Manual Update 2.0 Staging

This article contains material that will be added to the Loopy Pro manual when version 2.0 is released.

Clip Settings

This section documents settings that are new or have changed in version 2.0.

Beat Quantization

Non-destructive playback quantization for MIDI and audio clips.

NOTE: While Beat Quantization can apply to both MIDI and audio clips, it is primarily intended for MIDI playback quantization. Audio beat quantization is an in-process experimental feature that will work better with some sources than others.

Beat/Grid Display

The display at the top of the Beat Quantization display shows the grid points to which notes are pulled when quantized. The lines are a sixteenth-note grid. The white dots are the grid points to which notes are quantized. The display is dynamically updated as the settings are changed.

The play button plays clicks at the grid points to sonify the quantization grid.

Quantization Types

No Quantization

No quantization.

Basic Quantization

Quantized to fixed grid points.

Options: grid point, Intensity, Swing, Randomness

Randomness moves the notes forwards or back in time with the amount of shift controlled by the slider.

Groove Quantization

Quantize to grid points derived from a MIDI or audio loop or audio file.

Options: Intensity, Randomness

To delete a groove, swipe left on its name in the groove list.

Mixer 2.0

Loopy Pro’s powerful mixer gives you control over your project’s audio and MIDI inputs and outputs, effects, AUv3 and IAA instruments. Loopy's mixer was designed to be flexible and to enable source/destination routing to be handled directly in the mixer.

In its simple form, you can adjust levels and balance, mute and solo for source and colour in your project. In its extended form, you can add audio and MIDI sources, add effects, add Audio Unit and IAA instruments, add buses, specify hardware outputs, set up audio and MIDI routing, and collapse mixer sections (which will become hidden when the mixer is in simple mode).

Open the mixer by tapping the  [MIXER ICON GOES HERE]  button from the main screen.

SIMPLE VS EXTENDED MODE

The Loopy Pro Mixer in Extended Mode

When you first open the mixer, it will be displayed in its simple form, with just the faders and lower controls visible. Collapsed mixer sections are hidden in simple mode. You will see your canvas above, with your loops and one-shots visible.

Tap the [ICON FOR EXTENDED MODE] button to put the mixer into extended mode. The mixer will grow, and the extended controls will become visible. Tap [ICON FOR SIMPLE MODE] to retract the mixer again into simple mode.

SECTIONS AND ROWS

SECTIONS (COLUMN)

By default, Loopy Pro organizes the mixer's channel strips into functional sections: (audio) inputs, MIDI  (hardware controllers and MIDI ports), MIDI Plugins, MIDI Colors, Colors (audio), Buses, and Outputs (currently Master channel).

These sections can be collapsed by tapping [COLLAPSE ICON]. Collapsed sections can be expanded by tapping [EXPAND ICON]. Collapsed sections are hidden when the mixer is in simple mode.

You can tap on items in a collapsed section to show that item in the mixer. Such items are given a white frame in the collapsed section display.

MIXER ROWS

The mixer has rows for: sources, pre-fader effects, post-fader effects, destinations and sends. Tapping on the + icon in a row cell (slot) lets you add an item to that row. Rows can be collapsed by tapping [COLLAPSE ICON]. Collapsed rows can be expanded by tapping [EXPAND ICON]. Collapsed rows can also be expanded by tapping in them. When a row is collapsed a dot indicates that the row cell contains an item.

Channel Strips

The basic building-block in the mixer is the channel strip, a column in the mixer that might be:

• An audio input, such as a hardware input or an Audio Unit (AUv3) instrument
• A MIDI source, such as a MIDI keyboard an AUv3 MIDI sequencer
• An audio colour, aggregating one or more audio clips
• A MIDI colour, comprising one or more MIDI clips
• A bus
• The master output

Each channel strip has a fader and level meter, and mute/solo controls. Other cells (slots) are available in the channel strip depending on the channel strip’s type.

Channel strips for audio sources, audio colour channels and buses also have a balance knob and cells (slots) for sources, pre- and post-fader effects, send, knobs, and destinations. Hardware inputs, buses and the master channel do not have source cells.

MIDI Channel strips have a destination cell (slot) and may have a source cell.

Fine control. To adjust levels, balance or send amount, tap and swipe on that control. For finer control, tap and then move your finger away from the control: the control area will expand the further away you move from the original control location, giving you more control over fine adjustment.

Mute/Solo. The M and S letters at the bottom of channel strips, mutes or solos that mixer channel. Muting an Audio Unit instrument’s mixer channel will normally idle the instrument so that it uses next to no CPU resources. Muting an instrument will also idle the effects on the channel unless idling has been disabled for the instruments and/or effects.

Mute Position (audio channels only). By default, muting of audio input channels (hardware and audio unit inputs) is post-fader. By long-pressing the M button, you can move the mute position to Input which is the start of the signal chain. Typically, the mute position is only moved for hardware inputs. When the mute position is set to Input, muting the channel will idle the effects on the channel since the input level will drop to 0 (unless idling has been disabled for some plugins).

Channel Settings. Tap the icon at the top of each channel strip to access settings and controls for that channel, and long press to replace or delete.

Reordering channel strips. You can also reorder channel strips as you choose, by pressing on the icon at the top, then dragging left or right (or swiping up to remove that channel strip).

Master Output. Loopy Pro’s Master Output channel strip is somewhat unconventional. The controls and effects in the channel strip labeled Master apply to all hardware outputs. Note: a mixer update is planned to implement a more conventional architecture.

AUDIO CHANNEL STRIP SIGNAL FLOW

[INSERT PICTURE HERE]

Colours

Colours act like group buses for all the clips of the same colour. They aggregate the output of their clips and behave like tracks in a traditional DAW.  All  clips of the same colour get routed through the same mixer channel strip and share the same basic settings.

Each colour appears as a channel strip in the mixer, and has its own fader, balance, mute and solo, as well as sends, destinations, and effects (for audio colors). Audio and MIDI colours have their own channel strips. Both audio and midi colours inherit settings from the colour. The main menu’s Colour Groups item lets you set colour-specific settings, gestures and follow actions.

Tapping on a colour channel strip's color icon, opens the Colour Group's properties panel where you can set the properties for all clips of the colour.

If you have an audio interface, colours can be routed to any output channel.

Colours as destinations. By specifying a colour in the “destinations” section of a channel strip, clips of that colour will receive audio or MIDI from that source. This makes it simple to record (resample) from one color to another.

Audio and MIDI colour channel strips have the same rows (slots) as their underlying type: audio or MIDI.  Se the Audio and MIDI source section of this manual for more details.

Colour Management. By default, the mixer only shows colour channels for colours that have clips. If you would like colours to appear even if they have no clips, turn on Show Empty Colour Channels in Loopy Pro's System Settings.

Adding colours. To add colours to the project, enter layout edit mode by pressing the [pencil icon] and tapping on the paint bucket icon.

5.3 AUDIO SOURCES

Loopy Pro can receive audio from the built-in microphone, an attached audio interface (with support for multi-channel input), an AUv3 Audio Unit or Inter-App Audio application. Each audio source has its own channel strip.

Audio source channel strips may have the following rows:

• Sources (only present for colour channels and Audio Units)
• Effects (pre-fader)
• Effects (post-fader)
• Destinations
• Sends

DESTINATIONS

The destinations cell shows where the audio is sent. All of the project’s colors and all available hardware destination are available. A source can be routed to any number of available destinations. The audio is sent post-fader. For pre-fader audio routing, use a send knob to send the audio to a bus.

ADDING SOURCES

Add audio sources to the mixer, by tapping ADD ICON  and choosing Add Hardware Input, Add Inter-App Audio Input, or Add Audio Unit Instrument.

5.3.1.HARDWARE INPUTS #

Hardware inputs can be the built-in mic or inputs from an audio interface and are represented by a mic icon in the mixer. The default project has a single hardware audio input. If you are using Loopy Pro on a device without any equipment plugged in, this will be the built-in microphone. With an audio interface, this will be one of the available input channels provided by the audio interface.

Input Options. Tap the mic icon at the top of the channel strip to configure the hardware input. A number of different options may be available, depending on the connected hardware:

• Monitoring options (see below)
• Input Selection (if audio hardware is connected) - you can choose whether to use the audio interface input or the internal mic.
• Microphone Selection (if internal audio is being used) - the available built-in mics. The options depend on your particular device.
• Global Hardware Gain (only if device supports it)
• Echo Cancellation (internal mic only)
• Input Channels (audio interface only) - a choice of the device’s input channels.

Global Hardware Gain. This setting is only available for some devices. It is a global setting that is applied by the hardware. The behavior depends on the audio interface itself. For some interfaces, this adjust the interfaces output gain. On some devices, it may also apply to input gain. It is a global control that applies to all channels.

You can have as many hardware audio sources as you like, including multiple instances of the same channel, so you can configure different effect chains on each one and mute or unmute duplicate channels as needed.

MONITORING OPTIONS

Monitoring sends an input to an output such as the main output so that you can hear the input. When the internal mic is used, monitoring is turned off by default to avoid feedback.

By default, when monitoring is on, it is done through the default output channels. But you can set any available output channels for monitoring and you may also monitor through colors. The Monitor Through  selector let’s you choose available hardware outputs and/or colour.

Monitoring through colors. When you choose one or more colours for Monitor Through, the audio is sent through the effects chain of the selected colour or colours. When using monitor through colours, you should generally not monitor through a hardware output also if you want to hear only the effected signal. This allows you to “monitor wet, record dry”.

5.3.2.AUDIO UNIT INPUTS #

Loopy Pro supports hosting AUv3 Audio Unit instruments and generators, like synthesisers and other virtual instruments. These can be downloaded and installed from the App Store.

AUDIO UNIT USER INTERFACE

Tap the icon at the top of an Audio Unit’s channel strip or on the bottom bar to display its user interface: This is displayed in a moveable and resizable window. Tap [EXPAND ICON] or double-tap the titlebar to toggle fullscreen, and [CLOSE ICON] to close the window. Drag the bottom right handle to change the size of the window. Tap [DOCKING ICON] to dock the window to the side or bottom of the screen. Tap [UNDOCK ICON] to undock the audio unit interface.

AUDIO UNIT SETTINGS (GEAR WHEEL ICON)

Tap [GEAR WHEEL ICON] to access the audio unit settings where you can

• Toggle the audio unit’s bottom-bar visibility.
• Adjust its gain (the mixer fader level).
• Edit the displayed name.
• Panic (turn off stuck notes)
• Turn monitoring on/off.
• Set the Monitor Through options
• Set the MIDI source and adjust MIDI settings such as range, transposition, MIDI filter and re-channelizing.
• Set the colour destinations.

PRESETS

Loopy Pro supports both factory presets (provided the Audio Unit) and user-created presets. Tap [FOLDER ICON] to open the presets screen, where you can select from the available presets. Any presets visible in the presets menu are available to Loopy Pro’s preset selection action. Long-press a user preset to rename it, and swipe left to delete.  Tap on a preset to select it. The selected preset  has a Save and Export preset beside.

Factory preset note. Many Audio Units have proprietary preset systems that do not expose their presets to hosts such as Loopy Pro. If you do not see the AUv3’s presets in Loopy Pro’s dropdown menu, you will have to add them to manually to Loopy Pro’s preset library by choosing New from the preset dropdown. For more on this topic see: https://wiki.loopypro.com/AUv3_Presets

MIDI SOURCES

Tap [MIDI ICON] to access MIDI Source options.

ON-SCREEN KEYBOARD

In the Audio Unit’s window, tap the [ONSCREEN KEYBOARD ICON] button to show Loopy Pro’s onscreen keyboard. Keys tapped towards the upper side play at a lower velocity than when tapped towards the lower side. Tap [HOLD ICON]

to toggle hold of the current notes. Tap the [LOCKI ICON] to toggle position lock – when unlocked, you can pinch and zoom to navigate around the keyboard. Tap [EXPAND ICON] to expand the keyboard to fill the window, and tap [KEYBOARD TOGGLE ICON]  to hide the keyboard.

MUSICAL TYPING

Tap [MUSICAL TYPING ICON] to activate MIDI typing which lets you use a connected typing keyboard. The musical typing keyboard is added to the mixer.

MIDI

Audio Unit instruments can be controlled with the on-screen keyboard or the Audio Unit’s own on-screen controls. Generally, they will be controlled by a MIDI controller or sequencer. Loopy Pro provides flexible MIDI routing.

There are a few ways to connect an Audio Unit to MIDI sources:

• Via the MIDI Sources panel that can be opened from the Audio Unit window by tapping [MIDI ICON]
• Via the MIDI Sources options in the Audio Unit options panel
• By choosing a MIDI source in Loopy Pro’s mixer by tapping + in the Source row of the Audio Unit’s channel strip.
• By making the Audio Unit a destination of a MIDI source in Loopy Pro’s mixer.

BOTTOM BAR VISIBILITY

Audio Units will appear on the bottom bar [#the-bottom-bar] on Loopy Pro’s main screen by default, for easy access. If you wish to hide an Audio Unit from this bar, tap [EYE ICON] in  the audio unit settings panel to toggle visibility.

IDLE MODE AND MUTING

By default, muting an Audio Unit Instrument’s  mixer channel puts the instrument and the effects on the channel into Idle mode, where they use little processing resources. With Idle mode, you can have many different Audio Units loaded, without overtaxing your device’s processor. Tap the ON button, or mute it from the mixer or an action to put the Audio Unit into Idle mode. Tap IDLE or unmute the Audio Unit from the mixer or an action to re-activate it. When an Audio Unit instrument goes idle, the effects on the mixer channel will also go idle (since effects normally go idle when the incoming signal drops to 0) unless you have disabled idle mode for the effect.

If you wish the Audio Unit to remain active when muted, you can disable Idle mode by long-pressing on the IDLE button, then turning off the switch beside “Enable Idle Mode” on the popover that appears.

5.4.EFFECTS #

Loopy Pro has a growing collection of built-in effects, and also supports AUv3 Audio Unit effects which can be downloaded and installed from the App Store.

Tap the + button in the Effects section of a channel strip to choose and add an effect. The effect’s icon will appear on the channel strip. Tap to open the effect’s configuration, or double-tap to toggle the effect.

You can also move effects around by holding and dragging between sections on the same channel strip, or to different channel strips entirely.

To remove an effect, hold and drag it out of the Effects section, or long-press and tap “Delete”.

Long-press on an effect in the Mixer to bring up the shortcut popup with options: Delete, Disable, toggle bottom-bar visibility [eye icon]

SENDS VS INSERTS

Loopy Pro supports both insert and send effects. Insert effects are applied upon individual channels and affect the audio in situ. Send effects are sent to a bus, a sort of side-channel, and the output is sent to the bus destination. (See the section Buses and Sends)

When an insert effect is applied to an audio source, the affected audio will be recorded into clip.. Insert effects can also be applied to colours, and will affect all audio output by the colour. Effects frequently used as inserts include filters and equalisers, distortion, chorus, limiters and compressors.

Send effects are applied on the output of a bus, to which channels (both audio sources and colours) may send a certain amount of their audio, set by a send knob. The affected audio is heard on top of the original audio stream coming from the original channels. Sends are often used for reverb and delay effects.

PRE VS POST FADER

Effects can be placed in pre– and post-fader positions. This describes the effect’s position in the signal flow, relative to the volume fader.

Pre-fader effects are applied before the volume fader is applied to the channel: they process the full-volume audio, and then that affected audio is passed into the volume fader.

Post-fader effects are applied after the volume fader: they act on the audio after the volume has been applied, and that affected audio is sent to the output as-is.

Whether you place an effect in the pre- or post-fader position depends on the effect in question. Distortion effects, for example, can behave quite differently with quiet audio versus full-volume audio, and you may want to place these in a pre-fader position to maintain tone at various volume levels. With reverb and delay effects, on the other hand, you may want these to ring out when adjusting the volume, rather than having their output reduced by the fader along with the rest of the channel’s audio, so these may be best placed in a post-fader position.

A performance consideration with pre- and post-fader positions: When you are using the same effect on more than one channel, it’s more efficient to place this effect in the post-fader position for all of the channels. This gives Loopy Pro the opportunity to internally group the channels together and use a single internal instance for the effect. In the pre-fader position, Loopy Pro must use separate internal instances for each channel.

EFFECT INSTANCES

You can use multiple instances of any effect, and each instance will be treated entirely separately, with its own configuration and interface.

You can also use the same instance of an effect on multiple channels simultaneously, and the effect, with a single configuration and single interface, will be applied to each channel. This is achieved within Loopy Pro by a combination of intelligent internal routing – where channels are grouped together and a single effect instance applied to the group – and internal handling of multiple hidden instances.

Where Loopy Pro is unable to group channels together into a single signal path, it will create multiple, hidden instances of an effect, and automatically synchronise the state across all hidden instances, so that the effect appears as a single instance.

See also the performance consideration note above, concerning pre– and post fader positions.

IDLE EFFECTS

By default, effects which are disabled or have no input signal enter “Idle” mode, where they consume little processing resources. With Idle mode, you can have many different Audio Units loaded, without over-taxing your device’s processor. Tap the ON button, or disable the effect on the bottom bar of the main screen or with an action to put the Audio Unit into Idle mode. Tap IDLE or enable the effect from the bottom bar or an action to re-activate it.

If you wish the Audio Unit to remain active when disabled, you can disable Idle mode by long-pressing on the IDLE button, then turning off the switch beside “Enable Idle Mode” on the popover that appears.

EFFECT TAILS

When you turn an effect off, Loopy Pro will detect if there is a tail/decay – as with a reverb or a delay, for instance. When a tail is present, Loopy Pro will perform a smooth transition to avoid cutting off the tail: When you disable the effect, Loopy Pro will mute the effect’s input, then overlay the remaining tail on top of the dry, un-affected audio until the effect output becomes silent.

When this transition is happening, you will see the effect bar button/action flashing. Tap again to cancel this transition and immediately silence the tail.

BOTTOM BAR VISIBILITY

Effects will appear on the bottom bar [link to bottom bar section] on Loopy Pro’s main screen by default, for easy access. If you wish to hide an effect from this bar, tap [EYE ICON] from the effect’s configuration screen to toggle visibility.

5.4.1.BUILT-IN EFFECTS #

Loopy Pro has a number of built-in effects. Here’s a list of the currently-provided effects, and some corresponding notes – see the roadmap for a list of other effects which will be coming soon.

• Reverb – A simple reverb plugin (Apple’s own AUReverb2), with a number of presets provided: Small Room, Medium Room, Large Room, Medium Hall, Large Hall, Plate, Medium Chamber, Large Chamber, Cathedral, Large Room 2, Medium Hall 2, Medium Hall 3, and Large Hall 2.
• Equalizer – A sophisticated parametric stereo EQ, with support for eight filter types: Peak, Band Shelf, Low-Pass, High-Pass, Band-Pass, Low Shelf, High Shelf and Notch. You can combine any number of these, and apply them to both audio channels, or just the left or right. To add a filter, begin dragging on the frequency response line; a peak filter will be created by default, and will follow your finger to allow you to shape the frequency response. Tap the circular handles for each filter to change the type, channel and parameters. All parameters can be controlled via actions; you can specify which parameters are available for control by tapping the “Parameters” item in the popover for each handle.
• Filters: Low-Pass, High-Pass, Band-Pass, Low Shelf, High Shelf – Single filters, based on the Equaliser.
• Dynamics – A combined compressor/limiter module (Apple’s AUDynamicsProcessor).

5.4.2.AUDIO UNIT EFFECTS #

AUDIO UNIT USER INTERFACE

Tap the icon of an effect, or tap the corresponding button on the bottom bar to display its user interface: This is displayed in a moveable and resizable window.

Tap [EXPAND ICON] or double-tap the titlebar to toggle fullscreen, and [CLOSE ICON] to close the window. Drag the bottom right handle to change the size of the window. Tap [DOCKING ICON] to dock the window to the side or bottom of the screen. Tap [UNDOCK ICON] to undock the audio unit interface.

PRESETS

Loopy Pro supports both factory and user presets for Audio Units. See [LINK TO AUDIO UNIT PRESETS] for details about Audio Unit Presets.

MIDI

Some Audio Unit effects support MIDI input. The Audio Unit window provides access to the same MIDI tools and options as Audio Unit instruments. See AUDIO UNIT INPUTs for details

5.5.MIDI #

The mixer’s MIDI Channel Strips are for routing MIDI from MIDI sources to MIDI destinations. There are a few MIDI channel strip variants:

• External MIDI controllers and virtual MIDI ports - These are hardware controllers and virtual MIDI ports from other apps. MIDI input comes through these ports. They have no Source slot.
• MIDI colours - The output of MIDI clips or any MIDI directed to a colour.
• MIDI plugins - Any MIDI plugin that can send audio can be added to the mixer as a MIDI source

Loopy Pro supports full MIDI routing: you can send MIDI from a connected MIDI controller to one or more AUv3 Audio Unit synthesisers/virtual instruments, or drive an Audio Unit synthesiser from an Audio Unit MIDI sequencer. You can also send MIDI out to connected MIDI devices.

Sources. MIDI Colours and MIDI Plugins have a source row that displays the icons of the the channel’s MIDI. You can add a source to a MIDI channel by tapping on the + icon at the bottom of the sources slot. You can also add MIDI sources by tapping the mixer’s + icon and choosing Add MIDI.

Velocity Fader. The fader of a MIDI channel strip scales the note velocities of notes sent through the channel. This will only impact the note volume if the destination synth makes use of MIDI note velocity. Some synth or synth patches are not velocity-sensitive.

Destinations. MIDI Channel strips have two types of destinations: colours and non-colour MIDI destinations: audio clips, MIDI plugins, audio unit instruments, MIDI ports.

In the Destinations section on a MIDI channel strip, tap the + button to add a new destination – this will display a list of the loaded AUv3 Audio Units that can accept MIDI, as well as a list of the MIDI destinations available to the system.

[MIDI DESTINATION PANEL]

DESTINATION OPTIONS

Tap a destination to open its settings.

Options:

• Enabled/Disabled – whether the destination is enabled to receive MIDI. This option is used when a controller has multiple MIDI destinations. You can disable or enable destinations so that only some of the destinations are active. The Enable/Disable MIDI Destination action provides a convenient way to switch which MIDI destination are active.
• MIDI Cables (not pictured)- if the MIDI Source is a MIDI AUv3 with multiple output cables, a MIDI Cables option will be available to choose the cable from which MIDI is received.
• Channel Filter – specify a channel filter, if any. If All channels is selected, all MIDI channels will be sent to the destination. If a particular MIDI channel is selected, only MIDI messages on that channel will be passed through. All other messages will be blocked.
• Range – specify the range of notes that will be passed through to the destination. Any currently playing notes are indicated on the Range keyboard
• Transpose – the amount by which to transpose notes being passed to the destination.
• Destination MIDI Channel – set a MIDI channel to which you want the notes remapped. All notes being passed through are mapped to this channel.

Different destinations of the same MIDI source can have different settings here, allowing you to split a MIDI keyboard out to different Audio Units, for instance.

MIDI Colours have a a couple of options unique to MIDI colours:

• Monitor Through - When this option is on (the default), MIDI received by the colour is passed on to its destinations.
• Takeover - When this option is on, control messages coming in live will temporarily override control messages being played back by MIDI clips.

5.6.BUSES AND SENDS #

Use buses in Loopy Pro to implement effect sends, or to configure custom routing, such as sending the same colour channel to multiple audio interface channels at the same time.

You can add a new bus by either tapping the [ADD ICON] button, then selecting “Add Bus”, or by adding a new send knob by tapping the + button within the Sends area of a channel strip and tapping “New Bus”.

Once a bus has been created, you can create any number of sends from channel strips to this bus, by tapping the + button within the Sends area of a channel strip.

Destinations. Buses can send their output to audio colours, hardware outputs or any other bus..

Sends appear as dials which you can adjust by swiping horizontally – make finer controls by moving your finger vertically away from the dial. You can also use actions to adjust sends from widgets or a MIDI controller.

Long press on a send dial to configure its position:

• Before All Effects – the audio from a channel strip will be sent to the bus before any effects or faders are applied.
• Before Fader – audio will be sent at full-volume, before the fader is applied, and after any pre-fader effects. This is the default.
• After Fader – audio will be sent immediately after the fader, and before any post-fader effects.
• After All Effects – audio will be sent at the end of the channel strip’s signal processing chain, after fader and all effects are applied.

Remove a send by long pressing and then tapping “Delete”.