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.
Can Loopy Pro be set up like this..
..I'd like an Ed Sheeran-esque layout, and I have a Nektar Pacer and a BOSS RC-600 (the 600 is a formidable MIDI controller!).
I can get close with the BOSS RC-600, and I've got close with Ableton Live.
Neither is perfect but that's probably just on me.
It would be nice to also have the option of doing this with Loopy Pro, before I spend time diving in and really trying to make it happen, I want to outline a few things that tend to pop up as issues that I always have to find workarounds for..
First is the way I want to actually record tracks, I love a "record" mode and a "play" mode - the Pacer handles this easily with preset changing, and the BOSS RC-600 can handle it multiple ways - either changing pedal modes, or changing memory.
In "record" mode, I like to have it so I just press one button - this button acts as both rec/play but in record mode, it's just record.
Pressing that button records to the track I have selected.
What I want, is to have 4x buttons on the controller, that "change tracks" - they're just track selection buttons. Ableton and the 600 can both do this.
Can Loopy Pro? I don't want it to record to these tracks, unless I have pressed "record".
IF it can, then I want that "record" button to basically remain on, even when I switch what track I have selected. The BOSS RC-600 has problems here and requires a workaround, as it won't record to new tracks when you change track.
Ableton Live requires me to basically.. have everything recording at the same time, and I use a gate to enable/disable audio from going into the loops. This works pretty well, to be fair - would this be the same with Loopy Pro, or is there a better way?
Summary/live-use of the above - I want to select a track to loop to with a MIDI controller, and when I hit a separate REC button, it records. I hit it again, it ends the loop and goes to overdub mode - here, while it's recording, I want to be able to SWAP TRACKS and have it loop into those new tracks, without me stopping/starting the loops one-by-one.
In my head, this would be similar to how I do it in Ableton Live - where the loops are actually always recording, and "selecting tracks" is pretty much me muting/unmuting audio from entering the loop.
In practice this lets me basically lay down a whole song without ending loops and having to sit there waiting for the next measure or rotation etc, it drastically reduces loop-build time for me as I lay everything down, in overdub mode, to the right tracks. No need to end loop, pick new track, start loop, end loop, pick new track, start loop, end loop etc.. that method completely sucks for me, hate it.
I'm sure Loopy Pro can do what I want it to, but I'd love a little guidance on how to make it work the way I've set out.
Other questions:
- how would Loopy Pro work with changing "modes" - ie, changing from RECORD mode to PLAY mode, on the Pacer this is just a preset change. On the 600 it's a pedal mode or memory change. But how is there a way to actually have these changes impact Loopy Pro, so when I swap "modes", Loopy Pro knows I'm in Play mode, and I can have the same physical buttons on my controller mapped to different MIDI CCs, depending on the mode?
ie the REC button in record mode, is also the "play selected tracks" button in PLAY mode.
- can Loopy Pro be set to "play selected tracks" as opposed to a "play ALL" button - the 600 can't do this. There's no way for me to mute/stop specific tracks, and then when I hit "stop" or "play", it only affects the tracks I have selected. It only does it either one at a time (currently selected track), OR all.. can Loopy Pro let me SELECT tracks, and then assign a button to MUTE, STOP or PLAY only the selected tracks, as opposed to all tracks at once?
Happy to answer any questions or provide more info - would love to add Loopy Pro to my gigging arsenal, as I don't love how the 600 works as a looper (lots of limitations for the way I like to loop), and I don't want to always bring my MacBook.. the iPad can be attached to a stand, easy.
Final question - can Loopy Pro be used even in the background, ie I have a setlist up on the app, or the app for my mixer/speaker, but still control Loopy Pro with MIDI controller, despite it not currently being on the screen (not a deal-breaker by any means).
Comments
Yes. There are actions to select clips (what you're calling tracks).
Yes. Loopy Pro can totally do that. The optimal workflow is probably a little bit different than what you're describing. One great default workflow option is to have a foot switch press record to a clip if it's empty and play back the clip if it's not. But you can also have it overdub - or have a long-press overdub on that clip - or whatever you like. The workflow is totally up to you.
There are many better ways. Pretty much anything you want to do is possible.
No problem.
Some of your terminology has me a bit confused so I'm not going to attempt to get into specifics. Definitely not until the beers wear off. 😉
I'm guessing the Pacer sends out different midi messages depending on which mode it's in. If that's the case, then all you need to do is map those midi messages to the actions that you want them to perform in Loopy. If it's not the case then you can still use something called "Profiles" to change midi messages to do other things. For instance, you could have a PLAY profile that carries out one set of actions, then switch to a RECORD profile that carries out different actions in response to the same midi messages.
You can have Loopy Pro play one or any combination of clips with a single midi message. It also has the concept of "play groups" where you can group clips together and either have them play only one at a time (stopping the rest in the group) or play all together if you start any one of them. Play groups can also be mutually exclusive of other play groups if you want.
On top of that there are Clip colors. These are closest in concept to mixer tracks. For instance, you could keep Orange clips running but muted while Blue and Magenta are running.
Yes. Absolutely. It can also run split screen or in popover mode if your other app supports that.
Thanks for the response @wim
I'll have to explore it all more deeply and see what I can do then, so long as Loopy Pro is capable of what I want to do, I should be fine.
Of course it can deal with multiple modes.. not sure why I didn't realise it would be the same as Ableton.. it's just the Pacer doing that, nothing tricky needed on Loopy Pro or Ableton..
The pacer just sends midi messages . You can set it up to send what you want.
I should have just spent more time with Loopy Pro before asking what I asked here, initially I had it set up as a basic looper, cool - it worked, great, didn't use it to gig with as I have a BOSS RC-600 and was aiming towards an Ableton Live setup.
Within about 15 minutes flat, I've already set up a 4 track looper, with select clip buttons, rec/play button that only affects selected clips, mute/unmutes, clear all.. the skeleton of what I'm trying to do is already ready to go.
I think it's completely capable of what I want. Is it more capable than Ableton?
I've found myself able to do in Loopy Pro, within about 15 minutes, what took me weeks to figure out and get right in Ableton Live. Some of my knowledge/learning would transfer but seriously this is fantastic.
Really need to spend more time with it. Every time I sit down with Loop Pro, I find it gets easier and easier to use and I wind up realising it can do something I struggle to do the way I want elsewhere.
I sound like a shill now but this is an app that seems to massively reward time spent learning it because it's so capable.
I can't believe I've just created a gig-ready setup in 15 minutes flat for a guitar + vox combo, along the lines of the workflow I want to use.
That’s fantastic to hear!
Yeah mate, you've got something special here. Very powerful looper that's very easy to work with can do pretty much anything.
Can't wait 'til it's on Mac, so I can use it with all my stuff there (Native Instruments Komplete etc).
I just played my first gig with Loopy Pro and the Nektar Pacer, and it went brilliantly - it's not set up exactly how I want, but I did bang out a gig-ready layout very quickly. Haven't set up a performance mode, but even using it the way it's set up now, it's a beastly 4-track looper that's intuitive to use. Had no issues whatsoever, except once it's done, I should probably put labels on the Pacer.. lol.
Is there a way to set clip volume and/or input gain to a larger visual indicator? I really like the look of the buttons etc - I'd love to be able to make a massive rectangle, and have that reflect the volume of a clip or the input gain. Basically, exactly what the mixer is, but, cooler looking, and assigned to something I can choose the position of - so I can hide the actual mixer and just see my track levels (what I would use it for), and a way to still see these levels even if a track is muted, but just a different colour (ie green for unmuted, grey for muted).
This probably exists already, I don't see it though. I can see that I can adjust parameters and whatnot with faders but I don't see a way to just outright make a rectangle or whatever reflect the status of something else.
If this exists, I'd also love a way to hide the donuts - I'd be able to just see the track levels, and I know where my loops are at when playing anyway so I don't need to see the donuts. This probably exists too.
If not, it would make for a super clean looking screen for people like myself that gig a lot and just want to see the most important information (selected tracks, track levels, any indicators to let me know what "mode" I've got my MIDI controller in etc..).
EDIT - I can see there's the option for multiple screens, and the MIDI assigns I've created in "A" still happen when I'm in "B".. etc.. so this means I can set up a clean "gig" interface, with the inner-workings hidden away. That's that box ticked. What an amazing app haha.
Slider widgets can be resized to be rectangular. Widget colors can’t be reassigned by actions only manually. So you can’t change the color based on mute status. You could have widgets that reflect the mute status of tracks.
Cool, but can I assign anything to reflect current track or input gain levels?
So it displays the exact information the mixer does, but bigger and in a location I choose?
Something like this (some pic that came up when I googled the idea)..
..it would just straight up be the volume levels of the track (loop) - but being able to do that would mean I can clearly see volume levels even when not right up on my iPad. I often play venues with decent sized stages, and I like to move around a bit.
Something like that, especially if the colour changed to reflect the track was muted (yet still showed me the levels - just imagine one of the above being grey or something) would be awesome.
I don't see any way to make a widget reflect the value of something else, I only see how to assign actions to them ie press, hold etc.. the idea would work great with a slider/fader widget, because then I could see current levels + use the same widget to adjust the volume.
If this isn't already a thing I can do, I would imagine it's something Michael could make happen in 2 seconds flat because it's already there with the mixer. I just want to be able to put some mixer information (volume level in this case) as something I can see elsewhere (ie on a slider widget) and resize it.
This would also let me have a second screen if I wanted that was just "a mixer". Would be super cool for gigging musicians.
If you add fader widgets, they will reflect the status of whatever they are set to control.
Yeah, lets me adjust the volume of clips or colours - I understand this, and I understand the fader is reflecting where the volume level is set on the clip or colour.
But that's not the information I'm wanting to see.
I want to see the loop volume in the rectangle, moving up and down etc according to what's happening - just like what the mixer already does. Not the overall loop volume. I want to see the signal, like you can on the mixer - I want to see that signal reflected bigger and in a location of my choosing.
In this pic, you can see what I mean - I want a way to reflect the signal levels of clips/colours/inputs to something I can resize and put wherever I want. Not overall track volume, though I would imagine being able to see this information on a slider widget would be a fantastic combination.
..and when a track is muted, I would like to select the "muted" colour. Perhaps people with lots of clips/loops would also like a "solo" colour for when they decide to just solo a few things at a time.
This would reduce buttons required on the gig/performance screen (I wouldn't need to have a button to display mute or solo). Would be super handy.
The code for this already exists - the mixer already displays signal information. I just want that reflected in a place I want, and at the size and colour I want, and also mute/solo information.
There isn’t a level meter. Mute information would be visualize a widget whose action is muting.
Btw, there is a web page for loopy feature requests:
https://roadmap.loopypro.com/
They currently isn’t a way to set something to a particular colour based on state, although feel free to add that to the roadmap, but you can certainly create small indicators to reflect that state by adding small buttons, and then binding them to the mute/solo state.
There is an item on the roadmap about level meter widgets, but I haven’t got to that yet. In the meantime, you can always add a slider and then use an envelope follow action on the clips/groups to set the value of that widget and use that as an indicator.
I would imagine that, because a fader widget can be a 1 to many controller of so many more things than just the controller of a particular audio channels level, (IE your widget is not really a mixer channel just because you set it control a mixer channel), that it might make more sense dev wise, with any such metering display widget , might make more sense to be independent of any fader widget, and it would be up to the user to position a meter widget side by side with a fader widget if that's what they want.
assuming michael is inclined to give us meter widgets in future.
put a feature request in over at roadmap and see if it gains traction.
https://roadmap.loopypro.com/
oops didn't see this when i posted, you guys must have been typing at same time as me.
basically then, add a vote for the level meters on roadmap
@greatestlengths - my opinion is that if levels metering is what you need than a plugin that specializes in that is a better way to go. There are plenty on iOS. One I particularly like is 4Pockets AudioScope because it lets you monitor (and mix, eq, etc.) as many points in the signal chain as you like from one interface.
BFM is another. Not my cup of tea, but ymmv.
I might have done this incorrectly, I created a slider, and assigned a follow action from the colour I wanted, then selected Amplitude Envelope, then Trigger Widget and I selected the slider.
This lets me see an indication of the original levels, but it's not reflective of the current levels (if I change the volume, the slider still shows the same information, it also still shows the same information when muted).
This looks how I want, but it doesn't change when I change the volume on the colours volume level - it displays the same visual information regardless, and it also shows the same when the colour is muted.
Still cool that I can see the original loop volume level this way, not sure how to make it adapt to volume changes on the colour level, or when muted, though.
How would I display this on the Loopy Pro screen, though? Would it be a separate pop-up window?
I don't want that. I'd rather just wait until the feature is added, it's not super necessary, just would be nice to have for people that move around etc and play venues that might have weird lighting that makes it hard to see the smaller mixer levels..
Yes.
@wim - since you're a regular poster, I figure I might get a speedy response if I tag you with this question.
How do I stop every loop from being the exact same length, but still retain them being in sync?
Practical use:
I'm sure this is possible - I want the first loop to set tempo etc, but I don't want every loop track to be locked into the length of the first one, ie 2 bars using the above.
I do however still want Loopy Pro to know what I'm doing, so I don't need to be perfect with the loop timing for a 1 bar, 4 bar, 12 bar or 16 bar etc etc loop - it would know this because of half-length, double-length, quadruple length etc..
Most good loopers can do this already, the 600 100% can, Ableton Live can - I'm sure Loopy Pro can too, just not sure how to do it, without first setting loop lengths, as I don't want this predefined.
EDIT - It works the way I want with SHORTER loops. I can already do the above, if I lay down the longest progression first. But I definitely want to do it the other way around for most songs, with the shorter loops first and the longer chord progression etc after the beat is down.
@greatestlengths : if you turn off auto count-out in clip settings, you determine the length of the loop. I highly recommend taking a look at the documentation to read about the record and playback count-in/count-out which determines the length and triggering quantization.
If you use Master, then loops will be multiples of the master cycle setting (which you can change on the fly). When you record your first loop, the master cycle length gets set to that length. If count-in and out are set to master, tapping to record will cause recording to start at the beginning of the next cycle. The recording will end at the end of the cycle where you tap again. If the master cycle is 4, for instance, then if you tap during bar 3 to stop recording, recording stops at the end of bar 4. If you tap during bars 5-8 then the recording ends after 8 bars. You can change the master cycle length at any time. You could sent count-in/out to Custom custom quantization.
If you tap while the count-in/out is going on, it will short-circuit the count-in or out in process.
If your section lengths are different lengths, you may want to turn phase lock off.
There are a wealth of tutorials available that might be worthwhile.
You don't have to do anything super special. In fact, you have to do more work to make clips not stay in sync than to have them act in sync. By default clips are "Phase Locked", meaning they will stay in sync with the master clock. If the longest clip is 16 bars, then a 1 bar loop will happily loop away 16 times and will stay in sync. You can override phase lock in each clip's settings.
There are a couple of ways to record clips of different length. But before getting into that, it's important to understand Quantization. Actions such as recording and playback can be quantized however you need them to be. For instance, on a two bar loop, you can set an action such as playback to happen immediately, at the next bar, the next time the loop comes around to the top, or to the master length that is in the tempo setting menu ... whatever you need.
As for clip length, you can set a master clock cycle length under the tempo menu. If it's set to four bars and record count-in quantization is set to the default, "Master", then if you tap to record, recording will begin the next time the clock comes around to the top of a two-bar sync. Same for the separately set "Count Out Quantization". You can also have "Auto Count Out" enabled. For instance, with the Master Clock Cycle set to two bars, if you tap to record, recording will start as above and will automatically stop after two bars - no second tap needed.
The master clock length can be changed any time you like. So that's one straightforward way to record clips of different lengths and keep everything in sync. But you can also set clip length on the clips themselves. Swipe up on a clip to see the detail settings. The first is length. If the quantization is set to "Loop" rather than "Master", then that clip will conform to it's individual clip length. Note that you can make most settings at the master clip settings level as well as override them per clip.
I tend to work at the master clock and clip settings level and just change the master cycle length. Most of my templates have widgets set up to change the cycle length without having to bring up menus.
tbh - the manual probably describes this a whole lot better than I just did. 😂
Also, not fact checking after writing like I usually do, but people will chime in if I made any errors.
@wim @espiegel123 - cheers for the help.
Changing Clip Settings > Play Quantisation > Master seems to have fixed things up.
I played another gig with Loopy Pro this afternoon, went great again - I'm still working on getting my setup to work the way I want it to, but I know how things are working at the time of the gig and that's really all that matters for those few hours.
So far the experience has been fantastic - there's some little things I've got to add and change to my own layout (a "play" mode, a "gig" screen, fix up how my record button works (I must have messed something up because it's not overdubbing.. I'm sure this is a 2 second fix that I'll figure out after I post this).. just little workflow things.
But at both gigs it's been a perfectly fine 4-track looper (haven't added extra tracks yet, but I have plans for this) - the gig this afternoon went even smoother on my end because I have more of an understanding of how things work.
I forgot to add a MIDI assign for "play all" (because I haven't done the "play" mode screen yet, I have created the button on my "inner workings" layout).. didn't make a any real difference live because I realised this in the first song and just hit the button with my finger each time. Worked perfectly fine.
My next gig isn't until Friday night now, so I've got plenty of time to get this layout the way I want.
Would be cool if I could assign a follow action to just light up a widget, as if it's being pressed, even if it's not doing anything other than just being a visual indicator. I want to have a red box light up while a specific loop is recording, and have it turn off when that loop isn't recording. Basically the equivalent of just turning a light on/off, using follow actions (to trigger the widget to light up..).
EDIT: I'm sure there's a better way around this, but I figured a way to get the above to work - I put an EQ on the colour, made a widget, and then set the follow actions on the colour so "begin recording" triggers the widget, and "end recording" also triggers the widget. The EQ is just flat, does nothing, it's just acting as a dummy switch. The widget setting is Toggle, enable/disable EQ.
This works perfectly, it lights on/off at the right time, works perfectly with loops being sync'd etc (ie it doesn't light up prematurely), and it also lights up (the same colour but I'll take it) when overdubbing.
Amazing stuff. Now I've got a big fat visual indicator that a clip is currently RECORDING or OVERDUBBING. Beautiful.
EDIT 2: The above isn't perfect, sometimes the visuals don't match the recording status, because it only works for a toggle. There's probably a way to make it work perfectly every time.