New Looper With 'Endlesss' Style Buffer Approach
Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2022 1:43 am
I've become very enamored recently with Tim Exile's approach to how a looper can be designed, specifically in his Endlesss music app, which you can explore here: https://www.blog.endlesss.fm/
I would love to see a new (second) Looper device (in the Endlesss style) in which the audio is captured as an ongoing buffer and then you can choose whether you want to capture a loop from the last 1 bar, 2 bars, 4 bars, or 8 bars of audio input that you just played. If you choose not to capture any of it, then no looping takes place.
This may be tough to envision without an example, so here is a video of someone using the looper and choosing to select a 4 bar loop based on the audio they just played: https://youtu.be/jah25kNmMfc?t=1065
I find this to be a far more intuitive approach to capturing loops than what we currently have in Ableton, which is to tell the device (before you even start) when you want to punch-in and then when you want to punch-out. The advantage to the Tim Exile approach is that you can capture loops after you perform something worth capturing (with an easily selectable loop length), rather than have to hope that you capture the correct performance the first time.
Again, it may be hard to convey how much better this feels, so I would implore anyone to give the app a try and (in particular) they way they've implemented the looper. I think they've really hit on something very intuitive and I hope to see it implemented in more loopers in the future.
Edit: I've found a much better video example demonstrating how this works. They call it a Retrospective Looper: https://youtu.be/urE-jALlo0Q?t=111
I would love to see a new (second) Looper device (in the Endlesss style) in which the audio is captured as an ongoing buffer and then you can choose whether you want to capture a loop from the last 1 bar, 2 bars, 4 bars, or 8 bars of audio input that you just played. If you choose not to capture any of it, then no looping takes place.
This may be tough to envision without an example, so here is a video of someone using the looper and choosing to select a 4 bar loop based on the audio they just played: https://youtu.be/jah25kNmMfc?t=1065
I find this to be a far more intuitive approach to capturing loops than what we currently have in Ableton, which is to tell the device (before you even start) when you want to punch-in and then when you want to punch-out. The advantage to the Tim Exile approach is that you can capture loops after you perform something worth capturing (with an easily selectable loop length), rather than have to hope that you capture the correct performance the first time.
Again, it may be hard to convey how much better this feels, so I would implore anyone to give the app a try and (in particular) they way they've implemented the looper. I think they've really hit on something very intuitive and I hope to see it implemented in more loopers in the future.
Edit: I've found a much better video example demonstrating how this works. They call it a Retrospective Looper: https://youtu.be/urE-jALlo0Q?t=111