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.
Video Demo for Everest Audio Looper
This has a lot of cool stuff coming in the future, in this I'm just messing around with recording Prism from Reaktor into it, I like some of the interesting features of this looper, in particular the ability to shorten the loop in real time to the point of getting a nice glitch effect and although I don't use IAA here I have recorded it into Cubasis without any problems
http://www.thesoundtestroom.com/everest-audio-looper-demo-ipad/
Comments
What a racket! I like this though - any idea if the developer has plans to add AB support? It's twice the price of other loop apps so I'd expect AB support for this price, though the audio scrubbing feature is very desirable.
Seems a bit like a work-in-progress. Hope so, as I bought it on a rush of ill-informed enthusiasm and now hope that features are further developed/added...
Any problems, or does it just have a general unfinished feel about it?
@monzo Not problems, I just made a totally n00b mistake of thinking "Ah, another looper, no one would bring a ten dollar looper to market that doesn't give Loopy a run for it's money, MUST BUY..." and then got that sinking feeling that sometimes follows straight after a moment of insouciant what-the-hellery.
Which doesn't also mean that there's a lot of possibilities here, the dev just needs to bring in some nuts and bolts I presumed would be there from the get go. Of course, I am screwing myself Game Theory-wise by broadcasting my lack of initial enthusiasm which might cause a few more people to hold off which would leave to less funds for the dev and thus less likelyhood of aggressive further development.
Better shut up then.
@JohnnyGoodyear said:
Not at all, all feedback is good for impulse buying nuts like myself.
Funnily enough I don't really get on with Loopy - never really used it in a track or even for messing about - I struggle to get everything in time and working together. I had a hardware Boss RC300 Loopstation and struggled with that as well.
In theory though a looper should be right up my alley, and what I particularly like about this one is the scrubbing option and the way everything stays in time. It's not cheap though, and no AB is an issue for me as I'd need to use IAA for the input and IAA for the output into GB, and my iPad just won't put up with that sort of nonsense.
I like the scrub feature very much, it syncs very well with IAA, it takes its start stop and clock from the host app, and I had it running and recording into Cubasis, the dev sent me a sought of to-do list which includes loads of stuff and little notes, he does say that AB is coming along with midi and the ability to paste wav files in too, this is a very rough video but I really enjoyed just playing around with different sounds, overdubbing, deleting, scrubbing, it's cool all this can be done in real time too
I think comparison with loopy is a little unfair. Loopy's been on the market for a few years now and beta updates are being shot out like sweet peas, therefore it's been in constant development since the beginning. I'm sure some people will appreciate more the linearity of this app though.
As for me, I will never think of a looping machine without seeing circular tracks with my minds eye.
I like this developer. Very responsive and aims to please.
. Would rather it be like Everest. Having said that, everything else about Loopy is fantastic.
Frankly (sorry folks), I don't like the Loopy interface at all. Those doughnuts don't do it for me. I think they took the 'loops' thing too far
But to explain, the loop graphic is way to compressed. Having it linear and unfolded makes for much better (and traditional) waveforms. You can always scroll also. Really, the loop graphics are just a gimmick. IMHO
Whatever.
Fair.
@supadom said:
Well they're both loopers so despite a few features and UI design I think it's fair to compare the two.
I think the layout and scrubbing functionality of the new app makes for a much more user friendly UI. If Loopy gets an update then hopefully I'll find a place for it in my 'sonic toolkit'. I've watched tutorial vids a hundred times but just can't get the hang of it.
@thesoundtestroom said:
Really good features if he adds those. Tempted to take a punt on this, but I do worry how it'll perform on my prehistoric pad...
Whatever works for you mate @monzo
I need a looper that starts recording when I start playing (audio trigger) and defines the loop point when I hit a pedal, just like my Boss looper does. I could never get Loopy to do that. It always wants a pre-determined tempo.
Thanks for the video Doug. The little riff you played on track one reminds me a bit of the Stone Roses tune, "This is the One".
Can you snap the selections to fractions of the BPM? So that you could select a half bar from your 4 bar loop and have the little subloop stay in time?
Man, this is the second time this week I've seen something that made me think "Samplr could really use a multilane wave form view" so that you can live manipulate more than one track at a time.
I thought that too. The scrubbing feature of Samplr is what makes it such a useful tool, but it'd be six times better if you could manipulate all tracks at once live. Maybe they'll see this new app and see how useful it could be.
@monzo maybe! Plaster dev blog was the other video I saw that made me think it.
Ah right hadn't seen that one. I notice he's also responsible for Sliver - that sort of allows multiple scrubbing, though all on the same wave.
It's on the bus now. I'm trying to understand if this description means it can receive/record four Audiobus streams at once:
What's New in Version 1.0.2
• Added Audiobus support:
-Input and Output Slots: Can be inserted as either a Sender or Receiver app.
-Custom Triggers: Global Play/Pause toggle, Selected Looper Record/Play, and Incrementing of Selected Looper.
-Monitoring: Audio from apps and microphone will be routed to the output automatically.
-Loop audio from up to four apps/devices: Use hardware input channel assignments in Receive mode to route hosted audio streams to loops.
• Added switch for length quantization of loop windows. While changing the length of a loop, if the length is close to matching an integer multiple of beats, the loop length/end will snap to the correct beat-aligned length.
• Overdub and Replace edits/button presses can now quantize when ending the following modes: Record, Multiply, Insert, and Bounce.
• Minor graphical fixes: Loop window colors now update more frequently when transitioning from background to foreground.
Would love an assessment of where this is right now from anyone who's dived into the new version...
Took the plunge, played around with vocals. It's not yet usable. There seem to be no micro-fades, so there are loud pops unless the loops start and end on silence.
Hi everyone, I just wanted to jump in and talk about the current state of the app, and future plans.
First off, I want to thank @thesoundtestroom for the video. I have watched their videos before I even started developing iOS apps; great stuff! It felt really great to see someone other than me enjoying the app.
@supadom and @Nubus : I hope you guys find the upcoming version (1.0.3) useful, it has stereo now (!), a new input routing UI, a bunch of performance tweaks, and one neat feature I can't wait for you to try! Pasting is planned, but there are some major design decisions I have to make before releasing it.
@monzo One feature of Everest that you might enjoy: You can actually manipulate the start and length of all loops at the same time, provided you have enough free fingers. ;D
@Martygras Everest does not auto-detect the beginning of your playing. However, it does allow you to set the tempo and beat length dynamically via the recording length you set when you make your first loop. This means that the first musical phrase you record determines the tempo for future loops. You do not have to preset the phrase length or tempo to make synchronized loops. In fact, with a MIDI foot controller, you don't even have to touch the screen/device.
Moreover, if your first loop is short enough, it will act like a metronome for future loops. When the loop is longer, Everest determines the beat by subdividing the loop into powers of 2 (2,4,8,16, etc.). For those users who want traditional metronome behavior I recommend syncing Everest to an IAA host like Garage Band or Cubasis.
@syrupcore Yes, Everest v 1.0.2 allows you to quantize the loop window lengths to beat lengths. There is a switch under the settings menu to turn this new behavior on or off.
Example: Say you record a new loop that is four beats long, you can swipe your finger on the right hand side of the loop window towards the left to change the length. This will continuously change the length of the loop until your finger gets close to a beat boundary. Once it gets close, the loop window will snap/jump to the correct beat length. Note: this quantization can occur even when the loop window start point is not on a beat boundary. This makes creating sample accurate beat-multiple loops from any start point in the sample. I plan on adding more of UI cue to the snapping in the future, just not sure the best way to do that yet...
@taroface Yes, you can record four independent AB streams into Everest when it is in the Receiver/Output slot. In 1.0.2 you must go to the Settings/Mixer section, then scroll down to the bottom "Hardware Input Channel Assignment" section. There you will see four integer selectors (1-4) for each loop. Each number maps to the corresponding AB input stream. This gives you the most flexibility when recording AB streams because it lets you map any stream to any looper.
The UI to route those streams is being improved in the next version (1.0.3) of Everest. I worked on it this weekend. The current/original UI was designed before AB or IAA sampling was implemented, so pardon the confusion. Note: some people have encountered a problem with the fourth app not being assignable. This does not happen in all configurations, but the next version 1.0.3 already has a fix for that occasional issue.
@vsmqu I am sorry to hear that it's not usable for you. The fade issue has come up in a few conversations I have had, so I think it is worth discussing in more detail here. Right now, Everest does not apply any processing to the incoming audio. This was a design goal for me in the beginning. That said, I can see the expectation and utility of micro-fades and granular windowing (Hanning, Gaussian, etc.). So, I think this could be an option in a future release, though this might have to be discussed on it's own thread, because there are many possibilities and pitfalls.
In the meantime, this is what I do to avoid clicks and dips when sampling a voice: end new recordings with Overdub. In version 1.0.2 this will not only quantize the loop, but will remove any potential pops and clicks from the end/seam. Moreover, using this method, you can make a continuous drone, with no perceived volume changes. If there was an automatic fade applied, you would always hear a little dip in the volume of the drone. It was important to me for musicians to be able to make such loops, hence the initial lack of auto-fades.
I also just posted some info on this older thread: http://forum.audiob.us/discussion/7413/everest-audio-looper-in-the-app-store/p3
As always, I am happy to hear feedback and respond to feature requests. Feel free to PM me here or on my site.
@ChristianRober Thank you so much for your patient, in-depth responses to everyone's questions and comments. I do feel a twinge of regret for my blanket "not usable" statement. I do love glitchy things too, and working within the arbitrary limits of devices, so I will no doubt find enjoyment with your app. I did not find any problem with simple playback of the loops as originally recorded.
One of the big selling points for me was the ability to loop sections of the initial recording, and move them around, a potentially brilliant hybrid of some of the function of Samplr (for example) with strait-forward live looping. I was not thinking of any processing of the incoming audio, but only the playback. I'm definitely not a coder, and have no idea what the possums or pratfalls might be for Everest. Keeping that in mind...
In my PureData patches (I'm still a noob), I have found a 2ms fade-out / 2ms fade-in to sound continuous when looping playback of sample segments, yet smooth out pretty much all of the discontinuity transient. Having added that, it was easy to make it adjustable from 0 (full glitch) to half the window length (full ambient?). ...But that would not be necessary for Everest. A fixed value (possibly switchable in settings) and you could consider my feature request delivered. Let me rephrase all this: I would be so grateful if you could pretty please consider prioritizing this feature request.
Mucking about in PD/MobMuPlat has given me some inkling of how much work goes into making an original, well-functioning app, so I do appreciate what you have already delivered for my $10. Thank You.
@vsmqu classy, intelligent response.
@monzo did you invest in this object yet?
Not yet - my buying finger is twitching but I'm waiting for better options for getting audio in. How are you getting on with it, now that it has AB support?
@monzo Haven't really dived back in yet. Will do, but was looking for a tl;dr on what it's best for right now I guess.
I finally bought the app and was able to set up and route 4 lanes to Everest in Audiobus. Only 3 of the loopers would actually record (Samplr wasn't getting picked up, and MoDrum went to looper 3 instead of 4, like this setup should have indicated), but otherwise the looping itself is a beauty. I like using Ableton this way: noodling into separate tracks and scrubbing through each one to get surprising polyrhythms and textures. It's more fast and fluid in Everest because touch, etc. Multiple undo levels is also a hot feature.
I have a couple medium-sized issues right now, most of which I brought up with Christian:
It produces completely different results from Loopy IMO.
The above feedback sounds good. I'll be limited to what I can get away with on my old pad though, so it's unlikely I'll be able to use it as the author intended and route different apps through it on a live thing. That's why I'm keen on the sample import being easy to use, I can get away with mucking about with a few samples, but my iPad would turn into dust if I tried running 7 apps (4 instruments being looped + Everest + AB + Garageband to record on) at once.
Oh yeah, I should note I have an iPad 4 and this was just a test. In reality I'd run 3 apps (or 2 + a Volca) max and bounce them into the 4th looper.
Hey everyone, I just released version 1.0.3 of Everest to the app store. The full list of new features is described in the app store, but I will call out a few highlights here:
@supadom, @thesoundtestroom and @Nubus - I added a great new feature. I call it Direct Recall. It basically allows you to jump to ANY loop in the undo history of a given loop track. At this point there is no UI for it, you can only access it via MIDI CC #70. But I tested it with Lemur and it works really well, especially when you have 16 different loops recorded. There is a small description of the behavior in the embedded MIDI documentation. Let me know what you think!
@taroface - I fixed that issue with the 4th app in Audiobus. You should now be able to sample from all four apps. Also, I added a brand new routing scheme, so any loop can receive Left or Right or Stereo audio from 1 of the connected apps. There still seems to be some weird volume drop occasionally when sampling other AB apps though, not sure why the automatic monitoring signal is louder than the samples coming in to Everest, esp. since Everest defaults to unity gain. If anyone has any insight, it would really help my investigation.
@monzo - I added audio paste. You can paste an audio file into any empty loop by copying an audio file to the general pasteboard, then pressing and holding on an empty loop. You will see the paste menu appear in the center. If there are no loops running, the first paste should set the master beat/tempo, if there are already loops/a beat, then the pasted loop can be trimmed to stay in sync using the windowing quantization (from the last release, 1.0.2). You may want to ask how it works for other people before jumping in. In the future I hope to add a better file management system/UI, but need to weight a couple of other factors. For now, this should help get people going.
@vsmqu - I added automatic volume fades. There is now an option for it under the settings menu. It should be on by default. Let me know how it works for you. It's funny, I taught myself programming because I used to make patches/samplers in Max/MSP. In a lot of ways, Everest evolved from my work there. It's nice to see a fellow patcher using Everest.
Geeky Detail: The hardest part of implementing automatic fading was not adversely affecting performance. First I tried applying gaussian waves (i.e. flattened bell curves) over the entire waveform, but the results were inconsistent and the performance penalty was relatively high (2-4% extra per loop on iPad?!?). Then I struggled a bit with a pre-processig algorithm, in order to avoid extra work for EVERY sample, when I only cared about a small subset. In the end, after some nice algebraic transformations (a little * -1.0 here, a little shift there...), it worked great.
Thanks again to everyone for the support and feedback! It really helps.