Introduction

Trapcode ProLoop for iPhone & iPod Touch is a powerful and flexible loop player for professional musicians as well as hobbyists. Use it as a live electronic instrument by itself or as an addition to your other gear, or just play around with it and explore the possibilities!

ProLoop comes bundled with many professional loops by Mokira (Andreas Tilliander), Håkan Lidbo, Kymatica and others. It also includes some demo sessions to get you started. But the real power comes by the fact that you can upload your own soundfiles to ProLoop through your web-browser!

Example use (flash video): http://www.trapcode.com/proloop/ProLoopScreencast.swf

iTunes Store Link: http://itunes.apple.com/se/app/proloop/id353139847

Features

ProLoop can play up to 6 loops simultaneously. Besides changing the volume each loop can also be pitched/transposed, reversed, muted, panned, ring/frequency/phase-modulated by any other loop, and synchronized to a masterloop.

Pitch can be smoothly adjusted or quantized to a musical unit such as octaves, semitones or a custom division of an octave. Or put it in sync-mode to automagically fit the length of the choosen masterloop.

The sync offset can be adjusted to have loops sync at other positions than their start, and the sync can be turned off individually to allow the loops to have different lengths to create ever-changing layers of soundtextures.

There is also a Freeze FX that lets you temporarily "freeze" a loop with adjustable grain size and position.

You can control all the loops in real-time, and multi-touch will let you adjust several parameters simultaneously, for example crossfading by changing the volume of two loops at the same time.

Detailed list of features

• Plays up to 6 loops simultaneously
• Nice-looking and easy to use multi-touch user interface
  • waveform display
  • peak-meters (as a growing circle for each loop)
• Upload your own loops through your computers web-browser!
  • ZIP archives will be automatically unpacked for bulk upload of samples
• Comes bundled with professional loops
• "Easy sync" mode for beat-centric music
• Individual loop controls:
  • play/pause
  • volume
  • mute
  • balance
  • reverse
  • pitch/speed (as on analog gear)
  • pitch quantization:
    • off (smooth)
    • octave, semitone or custom division of octave
    • fit to length of masterloop
  • modulation between loops:
    • phase, frequency or ringmodulation
    • choose modulation source loop
    • modulation amount
  • synchronization
    • toggle sync on/off
    • choose masterloop
    • adjustable sync offset
    • sync at round N (adjustable)
  • one-shot (syncable)
  • granular freeze FX
• Save, load and share sessions

User Interface

The following sections explains ProLoops user interface in detail.

Main Screen

The main screen shows three loops at a time, you can switch page by touching the left edge of the screen. This is where you actually play ProLoop as an instrument, controlling the various parameters of the loops such as volume, pitch and start/pause.

Loop elements

Each loop consists of the following elements, from left to right:

• The loopnumber (1-6)
• Pitchbar
  • touch and drag up or down to change pitch/speed
  • the bar will show red when transposed upwards and blue when transposed downwards
  • double-tap to reset pitch
• Loop direction arrow
  • tap to toggle direction forward/reverse
• Loop waveform (bluegreen)
  • touch and drag for "freeze FX"
  • the thin orange circle is the VU-meter
• Volume blob (green)
  • touch and drag up or down to change volume
  • tap to toggle mute
• Sync offset dot (blue)
  • this marks where the loop starts
• Play-button
  • tap to start loop
  • if the loop is sync slaved, it will wait until the master restarts
• Sync-button
  • tap to toggle sync slave
  • double-tap to choose masterloop, shown as a filled grey button
  • the thick blue line shows how sync is connected between loops
  • touch and drag into waveform to set sync offset (blue dot)
  • the small number shows at which round of the master this loop will sync
• Pause-button
  • tap to toggle pause
• Loop details button i>
  • tap to show loop settings, this is where you load a soundfile into a loop and adjust other stuff such as panning and modulation

Course/fine and Level/Modulation modes

To the right above the middle loop is a button that toggles between volume and modulation amount control. When in modulation amount mode, the green volume blobs changes to blue modulation blobs, and the current modulation source and type is shown next to each loop, as seen in the image to the right.

To the right below the middle loop is a button that toggles between course and fine pitch control. The current mode is shown with the letter "C" or "F" at the base of the pitchbars. When in Fine mode, the Pitchbar make subtle pitch adjustments.

Loop details

Tap the i> button to the right of each loop to show the details view for that loop. This is where you load soundfiles into a loop and adjust individual loop settings. Tap the done button to get back to the main screen.

• Current file
  • the current soundfilename is shown in the button
  • tap the button to select a new soundfile to load into the loop
• Balance
  • controls the panning or stereo-balance
  • double-tap to reset to center
• Transpose
  • change pitch/speed
  • this is the same as the pitchbar in the main view
• Fine tune
  • like transpose but for subtle adjustments
• Quantize pitch
  • off: no quantization, pitch can be adjusted smoothly
  • octave: quantize to octaves (12 semitones)
  • semitone: quantize to semitones
  • custom: specify your own division of octaves, this can be used to quantize to quartertones and other esoteric scales
  • sync: automatically adjust so that the loop fits in a multiple of the masterloops length
• One shot
  • when ON, the loop will stop after one round
  • if the loop is sync slaved, it will start again when the masterloop restarts
• Modulation source
  • tap the arrows to select between loops 1-6 or OFF
  • a loop can modulate itself for strange effects!
• Modulation type
  • PM: phase modulation
  • RM: ring modulation
  • FM: frequency modulation

Loading soundfiles

By tapping the soundfile button at the top of the Loop Details screen, you will be presented by a list of available soundfiles. They are color-grouped by the first three letters. Tap a file to load it into the loop.

Switch the toggle at the bottom to ON to be able to upload custom loops. See Uploading custom loops later in this documentation for more information.

You can delete custom loops by swiping them (move your finger across them in a fast gesture), which will present a delete-button next to it. Tapping this delete-button will ask for confirmation and then delete the file. The bundled demo loops can not be deleted.

Modulation

By using ProLoop's modulation feature, any loop can be modulated by any loop to create new interesting sounds. A loop can even be modulated by itself for strange effects! There are three types of modulation available:

• Phase modulation (PM)
  • The current play-position of the destination loop is modulated by the output of the modulation source, resulting in a complex spectra. This technique is similar to the one used in some popular digital synthesizers.
• Ring modulation (RM)
  • The destination loop output is multiplicated with the modulation source output. Spectrally the result is the sum and difference of the input frequencies. This is a common technique in synthesizers to produce bell-like sounds.
• Frequency modulation (FM)
  • The speed of the destination loop is modulated by the output of the modulation source, resulting in a complex spectra similar to FM. With high modulation amounts, and with certain waveforms in the modulating loop, this can actually make the destination loop to go backwards!

Note that the modulation source and type is set in the Loop Details view, while the modulation amount is controlled in the Main Screen by switching to modulation mode and dragging the blue blobs inside each loop.

Global Settings

By tapping the gear at the upper right corner, the Settings screen is shown. This is where you adjust global settings and save/load sessions. Tap the done button to get back to the main screen.

• Main Gain controls the global output volume
• Session: shows the name of the current session
  • New creates a new blank session
  • Load lets you select a saved session and load it
  • Save lets you enter a filename to save the current session as
• Easy sync mode
  • synchronization behaviour is put in a mode appropriate for beat-centric music
  • all slaved loops will be fitted to a multiple of the masters length
  • the three toggles below will be fixed to ON
• Resume sync after reverse
  • when ON, each loops current position will be restored when changing loop direction from reverse to forward
• Resume sync after freeze
  • when ON, each loops current position will be restored after using the "Freeze FX"
• Sync slaves follows masters pitch
  • when ON, changing the pitch of the masterloop will also affect all slaved loops, to keep them in sync.

Getting help inside ProLoop

Tap the questionmark to the lower right to show the first quick help-screen. Each text-bubble describes different user interface elements. Press the questionmark again to show the second help-screen, and again to hide the help.

Uploading custom loops

When selecting a soundfile or session for loading, there is a toggle button at the bottom of the screen to enable uploading of custom loops. Follow these steps to upload your own soundfiles for looping in ProLoop:

• Make sure you have wifi internet connectivity
• Switch the toggle to ON to enable uploading
  • The text next to the toggle will change to Open browser at http://n.n.n.n:8080 where n.n.n.n is the IP-number of your device
• Enter this URL in the adressfield of a web-browser running on any computer at the same local area network as your iPhone or iPod
  • You may need to disable or tweak your firewall settings in your router and/or computer
  • A page will appear where you can choose the Loops or Sessions folder
• Choose the Loops folder and upload your own soundfiles through the form at the bottom of the page
  • The list of soundfiles will update automatically and you can load your newly uploaded file into a loop
  • You can also upload a ZIP archive, its contents will be automatically extracted!

Sessions can also be transfered through this web interface, so that you can share sessions with friends. Just make sure they have the same loops available.

Contact

ProLoop was coded by Jonatan Liljedahl for Trapcode. For support, send a mail to Jonatan at lijon@kymatica.com