I tried out Looptastic a couple days ago, and after spending a few minutes playing, I had to buy it for my own iPad. I absolutely love it, but there are a few things I wonder about. The features may be in there already, and I just missed them, so bear with me!
My main feedback would be letting us make changes to a saved performance during playback. So many times, I’ll be 5+ minutes in, and a slip of the finger on the xy pad while using the bitcrusher, or an incorrectly adjusted volume for a specific loop will ruin the whole thing. It would be great if we could carry on, and then go back after the fact and fix the error. It seems like, during playback, I can see everything that’s being done, all the icons moving around, etc… but when I change them around during the playback, nothing actually changes.
During playback/editing, a track timeline would be a godsend… a lot of times, there’s the initial setup where you’re selecting your loops, and getting it all set up, auditioning them and testing them out, etc… and that all gets saved to the performance. Being able to select sections of time and cut (or even copy/paste them!) would be great.
While performing, you can only see the timeline/waveform for one loop at a time. I find when I’m working with multiple voice samples or SFX tracks, I want to keep an eye on all of them… especially when I want to use the samples only at specific times, and have them set to play only when I touch them. If I have more than one set like this, and want to play one right after the other, or alongside each other, it gets kind of difficult. Being able to “pin” multiple loops’ strips to the top would be a huge enhancement. That way, the user would get to define themselves how many at a time show.
I also like that I can use the ‘Hold’ button on the xy pad, to apply a constant effect to my loops. One thing I discovered I didn’t seem to be able to do though was selectively put separate effects on different channels. For example:
I set the xy pad to only affect the right channel, and then select Bitcrusher, and touch a section of the pad. I select ‘Hold’ and now the right channel has the effect on it as a constant. Next, I select Low Pass Filter, and deselect the right channel, and select the middle and left. What I would expect, would be that I am saying “I want to apply the Low Pass Filter to the left and middle channels.” but what happens, is that the previously set up Bitcrusher hold now stops having an affect on the right channel, but instead starts working on the left and middle channels. Since I can select and apply holds to different Effects individually, I would expect to be able to select affected channels on a per-effect basis.
I’d also love to be able to better sort and organize my loop collection… most likely by either tagging loops, and then sorting by tags, or by creating custom sets of “favorites”
I’ve got over 2000 loops and samples, and finding/selecting them in a timely manor when performing is fairly cumbersome.
My last question is about the “connect” button… what is this button used for? When I click it, it just says “connecting” and never seems to do anything… I’m not exactly sure what it’s used for, or what I’m supposed to do with it.
Overall, I am VERY pleased with this app. I love using it, and every time I start playing, I discover some new little nuance I can apply to my music. I have a 10 hour car trip ahead of me, and I actually plan on spending most of that time mixing and playing. (I’m the passenger, not the driver!) I’m SUPER happy with my purchase, and look forward to seeing where you guys go with this incredible platform.