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.
Comments
Yes. The OP @Pictor said NS2 was his most productive environment. It is mine as well. I find no difficulty in using audio in Slate or Obsidian. Sure, it’s work for that workaround, but then it is in NS2 and rock solid. When I come back to a project years later, I don’t have to worry about connections to AUv3 (not to memtion IAA, MIDI, Audiobus, etc.) or if I still have an app on my iDevice. I would not have suggested it if he said Loopy was his favorite environment.
My “don’t faff around” comment was NOT about which app is the easiest to use audio (which really wasn’t his stated priority), but a guess that the OP, like so many of us, perhaps tries to keep options open for way too long. Things like wanting to modulate a sweep and automate the effects, but can’t decide exactly the “best” version and wants to keep the ability to adjust parameters to the last moment of the final version. My advice is just commit to audio, bring the sound, riff, vocal stab, whatever, into NS2 and keep creating. Keeping the creative momentum going is important and one can go back and change things in the editing process. I find that using AudioShare to get audio into NS2 is pretty quick for a workaround, and I assume most will balk at that method, but I have gotten pretty quick at it. For me it is worth the effort to maintain an NS2 worflow. Granted, my perspective is shaped by experience from the days before MIDI or Audiobus on iOS, so what is or is not easy, to me, is shaped by those Dark Ages of iOS music production.
+1 from me on all of this.
I also use Audiolayer auv3 in NS2 for longer audio as it streams from disk, and 4Pockets MTR auv3 gets a lot of use from me too.
I haven’t tried that yet. How well does it work for audio? Any issues or hassels with it?
I probably meant bussing/returns?
Sorry my vocabulary is a bit confused, I mix up sends/returns/buses as a single concept (under the generic umbrella term of “routing”).
Basically I’d like something like Nanostudio (or AUM), choosing to duplicate and route output among tracks. (Splitting/Duplicating signal; or grouping signals back).
NS2 allows to build pipelines of track sends, deeper than only 1 send; can take an audio or midi signal and just keep routing it to track2 then to track 3 etc.
Send effects in Cubasis are rather “global effects” applied to multiple tracks; useful but not too flexible.
Group tracks are a start but then they can’t be routed or sent to another track.
Is NS the only DAW that is so flexible?
Yes, I’m sure Steinberg tried to serve the most common use cases, but their Send/Return seems limited.
Wise words! I guess “wanting to be able to change everything” comes from my software programming background!
But i understand what you mean, I indeed usually don’t formally “finish” projects 😄 as I am more of a hobbyist for having fun and experimenting with music, rather than “making songs”.
Ah it’s a good option, even tho… ouch, 80€….
To spend those money I would need to be quite certain ZB does everything I need.
I found the piano roll to display admitting and sometimes buggy behaviour:
Plus, also here (for what I could try), there’s only 1-level-depth sends: a send track (receiving/returning from an audio track) cannot send again to a third track.
I used to be the type who loved tinkering with things and never wanted to commit to audio anything. Some genres I produce don't allow for committing to audio (such as Trance leads and how complex the synthesis and automation are in that genre).
But for the past few months, I started producing in Koala Sampler and FLSM (depending on the project), and I'd commit a lot of oneshots to audio via sampling from AUv3 plugins in AUM (directly into Koala 2 per project, or to a folder to import into DW Sampler in FLSM).
Btw, I freeze up most times I open NS2. Idk why either.
80€?
You must be looking at a different pricing option. The iOS unlock is nowhere near that. It goes on sale often too.
You can try it out for free. Features are limited, but it's enough to give an idea of the workflow.
Yes it’s what I’m trying to do, in a rush because of not wanting to loose a discount deal 😁
But you are right, I was looking at the “Mac unlock V3” one-time payment, that also includes all the sound packs.
Unlocking only for iOS (with no additional sample packs) is 15€!
(dunno if price gets lower than that, when there are deals; they don’t seem to get tracked by AppSliced or AppRaven ☹️)
I think I've seen the price as low as $9.99 US in the past.
Definitely... in this regard NS2 is far away most advanced DAW on iOS, by large margin to anything else ... Logic Pro goes into a kind of similar territory but it is not that straightforward in terms of UI and there are still some limitations .. On other side NS2 works not with multi in/out AUv3 which is sad limitation if that is what you need.. also there is one problem in NS2 - when routing midi, all midi data which are coming on channels 2-16 are automatically remapped to channel 1 when you send it to other NS2 mixer track ..
This is reality of iOS - there is no perfect DAW. You simply must define for yourself what are your aboslute must-have priorities and what you are willing to sacrifice and then pick your workhorse based on that
There is just not single DAW which excels in everything. It's all the time about limitations and personal priorities.
Nothing wrong with that at all. …in which case what I wrote is ignorable.
Baffling. I thought you did a lot of production in NS2…. What’s going on? Sort like writer’s block? If that’s the case, my tip would be to never start with a blank page.
FWIW, Logic’s audio routing is very flexible and powerful. Easily a match for anything else on iOS (and I’d personally argue nothing else is as powerful — even AUM)
Logic can send audio from any track to a bus. Via sends or via the main output of that track.
Furthermore any track can send its audio pre or post fader via sends to a number of busses simultaneously. And you can automate everything.
Any audio track can use that bus as in input. You can then record that audio directly into an audio track for further manipulation. Which itself can send to any number of busses.
Any audio track can use that bus as in input. You can then record that audio directly into an audio track for further manipulation. Which in itself can also send its audio to any number of buses whether or not you record the audio.
A real world example is I can have multiple orchestral tracks, each sending varying amounts to say a couple of Reverbs and a delay Or two. Each track can send pre or post fader so I can turn down the fader volume and use the send to effectively place the instrument in the foreground or background — kind of like automating the wet/dry amount in an insert but with multiple instruments. Being able to send different amounts of each instrument to fx means I can glue the instruments together by effectively putting them in the same space. This sounds different to using inserts.
I can then group all the fx to output them to their own bus (track stacks work great for this)
Each bus also has its own sends so I can send the effected audio to different processors if I want.
Then I can bring all those fx back into the arrange window and record them as a single (or multiple) audio track which I can then manipulate as much as I like.
I can also create tracks for each bus and automate the fx in the bus extensively. And visually in the timeline.
In the example above I could take a chunk of reverb, duplicate it to a new track, reverse it and place it to act as a swell, blending it in with the other fx tracks. All in seconds.
Logic on the iPad doesn’t have midi routing in the same way — the Mac version has the environment (it’s still there with its 30 year old UI!) which is not the best UX but very powerful. But probably deprecated.
midi routing with VIs and midi fx is an area that’s lacking for sure.
Not so for audio routing which is properly powerful. I’m yet to hit a limit with Logic’s audio routing. I can always get it to do what I want.
I did a lot of production in NS2 for a few years, but I've explored other creative environments on iOS. Koala Sampler, FLSM, Gadget, etc. Regarding creating an instrumental, I am far quicker in the other aforementioned apps than in NS2. I have no clue as to why either. I did make the instrumental for "Night Sky" in NS2 back in January this year, and while the instrumental turned out stellar, it was a bit of an uphill battle.
Which is odd since NS2 was my bread-and-butter creative environment for years. But I've written in my journal and discovered that I'm paranoid about the day NS2 will break with any given iOS update and the developer not actively maintaining it. In other words, stability is my number one goal.
I've found that stability in Koala Sampler and FLSM and Gadget, all of which are actively maintained. I'm also thankful Cubasis is regularly maintained as well, given that is my main environment for recording and processing vocals. I'm also thankful AUM is actively maintained alongside AudioShare so I have an app to sample oneshots with to use in Koala and FLSM.
That's a fair price. Although 15 bucks also is, for a DAW.
Thanks for the hint!
AUv3 Multi-in/out isn't a priority.
But I didn't know about that midi routing behavior; sounds something I might hit in easily, when getting into more complex setups
Yes I can see that. My issue is that I'm not oriented to some specific genre, or workflow, or market standard. Hence my workflows and priorities vary, still developing them. But you are right, the platform has an influence on what we can do; I guess my must-have list is too broad, for being on iOS!
In general I stay on experimental ambient/glitchy electronic; or trying to do some psydub/psytrance/DnB. And apart for lacking auv3-effects automation, either NS2 & AUM & Koala usually serve me well (all of 3 are good beasts).
My purpose was to explore if I was missing on something even better.
Well, not everything 😉
The commit-to-audio suggestion was certainly valuable wisdom!
I appreciate and do that more in Koala or AUM environments.
Much less when I have instruments available and a timeline: MIDI gets all over the place 😁
But I can see your point about "wanting to keep options open", it nails my situation pretty well, if you read my answer above to @dendy.
That's similar to what (I think 🤓) I'd like to have for some genres: lot of control on routing/sending & automation of effects & splitting/grouping space, and easy knobbing of things.
But I tend to like MIDI and have to route that too; so I'll wait to see how Logic evolves on that.
That's an actual big legit concern.
Actually thinking NS2 won't get more features/bugs was part the process bringing me to look for alternatives and open this thread.
Reliability a big factor, for something brittle like music setups in an always-evolving environment.
Actually what scares me the most in long-term is Apple policies, rather than maintainers' dedication.
If it was for me I'd open-source any abandonware, to give chance of porting.
I’d imagine they would need to replace a lot of the functionality of the environment on the Mac and I’d be surprised if any new features weren’t made for iPad simultaneously, even if one platform gets a feature before the other (such as iPad getting sample alchemy first — which BTW is freaking awesome!).
I’ve made music using mainly MIDI for decades and since the VI days have rarely found the need to route midi around. I guess my formative years were spent with midi sequencers using one track at a time. If I want the same midi to go multiple places I used alias regions or simply duplicated regions. So I never really bothered routing midi all over the place and don’t miss not being able to in LP4iP.
It would be great if logic for better midi routing but I’ve been a little bit brainwashed into not needing it
In the 90s I used to make songs with all my MIDI gear playing ‘live’ synced to a reel to reel tape machine for vocals, guitars etc and mixed live to DAT. My use of midi tracks, despite them being internal rather than external sound sources, probably hadn’t changed that much.
DAW? Ableton Live
Mr. Dendy, hold in mind that we are only weeks away from the announcement of Logic Pro for iPad, version 2.0!
Pretty sure we will see remarkable changes and improvement, and, also a redesign of some plugins/instruments…
So, wait with your mantra that Nanostudio is superior to LP4i…
Exactly why I've been floating between other DAWlike apps on iOS. I want there to be a guaranteed development of an app I use. Thankfully Gadget during its Gadget 2 phase, despite lack of feature updates, was receiving maintenance updates. Same as for FLSM and Koala and Cubasis.
If an iOS update breaks something, I can rest assured it will be fixed by Korg, Image-Line, Elf Audio, and Steinberg respectively.
Yeah Apple's policies are plain wackadoodle. Hopefully they don't screw things up for our devs.
If only Live were on iOS. Looks like the ultimate DAW that many people- especially EDM producers - use.
Gotta agree with Dendy on that one
Logic Pro is subscription and doesn't run on iOS12....sooooo
I'd say at this point, the EU's policies are worse.
Well, since I'm not in the EU, I'll take your word for it mate.
I'd rather hope for Bitwig, with its Grid and touch-oriented interface. That would be impossible to compete with.
I was talking specifically just about audio routing (groups and sends structure)
Why you are execting LP4i will beat NS2 in this area when even desktop LPX doesn’t do ?
To my knowledge there is just one DAW on iOS+Desktop which matches (and overcomes, of course) NS2 mixer routing capabilities - Reaper. Reaper is superrior in this are to all other exisring DAWs on desktop+ios
What I have read in many discussions there's no chance of Reaper coming to iOS. It was my most favorite DAW for Windows.
Totally agree .. Reaper was epic. Well still is :-)
Bitwig does sound baller. Well, I'll take whatever comes my way.
Meanwhile I'm enjoying using what I got on iPhone. Hope Apple released an iPad Mini Pro with larger storage capacity than 256gb. 
I think casting apsersions on NS2’s stability is unwarranted. Stability is an important issue, but it isn’t fair to start lumping NS2 into some bin of unstable apps. It has been rock-solid since it’s release in 2018. Furthermore, Matt committed to fix anything broken by iOS updates. Until that happens I think it is only fair to take him at his word and assume NS2 would receive a maintainance update.
I have other DAW apps as well as Reaper on Windows. Having other tools is great and we each must find our preferred workflow using the apps available, but I think being realistic and fair is important. Of the reasons to use other apps instead of NS2, I don’t think stability is one. Lack of development for new features….? To each his own. But NS2 is damn stable.
I can't speak for @Pictor , but my brain is neurodivergent. In other words, I tend to worry about things being stable for me and get anxiety over it. It in turn creates a mental block, whereas apps I know will continue to get stability updates (feature updates be damned) don't cause me any mental blocks.
So no, it is not unwarranted. Not everyone's brain works the same as yours.