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running LoopyPro with Fractal Audio

gdgrossgdgross
in Hardware

Hi all, new guy here.

I've been a longtime Fractal Audio user as my main electric and acoustic guitar rigs, and have never really found a looper that I bonded with, until Ableton and the Push hardware. That's too much stuff to haul around to gigs IMO, but then I discovered Loopy Pro, which can do some of the same grid-based, fixed-length looping as Ableton/push.

I want to integrate LP/iPad with my Fractal FM9. The FM9 can be my USB audio interface, as well as fire the midi commands to control LP. The wrinkle is that the MIDI commands are only available on the FM9's DIN connectors, not the USB connector. So, i need some kind of MIDI DIN-> MIDI USB device, combined with a USB hub. Ideally, this would all be small and live on the same pedalboard as my FM9.

I don't imagine that there's a single device that does both? But maybe someone on here knows.

Anyone else using LoopyPro with Fractal Audio gear? How are you connecting it?

Thanks!
Geoff

Comments

  • wimwim

    I don't use Fractal Audio gear, but DIN to USB cables are easy to get and inexpensive. You'll just need a USB hub that you can plug into the iPad (or iPhone?). What kind of iPad or iPhone do you have? USB-C or Lightening?

    iOS can only use one usb audio input at a time, but it can take any number of USB MIDI devices at the same time.

  • wimwim

    Examples:
    USB-C https://a.co/d/0hXRCcKL
    USB-A https://a.co/d/0ijaWNHw

    You can also go with Bluetooth if you think it would be trustworthy on stage:
    https://a.co/d/0ijaWNHw

  • MidiVanHalenMidiVanHalen
    edited March 5 
    You might take a look at the CME H4MIDI WC - I believe it can translate 5 pin to usb as host.  If you are lucky the Fractal will send power over midi, or maybe a powered Apple Camera Connection dongle will, but if not  the CME has usb-c power-in ability (and can also be modded to do bluetooth midi which works amazingly well!)  So: Fractal >>> CME<<<Apple Camera Connection dongle (get the one with power in ability)<<<iDevice. It should work! There are enough ins and outs left to add, say, a Morningstar midi footswith  -  at which point you' d have the worlds greatest looping rig!  
 I've been looping since 1993, the Lexicon JamMan, the EHX 2880, Pigtronix Infinity, the stupendous Electrix Repeater, all amazing and fun (and all midi capable), but I must say - now - with Ableton Live and (yep!) Loopy Pro all that hardware is surpassed by miles. It's sad but true! 
Have a ton of fun and make some loopy musics!  ...Ciao.
  • gdgrossgdgross

    Thanks guys, running an iPad pro 11", so, USB-C, which is helpful, I suppose, so I don't need yet another adapter.

    I do own a couple DIN-USB cables, and I tried a direct connect from the fractal to my iPad/LP last night, but i couldn't get the midi learn function to hear anything messages, so I obviously set something up wrong, or my DIN->USB adapter is broken.

    That CME device looks pretty handy and would probably fit on my pedalboard. I assume both of those USB connectors are data and not just power (ie, it acts like a hub). I have a spare 9V on my pedalboard anyway, so looks like I could even power it without any additional hardware!

  • espiegel123espiegel123

    @gdgross said:
    Thanks guys, running an iPad pro 11", so, USB-C, which is helpful, I suppose, so I don't need yet another adapter.

    I do own a couple DIN-USB cables, and I tried a direct connect from the fractal to my iPad/LP last night, but i couldn't get the midi learn function to hear anything messages, so I obviously set something up wrong, or my DIN->USB adapter is broken.

    That CME device looks pretty handy and would probably fit on my pedalboard. I assume both of those USB connectors are data and not just power (ie, it acts like a hub). I have a spare 9V on my pedalboard anyway, so looks like I could even power it without any additional hardware!

    When troubleshooting MIDI, the free ShowMIDI app/plugin is invaluable. Launch it standalone to see at a glance what midi devices the OS sees and what messages it sees.

  • gdgrossgdgross

    @espiegel123 said:

    When troubleshooting MIDI, the free ShowMIDI app/plugin is invaluable. Launch it standalone to see at a glance what midi devices the OS sees and what messages it sees.

    Perfect, I'll grab that and see what my iPad is actually seeing!

    also discovered this little guy from CME https://www.cme-pro.com/h2midi-pro/ probably better for my use case than the h4midi, since it's smaller and will fit on my pedalboard nicely :-)

  • gdgrossgdgross

    Ok I tested with a straight connect from my fractal->midi din to usb C converter -> iPad. I can see the midi ccs coming in while viewing in the showMIDI app.

    However, when I try to use the learn MIDI function in loopy pro, it doesn’t seem to be recognizing the midi inputs. What am I doing wrong. some setup thing in loopy pro?

    Thanks!

  • espiegel123espiegel123

    @gdgross said:
    Ok I tested with a straight connect from my fractal->midi din to usb C converter -> iPad. I can see the midi ccs coming in while viewing in the showMIDI app.

    However, when I try to use the learn MIDI function in loopy pro, it doesn’t seem to be recognizing the midi inputs. What am I doing wrong. some setup thing in loopy pro?

    Thanks!

    Midi Learn should see any midi that the os sees.

    Please create a screen recording showing the following and post a link to it:

    • run ShowMIDI as a standalone
    • Send midi to it from your device
    • launch loopy pro
    • Add Show Midi as an AU to your loopy pro mixer
    • Add the external midi device to Loopy’s mixer
    • Make the ShowMIDI AU a destination
    • Open the ShowMIDI window
    • Send some midi
    • Enter midi learn mode and tap a donut in loopy pro
    • Send a midi cc or midi note from your external controller
  • gdgrossgdgross
    edited March 7

    ok, here's a screen recording of the above. Maybe I don't understand the mixer, or how MIDI works in the mixer, or the learn MIDI function, but I think I've followed the instructions above. I don't see LP reacting when I send MIDI from my device (Fractal FM9 through the Miox, so it appears as the MIox on the iPad).

    I was ofc sending midi when i opened LP, but you cant see me stomping the footswitches, obv. hah.

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/2s13bH8][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/55134394761_3654f22f45.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2s13bH8]ScreenRecording_03-07-2026 13-05-17_1[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/22368519@N02/]gdgross2001[/url], on Flickr

  • gdgrossgdgross

    ok, that flickr link doesn't seem to work, so i put it on my dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cbkkur4kypfawlt9y9yz2/ScreenRecording_03-07-2026-13-05-17_1.mp4?rlkey=qo0tdln67v1x2x6qhqvfdwv6v&st=t79ll6gs&dl=0

  • espiegel123espiegel123

    @gdgross said:
    ok, that flickr link doesn't seem to work, so i put it on my dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cbkkur4kypfawlt9y9yz2/ScreenRecording_03-07-2026-13-05-17_1.mp4?rlkey=qo0tdln67v1x2x6qhqvfdwv6v&st=t79ll6gs&dl=0

    In your video you don’t open the Show MIDI AU so that we can see that midi is being received before doing midi learn. I was hoping it would be open so that we could see the midi being sent.

    At the beginning when the standalone ShowMIDI was open, you send only 0 values. Loopy Pro’s MIDI Learn assumes that non-0 values are the ones to be learned.

    I suggest setting up your footswitch to be a momentary controller as described here:

    https://wiki.loopypro.com/Footswitches#Full_Momentary_Setup

    You could use the 0s but would have to manually set up the bindings.

  • gdgrossgdgross

    thanks espiegel

    Think i've set up my switches as recommended now, and I'm able to see them in loopypro when I open the showMIDI section. new screen recording here. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oj115to3ee6fn3kf1m9nf/ScreenRecording_03-08-2026-11-20-58_1.mp4?rlkey=bh7felc83buo1uqfxaxteu0ex&st=wbgxrwdg&dl=0

    However, when I try to use the learnmidi function, it still doesn't seem to do anything when I press my footswitches? (You can see me mucking around with the learnMIDI options to try and figure this out in the screen recording.

    Any thoughts? what am I doing wrong lol

    THanks!

  • espiegel123espiegel123

    @gdgross said:
    thanks espiegel

    Think i've set up my switches as recommended now, and I'm able to see them in loopypro when I open the showMIDI section. new screen recording here. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oj115to3ee6fn3kf1m9nf/ScreenRecording_03-08-2026-11-20-58_1.mp4?rlkey=bh7felc83buo1uqfxaxteu0ex&st=wbgxrwdg&dl=0

    However, when I try to use the learnmidi function, it still doesn't seem to do anything when I press my footswitches? (You can see me mucking around with the learnMIDI options to try and figure this out in the screen recording.

    Any thoughts? what am I doing wrong lol

    THanks!

    That is a little mysterious. Normally MIDI Learn just works.

    If you could make a screen recording like i show below, that might help us understand better what is happening. If you could turn on the microphone when doing the screen recording (long press the screen record button to get the mic option) and narrate as I have,mthat would be great

  • gdgrossgdgross
    edited March 8

    ok, I think I have it figured out now. The problem was that I needed to assign the LoopyPro AU MIDI output as well as the input. I saw MIDI going into the showMIDI, even within LoopyPro, but I guess I hadn't assigned it to go back to LoopyPro's AU engine.

    I can now learn MIDI events just fine! One hopefully final question though: as I'm figuring out what pedal I want to fire what CC and what I want that CC to actually do in LP, I'm reorganizing a bit, and as a consequence, I have one CC with multiple actions assigned to it, and I think it's messing things up. How do I see what actions are assigned to a CC message?

    Thanks a bunch 🙏

    Here's me looping the metronome and trying to figure stuff out haha https://youtube.com/shorts/s4Bsp7ECqmo

  • espiegel123espiegel123

    @gdgross : all midi bindings are added to profiles. All profiles are accessed by the Control Settings panel:

    https://loopypro.com/manual/#profiles-2

    https://loopypro.com/manual/#profiles

  • gdgrossgdgross

    yessss, thank you espiegel! Got it working properly now - thanks so much for your help!!

    Now, I just need to figure out exactly what I want all these CCs/footswitches to do. hah. I have six available to me in the Fractal. So far i have them set up this way:
    1. record
    2. undo
    3. mute
    4. next loop
    5. previous loop
    6. ?? new song section? Mute all? I'll have to play with it and see what I find most useful. (I might reclaim this one for some fractal functions if I can't find something I want to do with it in LP)

    Another thing I want to do, and I'll have to research if this is even possible, is add a button to my template that's a macro to add some specific effects to one or more loops. In particular, pitch shifting down a loop by 12 semitones to mimic a bassline once I've recorded it on guitar.

  • espiegel123espiegel123

    @gdgross : you can set up buttons that pitch shift loops. Some people set up follow actions to automatically shift the pitch of some loops or colors after initial recording is done.

  • gdgrossgdgross

    @espiegel123 said:
    @gdgross : you can set up buttons that pitch shift loops. Some people set up follow actions to automatically shift the pitch of some loops or colors after initial recording is done.

    perfect. this app is awesome

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