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.
The December Challenge - 1 Synth, 4 Instances
For this month's challenge, I decided to forgo a holiday music challenge or a DAW-specific challenge and instead propose this challenge. It's exactly as it says "on the tin", so here are the rules...
- Choose only one synth from a collection of synths.
- You're only allowed up to four instances of said synth.
- You can use any DAW/Creative Environment.
- You can use any effects (internal or AUv3 or both) and as many of those as you wish to sculpt your sound. Same goes for MIDI AUv3s and internal MIDI FX.
- Neither audio tracks nor samples are allowed. (The only exception to this is if you choose a hardware synth you need to record.)
- No romplers are allowed, even if the rompler has a synthesis section.
- No drum modules/plugins are allowed. If you need, say, a kickdrum, it can be synthesised in the one synth of your choice.
- Automation of the synth and effects are allowed and encouraged.
- You are allowed to use any app to master the audio. (Including Trinity if you so choose, or Logic Pro's AI mastering assistant, etc.) Or you can master in the project itself if you so choose.
- Any genre is welcome.
- When posting, screenshots/videos are encouraged but not necessary. But you must state what synth you chose for your piece.
That's all for now. There's a soft deadline of 31 December, but you can start now and post in January or February. Cheers and good luck!
Edit 1 - Modular environments such as Drambo and miRack are disqualified.
Preset changing (if it were possible) is also not allowed. You can only use one preset/patch per instance.
Comments
now i am interested… hardest part will be to choose synth, there is way too much synths on iOS capable to do this job :-)
You should exclude Drambo and miRack, that would be like cheating 😂
Count me in! Great challenge my man!
Hmmmm. I have zero skills in synthesis but I bought Mariana, Aparillo, Twin 3 and Volcano 3 on the Black Friday sale. Looks like a very good opportunity to learn at least one more/less deeply.
Does this include preset switching?
Indeed, I even doubt that Twin 3 will be a fair choice, but Drambo and MiRack....
show me 1 synth on iOS capable of preset switching automation which is actually working ( i mean it can do it in realtime during playback with no latency, so it is useable like Elektron's sound locks)
Tera Pro and the SynthMasters too…
Don't think so.. they are more or less standard synths ... Drambo and Mirack are full blown modulars, that's why i think they doesn't fit into "one synth" challenge .. Tera and Synthmaster are pretty advanced, quasi semi-modular but still more or less traditional synths ..
I agree with this. Modular environments such as Drambo and miRack should be excluded. Some synths are more advanced than others.
Also, Preset Switching (if it were at app possible) is not allowed. Only one patch per instance.
A quick entry this month
Sounds like a fun challenge. Count me in. This one seems perfect for the Nave synth I picked up last week which even has a built-in 4 track recorder.
Edit: oh wait, that wouldnt exactly be following the rules, I need to have 4 instances going, huh? I will use AUM/MidiTape Recorder again.
Rule #6 states “No Romplers Allowed”. Does this rule out app such as “King of FM” or SynthMaster?
Mate, this is absolutely incredible! 👏 Well done.
Yeah, I think doing AUM/MidiTape Recorder is the best route to keep it fair.
But, that's cool the Nave synth has a 4-track recorder. Which synth is it? 
Doesn't rule out any of the SynthMasters, but it does rule out King of FM. (Sorry to King of FM. That is an amazing rompler.)
The Nave is a Waldorf synth (same dev as Microwave synth). I won’t be able to use Nave for this, it’s only IAA, so 1 instance possible. I’ll go with something else, maybe Sunrizer. Would Korg iM1 be allowed?
I got into a right pickle with one of these challenges before, (using GB only), got way too ambitious and tried to recreate something, just using 22 instances of Primer, which got very crashy, and was an epic fail.
@Fruitbat1919 is off to a strong start though, love these 'behind the scenes' videos, although 84% DSP from 4 tracks?
Sunrizer would be great. Maybe you can use four instances of Microwave if you have it/if your CPU will allow it. For Nave, maybe you can use the built-in 4 track recorder and treat it like you would a tape reel. But only one sound per tape, no bouncing or anything cheeky of the sort.
Korg iM1, while a super advanced rompler (and a synth in its own right), is still considered a rompler sadly.
Lol, dang. Well, just four instances of one synth, not 22 instances.
Should be easier on the CPU dependent on your device and the synth in question.
I know right? I wonder what kind of iPad our mate Fruitbat is using.
Reminds me FSOL and JMJarre… big respect, dope stuff 🫡
Thanks both of you
here is a snap shot of some loads on my M1 Air.
As you can see the highest load is from a reverb, which isn’t surprising. I’m not sure why one instant of the Omega synth is quite so high, although it is a sound that makes various noises and I would expect it to be quite high, but not as much as it is!
Wow some big names there, thanks!
What defines a rompler that one is confusing me
I agree. To me, SynthMaster is a rompler. Tons of sampled waveforms. OTOH, the Moog IOS apps appear to be analog emulations, so they are Ok.
This I think makes sense then.
So yeah, Moog Model D, Model 15, Twin 3, Poison-202, etc wouldn't be considered romplers. If it's based on samples, then I'm thinking that's what would quality it to be a rompler.
Exactly. The fun of challenges like this is using your creativity to work within the limitations.
Here’s my deeply unfashionable attempt using the old and abandoned Roli Melody synth.
Still in my view one of the best MPE capable synths. Played by Piano Motifs and me using GeoShred.
That is not rompler .. wavetables oscillators doesn’t mean rompler .. rompler is like sampler - there are samoled complete sounds from orher synths (not just single cycle waveforms like in SM), often samoled on different keys. Romples usually have just small amount of edit possibilities (simple envelopes, just minimal modulation capabilities, some basic filter, that’s it)
Synthmaster is not rompler. It’s same synth like Moog synths or any other synth. The fact it has wavetables doesn’t mean it’s rompler, rompler is very different thing.
Agree. Synthmaster wouldn't come under the 'rompler' label - and that's all it is, a label - often loosely defined. You can't even say that the lack of single cycle waveforms deserves the label, as many synthesis methods use longer samples as their starting material for sound! Even the modern workstations that originally came from workstations that coined the term by shoving in more and longer waveforms, don't really fit the term these days, as most have other synthesis methods.
To be fair, it's not really a sensible term anyway, as it was never clearly defined years ago and with today's instruments, it means even less.
I like this a lot. Congratulations!