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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.
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Comments
@Littlewoodg Sand is another groovebox that’s gone under the radar. The dev working on audio tracks now so it’s being actively worked on.
in general: my favorites are GR2 & BAM.
for live usage (this is groovebox, after all): GR2 (with Launchpad) all the way.
I found this one in my “Not on this iPad” folder in the AppStore. I will give it a try. It looks as if it can record audio from the midi sequenced tracks?
These dawless host-type things are interesting. As long as my device can handle all the moving parts…
I like the idea of running one of these other grooveboxes inside something alongside synths of choice, with FX routing. I brought this topic to the forum because I have become interested in the DAWless performance hardware rigs I’ve seen, like on the “Bad Gear” Audio Pilz YouTube channel. I do have a few little hardware boxes but I’m better off doing an iOS build, budget wise given I already own most of these listed and more.
I guess the obvious hub choice is AUM, but I don’t get along with it for some reason
Out of curiosity, you ol' fans of the lovely Drambo have been rocking it standalone or within a host?
Like @AudioGus I always come back to BM3 (in fact I currently have both bm2 and 3 installed lol), but considering trying a new process with Cubasis or AEM as my main DAW and treat both beatmakers as separate grooveboxes.
To the OP, Drambo is still my favorite groovebox.
Complexity can grow as needed.
Lv1. Drambo
Lv2. Drambo + GR16 + PureAcid
Lv3. Drambo + MiRack + Sunvox
Lv4. Drambo + Combo of Ruismaker / Humbletune / Oliver Gretsch / Bleass
Lv5. Mix and match of all above and more lol
And may not have modern features but for a quick fun on the go, the oldies are always fun: Triq Traq, BleepBox, Egoist, Elastic Drums,
Good Drambo fun! I will go back in to try these levels…
The oldies are so lovely, and quite brilliant. I remembered last night that ED has the performance page, automated fx etc.
And bleepbox…so sweet.
I have an embarrassingly large collection of grooveboxes. The newest ones have really drawn me in, and of course Jim Audio stuff.
Yeah the only issues I’ve had are with certain processing-intensive AUs that I just think weren’t tested on Nodes.
I would say that BeatHawk counts as a Groovebox, although it is a bit long in the tooth now. It also has the benefit of being a standalone AUv3 instrument with 16 channels that can play different sounds at once.
I didn't mention Drambo as I feel most people tend to use it in a more complicated manner than a groovebox. You could absolutely set up a template that made it very groovebox-ish and immediate from loading.
amen to that. If you're a hardware groovebox user, you'll click with GR2 immediately. It can be as immediate as you like, and has enough depth when you need it
Stable, but in some ways not as fully featured as hoped. It's great for what it is IMO but I wouldn't expect more from it or for it to keep up with some plugin support features we've come to expect from apps like AUM, Ape Matrix, and Loopy Pro.
Good to know, thanks comrade!
In general I tend to shy away from these host/dawless builds, feels like too many moving parts
Personally want a box that doesn’t necessarily host anything and has its own onboard synth(s) with sample import, for a player or chops.
I have varying feelings about the standouts mentioned above, (GR 2, Drambo) and my enjoyment of BAM is in an up trend of late, without even loading AUv3s in
What I’m really curious about is the reception of these new boxes
Battalion
Dialekt
Tahti
Perc8
And then there is Cong Burn and his otherworldly grooveboxes, Strokes and Stacks
So far zero love for any of these on this thread. Too soon for anyone to have developed any devotion I guess.
True Perc8 is a very recent release and there is the usual early notes thread, but activity on the forum re these others has really dropped off
@Littlewoodg I think of Battalion as more of a drum machine than a groove box, but I suppose it’s just a matter of perspective. For what it’s worth, although I’m a big Drambo head, I love to play with Battalion and the self-contained nature of it is really great. The synth engines don’t lend themselves to melodic stuff but it does have a good sampler. The sequencer is awesome. The whole interface and workflow really jives for me but not for everyone I’m sure. It’s well supported and should be getting new features too. I recommend it if you’re interested in the more experimental end of electronic music and sound design.
Now, I'm not sure if Gadget is a groovebox. It's more like sitting in a virtual studio to me, but your personal viewpoint of Gadget may vary from mine.
Edit - If Gadget is considered a groovebox, it's the best damn one on iOS for me personally.
Hmm, yah I'd say its a ton of groove boxes. A few times now it has been my easy breezy gateway back into making music when I became blindsided by life stuff.
Whatever works.
I'm glad to read that. Gadget truly is amazing, although I'm going back to FL Studio Mobile for a while. I want to do more stuff like Prodigy, Boards of Canada and other Triphop, Downtempo, Ambient, etc, and FLSM is perfect for those kinds of genres. (Transistor Bass, enough said. 😂 )
^this.
For the rest you mentioned. Never tried any of them. I just have too, too many such apps. Koala, GR-16, GR-2, Battlestation, and Drambo are more than enough for me, and more than I use all that much either.
I like that Battalion blurs the lines between drum machine and groove box. There are times I use it as a simple drum machine. Other times the finished, rich sounds become a song on their own.
I'm not super big into IDM, so I tend to spend time taming Battalion into more traditional syncopated grooves as an inspiring challenge. Does that make it a groove box?
I'd like to have more free time to play with these apps, but unfortunately, it's not possible.
So, if i want to produce something to release, i have to stick with what i have. I use Korg Gadget since 2016, and in the last months i added Groove Rider 2 (and Cubasis 3 for mixing and mastering, thanks to @jwmmakerofmusic ). Maybe in the future i'll switch from GR2 to Koala, because it's easy to manipulate sample and loops that i can export and load in Korg Gadget (mainly Sidney and Bilbao)
@jwmmakerofmusic :’ I’d have to agree , especially if one purchases a lot of the Korg module stuff.. (I did) I need to try it with Logic Pro for iPad which I assume would work because it’s Auv3 now .
Gadget isn't AUv3. Many of the individual Gadgets are now AUv3 instruments that could be used in Logic Pro.
Thanks for informing me , @Wim : I thought it was ..
Taking on the new stuff is definitely time intensive. My particular perversity is that I want to deep dive and figure out every one of the hosts, DAWs and boxes out there, on this platform and a couple others.
I pursue figuring out music software to the exclusion of many other pursuits including work, life and actually making music. This is probably why I am drawn to Cong Burn’s Strokes and Stacks. They are both so fascinating and challenging.
I also restlessly pursue the coolest app of a type, and grooveboxes are a special category. Like @AudioGus, I have many grooveboxes and using them does provide a gateway to creation when otherwise thwarted. And I think I want to know which is the one to rule them all
I just remembered DM-10. Don’t know how I forgot that one because it’s easily my favorite. One of the few music apps I use standalone with no hardware keyboard that I love the end results. Some highlights are the drum samples sound great, it has the bass and lead synths that are a lot of fun to tweak, easy to see all the drum parts in the sequencer, easy to put parts together into a song, very playable pads on a touch screen, and a fantastic UI.
dRambo! 🤩
Git ‘em!
It’s amazing the character and the actor dude’s transformation after the First Blood movie.
I think that there is nothing wrong with this. Explore and dive deep on new apps is a lot of fun. I remember on 90’ when I think I tried every music tracker on the market, because I was obsessed with this type of making music. Modplug tracker and Jeskola Buzz was my favorites…good old times
I think there’s still a great groovebox missing on the iPhone. Drambo and BAM are good candidates, but they’re still too complex for me—especially on such a small screen (iPhone mini). I really don’t like Dialekt’s UI. OTOO isn’t AUv3 and only works in landscape mode (same for BAM).
Right now, my favorite grooveboxes on iPhone are Auxy and Ampify Groovebox, even though they’re not AUv3. I’m dreaming of something fun and intuitive on iPhone that I can easily finish in loopy pro on iPad (via iCloud + AUv3), with generative sequences or loops—and a portrait mode!
I did the same with trackers, and still do actually. When I picked up iOS music apps on ipad in 2010 (my first ever music software) I went backwards in the history of production software. After checking out SunVox I went looking for the earliest stuff I could find, including the obscure brilliancies like Arguru’s Aodix. Am so glad to see more trackers appear on iOS now…(Trackers Forever)