We’ve dropped Loopy’s price for the holiday period!

Loopy HD, for iPad and iPhone, is 50% off at $3.99 (normally $7.99), and Loopy, for iPhone, is 30% off at $1.99 (normally $2.99).

Happy holidays!

Gift Loopy

Gift Loopy HD

I’m excited to announce the release of Loopy 2.2, and Loopy HD 1.1, which introduce features that the professional and semi-professional musicians are going to love: Trainable MIDI control, and MIDI clock sync!

Loopy can now be entirely controlled via external MIDI devices, via the Camera Connection Kit for iPad, or any one of a number of third party adapters for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

With Loopy, musicians can now accomplish the kind of setup that would otherwise cost hundreds of dollars in expensive, bulky specialised equipment to achieve.

Controllable actions include record toggle, mute toggle, record then automatically select next track, record then overdub, toggle record with no count-in/out, clear, re-record, solo, volume, pan, tempo adjust or tempo tap, pause, double or halve clock length…

The update also introduces MIDI clock sync: The clock can be synchronised, in either direction, with external devices, other software (such as Ableton Live) over WiFi, software running on other iOS devices via WiFi or Bluetooth, and even other compatible apps running on the same iOS device, via virtual MIDI!

Oh, yeah – one more thing: Loopy on the iPhone or iPod Touch can now run up to 12 channels. Yep. Layer it up, baby.

Loopy user and forum member fonyo recently wrote an article on the Loopy forum about busking with low-budget equipment and Loopy. There was some great information in the article, so I’ve reproduced it here with some editorial modifications.

I’ve been planning for a long time to do some busking. I’ve always been amazed by street musicians, and can watch them for hours. That’s why I’ve put together some thoughts on buying portable equipment.

In summary: For just a fraction more money than that saved by choosing Loopy instead of a single Boss RC-300 Loop Station, you can pick up a complete, high-quality busking setup, perfect for going out into the street and performing for the public.

Boss RC-300 vs Loopy

First, let me compare the new Boss RC-300 Loop Station with Loopy, not counting the iPhone’s/iPad’s price (because we love it and would buy it anyway!). I chose the RC-300 as it gives you the closest number of individual loop tracks you can record/overdub

My point is this: let’s forget the RC-300 and save that 400 quid for other stuff to buy so we can go out and play!

Equipment list

Here’s my equipment list. I tried to find a balance between price and quality, while also keeping in mind portability.

Let’s see the details of each. Loopy is obvious, it’s the “core” in our iDevice and the iKlip is holding it (e.g. on a mic stand).

iRig guitar & instrument interface is transferring the sound to the iDevice.

iRig MIDI to control Loopy through MIDI (I know it’s not capable of doing this yet but soon it will be!) and we connect a nice MIDI foot switch (cheap and smart) the Behringer FCB1010. This is the only thing which needs a power supply but I’m listing it as I would go for it anyway. I’m sure now that iRig MIDI and LINE6 Mobilizer II are released we will soon find many battery-operated or maybe even passive foot-switches for iDevices through MIDI.

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but an electric condenser mic like the iRig iMic just won’t give you a nice sound, and as the tests and reviews are showing it’s just not suited for professional use such as live quality street busking.

That’s why I came up with an idea of a small but powerful battery-operated mixer with enough inputs to handle your better quality microphones. You can also plug in your instruments or any device with line out, such as an iPod as a music source.

The mixer device is the Behringer XENYX 1002B which runs on two (!) 9VDC batteries. The main output of the mixer (your gig) goes into the iRig’s TRS input. As a nice optional hardware for electric guitars with pickups, I recommend the MOTU ZBOX. It’s a miracle for guitar sound, and it’s passive so it doesn’t require any current. The Behringer 1002B has 5mic-line input OR 2mic-line/6stereo input with 3bandEQ, 2aux etc.

Finally, the Public Address (PA). I’ve found real luggage-like battery powered speakers made by PylePro and those are just wicked! Low-budget but nice stuff. They have wheels and handle for easy relocating, EQ, and many other cool things built-in. They give you enough power to blow away your own head with guitar riffs, beatbox, singing, so you can just use Loopy to amaze your audience! The iRig’s output goes in the PylePro’s input, and there we are.

You do need to buy a mic, but this way nearly anything will sound better than that electric condenser.

Summary

For the money you avoided spending on a Boss RC-300 LS for £400 (vs. Loopy 2 HD for £5), you can pick up nearly all this equipment — the sum is between 400-550 depending on where and what you buy or not. Then, you’re good to go and show some real busking to the public and start a career like our Uncle Dub Fx!

You can discuss fonyo’s research at the Loopy forum.

Loopy 2.1.1 and Loopy HD 1.0.1 feature a number of bug fixes and iOS 5 compatibility fixes, as well as a few new features:

Configurable fade-in and fade-out

With this switched on, and with mute count-in/count-out enabled, the second tap on a playing or muted track will begin a fade in or out. A third tap will immediately play or mute the track. Without mute count-in/out, the first tap begins fade, the second plays or mutes immediately.

“Re-record” function

When clearing a track, this new function will cause the track to clear and begin recording again at the start of the next loop (or straight away, with count-in off)

“Chained mute” feature

If you mute a track (or tracks) while another track is counting in to record, then the muted track(s) will only mute after the recording ends, instead of at the next loop.

I hope you like the changes! Stay tuned for more.

Benjamin Poole’s creations with Loopy are beautifully whimsical, uplifting and sometimes melancholy tracks that feature second-hand and vintage toy instruments that Benjamin has found via Craigslist and through friends.

Judging by the quality of his work, I’d assumed that Benjamin was a professional musician experimenting with Loopy, but to my surprise, this is just his hobby: Benjamin’s a full time Communications major!

Benjamin can be found posting to SoundCloud as benjaminpoole.

Good Morning (Loopy Experiment) by benjaminpoole

You can hear what others are doing with Loopy at Loopy’s very active SoundClound group.

Loopy HD is on its way: It will be available on October 6. Stay tuned!

If you’ve been aware of the goings-on at camp A Tasty Pixel lately, you’ll be aware that Loopy HD is on its way.

This is the iPad-friendly version of Loopy, and it’ll be available on October 6.

In advance of the happy occasion, I thought I’d outline our Master Plan.

Once Loopy HD is out, there’ll be two versions of Loopy:

• Loopy will remain at its low $2.99 price point, and will remain iPhone only.
• Loopy HD will be available at a more iPad-esque price point, $7.99, and is targeted specifically at iPad users. However, Loopy HD will actually be a Universal app, so that iPad users can also use the app on their iPhone without having to purchase the app again.

Loopy HD will take advantage of that nice big screen, and will have a configurable number of tracks — 6, 9 or 12.

To cater for existing iPad owners who have already bought a copy of Loopy, Loopy HD will be available at a dramatically reduced price for launch, so you won’t have to pay full price — we’ll let you know via an in-app message from Loopy (and the usual channels) when it’s available.

Until then, I’m getting back to work!

• More Loopy HD news
• Watch the Loopy HD preview video
• Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for news and giveaways

McKittrick by Breakable Plans

Ian Ljungquist sings in and writes for 4-piece Brooklyn-based indie-rock band Me You Us Them. Since discovering Loopy, Ian has begun a new experimental solo project entitled “Breakable Plans“, in which he explores the medium by creating loop-based music spontaneously and with whatever’s on hand at the time. In his words:

“I’ve always loved making loops. Creating loop-based music has been a passion of mine since I first discovered the extremely limited loop function on an old Line 6 Echo Pro delay rack unit.”

“I’ve been having so much fun with [Loopy] that I decided to turn it into a project in which I embrace, and even place emphasis on the limitations of the process. The idea behind “Breakable Plans” is that I just very casually and spontaneously record when I feel the urge, using only Loopy for iPhone, my voice, and whatever else is laying around.”

Ian’s unique deep-layering recording technique yields some fascinating results, lending a depth and scale to his “vocal electronic” productions that defy their humble iPhone-based origins.

Definitely someone to keep an eye on, Ian continues to post his creations on SoundCloud under the “Breakable Plans” moniker.

Right Where I’m Supposed To Be by Breakable Plans

Update: It’s now available!

The new version includes:

• Full-featured noise gate/expander, with auto-calibration
• Bigger panel and clock controls
• Document support: Import loops from Mail and other apps
• Play/pause button on main screen (great for breaks)
• Option to add track to Loopy’s SoundCloud group when publishing
• Many more improvements and bug-fixes

Expect it to land in a week or so. Now, off to work on the next version..

• A much bigger bottom display, with paged clock manipulation controls for easier access to the most-used functions
• A play/restart button on the main loops screen
• Clearer distinction between muted and unmuted tracks
• The option to automatically begin overdubbing after first record
• Import loops from Mail and other applications straight into a Loopy 2 session
• Single sign-on for SoundCloud, including Facebook link support

Look out for it soon.

It’s currently on sale for launch, so take a look! We’re very proud of it.

This is an early preview of Loopy 2 for iPhone (and soon iPad). Six tracks, simple touch controls. Tap a track to start recording, tap it again to stop. Tap in the middle to overdub, or elsewhere to mute the track. Drag one track onto another to merge instantly (not shown in this demo – another time!).

Inbuilt tempo settings (including live audio scaling, if you change the tempo mid-session), full stereo audio, volume and pan settings.

There’s plenty more, and I’ll demo them all in the weeks to come. Subscribe here, or over at loopyapp.com to stay tuned!

No percussion type icons yet, but the rest is basically there:

• Full zoom/pan interface for use on an iPhone screen (although this was the simulator, operated with a mouse cursor).
• Two velocity levels available for each cell (127 volume levels supported in the back end, but not in the interface yet)
• 12 instruments
• Custom sound set support, so you can built your own kit from your own sample set and import it into Loopy

This is unlikely to be in Loopy 2.0, but expect it around version 2.1.