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.
1.6.3 Update (10/24/23) to the StaffPad 1.6 Update is out!
1.6.3 fixes:
1.6.2 fixes:
1.6
Comments
Anyone considering purchasing Staffpad… you will get more “free libraries” with this updated version. The Musescore 4 sound libraries are included at no cost.
I’m really hoping the MIDI file import has been hardened in this update.
The Video Staff will make composing to video better to align music or sound FX to some visual event.
Hopefully, the piano to notation feature can keep up with someone like @Linearlineman. But it’s quite likely he’ll just stick with Cubasis and wonder… who needs notation. Mostly because Notation, like MIDI requires you to pay attention to a metronome and he doesn’t do that.
What’s cool about the last StaffPad update is that you can adjust the tempo to match audio (and now video) events and the MIDI click will adjust the beat to fit the target event.
Anyway… for maybe 2-3 people here this is a huge deal.
I know very little about notation so it’s way outta my expertise but it seems great and the sounds are great. Makes me wish I knew more. Have you tried the free Komp app? Curious how it compares.
Notation is just in interim step… for me the value of StaffPad is the realistic rendering of articulations. Having a ton of instrument AUv3’s doesn’t really solve the articulation issue because you can’t play 5 notes with staccato and then play a few bars with a pizzicato in most DAW’s without jumping through a bunch of extra steps. It’s a serious hole in the MIDI standard to add an articulation to a request for a sample.
FYI: I added up the storage requirements for the new extra default libraries and it’s an additional 13.2GB. The previous install of the product was in the neighborhood. So, all the free goodies will come in at 26GB I think.
I went all in on the 3rd party libraries and will end up around 60GB after getting these new instrument packs. Still, I got everything available for Pure Synth Platinum and it’s 87GB.
I gave up on storage wars and got a 2TB iPad model to order everything on the menu.
Oh my… all of my 30GB of libraries show available updates for downloads.
Thanks. Not sure it would be any use for me if I can’t write music (notation anyway) but the sounds are great. I probably won’t upgrade my iPad until next month anyway and I’m too low on storage to even try it. It’s not super important for my style of music as is but I’ve always been curious about the app itself.
It’s designed for people that would like to write film music.
I made my first test drive using MIDI for all input. I played each of the 5 string parts first and then played a little cello solo over the chords. I had to fix a few bad notes in the cello part. It doesn’t quantize the input at all and the notation is usually a simplified version of what you played but on play back all the deviations from the metronome pulses and left intact.
NO PENCIL FOR ENTRY… but it was needed for editing notes.
Buying in to Staffpad requires $90 for the software, $100+ for an Apple pencil and enough storage to hold 20-30GB.
Wow, this really is huge, at least to me.
Pencil-only input is a big skill in itself, and one I have never gotten to grips with.
Will be updating and downloading libraries tomorrow.
@McD the 2tb ipad is definitely the way to go for these applications, good move!
OMFG ! Hell yeah ! This is a big day !
Can't wait to try the new libraries ! Are they any good compared to Orchestral Tools and Spitfire ?
Both key input and video are just ...wow ! This apps was already big, it is now a monster in its own league.
They have their own character. It appears that most of the existing libraries got updates. Hopefully a lot of
troublesome samples got fixed.
They are not asking for any additional spending. Hopefully, they do get more customers if the reviews are positive.
They really cleaned up the MIDI import. It’s a lot more robust. That was something I was agonizing over as a way to
avoid using the pencil for tricky rhythms.
I’m going to do some of my MIDI tricks like slowing the tempo for recording keyboard input and speeding the tempo up for playback and see if I can write some tricky rhythms without any pencil work.
I’m potentially one of those 2-3. For me I’ve always wanted to use staffpad more for a couple of reasons - to be able to use Berlin and spitfire sets in iOS, and also for the ability on occasions to go in and create the odd very specific articulation change etc that I wouldn’t be able to elsewhere. I feel that swam instruments helps a lot with the second but until ensembles comes out is only solo instruments.
What do you think of this as a workflow with the new update if you get a moment? I should say I’m a singer songwriter who very much enjoys some orchestral arrangements, i could go down th era but hole but I try to keep my focus on the song and then just give a certain amount of time to arrangements, drums etc to get them right. So I don’t need to be creating symphonies, it’s more about little parts and lovely textures
— Recording a strings part in logic as part of a track
—importing the MIDI straight to staffpad and converting to Berlin strings, possibly tweaking a few flourishes etc
—recording of importing the staffpad audio back to logic into the song
I feel like this would be a good workflow. I tested it previously when MIDI was dodgy on staffpad and had to use cubasis to do some MIDI conversion or something in between, i can’t remember why now.
I’m not sure if using a MIDI keyboard would also help - it sounds like that’s just to trigger notation, rather than acting like real time MIDI playing of Berlin strings and other libraries, otherwise it would be incredible to be able to use staffpad like a standard orchestral library on iPad, playing the samples directly with a keyboard and recording into a daw auv3.
is it able to receive ‘internal MIDI’ (not from Bluetooth or USB external device but from a MIDI AU in Audiobus/AUM for instance)?
Wow heck yes!!!
yes. ( in other words instruments from SP libraries can be played by IAA/Auv3. )
Great! Thank you.
Hmmm. Looking for a background audio setting which would be helpful playing Staffpad from a MIDI AU..
FYI I lost a score or two.
When I first updated, StaffPad would open and immediately freeze. I decided to delete and do a clean reinstall. One score was saved from iCloud, but I don’t see others. Just wanting to save anyone some frustration to backup your scores before you update.
I really need to bite the bullet and buy this. The only scoring software I have installed is Notion, which is wanting to say the least.
Will capture guitar over the mic and transcribe it to notion?
That would be brilliant
Funny enough I do score music, but it’s more Texas Chainsaw/Eraserhead type noisy drones/horror themes. So less John Williams-esque lol. Thanks though! Love the work you do with it. Maybe one day I’ll have enough knowledge to properly use it.
Ah shoot. Was hoping tab would make it. As a writing app is the mic input thing a big one for many people?
Kemp is a very basic notation app… and for IOS users there are half a dozen such apps. Very basic. No sound.
I have been trying every angle to import MIDI into Staffpad with very mixed results until now. This update has really improved the MIDI import and rendering capability. MIDI Instruments labeled in a DAW using labels like Violin, Trumpet, etc are
assigned the correct instrument on import. I imported some orchestral MIDI’s of works like Beethoven’s 7th and all the instrument are assigned and the project immediately is ready to be heard. This is a huge imporvement. Large MIDI files before this update would typically just crash the app on import.
I just tried a Mozaic script that outputs MIDI in AUM and was able to assign the AUM source as input in Staffpad and record a quick bass part. What this means by extension is that a Piano Motif instance in AUM will be able to drive recordings in Staffpad one track at a time, I think. I need to test that workflow. I have been exporting MIDI files out of Piano Motifs and importing them into StaffPad with good results. But something that skips the file transfer would be a big time saver.
Before StaffPad I would have had to go the Laptop with more expensive Libraries in Logic Pro to get something similar in the final recording. So, investing in an iPad to do this with a lot less equipment and expense is great.
@Wingwizard… Staffpad support importing audio and MIDI files. So, input from other DAW’s is easy to handle.
Staffpad exports audio stems for reach instrument so putting a part back into the other DAW is easy.
Just be advised that Staffpad notation is tricky using the pencil. This new update will notate from MIDI so that hurdle is
a lot lower but realistic string parts might require adding articulations, accents, potentially breath marks so be prepared to
wrangle with the notation to get realistic results. It rarely sounds robotic to me but when I compare my basic notation to
a real composers effort I am humbled by the difference in realism. Still… even basic beats anything I have found in an AUv3.
The venerable ThumbJam (which is not an AUv3 but is an IAA app) gets pretty close. I bough a ton of BeatHawk, iSymphonic, SWAM and Pure Synth Platinum instruments and have never made anything close to a staffpad orchestra.
Yes.
I tested this new feature by using an AUv3 in AUM. The AUv3 gets pointed to the AUM destination target.
In Staffpad I selected the AUM source. Seemed to work but there’s no Ableton Link to sync Start/Stop.
I could hear the instrument playing the notes in Staffpad and I just tapped RECORD on “One” and got an accurate
notation of a 16th note pattern. Staffpad defaults all work at 120BPM so I set AUM to 120. You can change the BPM in Staffpad on a “tempo” track and do this sync up at any speed.
Ouch. All my projects seem to get stored in iCloud/StaffPad automatically. But I have heard of others loosing scores in Staffpad.
As you may recall… I kept hitting a staffpad bug that would send a note up 2-3 octaves and make the app crash. Trying to re-open the project would also crash so the score was effectively now useless. I later figured out that I could “render” these broken scores into audio and at least get the “final” version as an audio file. In one case, I loaded this audio into a new project and added a few more instruments to the final audio recording.
Notion is a good notation program with poor sounds rendering features. I hope they keep improving it because in some ways its notation features are good for very tricky notations. It’s free with a $15 fee to enable pencil/handwriting recognition… which it doesn’t excel at IMHO. But still, $15 is a low “barrier to entry”.
I doubt it. They created an app that is focused on the audio characteristics of a piano… I doubt most users will actually use
a live piano… most have Digital Workstations or Keyboards that can send MIDI and let you work while the baby is asleep.
Still, the typical screen composer sits at a grand and putting an iPad on the music holder and creating a score is pretty impressive. Most recording studios would have a piano room where a composer could set up an iPad and create a new score for a recording session. There’s a Staffpad companion app called “StaffPad Reader” where parts can be distributed to an ensemble from the central StaffPad instance. I could see a music teacher using a collection of iPads to write and perform custom music.
Sure. I know where I’m at when I join this community. Being here has opened by mind up to a world of possibilities for alternative ways to make wonderful music that owes no debt to the traditional music notations of European Composers.
I do a lot of experimenting with generative apps and processes. I’ve learned that that music also represents my “voice” because I select all the components and “approve the results” as having coming through me.
I think the mic input will NOT make most happy but I’ve only tried singing to see if it recognized the pitches.
For Guitar I think “MIDI Guitar 2” is the way I’ll go. I suspect there are TAB to MIDI apps but I’ve never looked after
“MIDI Guitar 2” with all the extras.
To be honest, half the problem is that I just need to sit at the piano with a notation app and work on composition, but rarely do. If I had better sound libraries I might be more inclined to do it.
Besides the lack of libraries, there was a long period where Notion would crash on load, but that has been fixed now.
My thought was that once I get StaffPad the fact that I have paid for it might spur me on to actually do some composition.
@McD thanks for taking the time to answer. So you could conceivably import custom midi clips into the app and then use the built in sounds to play said midi clips? I hope that feature gets fine tuned. If it does I will almost certainly buy it. Even though I can’t write music very well at all, being able to import midi clips and utilizing those great string (and brass? Can’t remember) sounds would be fantastic.
Do you know if there are plans to make it AU? I’m doubtful but curious.
I should mention that every MIDI file import opens a new project. So, to combine several disparate MIDI clips you need to cut and paste between projects. Not a big deal… but an unobvious extra step.
No. It’s a massive app that couldn’t function with the change to the Screen layout and how the UI functions. It also
in realtime renders projects that contain dozens of different instruments and NOT in some frozen artifact. It renders
the current copy everytime after any changes… you might want to hear what that flute solo sounds like by a violin and you can just change the instrument and hit play. So, the sound engine in this beast is amazing: it grabs just the right samples at any given time from a library of options. It also adds audio files and now a video track useful for composing to film.
Audio files can be clipped, stretched to fit an existing tempo track without shifting pitch or conversely you can shift the tempo downbeats to match transients in the audio track… take that MIDI. So, tempo tracks can be really adaptable and fluid. Something MIDI just is particularly good at in existing sequencers and DAWs.
StaffPad is really a closed garden type of DAW.
Just remember in addition to the $90 purchase you will probably need to get an Apple Pencil. Some gestures do not respond to
finger input so working without the pencil will make some actions impossible. And the pencil ain’t cheap… Thanks Steve.
Thanks for clearing all that up! Luckily I do currently have the Apple Pencil (2nd Gen). Seems like being a walled garden is for the best in this case. Not a dealbreaker for me at all, I was just curious. After you’ve explained it, it’s definitely made me want it more lol it’ll be some time as I’m saving for a new midi controller now, but I’d like to have to eventually for sure. Thanks for patiently dealing with my pestering 😂
I just want to be able to use it to write tab. They said it was a possibility. I hoped this was it.
Isn’t there a decent Tab program out there? Staffpad’s guitar library is awful. I think they had the right priorities with this update.
The thing I always thought was weird about tab is that you need an accompanying audio file to understand the rhythm.
It’s OK for fingerpicking patterns and such but not great for writing melodies. Better to just learn to read the notes, IMHO.
By the way… it’s really easy to write music with Staffpad that defies the rules of the instruments. It won’t stop you from asking a cello to play 4 note chords for example and so on…
I find this freeing because I’ll never get real musicians to play anything I write. I do respect those folks that can write music that can be played by humans that have studied their instruments for 1O or more years. I just wrote for a silly program that takes orders and doesn’t ask for a break or to be played. It’s a box of robots.
Not imo. I prefer to write it.
The rhythm is no issue for me. I know what I mean and it's only for me.
I want to be specific about where the notes are played which can't be done on a staff. The same notes existing in more than one spot.
There’s a nice little Bluetooth keyboard I found for $90 that works great. I made this with it as test drive of the new Muse Libraries: Muse Perc, Muse Brass and Muse Strings. No pencil required except to edit a couple notes.
Thanks for this. I’m just posting to babble in excitement. This update is fantastic. I didn’t realise staffpad could import audio so I have to go and try to find out how. When I went to add a utility i couldn’t see that option so instead I took a screen recording of a song in logic playing, then imported the video. I then added a couple of tracks in staffpad - i just played the video and used my MIDI controller (by the way anyone, the korg micro keys air is a fantastic Bluetooth controller with very nice feeling keys for this job, and I’m extremely snobbish about MIDI controllers coming from real instruments ha.. I use a little 37 as a sketch pad). So turned staffpad into a temporary daw. I then exported as stems into files, dragged them into logic and…. All worked perfectly. Just have to align the stems with the track in logic , very easy.
It’s amazing, yiu can really easily get all those Berlin spitfire etc samples in a track. It’s fantastic with the potential for articulations, and also just orchestrating a load of different parts and then importing stems to logic mixing producing etc. Really really good. I’m so excited.
Like you I have tried every other orchestral piece of software on iPad. I love swam, the sound and playability is my favourite for what it is on iPad. Cant wait for ensembles, and their world instruments apps. And I also love thumb jam but the sounds aren’t quite good enough for orchestral parts even with that sfz library that was going around.
I really hope staffpad get some other big libraries, world instruments for me. I’ve been desperately trying to get more of them on iPad. I think I’m going to suggest to them on their forums if anyone else would like to.
Btw if anyone knows of a soundfont suona or ethnic instruments pack of good quality please let me know,
Anyway just wanted to post my positivity about this!
@wingwizard “audio” is listed along with all the other libraries and not in the utility category. When selected it offers many audio types voice, FX’es, drums… these audio types then set up effects options suitable for that audio type. Audio can be stretched to fit the tempo or the tempo stretched to fit audio downbeats. There are videos showing these techniques.