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Issues when changing clip speed/reverse/pitch

BB_BlacksheepBB_Blacksheep
in Loopy Pro

Hi Loopers,

I want to set up a "half-speed" (with variable pitch making it an octave down) and "reverse" button for clips to have them act much in the same way as a Line 6 DL4 or the standard Ableton Looper. However, I'm currently running into the following issues:

  • Changing "Reverse" and "rate (for variable speed)" on the same clip is a mess. This seems to be because they're both tied to the "Rate" value of the clip. My workaround then has been to set a button to change both the clip's speed (down to half) and pitch (1 octave down).
  • Changing these parameters creates pretty noticeable glitches and artifacts. This is surprising, as I had heard that Loopy is quite good at sound stretching/warping, etc. As to whether this might be a hardware issue, I'm on an Ipad Pro M4, UCX2 RME interface so these are probably not the culprits... any ideas
  • Also, I'm trying to figure out whether I can get the clips in Loopy to retain the audio in relation to the state of the clip when recording. Let me explain: with my previous looping setups, if you record a loop, reverse it and record on top, you would basically have a phrase moving "forward" and one moving "backwards". Toggle the reverse button again and the phrases swap directions. Same with stuff recorded at half speed vs normal speed. So far, in Loopy, the phrases are automatically aligned with the state of the clip. So, if the clip is already in half speed and I overdub something, it will immediately get played back at half speed rather than normal...

So, that's it for now. Hope you guys might have some insights :)

Comments

  • espiegel123espiegel123

    @BB_Blacksheep said:
    Hi Loopers,

    I want to set up a "half-speed" (with variable pitch making it an octave down) and "reverse" button for clips to have them act much in the same way as a Line 6 DL4 or the standard Ableton Looper. However, I'm currently running into the following issues:

    • Changing "Reverse" and "rate (for variable speed)" on the same clip is a mess. This seems to be because they're both tied to the "Rate" value of the clip. My workaround then has been to set a button to change both the clip's speed (down to half) and pitch (1 octave down).
    • Changing these parameters creates pretty noticeable glitches and artifacts. This is surprising, as I had heard that Loopy is quite good at sound stretching/warping, etc. As to whether this might be a hardware issue, I'm on an Ipad Pro M4, UCX2 RME interface so these are probably not the culprits... any ideas
    • Also, I'm trying to figure out whether I can get the clips in Loopy to retain the audio in relation to the state of the clip when recording. Let me explain: with my previous looping setups, if you record a loop, reverse it and record on top, you would basically have a phrase moving "forward" and one moving "backwards". Toggle the reverse button again and the phrases swap directions. Same with stuff recorded at half speed vs normal speed. So far, in Loopy, the phrases are automatically aligned with the state of the clip. So, if the clip is already in half speed and I overdub something, it will immediately get played back at half speed rather than normal...

    So, that's it for now. Hope you guys might have some insights :)

    Here is a project demonstrating how to independently toggle octave and direction like you want.

    Loopy Pro always records at regular speed. So if you overdub into a clip playing at a different rate, that rate will be applied during playback to the overdub. It is on our to-do list to be able to handle that differently, but I don’t expect an imminent change.

    Re toggling pitch and speed. Those are pretty cpu/intensive operations changing both simultaneously like that is tricky. Try changing the time-fitting algorithm choice to fast for better performance.

    For this use case, rate is the better way to go.

  • BB_BlacksheepBB_Blacksheep

    Hey there @espiegel123 ,

    thanks again for chiming in. I've just had a look at the project you attached and just by dissecting it a bit I'm learning a ton about what is possible in Loopy :)

    So, first off: swapping directions and octave/half speed seem to work perfectly, without any glitches. That's awesome!

    The method for achieving this is really complex though, considering that one could expect to achieve this with two buttons, namely one that toggles the clip rate between 1 and 0,5 (normal/octave) and another between... oh wait, now I get it...
    Reverse is rate -1... and ... half speed reverse is ... -0,5?

    Oh, so when going forward at normal speed we have an initial rate of 1 (FN)

    • the "direction" button toggles rate between 1 and -1. Becomes "reverse/norma"l (RN)
    • "octave" toggles between 1 and 0,5. Becomes "forward/half" (FH)

    If "octave" is pressed we have "forward/half-speed" with an initial rate of 0,5 (FH)

    • "direction" toggles between 0,5 and -0,5. Becomes reverse/half (RH)
    • "octave" toggles between 0,5 and 1. Becomes (FN)

    Ok, damn, it gets convoluted...

    Anyway, thanks for sharing. The way the dial is set up to is really clever (at first I thought the additional items were just bloat) and already gives me a lot of ideas.

    Also, thanks foir the heads up concerning the way clips are recorded. I guess I'll set something up like in this example

    Cheers

  • espiegel123espiegel123

    @BB_Blacksheep : someone else posted a different simplersolution though it was some downsides

    https://forum.loopypro.com/discussion/comment/1385245/#Comment_1385245

  • BB_BlacksheepBB_Blacksheep

    Wow, thanks for pointing this out. Really like the simplicity of this solution despite its potential drawbacks :)

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