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Standalone midi-apps and AUv3-hosts that can recieve external midi-clock sync

I tend to use my iPad more and more as a MIDI source for Reaper (my favorite DAW) on a Windows PC. Thanks to my iConnectaudio4+ interface, that is basically a piece of cake. In those cases, I would like to make Reaper the Master and the iPad the Slave where Start/Stop and synchronization (tempo) are concerned.
For those who are interested, I recently made a list of iPad MIDI apps that can receive an external MIDI clock in standalone mode and also of AUv3 hosts that can do that.

Apps (that I own) that work in standalone mode and can recieve external clock:
Xynthesizr
Quantum
StepPolyArp
Poly 2
Fugue Machine
Neon sequencer
Zoa (but doesn't react on start/stop)
Ooda (idem)
Thesys

AUv3-hosts that can recieve external clock:
Audiobus

A rather depressingly short list, because I own a lot of other MIDI apps that cannot be externally synchronized (including all 4Pockets MIDI apps, all those by Cem Olcay, and more (Piano Motifs, Harmony Bloom, Gestrument Pro for example!)
I could use all those non-synchronizable apps in a synchronizable AUv3 host, but that is only possible in - the now somewhat 'suspect' - Audiobus.
My hope is pinned on @j_liljedahl so that AUM (my favorite AUv3 host) can be externally synchronized soon!

Comments

  • @Harro : loopy pro can send and receive MIDI Clock

  • edited January 9

    Why not use Ableton Link? I am not sure if Reaper supports it, but Link is ideal for tempo, beat and start/stop synchronization. Everything works over the network. In my setup I synchronize two iPads both running mainly LoopyPro via Link. I have connected them via wired gigabit ethernet, but Link is even able to keep the timing jitter pretty low over WiFi connections.
    In terms of apps let's not forget LoopyPro! Loopy Pro does both MIDI clock in/out and Ableton Link. You can use both at the same time:
    In my studio a modded Volca Sample acts as clock generator (MIDI clock for the synths and click tracks for the hardware sequencers). The MIDI clock from that wee sampler syncs LoopyPro on an iPad that in return syncs the other iPad and the computers via Link.
    And aside from Loopy Pro there are quite a few host and standalone apps that support Link (AUM and Drambo for example).

  • dRambo also has sync to external Midi clock in standalone.
    I use that to sync up my external Eurorack Rig.

  • @Gravitas said:
    dRambo also has sync to external Midi clock in standalone.
    I use that to sync up my external Eurorack Rig.

    Yes it has, the only problem I have with Drambos MIDI clock input is that the entire transport control gets disabled once you enable MIDI clock in.

  • Thank you @espiegel123 , @catherder and @Gravitas : Never thought of Loopy Pro as a Midi-host with external clock; I will make a template for that. And how could I forget Drambo... Thank you.

  • @Harro said:
    Thank you @espiegel123 , @catherder and @Gravitas : Never thought of Loopy Pro as a Midi-host with external clock; I will make a template for that. And how could I forget Drambo... Thank you.

    FWIW, Loopy Pro has pretty much all of Audiobus’ functionality (except state-saving of standalone apps) plus a better mixer, recording capabilities and custom workspaces.

  • wimwim
    edited January 9

    Audiobus makes a very good midi clock to Link bridge. You don't have to host anything in it. All you need is to add a "system audio" output to keep it alive when in the background. (The system audio output doesn't do anything or make any sound)

    Do that, and your palette of available standalone apps and hosts extends to just about every app out there. Disable Link Start/Stop in the apps to keep them from stopping the clock when they stop.

  • Unless I have my history wrong, midiSTEPs was the first AuV3 host on iOS (or was MultiTrackStudio first...hmm...). Anyways, midiSTEPs can also receive clock. Do note I'm talking about the Art Kerns app, not the 4Pockets app (also excellent) named almost the same.

    Sidenote: The MultiTrackStudio I'm talking about is the DAW that actually is decently good but requires a rather special process, not the crappy app with the same name that used to exist but couldn't do just about anything, but I haven't seen the latter in a few years, so I guess they let it die.

  • wimwim
    edited January 9

    Ones not mentioned so far from a quick look through my apps.

    • FunkBox
    • All the Lumbeats apps
    • Arpeggionome Pro
    • Elastic Drums
    • Drum Perfect Pro
    • DrumJam
    • ThumbJam
    • miRack
    • Quantum MIDI Sequencer
    • Patterning 1, 2, and 3
    • Xynthesizr
    • Gadget
    • SunVox
    • Beatmaker 3
  • @Gravitas said:
    dRambo also has sync to external Midi clock in standalone.
    I use that to sync up my external Eurorack Rig.

    Yeah and doesn’t that open up AUV3s to function as well since Drambo is the host?

  • edited January 10

    Mass can accept both external MIDI sync clock and transport messages. Each can be enabled individually for times where you want sync without transport, or transport without sync.

  • Thanks to all of you for the additional suggestions! I don't have all of the apps mentioned (Mass is on my wishlist!), but I do have a few. Work to do to try those out...

  • @offbrands said:

    @Gravitas said:
    dRambo also has sync to external Midi clock in standalone.
    I use that to sync up my external Eurorack Rig.

    Yeah and doesn’t that open up AUV3s to function as well since Drambo is the host?

    Yup, it does.

    AUM has a clock divider now for Auv3's which is certainly going to be useful and
    I was also going to suggest BeatMaker 3 however Wim mentioned it instead.

  • For those interested: Both Loopy Pro and Drambo work very well indeed as Hosts for midi-apps synced via external midi-clock! (I can delete Audiobus now...) It is a bit of a shame that said hosts do not store the external sync clock settings in presets. Maybe because that external hardware is not connected by default? Oh well; not really a problem.

  • GR-16
    Zenbeats
    Midi -Link Sync

  • @Gravitas said:

    @offbrands said:

    @Gravitas said:
    dRambo also has sync to external Midi clock in standalone.
    I use that to sync up my external Eurorack Rig.

    Yeah and doesn’t that open up AUV3s to function as well since Drambo is the host?

    Yup, it does.

    AUM has a clock divider now for Auv3's which is certainly going to be useful and
    I was also going to suggest BeatMaker 3 however Wim mentioned it instead.

    Cheers Grav.

  • edited January 10

    @Harro said:
    For those interested: Both Loopy Pro and Drambo work very well indeed as Hosts for midi-apps synced via external midi-clock! (I can delete Audiobus now...) It is a bit of a shame that said hosts do not store the external sync clock settings in presets. Maybe because that external hardware is not connected by default? Oh well; not really a problem.

    Is Loopy Pro not recalling the sync settings when you reopen your project?

    It might be that sync settings are treated as a global as often one doesn’t want open a project to change the current sync.

  • @espiegel123 said:

    @Harro said:
    For those interested: Both Loopy Pro and Drambo work very well indeed as Hosts for midi-apps synced via external midi-clock! (I can delete Audiobus now...) It is a bit of a shame that said hosts do not store the external sync clock settings in presets. Maybe because that external hardware is not connected by default? Oh well; not really a problem.

    Is Loopy Pro not recalling the sync settings when you reopen your project?

    Yes LP does that, but also when I open (after a 'external synced' preset) a preset that should NOT be externally synced! Thus LP only remembers the last Synchronazation-setting (and doesn't save this per preset). (Idem wirh Drambo.)

  • @Harro said:

    @espiegel123 said:

    @Harro said:
    For those interested: Both Loopy Pro and Drambo work very well indeed as Hosts for midi-apps synced via external midi-clock! (I can delete Audiobus now...) It is a bit of a shame that said hosts do not store the external sync clock settings in presets. Maybe because that external hardware is not connected by default? Oh well; not really a problem.

    Is Loopy Pro not recalling the sync settings when you reopen your project?

    Yes LP does that, but also when I open (after a 'external synced' preset) a preset that should NOT be externally synced! Thus LP only remembers the last Synchronazation-setting (and doesn't save this per preset). (Idem wirh Drambo.)

    In many cases, one doesn’t want switching projects to change sync. So the sync settings tend to be global. There are actions to turn clock sync on/off.

  • @espiegel123 said:

    @Harro said:

    @espiegel123 said:

    @Harro said:
    For those interested: Both Loopy Pro and Drambo work very well indeed as Hosts for midi-apps synced via external midi-clock! (I can delete Audiobus now...) It is a bit of a shame that said hosts do not store the external sync clock settings in presets. Maybe because that external hardware is not connected by default? Oh well; not really a problem.

    Is Loopy Pro not recalling the sync settings when you reopen your project?

    Yes LP does that, but also when I open (after a 'external synced' preset) a preset that should NOT be externally synced! Thus LP only remembers the last Synchronazation-setting (and doesn't save this per preset). (Idem wirh Drambo.)

    In many cases, one doesn’t want switching projects to change sync. So the sync settings tend to be global. There are actions to turn clock sync on/off.

    Ah, so you could set a project-wide "on load" follow action to set up the sync. That's good to know!

  • @wim said:

    @espiegel123 said:

    @Harro said:

    @espiegel123 said:

    @Harro said:
    For those interested: Both Loopy Pro and Drambo work very well indeed as Hosts for midi-apps synced via external midi-clock! (I can delete Audiobus now...) It is a bit of a shame that said hosts do not store the external sync clock settings in presets. Maybe because that external hardware is not connected by default? Oh well; not really a problem.

    Is Loopy Pro not recalling the sync settings when you reopen your project?

    Yes LP does that, but also when I open (after a 'external synced' preset) a preset that should NOT be externally synced! Thus LP only remembers the last Synchronazation-setting (and doesn't save this per preset). (Idem wirh Drambo.)

    In many cases, one doesn’t want switching projects to change sync. So the sync settings tend to be global. There are actions to turn clock sync on/off.

    Ah, so you could set a project-wide "on load" follow action to set up the sync. That's good to know!

    Yes that works: Project-Wide Follow Action: Load Project -> Enable Midi Clock Sync; unfortunately there's no "Close Project" event where you can Disable Midi Clock Sync... Is there a reason for that @espiegel123 ?

  • @catherder said:

    @Gravitas said:
    dRambo also has sync to external Midi clock in standalone.
    I use that to sync up my external Eurorack Rig.

    Yes it has, the only problem I have with Drambos MIDI clock input is that the entire transport control gets disabled once you enable MIDI clock in.

    That's the idea of slaving to MIDI Clock. Transport control is taken over by the MIDI Status messages STOP, START and CONTINUE. Because MIDI Clock ticks have no timing information, hitting "Play" when slaved to MIDI clock would let the slave start off beat in 95% of the cases.
    You can use LINK instead if you want to keep control over Transport.

  • edited January 11

    @rs2000 said:

    @catherder said:

    @Gravitas said:
    dRambo also has sync to external Midi clock in standalone.
    I use that to sync up my external Eurorack Rig.

    Yes it has, the only problem I have with Drambos MIDI clock input is that the entire transport control gets disabled once you enable MIDI clock in.

    That's the idea of slaving to MIDI Clock. Transport control is taken over by the MIDI Status messages STOP, START and CONTINUE. Because MIDI Clock ticks have no timing information, hitting "Play" when slaved to MIDI clock would let the slave start off beat in 95% of the cases.
    You can use LINK instead if you want to keep control over Transport.

    I understand but none of my hardware synths behaves that way - I think for a good reason. They all follow the incoming clock and the start/stop commands but it’s always possible to use the manual controls. I want to be able to stop unintentionally started sequencers, or deliberately start off beat. The pilot in me just dislikes the idea of an autopilot that, once engaged, disables the control column, the rudder pedals and the throttle.
    And yes, I shifted away from MIDI to Link when it comes to syncing Drambo. Link is great for manually starting and stopping sequences and loops on the beat.

  • @catherder That's interesting. Which hardware synths can do that?
    None of my hardware sequencers allow me to start or stop transport while listening to MIDI clock, and I have quite a few.

  • edited January 11

    @catherder said:

    @rs2000 said:

    @catherder said:

    @Gravitas said:
    dRambo also has sync to external Midi clock in standalone.
    I use that to sync up my external Eurorack Rig.

    Yes it has, the only problem I have with Drambos MIDI clock input is that the entire transport control gets disabled once you enable MIDI clock in.

    That's the idea of slaving to MIDI Clock. Transport control is taken over by the MIDI Status messages STOP, START and CONTINUE. Because MIDI Clock ticks have no timing information, hitting "Play" when slaved to MIDI clock would let the slave start off beat in 95% of the cases.
    You can use LINK instead if you want to keep control over Transport.

    I understand but none of my hardware synths behaves that way - I think for a good reason. They all follow the incoming clock and the start/stop commands but it’s always possible to use the manual controls. I want to be able to stop unintentionally started sequencers, or deliberately start off beat. And the pilot in me just dislikes the idea of an autopilot that, once engaged, disables the control column, the rudder pedals and the throttle.

    @rs2000 said:
    @catherder That's interesting. Which hardware synths can do that?
    None of my hardware sequencers allow me to start or stop transport while listening to MIDI clock, and I have quite a few.

    Synths: Roland SH-01A, Arturia MicroFreak, All Korg Volcas, Behringer Crave to name a few.
    Sequencers: Arturia KeyStep, Korg SQ-1
    All devices sync to MIDI clock and react to the SysRT start/stop messages. And I can start and stop every synth in this studio setup manually without any problems.
    When I want to get around the problem of starting a 24ppq synced MIDI device on-beat, then I just use Eurorack style clock pulses for sync and MIDI for start/stop. This combines the blessing of a centralized start/stop (MIDI), with an easy way to start on beat.
    You probably now understand my shock and "long term annoyance" ;) about Drambos MIDI sync implementation.

  • Imaginando BAM perhaps?

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