saturday. I did toy with the idea of giving myself 5 days before deleting, to see how much i could grasp, but it din't feel right. So i deleted it yesterday.
I just need to get over the trauma
and will then re-buy BM. Even at full-price, it's worth it for my original use-case i.e to design sounds and kits. Nothing else seems to come close in that regard.
…
Totally! Now with Drambo and Animoog Z, the iPad can do some insane things.
Where'd your post go? Was lining up to answer it
Sorry. I re-read what I'd posted and realised I hadn't got across what I was trying to say at all. I was trying to share the basic philosophy, not the apps, methods, etc. I use. They don't matter. But I couldn't say what I wanted to without it sounding wrong — or wanky! ;-)
Anyway I can't remember exactly what I wrote, but I think it was something along the lines of:
I personally wouldn't try and do what you're trying to do with BM3. I think it will always end in frustration.
For what you're trying to achieve I'd use auv3s in CB to replicate what you want to do instead; Loads are available -- Drambo/Loopy Pro/Koala/Combination of samplers/loopers/Drum machines... You can do most if not all of what you want BM3 for in one app, but splitting things into smaller tasks might be better and easier. Small focussed apps is what iOS tends to be best at. Drambo is great but it can be daunting and time consuming to get stuff done until you've learnt it and built up a large library of your own presets to cover all the eventualities. Using, say, a drum sampler for kits and a separate looper/slicer for recording and remixing on the fly might be less friction. And these days I am all about less friction... Other people seem to love spending time on all that jazz, but I don't have the luxury of time.
Cool things can happen if you use things like Gauss. Record into it then bounce it back into CB for instance. Many other auv3s will do something similar. None probably will do it exactly how you want it to work but you'll get close.
And I don't understand why you don't want to just bounce audio and use the file system; Slide over/Split mode and iCloud Drive with the files app works pretty well. Apps that can accept drag and drop work even better. This will get better over time. Using IAA apps will only get worse and eventually stop altogether as IAAs are deprecated.
I personally find using files is the most reliable and repeatable system. And you end up with loads of loops you can use for other projects if they don't work out in the current one. If you have a well organised folder structure it's not that painful to use files any more. It used to be much worse.
All of the above is just what I'd do. But it isn't really what I'm trying to share. I wanted to try and get the general philosophy over, not the methods, apps or anything music related. Just the realisation I had one day that trying to make music the way I used to wasn't working and I needed to dump the baggage and start over. It took me a long time to stop trying to mould iOS into what I thought it should be and just use all the tools available to me to make music quickly and enjoyably. Using my iPhone, iPad, Novation Circuit/Whatever to just jam and play music with no ulterior motives. Just like I used to pick up a guitar and strum. And if anything interesting emerges from the jamming, commit it quickly to audio and move on and not get lost in the weeds doing all the silly nerdy things I used to do. letting go of all of that wasn't easy. It really wasn't. I was way too stubborn to see the wood for the trees.
I'm still not happy that I'm making myself clear. Typing on an iPhone in the smallest room in the house doesn't make it any easier 🤣
Even then.. with three kids 10 and under I never get 5 minutes peace!!
I'm surprised if I manage to be even vaguely comprehensible. My brain is fried... 🤪
Would that be the klown-shed, by any chance
Thanks for supplying more detail. Will try to reply in the next couple of days. My brain is also fried and I have been neglecting some important things.
Speak soon
I personally think you're over estimating the disruption from export and import and underestimating the setup and other hassles of going direct between DAWs. But everyone is different. You'll eventually find your best workflow through trial and error.
Did you know that you can host Cubasis inside BM3 (and vice-versa) with no other apps involved at all? Yep - Cubasis on a BM3 pad or BM3 on a Cubasis track. Sorry if that has already been mentioned, I haven't carefully read the last half-dozen posts or so.
Thanks, again, for the detailed breakdown. I won't address it point-for-point, otherwise it'll become an 'orrible mess of nested quotes. But I will try to hit on the major themes.
I think that ultimately we're both looking at achieving as little friction as possible. What I'm still unconvinced of is that the use of many small apps will achieve that aim more than apps that go for a more all-in-one approach.
Of course, if BM3 is not able to serve my aims then it doesn't matter how efficient I imagine it to be for a potential workflow. It might just be the case that I'm trying to force a very unwieldy square object through a very unyielding round hole
My main focus (apart from generally having fun in apps) at this time is in sampling and sound-designing. I originally thought that all of it would be in service of creating sound-design for my desktop productions. However, somewhere along the way I've once again been seduced by the idea of full excursions into start-to-finish, in-the-box iOS production. And that's probably why I started getting so agitated with BM. Had I just stuck to my guns, and seen it as a powerhouse of a sampler, things might've been different.
In terms of whether I look to replace BM with a few dedicated apps, or re-buy, will depend on how close I can get to the feature-set.
I do have Virsyn's ReSlice, it seems (Bought some years ago), so I do have that aspect of things covered. But that's not really what drew me to BM. The biggest draw for me is the ability to assign different effects at both pad and layer levels.
One example of how I'd want to use this would be to have various layers of a snare, triggered by various velocity points and activating various levels of effects e.g reserving a particularly high-resonance dub-delay for the 115-127 velocity range.
What other samplers are able to do that. Even without the hosting of IAA and Auv3 FX, what other sampler can use internal effects in such a manner?
With regard to some of the other app recommendations you've given: Drambo is one that keeps coming up, and clearly for very good reason. It's the kind of app that I aspire to be able to use, but that I don't think I have the 'right' brain for. Not saying I'd not at some point sit down to learn it, but unless there's a good amount of diverse preset setups and/or a good community/share library, lie with Reaktor, I'd very likely flounder from the first moment. It's a shame, as I can already see how good the included samplers are.
As for Gauss and Koala: I already have Enso anf Kai Aras' tape delay (didn't realise until recently that it was also a looper). But Gauss is still on the wanted list. And I have a non-Samurai copy of Koala
I also have Virsyn ReSlice, Samplr, Borderlands, Spacecraft, Tardigrain and a few other apps with which to manipulate samples.
All fun and very likely a useful part of the end process. But none, even in combination, that are gonna replace a decent sampler.
Regarding the whole file transfer issue? Seems I'm swimming against the tide here. At its simplest, I don't like housekeeping tons of audio files, especially is (as I suspect) al this importing and exporting is gonna end up with me having duplicates in various places. I'm definitely more coming 'round to the idea of using a hub like Audioshare, as it means I get to use audio in every app. However, I just get the feeling things could get messy pretty quickly. And working with audio so much, I'm not sure how far 64gig will go (Music is not the only thing I use the iPad for.
At the moment, I'm thinking of buying either CB or AEM, just so I can get something happening in a familiar environment, and for some place to lay down the spoils of errant AUM experiments. Then in April, add BM back to the mix. If, in the meantime, I find a better sampling solution that may change.
Again, i appreciate yours and everyone else's responses. I know it may seem like I'm just dismissing everything, but it's all been a great help
Thanks!And no need to read too many posts. At least in my case, it's just a lot of rambling
The idea of hosting BM in CB has come up, but not been explored too deeply. I'm glad you brought it back into focus. It seems that at the very least I will be able to play my sampled kits live, recording them into CB. But will hosting Cb inBM allow me to sample directly from CB to any chosen pad?
I spent some more minutes on it yesterday (mainly because CB3 now has link). It was a bit clunky (app switching gets lame) and the beginning of audio recordings seemed chopped off so there was a lot of extraneous record/edit.
I find Koala Samurai in NS2 using Sample Crate as the browser for drag and drop to Koala is one of the more attractive iOS Samplers for me right now.
Sure, that’ll work. Only the main output though. If you want to sample multiple tracks you’ll have to solo them and sample them one at a time.
Really appreciate the update!
Agreed on app-switching being lame. Feels extra clunky for me 'cause I have one of those Otterbox type cases that's built like a tank, and doesn't give the most comfortable access to the Home button
Shame the process ain't 100% functional. I wonder if that's something that can be tightened-up?
Thanks!
This is exactly what I was looking for i.e doing various passes onto separate pads, using Main Out and Solo functions to avoid having to route each track separately. It's IAA, right? And can I assume the process would be the same for AEM within BM?
I would've guessed Colonel Mustard in the library, with the candlestick
I think Koala is a great app. Was having a lot of fun with it, a while back, before my iPhone 7 fell pray to the IAC audio chip problem. haven't been able to use the Mic ever since. Will surely use it, going forward. But it still won't give me the editing power and flexibility that I'm after.
Sample Crate does indeed look useful (Will check Doug's walkthroughs). But NS2 is a bit of a no-go for me. It's a shame as I had the first iteration running on an iPod Touch, many moos ago Made some good little things with that, as far as I remember). Unfortunately, it seems like now is not the right time to be thinking of buying NS2, as a nw buyer
yep.
Keep in mind that there's no State Saving for IAA apps. So, to return to where you were with a BM3 project you will need to remember to save a session in Cubasis or AUM, then go back and restore that session in the app(s).
I'm not sure what advantage there is to sampling a DAW into another DAW that can basically do the same things, but I assume you have your reasons.
Hmmm, yeah...Hadn't realised no state-saving of IAA until too late
The idea of sampling between DAW is to avoid using BM's sub-par timeline workflow for composing, arranging and mixing. Will still probably use it to try ideas with the looping scenes, however.
Cheers
i would recommend to just buy everything. that would at least free your mind from thinking you could make better music with this or that and maybe in the end happily return to bm3's "subpar timeline..."
Haha! I wonder what the non-edited version looked like
But thanks for calling me out. Reading it back, I can see it was definitely not the right way of wording it. What I really wanted to convey was that BM's timeline workflow isn't its forte, and I think that for that type of workflow I'd be better served with a DAW that has a different focus.
When I bought BM I really did want it cover more aspects of my intended workflow that I think it ever will. But I'm certainly not ruling out the possibility that that it could eventually become my one-and-only, in the future.
As for buying everything? No. This thread was started with the intention of avoiding missteps by not buying anything more than I need. I've considered many options that have been suggested, but really have stuck to the idea of using a more traditional DAW such as Cubasis, alongside BM. The only part of that which as changed is that I will now be getting Audio evolution Mobile, and that almost completely driven by the latest update to include multiple time-signatures (Very much part of my normal desktop workflow).
Do you think that BM's timeline workflow i.e outside of the scenes integration is comparable to either AEM or Cubasis? I can think of some things that seem to be missing, but that just might be user-error.
Thanks!