Re: Question about looping software

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On 8 dec 2006, at 03.12, Sean Onion wrote:

> Newbie here... short question is this: I'd like advice about Apple  
> based s/w that can do live looping.
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> At any rate, the RC-50 turned me onto something I never thought I'd  
> enjoy so much... looping phrases (as in long patterns, entire  
> sections of a song, etc.)


SooperLooper!
http://essej.net/sooperlooper/

Augustus Loop!
http://www.expertsleepers.co.uk/

None of them will let you create multiple loops, on a row, to step  
between for arranging. But SooperLooper will let you create multiple  
loops for parallel playback, even of different length which can be  
cool for variation. Augustus Loop on the other hand was originally a  
Tape Delay Simulator and has excellent capabilities for pitch  
transposing a loop in real-time (just like altering the tape speed).  
Augustus can be used for many parallel loops by simply open multiple  
instances of it on parallel host tracks/channels.

You need a host application to open the looper as an AU plug-in. You  
mentioned GarageBand in your post, but when I checked SooperLooper  
with GB here SL didn't pick up the tempo. This looks as an issue with  
GB, since SL is getting the tempo fine in all other host applications  
I have tried it with (my guess is that Apple crippled the AU tempo  
clock functionality in GB to make people buy Logic when they get  
serious with music production) . But if you don't need to integrate  
looping with other stuff you put on tracks in GB I guess GB word be  
worth trying as a looper host.

There is also a nice little free AU host application from Apple named  
AU Lab. It comes bundled with Tiger, you'll find it at "Developer/ 
Applicatons/Audio". If you didn't install the Xcode developers tools  
with Tiger you can just snag AU Lab from the OSX install DVD. There  
is also a free looper in there named AU-Loop but don't look twice,  
it's buggy and not worth the time trying to make it work ;-)

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)
http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)
http://www.myspace.com/looproom