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A ChordPolyPad AU plugin (or Max4L) version

I wrote a lot of chord progressions with this fantastic app ChordPolyPad.
I don't know much about AU plugin creation or even about MaxforLive and I'm wondering if it'd be doable to write a plugin (AU or m4L) that would act like a ChordPolyPad banks reader.

I basically would like to use the banks I made with the app... but... without the app, just using Ableton. I know it may sound odd, but I'd love to avoid using the iPad at times and get a better latency.

Aside from chords themselves, there are the strum per chord and velocities per note. No VST/AU chord app I'm aware of have this feature.

Would love to get some insight if anyone here is experienced with writing plugins or Max for Live tools. I'd consider hiring someone eventually to write such tool.

Thanks :)

Comments

  • ChordPolyPad is one of many plugs I have that I haven't yet seriously tried out, but it seems really good.

  • wimwim
    edited December 2022

    @stelvio said:
    I wrote a lot of chord progressions with this fantastic app ChordPolyPad.
    I don't know much about AU plugin creation or even about MaxforLive and I'm wondering if it'd be doable to write a plugin (AU or m4L) that would act like a ChordPolyPad banks reader.

    I basically would like to use the banks I made with the app... but... without the app, just using Ableton. I know it may sound odd, but I'd love to avoid using the iPad at times and get a better latency.

    Nothing is going to be able to read the internals of ChordPolyPad. iOS just doesn't work that way.

    Aside from chords themselves, there are the strum per chord and velocities per note. No VST/AU chord app I'm aware of have this feature.

    Would recording to a midi file then importing the midi file to Live be an option?

    Would love to get some insight if anyone here is experienced with writing plugins or Max for Live tools. I'd consider hiring someone eventually to write such tool.

    If you have money to throw at it, maybe you could contact the developer about taking cash toward making the app MacOS compatible. Just a thought.

  • I would love to see a desktop plugin in that genre, so I hope this works out for you. I'd like to make a Reaper script of that variety, and maybe eventually port it to VST, using the JUCE framework. The code should be relatively simple; it's going to be one of my first Reaper plugins. But I have more learning to do before I would offer to write a plugin professionally.

    I've read that custom software usually starts at $10,000 USD. But AU plugin development is a niche skillset, so you might receive quotes that are higher than that.

    You could ask the developer of ChordPolyPad, Laurent Colson, if it would be possible for another program to open .chrd files. And if not, then you could make your app's preset files readable for any future developers. I tried changing the file extension for a preset file from .chrd to .txt, and only some of the text was readable.

    That's a good idea @wim. I would imagine that the idea would have to be presented in the right way, because he'd have to offer tech support for at least twice as many DAWs, on another OS where plugins often require yearly updates in order to remain compatible with the newest OS version.

  • @Skyblazer said:
    I would love to see a desktop plugin in that genre, so I hope this works out for you. I'd like to make a Reaper script of that variety, and maybe eventually port it to VST, using the JUCE framework. The code should be relatively simple; it's going to be one of my first Reaper plugins. But I have more learning to do before I would offer to write a plugin professionally.

    I've read that custom software usually starts at $10,000 USD. But AU plugin development is a niche skillset, so you might receive quotes that are higher than that.

    You could ask the developer of ChordPolyPad, Laurent Colson, if it would be possible for another program to open .chrd files. And if not, then you could make your app's preset files readable for any future developers. I tried changing the file extension for a preset file from .chrd to .txt, and only some of the text was readable.

    That's a good idea @wim. I would imagine that the idea would have to be presented in the right way, because he'd have to offer tech support for at least twice as many DAWs, on another OS where plugins often require yearly updates in order to remain compatible with the newest OS version.

    Overhead to port and maintain universal (iOS/MacOS) apps is significantly lower than it would be for other operating systems such as Windows, Linux, or Android. Not that it's trivial by any means, but Apple has done a pretty good job of easing the load. Also, if a developer was thinking that expanding to the desktop could bring in some more income, but on the fence about the payback being worth the effort, some cash incentive might influence them. I consider it unlikely, but one never knows.

  • edited December 2022

    The good news is that its big brother StepPolyArp has already been ported to MacOs as an AUV3 (separate purchase ) , so dev may already be working on this .
    The bad news is that Ableton , as usual , have so far only partly implemented AUV3 - e.g audio / fx-
    so AUV3 midifx are not recognised , as well as internal multi midi routing (near ?) impossible .

    AUV3 midifx hosts are available ( ironically for this non-Drambo fan to mention) such as Drambo on MacOs ,
    or it may even run standalone as some AUV3 do , but I have yet to purchase SPA MacOs version to know .
    Either way virtual midi ports appear in Live , & ironically if the AuV3 has Ableton Link it can be synced within the computer , though it feels nearly as clunky as still using your ipad patched into your computer .

  • edited December 2022

    @stelvio @wim @Skyblazer
    The preset file is just a common plist file, readable on MacOS using plutil -p <file>
    I bet that a halfway decent developer could write a Python script for Ableton that translates (Launchpad) MIDI notes to multiple MIDI notes like defined in the preset file, maybe even including the settings for strum and arp.

  • @stelvio said:
    I wrote a lot of chord progressions with this fantastic app ChordPolyPad.
    I don't know much about AU plugin creation or even about MaxforLive and I'm wondering if it'd be doable to write a plugin (AU or m4L) that would act like a ChordPolyPad banks reader.

    I basically would like to use the banks I made with the app... but... without the app, just using Ableton. I know it may sound odd, but I'd love to avoid using the iPad at times and get a better latency.

    Aside from chords themselves, there are the strum per chord and velocities per note. No VST/AU chord app I'm aware of have this feature.

    Would love to get some insight if anyone here is experienced with writing plugins or Max for Live tools. I'd consider hiring someone eventually to write such tool.

    Thanks :)

    I love ChordPolyPad for the reasons you mentioned and use it heavily. I use it connected to the Mac thru IDAM into Ableton and the latency is pretty minimal for me. Would be great if it got ported tho!

  • BTW , I wonder if 4Pockets Progressions might work for this , I don’t have the app so I’m asking ? but understand it is some kind of chordplayer with strumming - though focusing on generative can it play exactly what it’s programmed ?
    I mention it because I have Euclidean - which works well on MacOs as AUV3 midifx though not advertised as full MacOs port ….maybe worth mentioning

  • @maxwellhouser said:

    @stelvio said:
    I wrote a lot of chord progressions with this fantastic app ChordPolyPad.
    I don't know much about AU plugin creation or even about MaxforLive and I'm wondering if it'd be doable to write a plugin (AU or m4L) that would act like a ChordPolyPad banks reader.

    I basically would like to use the banks I made with the app... but... without the app, just using Ableton. I know it may sound odd, but I'd love to avoid using the iPad at times and get a better latency.

    Aside from chords themselves, there are the strum per chord and velocities per note. No VST/AU chord app I'm aware of have this feature.

    Would love to get some insight if anyone here is experienced with writing plugins or Max for Live tools. I'd consider hiring someone eventually to write such tool.

    Thanks :)

    I love ChordPolyPad for the reasons you mentioned and use it heavily. I use it connected to the Mac thru IDAM into Ableton and the latency is pretty minimal for me. Would be great if it got ported tho!

    Hey, I've just found that CPP can also act as a Bluetooth MIDI host, potentially acting as another BT MIDI device connected to the Mac.
    No wires and no file conversion needed - good enough for me 😊

  • wimwim
    edited December 2022

    @maxwellhouser said:

    @stelvio said:
    I wrote a lot of chord progressions with this fantastic app ChordPolyPad.
    I don't know much about AU plugin creation or even about MaxforLive and I'm wondering if it'd be doable to write a plugin (AU or m4L) that would act like a ChordPolyPad banks reader.

    I basically would like to use the banks I made with the app... but... without the app, just using Ableton. I know it may sound odd, but I'd love to avoid using the iPad at times and get a better latency.

    Aside from chords themselves, there are the strum per chord and velocities per note. No VST/AU chord app I'm aware of have this feature.

    Would love to get some insight if anyone here is experienced with writing plugins or Max for Live tools. I'd consider hiring someone eventually to write such tool.

    Thanks :)

    I love ChordPolyPad for the reasons you mentioned and use it heavily. I use it connected to the Mac thru IDAM into Ableton and the latency is pretty minimal for me. Would be great if it got ported tho!

    I measured latency over iDAM as best I could some time ago. It was approximately 0.5 milliseconds. I suppose some people could notice that difference, but most couldn't.

    BLE Midi latency was on the order of 3.5ms.

    https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/comment/1124347/#Comment_1124347

  • wimwim
    edited December 2022

    @rs2000 said:
    @stelvio @wim @Skyblazer
    The preset file is just a common plist file, readable on MacOS using plutil -p <file>
    I bet that a halfway decent developer could write a Python script for Ableton that translates (Launchpad) MIDI notes to multiple MIDI notes like defined in the preset file, maybe even including the settings for strum and arp.

    Good catch. But you'd still need something on the computer that could make use of that information. I guess this is where Max for Live could come in.

    ... sorry, just my ingrained habit of cost/benefit and scope analysis from my decades in IT work. 🙄

  • @wim said:

    @rs2000 said:
    @stelvio @wim @Skyblazer
    The preset file is just a common plist file, readable on MacOS using plutil -p <file>
    I bet that a halfway decent developer could write a Python script for Ableton that translates (Launchpad) MIDI notes to multiple MIDI notes like defined in the preset file, maybe even including the settings for strum and arp.

    Good catch. But you'd still need something on the computer that could make use of that information. I guess this is where Max for Live could come in.

    ... sorry, just my ingrained habit of cost/benefit and scope analysis from my decades in IT work. 🙄

    I've suggested Python because most of the remote control adaptions in Ableton are python scripts anyway.
    But yeah, although the idea sounds exciting, I'm fine with using BT MIDI already and lifetime is limited.

  • edited December 2022

    Wow thank you all, I didn't think it'd be of interest :)
    Some comments I don't quite grasp cause I don't code myself but re-reading, I understand it's probably harder than I hoped, especially with Ableton's limitations. It's probably easier to create a different chord plugin in M4L or in AU plugin form, than making some presets reader. With a nice Midi-in learn feature it could work. There's loads of chord VST/AU plugins out there and some are great, I'm just really missing the strum per chord and velocity per notes, it brings a lot of expressiveness. I'm so grateful for this app (and for StepPolyArp too), lots of respect to Mr Colson for his inventions!

  • @stelvio for the record , I just came across ChordPolyPad in the Mac AppStore ! , I’m sure it didn’t appear in my search @ time of original post but whilst browsing other stuff it appeared today as a Mac App .
    thought I’d phone it in - though as I pointed out above - Ableton AUV3 support does NOT include midifx so
    no go within Live .

  • @RetroNewb wow thank you for letting me know. I do use Ableton :/ but I'm hoping I can just use CPP as a standalone and route the Midi out in in :)) fingers crossed!!

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