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
Loopy Pro is a looper with some DAW features, rather than a DAW with looping features. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for someone heavily oriented toward traditional DAWs.
What can it bring to a DAW user? I'd say primarily added spontaneity. There are many other things, but that's the main one to me.
I don't see that Loopy Pro brings a whole lot to that workflow. GarageBand, Logic Pro, or Zenbeats might be a better way to explore adding looping features to your DAW workflow. They have clip launchers integrated into a full featured DAW. Loopy's timeline / DAW features are pretty basic.
That’s what I thought. I don’t work in loop. I write in a traditional ABABCA format.
You don’t have to record loops. I am not trying to convince you to switch from a DAW, but Loopy can record and playback linear audio.
The clips are just recordings. They can be set to loop or not to loop. They can be as long as you want.
It is a handy always on recorder for retrospectively capturing ideas after you played them.
A number of bands use it as for live multi-track recordings of live performances and rehearsals. No looping involved.
There are people that use it for live capture of their solo guitar performances. Using it just as a recorder.
Many find it’s lightweight DAW mode as a low friction way to sketch ideas and do basic tracking as they find it quicker to get going than the DAWs they use for full tracking.
Maybe it’s time for Loopy Pro to rebrand to LP Studio…
I definitely agree with @robin2 about "I would recommend that far more templates/demo projects be included which do simple things - things that the experts might consider unnecessary to have demo projects of because they’re so ‘easy’ to set up". Yes. This!
And based on my own interests and those of others expressed above I think it would be really great if there were some bite-size videos that showed these scenarios you described @espiegel123. I would love that. And if it's as easy , or as go-to as you suggest (vs say AUM), then it should be not difficult to explain in short videos. If you need long videos then reconsider workflows, tools, or sales pitches maybe.
Don't get me wrong I am SUPER excited about eventually learning Loopy Pro. I can see how it has the definite potential to be the nexus of my (future as yet) live setup
Maybe there’s a reason 99% of tutorials seem to be done in AUM. I think loopy and Drambo really reward taking time to set up but just don’t feel as easy to get music off the ground.
The included Sample Projects folder has a small but growing set of basic workflows, the PatchStorage repository has quite a lot of templates and the wiki has some a number of projects too.
As time is finite, we don't have the time to create all the samples and demos as we'd like.
A big driver may be that AUM has been around MUCH longer. More people have more expertise with AUM. There is more institutional knowledge here about AUM. Many people that started using Loopy Pro or Drambo after having well-established AUM workflows incorporated Drambo or Loopy Pro into their existing workflows since they already had a workflow down. They (reasonably) felt no reason to dive deep into another app since they had their workflow down.
I am not trying to convince anyone to abandon their existing workflow. I am suggesting (paricularly since this thread started out as an inquiry from a Loopy Pro user wondering what they might be missing) that if one has spent a significant time getting familiar with AUM and limited time with Loopy Pro that one may not realize how much overlap there is and that Loopy Pro is also quite good for many of the things that people cite as reasons they like AUM.
Most of the learning curve issues that people run into in Loopy Pro are in areas of Loopy Pro's functionality that AUM doesn't have (there is a huge amount of Loopy Pro functionality AUM doesn't cover at all). There is some learning curve in the overlapping areas; a lot of that curve (which is not steep if you ask questions) is related to people being used to doing things a certain way and wanting Loopy to do them the same way.
If people have questions, we take those questions to heart and they inform our samples, documentation and tutorials.
If you have a question about how to do something, please ask.
I’ve spent exponentially more time in Loopy Pro than in AUM the past few years. I can’t agree with that assessment. AUM is (imo) just far more intuitive in the areas it overlaps with Loopy.
But AUM is also far more limited.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in with Loopy and see no reasons anymore to use AUM other than as a diversion. I also don’t think it takes a huge amount of effort to transition from AUM to Loopy. However, AUM wins hands down in intuitiveness if you ask me.
A Loopy Pro for AUM Users video, or video series, would be a great thing though. 🤔
Yes, of course you and @Michael have limited time and everyone appreciates all the great work you both do in support and development but what I’m suggesting is having lots of templates of setups for simple functions - such templates would presumably take very little time for you to set up lots and lots of them so compared to the time you already spend in providing customer support, I think it would be time well spent. Such templates for simple functions would also perhaps reduce the number of support requests you receive?
PatchStorage is great but not every user, especially every new user, is going to be aware it even exists. That’s why I suggest having lots of built in templates because they are right there ready for you to easily use without trawling the internet for what you need which may or may not exist depending on the functionality you’re after.
I’m just trying to suggest something to help new users get past the initial hurdles and allow them to actually use and get into Loopy Pro. So often I’ve read on this forum that someone tried Loopy Pro but found it impenetrable and immediately gave up on it. Having lots of templates for simple functions would really help avoid this and would illustrate to new users in real usable terms that they are effectively getting many apps in one with Loopy Pro.
@Robin2 : can you give examples of what you mean? We have added quite a few projects like you describe based on support questions. Concrete examples of the sort of thing you mean would be helpful.
I love AUM. The fact that you improvise most of the time and simply surrender to the music that's emerging in front of you makes AUM a true creativity accelerator. It's a similar experience to sitting down at my modular system and just starting to produce. The spontaneity and the fact that you're creating something live and can't constantly tweak it (like with a typical DAW) leads me to create fantastic musical things, some of which can become quite long. AUM is wonderful for experimenting, for discovering; it encourages you to take unconventional paths and create so much new sound. And it's my go-to app when it comes to ambient and music concrete. Long story short, I LOVE AUM and truly prefer it to everything else. And I have for years
I’ll say that I think Loopy and AUM work pretty well together. There’s been cases where I use Loopy as an AUv3 to patch up spots I need in AUM.
Re Loopy Pro sample projects/examples/tutorials I'll qoute myself from another thread:
That’s a cool idea I might steal. What’s a good first setup? I’m no LP power user but I’ll do some basics and everyone can point out the better way to do it.
I would suggest starting a thread which requests the same thing of everyone who finds Loopy difficult to hook up rather than just myself to get more legitimate and wide ranging results.
Personally, I’ve stuck with Loopy Pro beyond the initial ‘wtf’s going on?’ stage and, whilst I would still consider myself very much a beginner, I was making my suggestion based on the bewilderment I remember having when I first used it and based on the comments I see here which suggest that’s not an uncommon experience.
There’s a sense in which Loopy doesn’t feel as though it just works straight out of the box I’m afraid. It’s open ended nature is amazing once you make it beyond the threshold learning curve but that can also perhaps make the initial experience feel unfocused and overwhelming and it seems some/lots just don’t find it welcoming enough to have the inclination to persist with it.
So, I’m thinking of templates for really basic functions - functions so basic that people who are experts would consider it absurdly unnecessary to have templates for! So, if you want some loop recorders set up for easy overdubbing, here you are, there’s a template set up ready to go for that; if you just want a bank of empty one shot clips, ready for you to easily record or import samples into so that you can do some finger drumming, here you are, there’s a template for that too. How about a template which is a ready set up equivalent of the default new project but with MIDI loops instead of audio loops - even something that basic could be really useful to new users. Lots of easy functions which are set up and ready to go. Stuff which would allow newcomers to easily play around get a range of things actually done rather than hunting round in settings and getting frustrated.
If you and @Michael have partners, friends or acquaintances who are interested in making music but aren’t familiar with Loopy Pro, maybe ask if you can observe them use it for the first time. Resist the urge to offer help and instead ask them what they’re trying to get it to do but not succeeding in. That might prove to be illuminating and suggest some templates which would be useful?
I would say another good starting point would be to look at different apps which do this, that or the other and, if it’s possible to do an equivalent of their function in Loopy Pro, then include a template which does that, in the same way that there are some templates already which mimic the behavior of certain hardware loopers.
And, back to PatchStorage, there’s several brilliant patches in there which I often think should be included in Loopy Pro by default. For example, I’m particularly impressed by @timfromtheborder’s patches, many of which brilliantly illustrate how Loopy can be used to create setups inspired by other apps. And in terms of a simple(ish) basic function, his Simple LFO patch would be an ideal addition and a great example of what I’m suggesting.
Hopefully that helps clarify in some way what I’m suggesting might be helpful - really simple setups of a full range of possible basic functions which are just ready to go, designed not so much as tutorials but to be used immediately. Cheers.
@Robin2 your posts are on the money. Thanks for articulating all this. Not much to add on my end outside of +1 for everything said in case devs are curious if others share the sentiment.
I think this is the wrong way to do it. My thinking is, don't give me the finished product, show me how to do it instead...
Well, obviously, I disagree in the sense that the opposite is my whole point in this case: sometimes you need to give a person a fish to sustain them, then, afterwards, you can teach them how to fish!
The ‘show me how to do it instead’ is all very well and incredibly useful if your new user wants to spend time learning how to do something rather than get on with their main goal of making music - some people want to do that, some don’t. Again, I point to the evidence of posts on this forum where people clearly haven’t felt compelled to pursue Loopy Pro further after their initial confusion with it.
For people who want to be shown how to do it, and are happy to invest a good amount of time doing so, there are actually many very good video tutorials (and the manual) out there already (such as the SoundforMore series of Loopy Pro tutorials). I think we’re pretty well served for that approach. What I’m suggesting is needed are things to help new users actually use the app straight away without having to learn the ins and outs.
Thanks @FizzyLizzy27. I just think it’s a shame that Loopy Pro is so impenetrable for many of us initially and therefore so many seem to give up on it before realizing the scope of what it can do. I’m just suggesting something that I think could help. Cheers.
Good point...
I’ve been meaning to do something like this. Without the AUM part because I don’t use AUM.
The thing is, one to one, Loopy will lose to AUM. It’s the stuff Loopy does that AUM doesn’t that puts it over the top, but that’s also what gives Loopy a bigger learning curve. AUM is easier to use because it is less complex.
So if you only want to duplicate your AUM workflow in Loopy, without using clips or widgets or actions, there’s little point.
But I could do a video on a basic setup, and go through the mixer.
Lastly I’ll say that AUM does have a learning curve. People have been using it for so long that they’ve forgotten that they had to learn how to use it.
Keep in mind that there are probably a lot more sample projects, tutorials and other resources than when you first used Loopy Pro.
@FizzyLizzy27 : what sorts of examples or demonstrations do o you need? What is mysterious of hard to figure out for you?
Can you post screenshots of an AUM workflow you’d like to see how to replicate?
I checked what sample projects and tutorials were present in the latest beta version before my last long post. If they are the same as those available in the public release, then I am fully up to date with what’s there.
Still, if my lengthy suggestions are going to be dismissed with a one sentence response, I can see there’s possibly an unwillingness to accept that anything’s wrong with the current setup? Fair enough, of course, that’s your prerogative, but I’m surprised: you, more than anyone must be aware from feedback how unintuitive lots of people find Loopy Pro to be when they first use it. You must also be aware that lots of those people don’t persist with it after that first experience.
Yourself and @Michael understand how to use Loopy Pro better than anyone else but the one thing you perhaps lose with such an expertise is the ability to truly understand and empathize with what it’s like to not understand how that thing works. Experts aren’t always the best at identifying what complete beginners really need. As someone who very well remembers what that’s like (I only bought Loopy Pro at the beginning of this year), I was just trying to pass on feedback as to what I think would have helped and still could help new users who find the current setup confusing with the overwhelming number of options available.
Ah well, I tried. Thankfully, one person understood and agreed with what I was getting at so I do feel slightly vindicated at least! Cheers.
Been using AUM for years and will never fully understand the midi implementation. Audio part is easy but the midi is all over the place to me. There’s a matrix, you can access same settings in variety of places, it’s a mess.
Robin. You are misinterpreting my response.
I am not dismissing your point of view or your suggestions. When I asked you for specific projects and resources that you would like to see, I was being sincere. Pointing out that there are more resources now than there were in 1.0 was not intended to be dismissive -- and, while there is room for more resources (which I pointed out we are working on), I think it is fair to say that there are significantly more available examples and tutorials than there used to be.
As I said earlier, we are working on expanding the samples and improving the documentation.
I'll see what I can find...
No worries, no harm done @espiegel123. Thank you very much for your private message too which I have just replied to more fully. Cheers.