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Loopy2 Mini Review..
Title: Loopy2 Mini Review..
Loopy 2 mini-review
After spending a bit more time with the Loopy2 app on my iPod
touch 4th generation I find that there are some features that put it
above the rest of the available iOS loopers in terms of the
"Looping as an instrument" world is concerned.
I've highlighted them here:
6 simultaneous overdub-capable loops that can each be
different lengths...!
After recording your initial loop, you can use the multiply and
divide icons at the bottom of the screen to make the length of any
subsequent loop to be an even multiple (or fraction) of the first
recorded loop. By using the Plus and Minus icons, any
subsequent loop's length can be set to any arbitrary number of beats
longer or shorter than the original loop. This feature is unique
to the Loopy2 as far as I know. By setting each of the loops to
a different number of beats you can easily create complex
polyrhythms, and for creating long undulating ambient
backgrounds is the next best thing to completely unsynched
loops.
There is an option in the settings menu that allows you to enable
or disable "count-in" while recording or overdubbing. This
is a very important feature, it allows you to arm a track and have
time to get your hands back on your instrument before it goes
into record.
Global menus and individual submenus...
Each of the 6 loops has a built in sub-menu, called up by holding
your finger down on a loop, allowing you to adjust the Volume
level, Pan position, as well as import and export audio to an from
each loop in your session. This is a brilliant use of the limited real
estate of the iPod / iPhone, plus it streamlines the GUI so than
non-essential functions are hidden until needed.
Stereo
This is one of the most exciting features for me. Tracks may be
positioned within the stereo soundfield and pan positions may be
preset for the empty loops. The big news here is that when
merging two tracks (by simply dragging on onto another) the resulting
"merged" track retains the stereo placement and level of the
two original source tracks, and you now have one stereo track where
you previously had two mono tracks. The length of the merged track is
automatically set to the common multiple of the two source tracks, so
any polyrhythms will be retained.
Performance recording
A "session" is defined as the six loops and their
settings. Sessions may be saved and recalled, or even duplicated at
will, and there is also the ability to make a stereo recording of the
6 loops along with your performance over the top of them and save this
to the "recordings" folder.
Latency
I've tested several iOS apps for latency using the iRig
interface (which uses the mic input of the idevice via the 4th
connector on the headphone jack.
and the Loopy 2 has a reasonable, but not exceptional, latency
measurement of 930 samples (21ms). It's not much of a
problem in actual use except for highly precise rhythmic
playing.
Here's how it stacks up to other iOS apps:
Pass through Latency measured at 44.1k
sample rate, iPod Touch 4th gen, iOS 4.3.3
Everyday Looper 1244 samples (28.2ms)
Loopy2 930 samples (21ms)
Amplitube Fender Free, normal latency mode 736 samples
(16.69ms)
TC Helicon Voice Jam 730 samples (16.5ms)
Amplitube Fender Free low latency mode 490 samples
(11.11ms)
-Chuck Zwicky
--
...
http://www.zmix.net
http://www.esession.com/ChuckZwicky
http://albumcredits.com/zmix
