Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Which DAW has good loop recording feature?
Hey all, I'm wanting to record some guitar parts over a loop I have but would like for each part to appear as a new track (if possible). Basically need a scratchpad for coming up with new parts and ideally ability to just use any "jammed idea" later on.
Is this possible? I have most of the DAWs (BM2, Nano, Multitrack) and auria but know that auria cant do it at this point although Rim has said it's a planned future addition.
Thnx
Comments
I don't think there is one yet. I use loopy for this. Copy a loop of your project into loopy and jam away. Would be nice if a daw integrated it though. Rim at Auria says it's 'on the list'.
Thanks syrupcore! I think i may have even asked you about this awhile back regarding loopy but doesnt it lose either the first or last part of what lever you record? Also are you saying that once you've finished recording over one loop, it will automatically record any nee ideas to another circle or will it just overdub the same circle?
thnx
There is a midi binding in loopy for 'end record and record next loop' or similar. I don't think it has AB automatic daisy chain mode yet but I know it's been requested.
The cutoff thing was a bug in a version long ago.
Loopy is just great. You can't go wrong - try it and you'll love it. And no, it shouldn't lose the first or last part of what you record. Simply set up how many bars you want a count-in before recording (say 1 bar for ex.)... then set up how many bars you want to record. (say 4 bars for ex.). When you hit the record button, Loopy will play thru 1 bar and then start recording for 4 bars, then stop recording and start playing back that loop automatically.
You can set up loopy to overdub on the same track if you want, but usually i just record something and then move along and next time i hit record it will be on a new track.
One of the great things about Loopy is that you can start and stop the recording feature from the Audiobus tab in whatever app you're working on...
I start about 90% of my tracks in Loopy - usually cut & paste a drum loop from something i've made or found elsewhere. Then I open up a synth app - set up the synth to receive midi clock sync from Loopy, and try to play out a bassline. Sometimes i will sequence it using StepPoly Arp or built in sequencer if app has it. I'll have the drum loop playing over and over and i'll try out different bass parts - then when I want to record I hit the record button and make a 2 or 4 bar bass loop, then repeat with more synths and noises etc.. No switching over to Loopy at any point.
Thanks for the feedback guys! I'll give em all a go. Ideally, I'd like to just keep jamming for say 5 min over an idea while the creative juices are flowing before having to stop. The alternative solution for me up to now has been just to transfer a loop into say auria, duplicate it say 50 times and then just jam away on track # 2. Then if there are any specific parts i liked, cut that part out and create a new looped track of that. was just curious for alternatives.
thnx again
You could set up Loopy to record 128 bars or more and jam along and then export that into a DAW.
Cubasis does it...just arm a track..set the amount of bars you want and start recording..as soon as it reaches its set amount of bars it will go back to the beginning and start again automatically...you must remember to have the loop switch turned on..when you have finished all you have to do is create a new audio track for each of the passes and drag the loops onto them..then you have complete control via the mixer and effects over all you looped recordings.. The first loop you drag off will be the last loop you recorded..I may do a video of this...
you might also think about nanoStudio. Ani makes excellent use of it as a live looping tool. Check this out:
To me, the bm2 recording over a loop functionality is the best of the tools I own.
But does it leave you with multiple takes? Meteor is able to do this.
So does Cubasis
Actually auria works exactly as @soundtestroom described cubasis. The takes are all there, you just have to manually spread them out afterwards.
Alt idea: Make a loop in auria of the part you want to jam over. Copy it to the end of your track in auria. Repeat it for 5 minutes. Jam away on a new track. Listen back and drop markers on the chunks you like. Then slice and dice. Didn't think about it but that's what I do in Nanostudio: treat everything in the area after the song like a giant pasteboard.
Meteor have add this in the last update
So, that's most of the big boys, apart from waiting to hear about BM2...
@paulb almost/sorta. the cubasis and auria implantations are pretty weak when compared to something like logic/ProTools. In those you end up with take tracks that you can fold/unfold, a simple way to solo any one of them and use any one or indeed parts of any to create the actual comped track. This is what Rim plans to implement for auria.
How does meteor visualize each pass?
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I haven't tried it, but this excerpt from the manual makes it sound like it's the same as what Auria are hoping to do.
Meteor supports loop recording of MIDI files, and startin with version 1.6 we now support stacked recording of audio files too. Both of these features are only available in Single-Track record mode, which can be selected from the 'Options' menu.
Loop Recording of Audio Files.
The stacked recording feature allows you to record the same passage over and over again until you get a good take. Once you have several takes you can compare each in turn to find the best take.
1) Ensure 'Single-Track' mode is selected from the 'Options' menu.
2) Ensure a MONO or STEREO audio track is ARMed.
3) Select a looping area by dragging a selection on the ruler. The area that is to be looped will appear in navy blue.
4) Press the LOOP button on the transport panel.
5) Press the REC button then PLAY to begin recording.
Once recording begins you will see T1 appear in the lower left corner of the recorded clip. This stands for Take 1, and each time the cursor hits the end of your loop it will increment by one and begin recording at your loops start point.
Press STOP after several takes and the last complete take will be automatically selected. If on playback you are not happy with this take simply TAP and HOLD on the clip and select a new take from the popup menus Takes submenu.
Using this feature does consume more storage space as each take is stored on disk. In fact each take is stored end on end of the same audio file. If you want to edit this take, apply effects or use the Trim or Cross Fade you should first duplicate the clip replacing it with an optimized copy. To do this TAP and HOLD on the clip then choose 'Duplicate Selected' from the popup menu and use the 'Replace' option.
Cheers @paulb. Very tempting. Doesn't sound like it supports comping from multiple takes yet but that's be far the best implementation I've heard of yet on iOS.
I would like to see that cubasis video also. Thanks for all of the great videos from thesoundtestroom , I have watched a bunch of them and based my purchase of apps I use on many of his videos.
Thanks to all for their replies. Also thnx to soundtestroom for his ongoing vids.
I might just take syrupcores idea of having one long looped track and just jamming over it since ultimately, I will be mixing down and mastering in auria anyways but good to know other daws have alternative solutions.
@boone51 - for building up drumbeats, BM2 all the way though!
I am working on setting up Loopy to work with iRig BlueBoard and JamUp. I don't have it working just yet. Still trying to figure out the MIDI bindings, but one I get that down, it should be awesome for live looping.