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 Store

Loopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.

Best DAW and MIDI controller combination

So what do you think is the best DAW and midi controller combination? A big factor for me is how much I can keep my fingers on the controller rather than any kind of computer interface. Muscle memory is a real thing.

So I want something that gives me great control over the transport and makes it easy to mix in the sounds and punch in the virtual instruments, and not menu dive very far.

So far for me, that would be the MPC, but I want to hear your thoughts.

Thx

PS Sorry, just realize this isn’t the spot for this discussion. But I don’t know how to move it out of this category.

Comments

  • Haven't even checked this Softube out.

    Just bumping to say that after decades of musical GAS-wandering, I've come to realize that effortless instinctive connections between my inspiration and finger muscles mean a great deal.

    And I think it drastically overlooked.

  • It’s hard to find a controller that is suited to your individual needs.

    Transport I use my phone for that. I use a Korg PadKontrol for everything else and while it’s not perfect, I have never made a mistake with it’s pads due to things like double-triggering.

  • @BroCoast said:
    It’s hard to find a controller that is suited to your individual needs.

    Transport I use my phone for that. I use a Korg PadKontrol for everything else and while it’s not perfect, I have never made a mistake with it’s pads due to things like double-triggering.

    +1
    Each of my controllers is suited to a specific task but one of the most used is probably my Korg NanoKontrol.
    I'll quickly map to whatever I'm working on at the moment, if it's on desktop. Haven't felt the need on the iPad though.

  • @joegrant413 - a critical thing to keep in mind:

    Most controllers will not have any feedback response. That means that there's no memory between sessions of the relation between controller position and what it's controlling. Load a new session or song and the knobs and faders will not be in the correct position to control anything. Some apps have "pickup mode" where they will wait until a knob or fader passes through the app control's current value. If not, then they will jump to the knob or fader value.

    If that correspondence is important to you then you will need to focus on a DAW and controller that has full integration. That's hard to come by. Otherwise it's important just to keep that limitation in mind.

  • @wim said:
    @joegrant413 - a critical thing to keep in mind:

    Most controllers will not have any feedback response. That means that there's no memory between sessions of the relation between controller position and what it's controlling. Load a new session or song and the knobs and faders will not be in the correct position to control anything.

    I use a MIDI Fighter Twister with Ableton for this reason. Its LED rings update automatically. For transport control I just hit the spacebar.

  • I have the Arturia minilab 3 and with the last update they have transport mode so I can now midi learn with some Daws ( not all of them ). works great with Koala! Sliders for the mixer, transport controls and knobs all map perfectly. Gadget too but Zenbeats always breaks (works sometimes then doesn’t) hope that helps

  • edited October 2023

    @sbcfx said:
    I have the Arturia minilab 3 and with the last update they have transport mode so I can now midi learn with some Daws ( not all of them ). works great with Koala! Sliders for the mixer, transport controls and knobs all map perfectly. Gadget too but Zenbeats always breaks (works sometimes then doesn’t) hope that helps

    I had the same problem with Roland Zenbeats and my Novation controllers. Turned out that the controller itself was sending data such as MIDI clock, and turning that off fixed the issue. Don’t know if it is the same with Arturia, but worth a try!

    /DMfan🇸🇪

  • edited October 2023

    @sbcfx said:
    I have the Arturia minilab 3 ...

    Would love to hear more from anyone about the Arturia MiniLab / Keylab / Analog Lab / V collection ecosystem. Lately I've been listening to some YouTubes that make the Arturia Lab-world sound enticing, and I've also downloaded Analog Lab demo.

    It has my interest since it sounds like a tightly integrated hardware/software solution that plays well with a number of major DAW mappings built right in. The Analog Lab sounds were impressive. And, yes, it'd be cool if it handles iOS well, too.

    Thx

  • @joegrant413 said:

    @sbcfx said:
    I have the Arturia minilab 3 ...

    Would love to hear more from anyone about the Arturia MiniLab / Keylab / Analog Lab / V collection ecosystem. Lately I've been listening to some YouTubes that make the Arturia Lab-world sound enticing, and I've also downloaded Analog Lab demo.

    It has my interest since it sounds like a tightly integrated hardware/software solution that plays well with a number of major DAW mappings built right in. The Analog Lab sounds were impressive. And, yes, it'd be cool if it handles iOS well, too.

    Thx

    I've got a Minilab 3 and a Keystep 37. In my humble opinion, Arturia make superb keys. That's the main thing for me. Playability. You can have a controller/keyboard that hooks up to a DAW really well, but if playing it doesn't have the right feel then it doesn't work. Not for me anyway.

  • Check some products from Nektar , such as Panorama P&T series or Aruba

  • So does nectar have its own software or protocol to interface with other software?

  • Definitely Ableton/Push, MPC/MPC DAW, Maschine HW/SW or Roland Zenbeats/Verselab MV-1. I like and use them all depending on project or inspiration.

  • Thx. Didn’t know about Roland Zenbeats / Verselab.

  • edited October 2023

    @joegrant413 said:
    Haven't even checked this Softube out.

    Just bumping to say that after decades of musical GAS-wandering, I've come to realize that effortless instinctive connections between my inspiration and finger muscles mean a great deal.

    And I think it drastically overlooked.

    The newish SSL series might be better than the Softube for knob-per-function

    For sequencing, I love the OXI One

  • edited October 2023

    @joegrant413 said:
    So does nectar have its own software or protocol to interface with other software?

    it uses software to host plugins and integrate them to the hardware controller
    better check their channel
    https://www.youtube.com/@NektarTechnology/videos

    @joegrant413 said:
    Thx. Didn’t know about Roland Zenbeats / Verselab.

    Zenbeats opens as a limited Verselab controller ( without audio "vocal" track support , track level metering etc )
    meaning Verselab doesn't control Zenbeats DAW and there is no bidirectional mode

  • If I were to chose between my existing controllers, for me it would be Novation Launchpad pro and Launchpad control XL. You can use Launchpad pro as a keyboard. If that’s not good enough for you add a Akai MPK mini or arturia keystep to the mix.

  • I'm my googling and youtubing, gotta' say the FL Keys / FL Studio combo sounds top tier. But I don't use FL Studio....

  • Tempted over Xmas break to buy / try a Arturia KeyLab and FL Key controller. See if they compel me to leave my MPC Key 61, which I've enjoyed as the best integrated workflow and use of my muscle memory, while getting the heck off the laptop that I use all day for my job.

  • Logic + Arturia Mini Lab 3 = perfect

Sign In or Register to comment.