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.
Sequencer plugin comparison/question
Sought:
AU sequencer plugin.
Polyphonic, polychannel.
Pattern switching.
Key/scale constraint and transposition.
Usable editing.
Known:
Atom 2: Still my most-used for this feature set. It provides scale viewing, but not constraint/transposition. You have to make your own tweaks using the visible guide. It's also very old now, which concerns me. But I'm not updating this iPad past 18 for now, so it's ok.
MidiDreams: My most-used conventional monophonic sequencer. Does pretty much all of this, except polyphony. And of course fixed-length step-based.
(Art Kerns) Midistep: I don't use it much, except for some chord patterning sometimes. Kinda fussy, not much of the required feature set.
Helium: Atom-like but oddly uninviting. Its pattern method is just bizarre.
(4 Pockets) Midistep: A fixed length step-based sequencer, which is not necessarily a deal breaker, but an important limitation. The key is global, which eliminates it for me. Yes, there are kind-of workarounds, but it's very, very fussy.
Drambo: Yeah, yeah, I know the mantra. Drambo does everything. I don't know how it well it handles key-shifting or transposition... in fact I don't know a lot about its Midi tracking capability because I keep stumbling over its UI and other idiosyncracies. I've used it. It's a few projects. Just... ehm.
LK: Even worse. Everything about it promises Ableton-on-iPad, and it just keeps not working right. A vast disappointment.
Loopy Pro: So much potential, but as of now the Midi editing is primitive (as far as I've used it).
I know there are others. I'm sure that if I looked more comprehensively at my own collection I could even come up with a couple more, but these are what run at the top of my head. And none of them supply the complete need.
Thoughts? Am I missing something important, or misusing/misunderstanding a main application? I must emphasize that I'm talking about plugins, not DAWs. So, Logic and Cubase aren't in the running here.
Alternative considerations gratefully welcome.
Comments
Maybe have a look at Woodstepper? Pretty versatile.
Prism ticks most of these boxes .. definitely worth a look if you haven’t tried it yet.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/prism-midi-sequencer/id6502302630
Polyphonic, polychannel (16 tracks, 16 MIDI channels). Pattern switching with 8 patterns per track and 64 scenes across 8 banks .. Plus 8 mute groups and sound profiles per pattern. Global key/scale with live transposition .. always stays in scale but you can also work in Chromatic mode for full semitone access.
Usable editing depends on what you need. There's no traditional piano roll .. all note editing happens in the step grid and trig focus state. There is a 16-bar piano roll view for overview and note/page selection but it’s not a full-featured piano roll editor. The step-based approach is deep though: P-Locks, conditionals, step FX .. all the Elektron-style stuff.
There’s definitely a learning curve .. it’s not trying to be Ableton or a traditional DAW .. (but there is a cool ableton integration script that’s well worth playing with) .. it’s more of a hardware sequencer feel. But if you’re already comfortable with step sequencers, the step-based thinking shouldn’t feel alien.
Not perfect for everyone, but if the piano roll limitation isn’t a dealbreaker it’s worth the hour or two to see if it clicks. Easily the deepest MIDI sequencing I’ve found in a plugin that just clicks for me.
FWIW, Loopy Pro’s MIDI recording and playback features are focused at the moment on accurate recording and playback; it isn’t intended as a full-featured MIDI sequencer/editor. While those features will come in time, they aren’t a focus.
I guess what I'm looking for really is just "the best" current AU piano roll/ish sequencer. Something to capture licks, noodles, etc, and then, well, do what one does.
And for now that seems to remain Atom 2. Which really kind of amazes me.
Just a couple of clarifying questions and comments:
I would also recommend checking Prism and exploring the videos on it at soundformore on YT. It’s a very powerful sequencer.
Have you looked into BAM or EG Nodes? Both of those can load multiple tracks inside a single AUv3 instance.
Also a question regarding 4Pockets MIDIStep and the key. The key of each instance loaded can be independent. The key can also change between patterns as well. Or is it something else?
I think LK might be closer to what you’re after than Atom 2. It’s free to try with just periodic interruptions and limits on time per session. It's definitely enough to get a feel for it.
As a former die hard Atom 2 user and fan, I’ve gotta say my vote now goes to Drambo. Capturing licks and noodles is flawless for me; it always captures exactly what I play, especially if I turn off quantization.
And for those who like to “program” their music, Drambo’s piano roll now has plenty of time signature options, dotted beat divisions etc etc.
And the pattern features of Atom are easily replicated by Drambo’s clip launcher.
Oh, and another thing some like about Atom 2, is its ability to capture and record expressive/MPE midi data, which Drambo currently does not. This was never that important to me personally, as I always record my expressive, or MPE performances to audio, either by way of the Flexi sampler, or third party auv3 like loopy pro
Of course YMMV
I agree about Drambo. If one needs a piano roll and access to edit automation, it’s terrific. It’s a shame people get so intimidated by it because if just used for midi sequencing, it’s one of the simplest things out there.
Prism has become my sequencer of choice, by a little but only after a long learning curve. But of course, no piano roll. Drambo has it all.
Thanks all, for your comments. Let me see if I can pick up some of these:
I've used Nodes, and it has come in very handy. Perhaps I've mistakenly passed it by. And I hadn't considered BAM at all, having completely forgotten that it can load as a plugin in AUM (my preferred environment). I just took a look and, being Imaginando, I'm skittish only because I've found LK so disappointing, but it could be worth considering.
As for 4P's Midistep... my own direct experience is that if you change the key (up in the top menu bar), it sets that key for all patterns. If you can demonstrate the contrary, I would be grateful.
Yeah, ya see? It really is Atom 2. It's the only that does piano-roll capture and editing as comprehensively. Which, as I say, is so weird. We've seen a raft of specialized or idiosyncratic sequencers (OMG, Prism), but just nothing else that sits down and says "hey... let's do this one thing and do it well. " I imagine it's because there's an assumption that if you're "tracking" in that way, you're just going to use a conventional DAW.
Edit: sorry, @wim. You posted just as I was writing. "The Drambo Mantra" :-) I know, I know.
The only thing is, Atom 2 isn't always completely accurate for MPE. Probably ok for light / casual use.
@garden - Yep - You can change key per pattern in MidiStep - it's covered right here in this masterclass video. Edit: It doesn't seem to jump to the timestamp for me - there's a chapter for it around 17:22.
Ooooohhh. A masterclass indeed. Thank you :-)
Waitwaitwait... @EdZAB are you 4pockets?
lol - I wish. Paul is a superbrain. I'm definitely deep into the apps though.
Iv added loopy to record in Drambo and Drambo to sequence loopy donuts.
Iv also just sent half a dozen tracks vis audio4c to another ipad because ipads are getting old.
Its weird but good.
Sequencing Drambo tracks.
Then when happy.
Automating fx on another ipad ( without bothering too much about midi controller mapping ) Full screen aint bad.
When happy with fx.
Placing finger on Drambo sequencer and touching a loopy widget next to a donut.
This setups up trigger recording and also sequences the recordings.
Half a dozen synths from 1 ipad to another can make 14 recordings per track and sequenced in Drambo.
Not sure about crashes or if ipad can deal with so many audio clips.
Iv only just progressed to automating the fx.
If it works well.
I might keep, even with ipad/s upgrades.
Exactly. And Atom 2 can only record MPE (and as you mention, not always accurately), but editing was never implemented.. so in my eyes, why bother; Just record to audio, as you’re basically stuck with the same result; if your take isn’t what you want, you’ll have to re-record the midi, same as an audio take.
Personally, even if I was using one of the DAWs on desktop that has full MPE editing, I wouldn’t be all that motivated to do so. To me, it’s so much easier and quicker to re-record an audio performance.
If it were a stable DAW.
If there wernt orchestral sections or sections type apps available.
You could record the mpe.
Point at various instruments then alter the cc data on a track basis.
Altering vibrato, growl, flutter etc.
Thats what I concluded when these recorders seemed pointless but that does mean editing automation.
Could be worth it in stable environments.
Oh wow! This was a sequencer feature I’ve wanted for a while now, neat to know that Paul figured out a somewhat simple method of achieving it. Polypipe has become my work around as it’s an arp not a sequencer but this is Very cool; Midistep added to the radar 👍
I think that the challenge here is to define what "the best" means from your perspective.
I was surprised that you disliked LK and what you mean by "not working right".
Then, Drambo has a fairly simple piano roll but all you asked for can be done inside it, including different scales per track, different lengths and meters etc.
And it would allow you to custom-build a patch that is fine-tuned to your own preferences.
I've made quite a few patches for my own use that allow me to compose music in my favorite styles, and I would call in a fun playground because they're restricted to what I want, without bulky feature sets that sometimes get in my way.
All fair points.
LK kept having problems. It's been long enough that I can't enumerate them now, but I think I recall dropped notes and other simple failures, as well as general insufficient utility. Eventually its main use for me - clip launching - was provided by Loopy, which I now use. Imaginando has said here that they'll return to LK eventually, but that they had other priorities, such as VS2.
I would be interested in knowing how to do scale management in Drambo. All I see there is a pretty plain piano roll, with the admittedly nice features of CC editing and P-locks.
If you can offer one of these composition patches, I'd be really grateful to see it.
Interesting. I never had real troubles with LK but most likely I'm using it differently.
Sure!
First of all I need to know what you want to achieve in the end.
On-the-fly transposition following a certain pre-defined scale?
I’ll throw Fugue Machine Rubato in, though is there any way to do pattern switching?
Aaaargh. You can change key per pattern, but not scale?
That's the minimum requirement, yes. Ideally, one would be able to alter both key and scale.
In MidiDreams, each pattern can be, not just in its own key, but set to major, minor, pentatonic, or chromatic. This one little feature makes it possible to do actual modulations, and not just transposition.
Someone else would have to say. I still only have the original version.
Have you tried to use Scaler for this purpose?