If you have been waiting for an app that gives you loads of flexibility and solid performance, then wait no further. Loopy Pro is sure to please.
From the makers of Audiobus and Loopy HD comes Loopy Pro, a giant leap forward in live looping and live performance apps. At its core, Loopy Pro is a live looping app with numerous options for recording and controlling your loops. It is compatible with hardware keyboards, controllers, and pedals to assist you in your live performances. It communicates over midi, USB, wifi, and Bluetooth. You can customize how the app records your loops, how it plays them back, and what it does when the loop is finished. Loops can be recorded freely or synchronized to the tempo with fixed endpoints, up to 32 bars. Loops can also be imported and exported. Once you have your loops recorded, you can start and stop them with a tap on the screen, or a press of a button on your controller. You can assign individual volume, pan, and effects to each loop and there are many more options.
Customize to your heart’s content
The new user interface is a blank canvas and can be customized in any way you like. There are a number of options for controls like loopers, one-shots, buttons, sliders, knobs, and x-y pads. There is even a loop slicer that allows you to “play” sections of your loops like a keyboard. Loops can be assigned to color groups and can be merged and grouped together to allow them to be launched at the same time or controlled in other ways. Any combination of these controllers can be placed on the screen. Controllers can be arranged and sized however you like. Almost anything can be assigned to these controllers as well, such as volume, pan, and effects sends. For example, you can assign individual parameters to the x-y pads and control filter cutoff and peak settings and that is just scratching the surface. Multiple parameters and actions can be assigned to the same control, allowing many things to be controlled at one time. There are also multiple pages or “scenes” that are customizable in this way. With such flexibility, Loopy Pro is so much more than a simple live looper. It can be configured to be a launch pad, an effects processor, a mixer, and a DAW (digital audio workstation). It also has a customizable mixing section that comes with an impressive suite of built-in effects, such as reverb, eq, filter, dynamics, and pitch, which can be assigned to the inputs, outputs, and channels. Loopy Pro is also an AUV3 host, so you have access to all of your favorite external effects as well. You can add buses, route audio to different inputs or outputs in your audio interface, create effect sends, mute and solo channels, and much more.
A DAW disguised as a looper
Beyond all of the performance features and customization, Loopy Pro is a fully portable DAW. Under a separate window, you will find all of your loops displayed in a linear format reminiscent of a classic digital audio workstation. This feature allows you to record your performance and save the audio in individual linear tracks that can be edited in a more traditional way. You can trim and extend parts, copy parts, quantize, mute, solo, and delete parts. With a multiple-channel audio interface, multiple tracks can be recorded at the same time allowing full compositions to be captured live. Once you have your project the way you want, you can also export the final product as a stereo wave file or export the individual tracks to be used in other apps or edited further on a desktop computer.
Putting it all together
Loopy Pro is very capable of acting as the central hub for your live performance rig. With multiple tempo syncing options including Ableton LINK, Bluetooth, and midi Loopy Pro feels right at home alongside all of your favorite IOS apps and outboard gear. With a multiple-channel audio interface, Loopy Pro can act as a digital mixer, effects processor, and multi-track recorder. It is an AUV3 plug-in and it will host AUV3 plug-ins. It can be controlled by nearly any hardware controller, and it can even be set to record a loop when the input volume reaches a certain level. With Ableton LINK you can run it alongside your favorite midi sequencer app and cover all the bases. Maybe midi sequencing capabilities will be a feature in a future release.
The sky is the limit
For many years I have been waiting for an app like Loopy Pro. I have used many other clip-launching apps in the past, with different levels of success, but there has always been something that I needed them to do that they couldn’t. The fact that you can customize Loopy Pro in so many ways means that when you need it to do something different you can change it. The freedom to simply add a new control or reconfigure the interface when faced with a new problem is so convenient. I can feel confident investing the time to build live sets with it, knowing I can easily make changes to them if my needs change. With features like live recording, I can capture all of my favorite external gear and integrate them into my performances without taking them on the road with me. I like that I can record directly into Loopy Pro without the need to record loops in a different app or on a computer and then load them into Loopy Pro to add them to a project. Using Loopy Pro as an effects processor when connecting my iPad to an effects send and return on my mixing board, gives me even more creative freedom and eliminates the need to have a large number of effects pedals in my setup. For anyone who is looking for an audio solution with enormous possibilities and features that can change as your musical needs change, Loopy Pro is one that I highly recommend.