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Re: Loopy2 Mini Review..
Title: Re: Loopy2 Mini Review..
Jim,
The iRig is fine, it is clean, and provides a high input
impedance so the guitar tone isn't compromised. It's no better
or worse than any other "hijack the mic input" device.
I have compared several and despite various claims about
"feedback immunity", level and noise, they all
measured about the same. Self noise is high on the mic input,
but they all sound fine.
I had the Apogee "Jam" which was considerably quieter,
but the only app that recognized it was the Peterson strobe tuner, so
I sold it and bought the iRig.
-Chuck
Charles thanks for a detailed analysis of
this. How is the iRig btw? Is it stable and clean or
moderately clean?
Thx Jim
On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Charles
Zwicky <cazwicky@earthlink.net>
wrote:
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
--
...
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From Brooklyn To Glindran, a new World/Free Jazz recording by
Jim Goodin & Peter Thörn. Proceeds
from the sale of this CD will benefit JDRF International. jimgoodinpeterthorn.bandcamp.com.
woodandwiremusic.wordpress.com
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