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Re: seamless loops & windows tools (ambiloop vs Mobius)




> Indeed, does the alternative sw Mobius ( http://www.circularlabs.com
> save .wav without start-end clicks / artifacts ? 

I think I know what your problem is.  It isn't really an "artifact",
the loop is being saved exactly the way it was recorded.  The problem
is that in a looper, loops normally play from beginning to end and
then repeat.  If you overdub and you let the overdub carry over the
loop boundary, then the audio will not be faded to zero at the
begininning and end of the loop.  When the looper plays this audio
continuously, you don't notice this, it sounds like seamless audio
without clicks.  But if you save this loop to a file and play the loop
in an application that is not a looper, there will be a click at the
beginning and end of the audio.

This is difficult to talk about without pictures.

Layer 1: rrrrrrrr
Layer 2: ----oooo
Layer 3: oo------

The letter 'r' means the loop was being recorded for the first time,
'-' means the loop was playing, and 'o' means overdubing.

The result will look like this:

    oo--oooo

In order for the overdub to sound seamless it is important that the
looper *not* fade the starting and ending edges of this loop to zero.
When the loop is allowed to play forever, you want it to sound like
this:

    oo--oooooo--oooooo--oooo

If you fade the edges of the loop to zero...

    _o--ooo_

Here '_' means silence.  The faded loop will sound like this when it
plays:

    _o--ooo__o--ooo__o--ooo_

You normally do not want this in a looper, the faded edges will be
audible as a "fade bump" that you will hear every time the loop
repeats.

If you save an unfaded loop to a file then bring it into an audio
application that is not a looper, the start and end of the wave form
will have sharp edges that will sound like clicks if you play the wave
form without looping it.  If you need to do this then you need to edit
the wave file and fade the edges, this is sometimes called "top and
tail" fading.

So to answer your question, Mobius will save loops WITHOUT
top and tail fading so that you can load them back into Mobius
and have them play seamlessly.  If you want to save Mobius loops
and use them in a different audio application, you will need
to edit them and fade the edges.  Most pro audio editors
provided an easy way to do this.

Jeff