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Looper's Delight
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Per has already responded well to several points, I'll just add a few things. > I know mobius can handle multiple loops in parallel, as can flyloops ... and > I think the approaches we use are somewhat similar ... From what I have read, it appears that Flyloops is designed more for "arrangement" looping in the vein of Ableton Live but with what is commonly called "first loop capability". You record fragments of an arrangement and then combine them in various ways, maybe soloing over the top. Mobius is designed more for "evolving improvisational" loops that are recorded then modified over time with functions like overdub, insert, multiply, trim, replace, shuffle, and most important a feedback control that lets the loop layers decay gradually while you overdub. What Flyloops calls "loops" is what Mobius calls "tracks". What Flyloops calls "A->B" is what Mobius calls "loops" with the LoopCount parameter limited to 2. Flyloops doesn't appear to have the concept of what Mobius calls "layers", an infinite history of the evolution of the loop that you can move around in with the Undo and Redo functions. To draw a hardware comparison, Mobius is obviously closest to multiple synchronized EDPs where Flyloops is closest to the Looperlative. > - full sync - meaning start/stop recording only at the masters loop boundary > .. so all loops start/stop with the master, and are a multiple of the master > loops length This is what Mobius calls "Track Sync". The recording of one track can start and end at a certain location in the master track. This is often the master track start point, but it can also be a subdivision of the master track (cycles and subcycles). > - partial sync - start recording whenever I tap in, but when I tap out .. > wait until the loop is some multiple of the masters length ... so all loops > are a multiple of the length ... but will start/stop only at a particular > offset to the master. If I understand correctly, this is closest to what Mobius would call a Time Copy to get an empty loop in sync with the master, followed by an Overdub or Multiply to begin recording into the empty loop at the current offset. To do this in Mobius with one switch press you would have to write a script. > TEMPO/PITCH SHIFT: > I haven't programmed this yet... so currently there is no tempo or pitch > shifting There are two fundamental concepts here. One is "rate shift" which is a change in playback rate similar to a variable speed control on a tape deck or turntable. This changes the tempo and pitch at the same time. The other is "pitch shift" which involves complex DSP algorithms to change the perceived pitch without changing the tempo. The two can be combined to get "time stretch" which is a change in tempo that does not change the pitch. Time stretch is one of the holy grails of looping but it is difficult to do because the algorithms that sound best require too much CPU to be done in real time on an average PC. The ones that can be done in real time don't sound as good. It is a tradeoff and doing it well requires a fairly detailed knowledge of DSP algorithms like FFTs and filters. One of the better implementations is found in Ableleton Live. The recently announced Virtual Repeater will probably do this well. Rate shift and time stretch also cause enormous complications if you are trying to support external synchronization with a MIDI clock or a VST host. > TAP TEMPO: > Mobius does this ... Flyloops will, once pitch/tempo shift is complete. Mobius does not support tap tempo in the sense that you can record a loop, then tap two switches to change the tempo of the loop without changing pitch. > And .... you could set up an external > source to trigger the rec button ... so sync that way .... but you could NOT > track to an external drum machine as you changed tempo for example. Syncing to a drum machine is more complicated than automating the record button even if you are not changing the tempo. Since the two devices are not driven from the same clock they will eventually drift apart. Doing this properly requires the looper to continually monitor the MIDI clock stream and make periodic adjustments when it notices a drift. > VST: > flyloopscannot run as a VST (yet). Some friendly advice...you will have far more commercial interest if you provide VST support rather than Rewire support. Rewire is not nearly as flexible as VST for the user. But I am interested in knowing if Propellerhead grants you a license. I gave up on that awhile ago because of their policy of not granting licenses to "individuals". You have to convince them you are a "company" though they don't define exactly what that means. Jeff