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.
1010Music's Lemondrop granular synth... any advantages over iOS granular apps?
Anyone here have the Lemondrop? It sounds great in the demos and gives me GAS, but I can't help wondering if it offers any advantages/alternatives over iOS granular apps. Can all of its functions be duplicated in existing iOS apps?
I love that it is dedicated hardware and would make a handy piece of kit for a small live rig. And true, iPad is small too, but this would be an extra source that wouldn't tax my iPad's cpu.
I have Quanta, FRMS, Borderlands, iDensity, and probably some others but to be honest I haven't dove deep into any of them.... and yet I have the GAS.
People seem to really like it!
Thanks for any insight and opinions!
Comments
I don’t have a Lemon Drop yet, but I’ve been watching videos about it a lot. I feel like iPulsaret is comparable with it’s live manipulation/morphing tools and onboard FX.
@Stuntman_mike Hmmmm I have iPulsaret... will give it a shot. Still....... You seem tempted?
Man the Lemon Drop has been in my cart since it dropped 😂
I really, really want one. I love the form factor, color and standalone workflow. I really love granular synthesis 🤩
In addition: Can turn any incoming audio into a polyphonic synth
Might be obvious, but still cool
I like the sound of that feature. I confess I never quite took to my Behringer Neutron, but hope that a lemondrop might transform it into poly-goodness.... although sale of neutron could defray cost of lemondrop...... hmmmmmm.....
Good point: I feel like the value of the Lemon Drop goes beyond its price. You can basically send any sound source through it and go crazy! Lemon Drop has the ability to make old new and make the underutilized utilized.
I really love the sounds coming out of the Lemon Drop. I too would love to purchase one. But it's not an option right now. Any suggestions on ways to simulate it on iOS (not just iPad, but iPhone too). I don't have iPulsaret, mentioned further up this thread, and wonder which granular effects / synths might help me in this direction?
Bleass Granulizer
I think you'd be hard pressed to find hardware functionality that you can't get with ios granular. We're spoiled for options here. Hardware is all about it being a physical instrument when we're talking granular... There's no analog magic or anything. Same algorithms in soft and hardware.
If you want to 'play' polyphonically, ipulsaret, spacecraft, frms, fluss, and samplewiz all fit the bill. Spacecraft and ipulsaret can take a live stream that you can play polyphonically. The others, to my knowledge, need a sample loaded. Spacecraft has an incredible sequencer component that can be very musical. You can have them all for less than the lemondrop. But again... It's not just about synthesis. It's about what you want as a musician. My ios synths can blow my microfreak away with synthesis power but having an actual instrument with knobs and keys all designed to work together goes a long way.
Good luck with your GAS... I'm trying my best here too! I should be craving music, not gear, but hey... 😂
Thanks, that's all really helpful. I already have a bunch of granular apps, and was wondering which might give me something more akin to the LemonDrop. I'm particularly trying to find tools I can run on my iPhone as well as my iPhone.
I agree about it being about the music, not the gear, but yes, also about that sense of having an actual instruments, complete with its constraints. I'm looking into putting the minimum number of apps into a new workflow on my iPad and iPhone, for that very reason. In the past, I bought so many apps. That's actually my least concern now. My favourite synth right now is still Mitosynth, for example. But putting together a simple toolkit that takes me in the direction my ears are leading me, is the key. To be honest, if money wasn't an issue, I would probably go minimalist dawless, and be free of screens. But at the same time, mobility is key, alongside simplicity of interface. Less is definitely more.
I think Bleass Granulizer, because its super easy and intuitive UI/UX
What I don´t like about Lemondrop, is that seems like you cannot import your own samples into it, maybe I´m wrong.
You can and record into it since the firmware update 😎
+1
Wow! Noice!
I'd say just wait for Klevgrand Tomofon. Seriously.
That seems like overkill for this purpose?
I'm very fond of my Klevgrand apps, but favour simplicity.
I’m excited for this too!
The Lemon Drop was in and out my cart so many times before I just dropped it because I felt like my iPad and iPhone were a better option that I already paid for. I couldn’t truly justify the additional $400 for a tiny box, when my iPad could do the same and more. I still find Lemon Drop intriguing because after watching countless reviews it seems that this device has special sauce, but perhaps if the price was $149 I would bite. Lemon Drop is so very tiny though, almost to a fault in my eyes - pun unintended 😂
That´s what makes it more tempting I think.. the extreme portability, and the fact that can also be used as a sampler.
For sure, price is a factor. But the sounds are just perfect. Whether I can create that in my iPhone (small form factor) or iPad, is a challenge I'll have to rise to.
Would you describe the Lemondrop as a simple device? Not sure about that.
No.
Bought the lemondrop was fun to run through my desktop guitar pedal chain along with the iPad but ended up selling it as the UI experience with two knobs was nowhere near as inviting as the iPad granular apps. I can see this being great if you are on tour or like to have multiple streams of audio when creating content but I found the iPad much easier and more powerful than the lemondrop. Also having to have a battery pack hooked into it kind of defeats its form factor.
Thanks, that's helpful to know.
Yup
After watching some Lemondrop videos, I am pretty sure the special sauce is the included audio files used in the presets.
The source material has a huge effect on the sound of a granular synth, just like a sampler or romper or even a wave table synth.
If that is the special sauce, iOS and any combination of apps isn’t going to sound like this synth.
That sounds likely where the magic happens.
The combination of the very good, 1010music internal effects and granular processing make it pretty hard for it not to sound cool 😎
Definitely not hard to replicate via iOS because everything is all digital.
This +1000.
Same goes for all app demoes btw, as Red Means Recording pointed out in his anti-gas video. Any fx app or processor can sound fantastic when the right sounds are pumped through it with taste and skill. Add in a nice, grainy wooden table behind the hardware unit and a few well placed arty bits and bobs, and make sure the unit has impeccable design, and people will melt over it. Save your money folks
This source material conversation is starting to feel like the threads I've seen on sample selection and crate digging being the fundamental part of sound design.
Ironically , I've also hears people really bemoan using factory content for things like samplers and granular synths, who want to entirely use their own samples.