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.
Manuals
I realize Google is just as easy, but I thought it'd be nice to have all the manuals to the Audiobus apps in one spot. Lord knows I need 'em, plus I'd like to look through the manuals for apps I don't have yet when I'm bored/covetous. So please feel free to post a link next time you're trying to figure out MIDI in the latest synth. I'll start with two I've needed...
KORG iPOLYSIX
http://www.korguser.net/ipolysix/manual/iPolysix_OM_E1.pdf
Comments
For some reason the iPolysix manual posted online is missing the MIDI specification chart. If you open it from within the app itself you can find this additional (and useful) info.
(I thought I was going crazy until I figured this out)
Bm2 and music studio are out of date, so not worth bothering with, esp bm2 which is stuck at version 2.3
The Meteor manual posted online is also way out of date (at least as of today).
This may be in the nature of a rant, and this thread hasn't been updated for a while, but this seemed like a place where a discussion of manuals was begun in the past.
Developers: I started writing software in 1967. I ate dinosaur sandwiches for lunch. The rule in those days was: "The job ain't over till the paperwork's done.". I know you like to be cool and have these very fancy graphic in-app help screens in your apps, and it's SO much fun to create videos describing a process in your apps, but there's simply no substitute for manuals that are DOCUMENTS, pdf's preferably.
For all of the Music Apps that I have I try to make sure I have some kind of document which is separate from the app that I can open on a second ipad (or the laptop).
Doesn't anyone else find it inconvenient at the very least to run up against a question while setting parameters for a synth, hunt for the golden question mark to find the answer, then not be able to get back to the same spot in the app? Nothing destroys a workflow faster than such an interruption.
I have been able to create my own pdf documents from browser sources, from soundonsound reviews, that kind of thing, but there are times when it becomes a challenge. I've also noticed that when creating in-app help, too many developers, who possibly don't have much experience in the way of thorough documentation, cut corners.
I write this today because I recently downloaded Living Memory Software's LayR app. It really has the potential to be one of my goto apps. The first thing I did was try to figure out what the heck the app does. Within a very short time I discovered icons on the displays that were not referenced in the in-app help. Yes, of course I emailed their support. Since their standard do-not-reply email response was, "hey, we're a couple of developers here, it may take us some time to get back with you...", I'm not expecting an answer very soon.
I find it all frustrating...
This is very true for many apps. There are still great developers who really do their paperwork, but I find too often that either a manual is lacking important information to make proper use out of the product, or it doesn't even exist so you have to wait a few weeks until some guy on youtube has figured out how to use it by trial-and-error.
Luckily, some apps are so simple or obvious that they can easily be used without a manual, but that's a rare thing.
Another trend is that web sites tend to focus on somewhat counter-intuitive visual effects more than on providing important information. It's often more about telling how great an app is without giving any clue why it's any better than others. Some don't even have their own web home and only provide a messy mix of facebook posts!
Because iTunes app descriptions often lack in detail it has become more common to contact developers to get more information.
It's not that I mind spending 2.99 for an app, it's much more that I try to avoid collecting stuff that I can't use in the end.
@motmeister I tried to get something going around the time you joined the forum, but there wasn't much interest.
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/14926/app-manuals-database-ii-the-contributing
Waldorf and Ableton are really good at writing manuals. A little bit of humour alongside the technical stuff really helps.
I would imagine it's not easy to put together a comprehensive document that is both informative and entertaining to read. Any other apps out there that have a really good manual?
@motmeister: you'll have a hard time surviving in 2018 with your conservative attitude
(which I totally agree with!). In particular I agree with your comment about videos. I LOVE writing written (?) documentation, while video production for me is about as attractive as running around naked in the Siberian Tundra. Videos are also unsearchable, use huge amounts of bandwidth, screen space and CPU, i.e. extremely low information density.
So yeah, stone age "uncool" PDF manuals all the way!
Hasn’t a manual even for Loopy been “on the todo list” since launch? It seems so many apps I have do have really weak approaches to user manuals. And I agree the onboard manuals are not useful many times.
Quantiloop has an excellent manual in PDF, the way it should be. http://quantiloop.com/support/quantiloop2.pdf
Not pdf! Stop! They are dangerous. My job is to write documentation and the last thing I want is people taking a pdf and keeping it around, while meanwhile I’ve updated the docs or manuals several times as the product changes. Worst would be to let people print it out on paper and store it in a drawer, to pull it out years later.
Seriously, this is not only 2018 but also the age of everyone having at least one phone or tablet online alongside using the product. I do all my documentation in Asciidoctor, and I highly recommend it.
i prefer to fiddle and refer to the manual as a last resort but sometimes it has to be done. manuals have changed so much over the years. i recently picked up a used (obviously) Roland MC50.
it came with 2 "manuals" A 94 page "user guide" and 204 page "reference" guide.
These Manuals really are Roland MC50 for Dummies the level of detail is unbelievable. Having said that, the index layout can be hardwork but compared with the reference "sheet" supplied with current Roland products .. give me the old school anytime.
It is good that Korg have kept manuals / patch charts for old synths like the Oddy.
Thanks for your post.
I find it frustrating too, because as apps get more and more sophisticated it is a necessity to have a good manual handy and with a printable PDF, so I can look at it when needed.
I usually read the manual first, to see if I will even bother with the app.
I don’t bother with apps that don’t have IAA logo for instant app switching and midi sync, especially if they have a sequencer.
Hehe. Well, we maintain both an online and a downloadable PDF version. Having the manual online as HTML is probably the best overall approach, I agree.
At least Google Chrome supports PDF printing of webpages out of the box too, but it's quite straightforward to install a PDF printer driver in Windows, then it works for all programs...
Yeah. But if I remind myself of all the software hulahoop I had to do in order to make the entire macOS even remotely efficient to work with (compared to Windows 7), I think I spend 3 weeks until it was even remotely bearable
but hey, people are different and to each their own I guess...
(I applaud Apple for both their extremely good hardware and visual design, and in large parts for the UI/UX of iOS. However, macOS for me is pretty much a "Reference manual to bad UI/UX design"-turned-operating-system.
)
@SevenSystems Wondering if you could expand on what you did to increase efficiency on the Mac? Or was this effort more directed to developing the iOS app?
Promise us all in the doc. eng. (Document Engineering) profession that as soon as they’ve made an update to their documentation you’ll set fire to your current pdf and get/make a fresh one. Otherwise how can the truth be represented?
@Max23 @Sch: Here's a short, heavily redacted version of the rant I originally wrote during that period, translated to English
Many of those points may not be current anymore (I had my "Mac experience" in 2015 and 2016), however, they were very annoying back then. I must admit I'm an extremely spoiled user and usability Nazi, but as I said, everyone what suits them best!
@Max23 yes, I understand how Apple has designed this, however, I still think that it leads to worse usability. But let's not detail the thread any further
As I said I have respect for Apple for iOS and their hardware, macOS is not one of their strengths IMO.
@Max23 Alright, already.
Amen. Yes manuals but yes yes @ HTML or text. Write them in Asciidoctor or plain old Markdown, render as HTML. If there was a PDF reader app that could also check for updates, I'd be more likely to enjoy the PDFication of the world but still not likely, just more likely.
Responsive CSS applied to an HTML manual hosted externally from the app so that one can bring up the manual via slide-over in safari is my best scenario when it comes to music app manuals.
I do also enjoy a good in-app overlay and context-aware help.