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.
Seems all iOS Hosts have some important sequencer/midi features missing (cost of iOS sequencing)
Good luck if you don’t need some of the below features and can stick with your core sequencer/host. Or most likely you will need a combo.
Loopy Pro, midi clip is coming but no editing.
Drambo, no native MPE capture(too bad I know it is so good)
Groove Rider 2, no Ableton start/stop sync, no midi out, no native MPE capture
SAND, no audio clip no loop markers but coming, no real song mode like GR2 & LP
AUM, no nothing it’s everything LOL
Even you don’t work with audio/vocal, most likely u will need 2 sequencers/host
To my surprise, I can finish pure midi work on just SAND. But I really like the song mode of GR2 so I do standard midi tracks there and MPE on SAND.
Unfortunately, Ableton Link start/stop is missing so I need AUM to sync SAND and GR2. There are also AUv3 I use for specific purpose like Beat Scholar for Polyrhythm sequencing. Generative sequencing apps like jAmp Percussive and Chord progression from 4pockets.
I found I own more host/sequencing apps than sound/instrument apps but with less spending. All I want to say is, building a great hosts/sequencers is way more challenging than an instrument apps but top tier hosts are generally CHEAPER than same grading instrment apps. So far I paid around $100 for hosts/instruments with sequencers
It is tough and hope people appreicate host/sequencer developers more.
Comments
MIDI parameter feedback to the controller is also a feature that is not common among hosts and sequencers.
Xequence?
Cubasis?
GarageBand.
Cubasis.
Logic Pro.
+many more.
Dawless is dumb if you wnat finish actual music track with singing.
It will have a piano roll for editing, tho
I mean, beta includes it... And I don't see why that would change
(In the current public build, [default] swiping up on an audio loops, there's an edit button to trim the loop. Doing the same on a midi loop opens the piano roll)
Unless there's something else you're alluding to?
For launchpad, Prism Sequencer is a thing of beauty. And (not sure on timeline) dRambo is adding that feature! It's slowly gaining popularity
Sorry I quoted the wrong phrase. Should be "2.0 won’t have automation curves or editing."
Logic pro has it all. iPad only though.
Correct. But you can export the midi and use xequence 2 for deep editing.
AUM syncs with anything, routes MIDI anywhere, and hosts everything AU.
It does nothing else... but is a platform for everything else.
I rather pick a light-weighted host shipped with sequencer as my go to setup. 9 out of 10 projects don't need further touch up/editing. I dumb those really loved works to DAW for whatever else needed.
Sensible. LP may hopefully fill that gap when the next major release comes out.
I tell ya, though... what I was waiting for in that update has been really well picked up by GR2. Sure there are idiosyncracies and limitations, but it's really meeting a need.
That sounds like EG Nodes.
It also sounds exactly like ... sorry ... Drambo.
If you ignore all the modular stuff and just look at Drambo as a host and sequencer, it's simple. No-one believes me when I say that once they've made up their mind that Drambo is too complicated and intimidating. But it's the truth. The dreaded modules aren't even visible until you decide to use them.
Agreed. Drambo is an absolute dream of a sequencer without ever touching the modular. People write it off too often.
I'd use it for everything, but sadly no MPE.
Good point.
Same for GR2, no MPE capture... So I pair GR2 with SAND.
@wim U know I alway want Drambo, it can do almost everything and do it well. But evetually it becomes my planned everything ELSE...
Honestly if GR2/LP is Mac, Drambo is for sure Linux. It's magic
Loopy is a beast with midi functionality for sure, but one thing I realized recently is that I've gotten so used to using it with only audio loops that midi has become less important for my live sets, which is what i use loopy exclusively for.
I'm now waiting for timeline automation which is pretty essential to my studio production. Once Loopy has that I'll be cancelling my Logic subscription.
Except incoming MIDI clock, unfortunately.
Same. While I'm absolutely loving what I'm seeing, I'm sort of conflicted about having midi looping there to fall back on. I think that Loopy has sold me well enough on spontaneity at this point that I won't fall back into endless tweaking habits.
With a long enough midi loop, or loops placed where you need them, you'll be able to do some timeline automation as well. There are some excellent midi CC overdub options coming too that I'm super excited about.
I have made up my mind 😜
Sounds to me like loading a few Loopy Pros or Drambos as AUv3 inside your favorite MPE-supporting host would be the closest option.
Apart from that, the post title "Seems all iOS Hosts have some important sequencer/midi features missing" sounds like making your personal preferences the reference by which all hosts (or DAWs?) should be rated?
If that was true, more DAWs would have features like full MPE support for sure.
OP-1 charm 😃
LP will at least apply the same approach as their existing audio clips. Which mean u can have clips as long as your entire song and don’t looping them.
GR2 can do the same and that is why a true song mode is that important. Drambo missing that out and it is the greatest pattern sequencer but not an ultimate song host.
Once LP gained midi clips I guess what separates it from GR2 is LP has no fixed number of grids and scenes U can have more than 16 clips per track/AUv3 and more than 16 scenes on LP.
LP should have more flexibility at a COST, aka more like Linux, but I believe 90% users will find GR2 easier and just enough.
Of cause midi out is another point that separate them.
I choose to go parallel with 2 non-DAW hosts. GR2 for the main song structure and SAND for MPE tracks. Honestly how often we need MPE on a 4/4 loop? We usually need MPE on much longer phrases so I think SAND as a clip base sequencer work perfectly with any other host with a real song mode.
I intentionally separated Tradition daws from the rest of native iOS developed Hosts. Hosts like GR2 LP Drambo SAND are much more touch friendly than DAWs rooted from PC/MAC
Yes DAWs are the most powerful and the most features rich but for 90% of my work I prefer native iOS hosts
And I guess I’m talking about making music, aka songs. If u need to handle hours of live set u need a computer and Ableton Live
And FYI, a real song mode is in progress on SAND.
Edit: @rs2000 since you showed your love in MPE, may I know what midi controller u choose? Mine is Velocity Keyboard, Midi Poly Grid and Geoahred. They are all good for playing more complex music on grid. But Im seeking one has the most control over the sound with a larger grid/bar. Any ideas?
Drambo piano roll is simple to use, but there’s no real timeline song mode/arranger view (just the Clip Arranger), if that’s something you prefer/need. That’s what’s kept me from digging into it more as a sequencer.
Drambo and GR2 should exchange their name haha
Well, whew ...
I have a separate related post to this, and have had a very intense two weeks of digging, evaluating around 50 different potential MIDI sequencers to work with Loopy in a tight rapid workflow.
I'm only capturing audio for vocals and external gear, and while I could just continue playing all parts in and recording, I wanted a sequencer so I could capture quantized parts for the styles of music I'm doing, and then also use both hands to tweak filters and things while then recording into Loopy Pro.
I also don't intend to finish entire songs on the iPad, I feel like I want bigger screens for that, and I already have separate mixing and mastering templates created in Ableton and Studio One for that so I can feel a clean separation of duties as well.
I primarily want a very fast way to capture individual parts for each looped section, be it verse, bridge, chorus, break, whatever, and as I build and layer, I have the opportunity to quickly go back and redo any part I want as I feel out the changes, including vocals. This is something Loopy excels at, allowing me to be almost entirely in the creative zone without breaking it.
For the moment I've settled on Helium as a MIDI sequencer to pair with it, though I may move to Drambo depending. It after watching the Helium Masterclass videos and validating all the pieces I know I want at the core, it seems the exact level of immediacy I want to get all the parts of each song in with.
I only havent dug into Helium yet and a really validated hands-on because the DrumBrute Impact came and I need to swap it in, and I was also working through the vocal chain I want, and figuring out all the specific apps to grab for it. Finished about 30 minutes ago, so going to pass out hard any minute, and please forgive typos.
All that said, I think it really does depend on what workflow you want. I had some very specific and refined goals, and it has still taken me a solid two weeks digging through data to validate what existed. It does not help at all that most of these programs have no demo/trial, while others that require in-app purchase to unlock appear as "free".
But I digress and can leave crazy at the door, it seems I've nailed down all the pieces and found a working solution to build on what has already been working well through Loopy itself. No AUM or parallel hosts fighting over who is MIDI master. Loopy is master for all internal and external gear, it's set by the first vocal loop I record, make for a very natural pace to work from.
At least for what works for me.
May I know what make Helium stand out for you and what features u gave up?
Per my other post, I've been looking for something as immediate as some hardware MIDI sequencers, like the old Alesis MMT-8 and modern remake Retrokits RK-008, or the Novation Circuits Tracks.
I came up with a specific list of features from that while digging, and it seems like Helium, and quite possibly Drambo, have them all. I haven't watched videos of Drambo yet, and think like others I was initially put off by posts on forums that gave the sense it wasn't going to be a very immediate workflow solution - I've since learned it may well be, possibly out of the box.
The Helium MasterClass videos provided an excellent view of Helium's workflow, and more importantly, demonstrated that many of the extra features it does have don't get in the way of the core feature set I want, so I don't have to think about them at all initially, but as I grow into the sequencer, I may well find myself wanting to use them - especially the scale and chord features. As a counter example, this is where Scaler 2 feels like it fails my litmus test, as while it is designed around those scale and chord features, many reviews indicate they impact workflow significantly, sometimes painfully so.
The specific features I boiled down were:
So far, it doesn't seem like I'm needing to give up anything with Helium yet - everything else is a minor pro or con, but no major cons I've seen yet. Of course it may not be the same feature set that everyone else wants, so they may be giving up something I don't care about in Helium.
I ultimately chose Helium over Atom, Prism, and LK+Matrix, as it seems like while close, they will not have the same immediacy of getting ideas out quickly, layering, and reworking sequences as I whip a song into shape as I feel it out.
Sand got passed because it can't be hosted inside Loopy, and I don't want to run something extra like AUM if I don't have to.
For others considered and discarded:
I also looked and and discarded Quantum, midiSequencer, and GR16, and while I know not supporting AUv3 was part of it, I didn't record the other reasons they really don't seem to fit the scope either.
EG Nodes was also discarded, I think primarily because it also doesn't seem to be positioned with that that same immediate workflow that I want, and possibly the nodes didn't really support all of the core feature set being looked for.
Any of the several others I had on the list did not stand out from initial research as being either capable of or likely a better candidate for the feature set, and I didn't dig into most of them nearly as much ... save for DigiKeys, which did hit a lot of points, but was challenging to find answers about whether it supported several of the others, like Overdub, Auto-Quantize, Polyphonic recording, and a few other minor things like Pitch Bend recording.
If you do watch any Drambo videos, try to find ones that are recent and that are focused only on the sequencer.
The sequencer is radically improved over earlier releases, and most videos will be misleading due to being out of date. Try to find ones that stick purely to the sequencer and don't get lost in the weeds.
You can easily ignore everything else about Drambo. In fact, that's how it comes out of the box. You have to purposely add anything other than the sequencer. But finding recent videos focused on that might be challenging.
Sorry, I don't have any recommendations for you. I don't watch many videos.