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.
RC500-esque
In response to a request from @xmortenx I designed a Loopy Pro template per his specs (which I am told are reminiscent of a Boss RC500 but I don’t have one—do I am not sure).
It has two loops that are mutually exclusive and can have entirely independent lengths. It is set up to not use a metronome or quantization so that you can preserve your feel timing.
Each loop has a trigger button that cycles through its functions. Tap to start recording , tap to end, tap to start overdubbing, tap to end.
If one loop is playing and you trigger the other loop, the current loop will finish playing before the new loop’s action is performed. It also has buttons to peel (undo) and replace (redo) overdubs.
Here it is in action:
The Loopy Pro template for this is found at
Comments
I am happy to discuss the details about how this works and how to modify it.
@espiegel, thanks for your time and patience!
What I tried to say is, in the original project, when you record guitar (in free time) in the first donut, you have to stop the recording at some point. I don't have a foot pedal, so I have to get away from my guitar and stop recording with my finger on the screen. And then the loop is not perfectly smooth anymore at the end.
What would be nice is a new first donut, to fingerdrum a simple beat in free time. When fingerdrumming on the screen, it is easier to stop the recording with a tap on the screen, and still get a seamless loop.
Recording a fingerbeat could be arranged with a few one shot samples, kick, snare, closed hihat, open hihat. (I have seen a project from Wim with this).
And this drum loop dictates the tempo of the other two donuts, and runs all the time.
The button clear all should only clear the donuts with the guitar recordings.
If that makes sense. I think this floates away from the original concept that is pretty good already.
So the change in the project should be an extra donut that follows the other ones (like the second one now), and a change in the clear all button, only clear 2 + 3. And a few one shot samples pre-loaded. And set the drum loop donut to run all the time.
And when I think about it, if the loop is not perfect at the end, I can manually change it, but it would be nice to get it perfect in one run.
@raabje : i will take a look at creating an offshoot with those features if you don't get to it first!
If you are game to try it yourself, I think it shouldn't be too hard. Here is the outline of the basic steps:
You may want to edit the recording options for the orange dial's Record 1record action. Set it to Count-in/out master. If you record your groove first, this will ensure that the clip starts recording at a bar line.
You may want to turn on length quantization in the global settings, too. This will make it a little easier to keep things lined up if you are triggering by hand.
Yes thanks! I have copied the layout already to 3 donuts, now I need to get the settings right.
Thanks for your pointers. Later tonight I will have more time to work on this.
I will share my result asap.
@raabje : for the groove clip, I would recommend just adding a donut rather than copying an existing one since you won’t be using the follow actions or dial for it
I have a first prototype
I am able to record the beat in the first donut.
But now it is difficult to keep the first loop with the beats playing, and slave the second loop to the first loop. Loopy has so many options under the hood….
And there is a group in the layout, donut 1 and 2, that I want to erase. It is hidden somewhere.
And fade and stop is probably not needed. Just stop donut 2 after a full circle, and start donut 3 in sync.
I need to stop for now, I need to give my wife some attention….. I understand this stuff is hard to master, will take some time.
@raabje : do you know how to edit groups? There is group icon in edit mode.
I recommend that you back track a little. Start from the original project and add a new loop for your groove loop. Don’t copy/paste the existing elements as they have follow actions you won’t be using and you won’t need the dial.
I think I want to buy the Irig Blueboard to use with Loopy Pro. That will make my life easier. I am searching for a nice deal.
I have found group edit in the edit menu. And I will indeed start again with the project. It is a good lecture to understand more of the functionality and possibilities.
You might also consider the m-vave chocolate. It is less expensive and it has gotten some good reviews. Search the forum for @wim’s comments about it.
Thanks for the pointer @espiegel123! Just ordered one from Walmart online. They’re on sale for $25.99.
Okay, thanks, I will check that one too. I did a quick search, price is aprox.25 euro's on AE. I have found a good as new blueboard for 60 euro in my country, some kind new but open box deal. I will read some more about it.
And I was thinking, I think I want an other approach. The project as build by you is good enough, all I need is an extra donut to record a drum loop with finger drumming, after a guitar loop is recorded. The second guitar loop and the drum loop should be synced to the first one in length and tempo, to make this work. And the drum loop donut should play all the time.
Because when I record an idea freely, I get a better or more creative result, than when I play on a beat. So that will be my next attempt to change the project.
To do that, it will be a matter if setting the global record count-in and count-out quantization to what you would like [maybe custom 1-bar or 2-bar] and it will require editing some of the recording actions in the dials. It might take a little trial an error.
Just a heads up that when the next minor Loopy update is released, the project will need a very slight update. I will try to both get it up on patchstorage when that happens and describe the adjustments that need to be made..
I am reading the manual again, to get a better understanding, and will try later tonight to run donut 2 and 3 in sync with donut 1.
I have an other idea: is it possible to create a switch, that let you choose between:
This would give an option in this project to create a seperate A/1 and B/2 part to play live against, or a rhythm 1 and a lead 2 part that play together.
Creating two different projects is maybe easier than to create such a switch?
It would be possible to do that. There are a number of ways to do it.
The simplest might be to add copy the page and on the new page ungroup the loops. You may want them to be phase-locked to and have record count-in/out settings that use the master cycle length.
Adding a switch to configure the one page is possible but it would require some dial trickery. I think having a second page would be easier.
Myself, I am contemplating how I might set up the project to switch between the current behavior and one that uses a metronome/quantization/groove track.
@raabje : here is a demo of the quantized version that I am working on. There are a nimber of little features I want to add that will take some time for me to get to. (It needs a smart metronome, for example, if one doesn't want to record one's own groove...and i think a solo capture, too...and maybe retro capture).
Yes, that new one looks and sounds great!
As I understand it from the video you record a two bar percussion loop, and the guitar loop is an 8 bar loop with the same tempo, so it plays in sync. The second loop is shorter but also plays in sync.
That is a nice development from the original project. If the two loops could play in serie and also in parallel, that would be even greater.
In this project, the pink clip is not in a group. Record count-in and out for the loops is set to one bar. So, the loops will always be a beat-friendly.
It would be possible to set the project up for the loops to be either serial or in parallel, but I probably won't do that in my this project as it adds a layer of complexity that I just don't have time to tackle as there are other things I'd like to add.
You can copy the page and ungroup the two loops and i think it will do what you want.
You might want to change the quantization settings of loop 2 to master to ensure that it is a multiple of clip 1.
Another change that might need to be made is to remove some of the stop clip actions in the dial that are there to make sure that a loop finishes playing before the next action kicks in. It probably shouldn't take long to figure. But i have better projects for multiple loops playing in sync.
Yes you wrote about this already, change the functionality on another page would be easier, instead of a switch.
When two loops run together, this would work like a trio band, play guitar on donut 1, (lower?) bas notes on donut 2, and the drum. Or a rhythm guitar with a dry sound on donut 1 and a lead sound with a lot of EFX on donut 2.
But I do agree this gravitates a bit too far from the original concept. Probably a new project with the stock settings is an easier way to get there.
Btw, for the project where the loops are parallel, one doesn't need the fancy dials that I used. One can do that with just the basic loopy features. The reason the fancy logic was needed for the serial version is to guarantee that loop 1 plays to completion when you queue loop 2 for the initial recording while handling all the functions with one button per loop.
@xmortenx @raabje : a new version of this project is needed for Loop 1.1.12 which was just released
I will have the quantized version with smart metronome and groove clip ready soon
Here is the "groove" (quantized version). It needs some docs or a walkthrough but could take me a few days to get to it.
Here is a quick demo of it:
Thanks! I will make a test drive tonight with this project.
With this project I found out that my finger drum skills are a bit weak. Playing a tight groove takes some time but I am making progress.
The project works pretty good. Tapping the tempo is nice feature. The smart functions, I have not tried that part of the panel.
I am going to refine this some more. I may add a quantize option for the one one-shots (would require you setting the tempo and starting the transport). I may add a page with some preset groove clips to choose from… you would import or drag/drop loops.
Right now , all the controls are on the main page so that people that want to understand how it works and customize the project can do it easily.
I am likely to create an alternate version with a more streamlined first page and move the dials and smart metro setup off the main page.
If I add an option for the two loops to be able to play together, how would you see that working in term of relation between the two loops?
I think, one loop for rhythm guitar, one for lead guitar. The difference between the loops will be the sound efx used.
Or one loop for bass guitar, one loop for normal guitar. When you duplicate the rhythm track (the horizontal pink bar) for an extra bass guitar loop, this would also work in this layout.
As an alternative for the two guitar loops in sync with eachother, what also would work is a button or switch, to choose an EFX chain. So for rhythm guitar you choose EFX chain one (for example a more dry sound), for lead sound EFX chain two (more gain, bit reverb). Then two donuts are not needed anymore, just layer the loops in one donut.
If the two loops play at once, would they be the same length?
I guess it depends on the complexity of the chords that are played, and the relationship between chords in the rhythm, and the chord notes played in the lead part.
When it is only a vamp, or two chords that repeats themself the whole time, the rhythm loop can be short, and the lead loop can be longer.
I think initially keep them the same length would be the best, to keep things simple.