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.
Q re: Multitrack Studio
Quick question regarding Multitrack Studio. I've noticed that there is no "overview" where you can see the MIDI or audio you've recorded. My question is what if you want to move something you've recorded? For example, let's say you've imported or recorded some audio. How would you go about moving it's starting location from 4.1.1.1 to say, 1.2.1.1? I've always done this kind of operation using eyes AND ears. Please tell me it's possible to move recorded parts (clips?) around. It's the only thing holding me back from giving MTS a try. Looks brilliant otherwise.
M
Comments
http://www.multitrackstudio.com/notevelocityeditor.png
Trying to do this by phone, so bear with me....
Yes, you can copy, paste, and duplicate just about everything, including MIDI data. You can set a vertical line market and say "select all" or "select right". Or you can draw a box and select all notes in the box. The notes can then be slid up, down, left/right. Recorded audio data can also be moved in this fashion.
The functionality is all there. I won't say that it's immediately obvious how you do everything in MTS, but it does allow powerful editing. The rack format collapses everything so the screenshots don't make that obvious. The one "drawback" is that it doesn't display multiple track data on the screen at one time like you might see in Cubasis or Auria.
I know two ways-
one is actually drag the clip. You have to be in "Part Mode" which is the one that makes a box around the track, bottom left in track view, the icon that is a square, far left of the three icons. Will require you zooming out on the rack wide enough to include both ends of the relocation, with the 2 finger gesture, first. You actual touch in the middle of the selected highlighted section and slide...
The other way, also having selected the section in "Part Mode" is to copy, using the "Copy" button at the bottom of track view, then move then drag the transport marker to the new spot and press paste. If you want the clip to not "snap to" a time or beat increment, turn off "Snap"
This method involves cleanup. You have to unselect the part by touching in an empty are of the track while in part mode, then select the first instance on the clip, then press delete...
You can actually view the whole project in "Song Editor", which is accessible from the Edit button to the left of the transport. This view allows you to see the relationship of all tracks and u can use part mode to slice and move multi-track sections.
You guys are great -- thank you so much for the response. It sounds like it is possible, just perhaps not how I'm used to doing it (which is using the drag clip method, but where I can actually see the clip like it was a lego block!).
In any case, hopefully I can deal with it. I remember Ae saying in an interview that they turn their monitors/screens off when they listen to things they're composing anyway, so I should obviously follow suit.
I wonder if display of multiple track data will be added (or if it would be contrary to the ethos of the app). In any case, the MIDI editor looks awesomely worth it.
I edited my comment above to include that there is a multitrack view, but only to cut multi track parts...it's called song editor, under the edit button, top of the screen next to transport window
And drag the clip is happening in part mode, select the clip (or any part of it) and touch inside the highlighted area, and drag away..it's very slick
@papertiger - A couple of things, insofar as I think I understand what you are saying.
It IS possible to grab a chunk of MIDI notes and move it around the grid, either to adjust pitch or to move it in time, while it keeps the same shape. I am almost certain of it. Is this what you meant by moving it like a "lego block"?
Regarding your second point, it is possible to see multiple tracks at one time. It's just that the design of the app shepherds you towards doing things one at a time. You can drag and re-size the expanded displays to take up more or less display - it really isn't that different from Auria in function. But where it differs is that things tend to be more "zoomed in", so there isn't the real estate on an iPad screen to show 3+ tracks at one time, if you wanted to see an audio wave, MIDI data, etc. for each.
My advice to you is to download the free PC or Mac "Lite" version, if you can:
http://www.multitrackstudio.com/
It's actually a fully functioning DAW, it just limits you to only 3 tracks and takes away some of the other bells and whistles (there are two upgrades for $69 and $119 to unlock the rest). I really had no intention of buying another DAW...I was obsessively playing around with free VST plugins and needed a DAW to try them out in. Not only did MTS for PC's free version allow this, but it really impressed me with the way it handled MIDI data. When I realized what I could do with that on an iPad, the $30 price tag suddenly didn't seem so unreasonable. And it's turned out to be a darn good purchase, and one that only gets BETTER as he continues to add features (both free and IAP).
The key for anyone reading this is that trying to figure out how this works is that the iPad's use of IAA is analogous to how the PC version uses VST plug-ins. They can be effects or instruments for a MIDI track, and the internal MIDI grid (plus piano, guitar neck, drum, and pad controllers) can run those external apps without leaving your DAW. Want SoundFonts? BS-16i is a great app, but MTS has a player built in. Want one-touch chords? ChordPolyPad and Chordion have more depth, but MTS has a chord pad controller that works pretty well WITHIN the app. And the new Matrix sampler gives you an internal option for drums or samples if you don't want to hook up an app like iMPC Pro (though you certainly can with AB, IAA, or ACP).
I'm writing from memory here, but you can also select a section of an audio file by placing the cursor at the start of the chunk you want to move and "select right", then place the cursor at the end of what you want to move and "select right" again which "deselects" everything to the right of that. Now just the chunk you want will be highlighted and you can drag it where you see fit.
@StormJH1 Thanks for your comprehensive answer. I actually love the VST/DAW paradigm because that's what I'm used to using. The recently added Matrix sampler is actually what drew my attention to the app. I think there is a thread about it where @Littlwwoodg described some things that can be done with it that sound like exactly what I've been trying to do/find an app to do.
I'm a big fan of the all-in-one aspect because hopping from app to app is, quite frankly, a pain, and because having to take time setting other apps up to work with an iPad DAW cuts into music making and reduces the convenience of iOS music making when I have short blocks of time (at work, while commuting, etc.).
What I meant with "lego block" was moving a clip/passage/phrase/sequence around on the timeline. For instance, most of the time I'll record a short sequence and then move it around the timeline rather than rerecording it if I don't like there it starts/begins.
I'll take your advice and DL the free lite version and give it a spin. I've gathered from the MTS forum and website that a lot of what's in the desktop version is also available in the iPad version?
How is cycling set in MTS on the iPad? Seems a bit obtuse in the desktop version. Can Cycling be set up using markers?
@papertiger - yes, you can move around a sequence on the timeline like you described. And @Coloobar described how you can select audio file sections and move them around. Most of the functionality is pretty consistent with other MIDI editors, audio editors, and piano rolls you've used...it's just once in awhile you'll see how they did something and think "oh, that's a little different". In the majority of cases, the "different" design choices are for the better.
If "cycling" refers to looping, yes you can do that by setting markers. I don't do that often, but I did it by accident last night, so I would check the instruction manual(s) for that.
The desktop version and iPad version are virtually identical. In fact, I think the Matrix Sampler was added to both of them within a few days of each other. The free PC version actually has a little bit less functionality than the $30 iPad version, the latter of which includes the built-in instruments. Actually, the instruments are a bit of a weak point - most are inferior to soundfonts and samples of the same type of sound but, hey, players for each of those formats are now built in! That being said, there is a fair amount of them, and some of the synth ones are even a bit tweakable. You can use them to sketch out ideas in the MIDI editor, and then simply apply a different sound using Animoog, iFretless Bass or whatever afterwards. That's the beauty of how the app works.
The built-in effects are actually pretty good. I might even buy the $20 expansion pack for pitch shifting and convolution reverb, just so that I have everything the package has to offer. He even built a guitar preamp into the damn thing - it kind of sucks compared to the better guitar apps, or even the THM Overloud plug-in in Auria (which is $20 btw), but the fact that he even tried it as a FREE part of the app tells you a lot about the developer.
I'm rambling, but the bottom line is if you love or hate the PC version, it's tough to imagine you'd have a different opinion about the iPad version.
To play cycling (loop a section) you use the Part editing tool to select a section of midi or audio and select "play cycling" under the "Sel" button at the bottom of track view. There was a trickier way- for some people- to do this involving the transport cursor: double tap and hold the cursor and drag to the end of a section and release. Then you can re-cycle the section by tapping the counter and selecting cycle last cycled part
The dev added the Sel method when people asked for a looping function ..
That's what cool about the guy- he's all over his forum and restlessly updating all the time
I've had about 30 very sleepy minutes and 5 minutes at work to try this thing, but holy fcuking wow -- this thing is incredible, and basically what i've been looking for this whole time.
i can't believe that more has not been made of the following:
Note that you didn't have to record or bounce or perform any other action other than cut and paste to get the midi rendered to audio in MTS. I'm floored.
does anyone know if you can do the same thing but paste to an audio track? I haven't been able to try that yet (stupid work!)
Glad that you had such a positive first impression! I, too, have been extremely busy with work and a newborn, so there just hasn't been the time to do much of anything, let alone sink in a couple of hours into learning a DAW and recording music. If crap like this had been an option when I was 19 and in college, I would lost DAYS learning it inside out, but I digress.
I think what you are referring to is similar to what @Littlewoodg was explaining above...instead of "freezing" tracks like Auria, you might have noticed you can just render a MIDI track as pure audio into a new track (so you hear the same end product, but it's not longer using the resources of the instrument and effects). But with the Matrix Sampler, you're saying you can just copy the MIDI notes (either recorded or programmed manually) from a track with an IAA instrument, and then it will audio render those notes automatically as an audio file for the sampler?
Wow, I really need to think about that! With a 6 second limit, couldn't you basically program the whole sampler as a drum looper? So, if a measure at 120bpm is 2 seconds, couldn't I just program like Pad 1 to be an Intro beat, Pad 2 for verse, Pad 3 for fills, and then just trigger those with simple one-shot commands at the start of each measure? I think that would work!
And if it did, it would be a nifty workaround for one lingering annoyance with MTS, which is that you can only AudioPaste from outside the app into a new track. Once the audio or MIDI information gets into MTS, it sounds like Matrix can just be your central controller for triggering phrases. And it doesn't have to be drums - it could be a bassline, hit, swell, whatever.
Okay, seriously need more time now. Haha.
@StormJH1 said:
i'm getting married in November and kiddies won't be far behind (God willing), which is why i'm trying to find an iPad solution that is actually fun to use! Congratulations to you and your family.
That is what I'm saying.
I tried it last night before I went to bed, and it worked. I tried it again during lunch at work because I thought maybe I had imagined it. But yes, copying the MIDI notes and then pasting into Matrix sampler renders the audio on the fly. It's pretty sick. I used the select time function (not the lasso) -- if you know what I mean.
Dunno, I'm bad at maths.
I saw on the MTS forum that there is a thread about IAA apps that work and IAA apps that don't. I'm going to try and do some fairly rigorous(!) testing tonight to see if I can make a contribution to that thread. Apps that don't work will probably be deleted or put in the corner. Hopefully it will help Mr. Bremmers as well.
Huzzah! Congrats @stormjh1! Magic times and I swear to god it gets easier. Hang in there and enjoy it as it's all fleeting.
@papertiger said:
That is indeed an epic feature worthy of much talking about. Really surprised this is the first I'm (we're?) hearing of it. Just that it exists makes me want the app. I mean, yes, it sounds very useful but that the dev would take the time to make that sort of 'just works' workflow a reality says an awful lot about the app.
^ If I find more things like that I'll be sure to post. MTS needs a hype-man. girl. whatever.
This feature alone is SO killer for working on the go. Less steps = more time for noises/sound designing and less poking/tapping around.
You can be the SpokesTiger for the app. You're all feeding into my app addiction. I already have auria and cubasis and beatmaker 2 and nano, along with reaper and presonus studio one pro, but the thing is that I use them all so I'm glad that I have them. I'm loving my ableton suite trial so I'm probably going to get at least the basic version. MultitrackStudio seems to be unique enough to be another useful option. I might not need it, but ......
Thanks, @syrupcore & @papertiger ! Honestly, as long as you're realistic about the attention a newborn requires, it's not "hard", just demanding. Helps to remind yourself that crying is basically like talking for them, and they just turn it off when they get what they want/need. We had Wheaton Terrier puppy a few years back, and I'm only half-kidding when I say that was harder in some ways - not the least of which is that puppies can move away from you and destroy things. With the baby, she'll never be as little again as she is right now, so you bet we're enjoying every minute of it as much as we can.
Anyway, great tips here on Matrix Sampler, and I hope other people come across them in weeks/months to come and discover the app. When I heard a sampler was added, I thought "Cool, a beatbox!". But as with everything MTS, the value is in how it all plays together.
As I've said before, I think MTS was under-appreciated because it basically didn't have AudioBus or IAA at launch (and it launched at $17.99 - http://appshopper.com/music/multitrackstudio-for-ipad). And by January 2014, Auria, Cubasis, BM2, MTDAW, etc. were all well-established. The bullet-point features of MTS aren't earth-shattering. But if actually start using it, it becomes quickly apparent how much thought went into how convenient it would be to have note control, step sequencing, external apps, internal content players, and effects all within inches of each other on a single display panel.
Mr. Bremmers could stand to promote his product a bit more by putting together some tutorial videos. There's just not much out there right now, and what is available is pretty outdated. When shopping apps that's one of the things I rely on and without them I feel like I'm taking a leap of faith when I purchase the app. When the app is $5 or $10 that's not such a big deal, but at $30 I'm definitely going to do some research first.
What happens if you drag a chunk of midi to the matrix without an instrument/IAA in the processing chain? Does it keep it as midi data? That could be nice, too. It could work like the way cells work in Genome Midi Sequencer.... triggering a whole sequence of midi notes to be recorded. That would be great for laying down drum tracks, as an example.
@Coloobar said:
I wondered that too. I assumed the Matrix Sampler only played audio clips, but if it played MIDI files, perhaps you could hook it up to an instrument app triggered by the sampler? This is where it gets over my head, but we could try it and see what it does.
Re: marketing - That's all true, and others have pointed it out to him (or asked users to do their own videos). I think it would be beneficial to him even if the video were somewhat crude, because right now it's basically word of mouth and $30 is outside of the "instant buy" category for most. Caustic is an example of a indie product that is actually somewhat complex, but has an AMAZING suite of video demos from Rej, which basically ARE the instruction manual. But some people are good at marketing/documentation and some people aren't. Giel is apparently a very good programmer, and that's the most important thing for a solid app.
I def. can't make videos, but maybe I can compile a "cool stuff you can do with MTS" document and post it somewhere. Something to supplement the manual (which is quite barebones).
I'm hoping to explore tonight, so I'll take lots of notes.
M
This is word of mouth in veritable action. In other news; children are also operating systems so I think you'll do just fine.
A few additional discoveries
Note that any IAA effects loaded after the instrument on the MIDI Track are not rendered as part of the audio. I don't know if the same is true with respect to internal effects.
For example, say Track 1 is Audio Track, and Tracks 3 and 4 are MIDI Tracks. Song Editor will display audio waves for all three of the tracks, even the MIDI Tracks. (Note: as I'm typing this it just sounds so unbelievable that I'm starting to doubt what I wrote down).
For example, load ThumbJam onto a MIDI Track. Go into the Drum Editor and select add an instrument. When the pop-up editor appears, touching a note will trigger the sound in ThumbJam. This feature makes mapping drums incredibly convenient! No more having to remember what drum sound is assigned to what note number.
I'm hesitant to make any final judgment calls on apps given all the audio woes we've been experiencing, and I didn't get to test everything I wanted to, but Sector, Seekbeats, Stria, Addictive Synth, microTera, ThumbJam and TF7 worked well; Mitosynth, Grain Science, Funkbox, iDensity, and Gliderverb did not.
I plan to report on IAAs in this thread on the MTS forum (http://www.multitrackstudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1989&start=30), mostly because I don't want to clutter this forum, and the developer seems active on that board.
@papertiger
Here's another trippy thing u can do:
highlight an audio track, or a section of a track with the "part" edit tool and paste it into a midi track.
MTS will render the audio as midi info, so u can take an audio performance done in real time and use it to create a midi track with another instrument of your choice....
@Littlewoodg said:
For real?! Totally believable given that the app already is capable of converting audio tracks into MIDI data (well, to an extent). Absolutely awesome that you can just drag-and-drop from Audio to MIDI within the app.
@papertiger - thanks for the list! I had noticed your 3rd item about the drum track editor and previewing the notes. That's an example of a great idea that is difficult to explain in a feature list, but can be a HUGE help for day-to-day use of the app.
One thing I notice with MTS is how "automatic" the MIDI connections tends to be. If I just load up Xynthesizr or some other app with MIDI control, you almost always need to go through a menu to set up the connection. For the apps where IAA works, simply loading the app seems to allow MIDI control, preview notes (on the left piano roll pane of the MIDI window), and MIDI control from the pull-up keyboard/controllers on the bottom of the screen. It just works. Of course, it doesn't work with some apps, as documented above.
Worst case-scenario, though, you just have run your synth app through AudioBus and record that way. Which is, by the way, pretty much what you have to do with any other DAW anyway.
For audio tracks, IAA works as an effect with those apps that support it. I wish there were more of them available. Yonac has converted their major apps to do this (try running a guitar through Galileo sometime). Some apps like Filtratron should be able to do this, but nope.
@Coloobar said:
IAA Effects you should check out:
Sugarbytes' stuff -- I've tested Wow and Effectrix with MTS and they worked flawlessly. Which has NEVER happened to me with any other iOS DAW. I always seem to have some major malfunction.
The AU:FX series (EQ, reverb, and delay)
Virsyn AudioReverb
Holderness Media Crystalline (shimmer-type reverb)
Sadly, Gliderverb, CsGrain, and CsSpectral do not work for me, but hopefully they will in the future. With respect to the latter two, it might be that they're not fully-baked IAA-wise.
@StormJH1 said:
I need to do more testing/fiddling. I was able to record MidiSequencer into MTS during the short time I had during lunch today, but it took some fiddling. Being able to use Xynthesizr in the same way would be nice. I hope to give some things a try this weekend, but please post your MIDI connection experiences here if you have a moment!
hmm, I have most of the Holderness apps and don't recall seeing them as an IAA effect. Will investigate. I use Altispace as a replacement for 'Verb', and Audio Mastering plugged in to the last effects chain almost constantly.