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
Arguru was a genius, not only Aodix, but also Noise Trekker and Psycle, and he was hired by the flstudio team. And I remember another very talented developer that is still active today, @brambos . Hammered, Tuareg, Tunafish, cool and innovative softwares. This discussion has unlocked a lot of memories for me. Thanks for this
Sounds like Koala to me. Or the older Groove Rider GR-16. GR-16 has got almost everything you could need and the best layout for tiny screen of any complex app I've come across. Not portrait though. I agree with you, if I'm on the phone, I really want portrait mode. Koala eats portrait mode for breakfast. It even has a simple synth and MIDI out available now as an IAP too.
Koala in Loopy Pro on the phone, then just export the project and AirDrop to the iPad, and you're good to go.
I'm having a surprisingly good experience with Prism MIDI Sequencer in Loopy Pro on the phone. It doesn't seem like Loopy Pro would be as usable as it is on a phone, and it isn't if you get complicated with widgets and stuff. But using it just as a host for Prism sequencing plugins is far more usable than I expected. Prism is a bear to learn though.
Yes, Koala is great, really, but… I don’t know… it doesn’t inspire me, and some UX decisions seem strange to me (like going to Samples > More > Quokka just to use the synth, for example).
I was thinking about using Loopy + Prism + a portrait-mode synth… I really need to try Prism one day.
Yah I have given Koala a few tries now but I hit odd sorts of dead ends in my workflow every time, like going down a hallway and finding no doors. Not sure what I am supposed to get out of it.
The sampling workflow in Koala is extremely simple, just record to pads and play. Everything else it does is gravy. It’s not a DAW or a groovebox by any means. It’s a sampler and the best one I’ve used, but you have to work with what it gives you, it isn’t built to be flexible.
I'm not sure I understand the issue with Quokka. It's two taps and a drag and drop to get an instance going, then only one tap, or at most two (edit button + pad) to manage it. And it only has one screen. I can't think of any simpler access to any other synth in any host. 🤷🏼♂️
Well yeah ... kinda messed up that you can't freely play Quokka and edit it at the same time.
My only Dead-End issue in Koala is not having the transport controls on the Sample page. The developer has steadfastly declined to add them there. That's no big deal to me though.
There aren't a lot of synths that work great in portrait. Rob Jackson's are simple, cover a lot of ground, and work great in portrait. Not having a native preset manager is a big downside when transferring between devices though. Still, Loopy does have preset export and import, and at least the current settings of plugins are transferred with the project.
Drambo for sure. The workflow is so smooth.
I tried Tahti, but didn't find it anywhere as intuitive and streamlined.
Koala, as many have said, is rather a sampler with groovebox features than an actual groovebox. Plus, it falls short at what is the most important groovebox aspect: the sequencer.
If we’re allowing samplers Dawnbeat is my favorite in portrait mode. I need to poke around it a bit more before a whole hearted suggestion, but it’s a lot of fun.
Wavebox is also great for sampling
And an auv3 fx host.
Surprised no one mentioned Korg Electribe Wave. Some odd decisions by Korg which make it kind of unintuitive, but when I open it, it gives me groovebox vibes for sure.
Koala is also great, but the pattern editing is a pain to work with imo. Since it’s very sample based, it needs a midi note chase like yesterday, especially when triggering longer samples. And some sort of song mode would be awesome
You can have your patterns play consecutively which is an ad hoc song mode. And of course, you can add patterns onto patterns too. I like that Koala requires these workarounds, limitations breed creativity IMO.
I don't have an iphone, but from what I heard, GR16 is still great on a smaller screen. And not complex
Really? How do you play them consecutively, without triggering them by hand?
And yes, I know you can append patterns together, but then good luck editing them when you go beyond 8 bars.
I was pretty sure Stacks and Stroke didn't run on my device (iPad Mini 2 with iOS 12)
Both seem pretty complex
But decided to search the suggestions on this thread and noticed they do work. Now i'm in a rabbit hole trying to figure out if I buy them or not
@timfromtheborder
I just discovered “AutoPlay”! I can’t believe I had missed that for so long. Thanks so much for the tip! 🙏🏻
What about Note?
That is in portrait mode
A pleasure.
He also made lot of great synths in Buzz tracker … and for example DSP Discovery was his baby too
It was real loss when he died. RIP.
Bram is absolute living legend, no doubt. True OG.
They are crazy complex but rewarding rabbit holes. There is a lot of YouTube stuff that has helped me. It is a happy accident type app but he engineered it that in mind.
Yes, a true loss...he was also so young (28 y.o.)
I like Drambo inside GR2 both as an instrument and a midi effect
So I’m seeing:
Grooverider 2
Drambo
BAM
Egoist
EG Nodes
Battlestation
Drambo
Otoo
Sand
Grooverider (GR-16)
Gadget
Pure Acid
Electribe Wave
Beathawk
Groovebox (Novation/Ampify)
TriqTrac
bleep!BOX
Note
Wavebox
Good list
Some more to consider
Hypertron
Nanoloop
iMPC
iMPC Pro 3
Groovebox (Bleass)
Reason Compact
iDS-10
iElectribe
iMaschine 2
DrumComputer
Motto Akemie
attack
I want to suggest the Trackers (the OG grooveboxes?)
SunVox
VividTracker (runs samples only)
Pixitracker (runs samples only)
Squarebeat
Klankwelle
Sinusoid (synths only)
Note is pretty interesting but has not export except ableton
Yeah, I should give another try
It can export audio
Oh yes ! I missed that, thanks
Terrifying to see how many apps on that list I own, but haven’t really used.
Out of that list I have a soft spot for Egoist - though more for its sample chopping than its bass/drum stuff - and Gadget, which I’ve been revisiting after buying a couple of new Gadgets in the recent sale.
It’s a shame Gadget doesn’t host third-party AU’s, but I like the workflow, and there’s always an option to bring in samples. Never completed a full song with it, but good for making ‘bits’, particularly rhythmic stuff.
Only the Master I think, so ye olde solo track export I guess.
Astonishing how many have been mentioned , & the wide range of definition , yet ZenBeats hasn’t made the list .
In Loopbuilder mode ( session view /clip launch ) it is the ultimate groovebox imo -
Roland get your finger out you need better marketing .
Cross platform - including iphone in landscape .