Hi guys! We know, we know... it's been a while. That's because we've been busy...

Loopscape from Rhythmic Robot is a tape-loop based synthesiser inspired by experimental musical pioneers of the 60s and 70s like Brian Eno. Eno created ambient music by combining tape loops of different lengths to create non-repeating, infinitely-varying compositions. Loopscape takes that concept and turns it into a synthesiser.



At its most basic, Loopscape offers the user three virtual tape loops which can be run simultaneously. Each of these can be loaded with any one of six classic analog waveforms, and each can be set to run for between half a second and 17 seconds (in non-regular intervals). Each of the three virtual loops can be independently sculpted by a high / low pass resonant filter with LFO, and three further LFOs which control amplitude (twice) and pitch. Five LFO wave shapes are available, including a random wave. Although the controls are simple, the complexity of the underlying loops, plus the modulation, means that a single note played by Loopscape will not repeat its sonic fingerprint for thousands of years.

In the Global pane there are Level knobs and a full AHDSR envelope for each loop. Global effects include Tape Saturation, Chorus, Flanger and Delay (with stereo spread), allowing the fantastically complex waveforms generated by Loopscape to be manipulated in a familiar, traditional manner.



Every component sound within Loopscape was recorded onto analog tape, using a variety of old valve-driven equipment from the 50s and 60s. The waveforms themselves were sourced from analog synthesisers and were deliberately chosen for their irregular sonic character. Wow, flutter, distortion, print-through, and a wide variety of other tape-based "flaws" contribute extensively to the character of Loopscape's synthesis engine.
Loopscape excels at evolving textures, soundscapes and pads, but is also the perfect source for traditional analog synth sounds with a unique sonic character. Audio demos, background, images of the recording process (and of the mess Mongo made when he broke the Grundig), and full details are available over at www.rhythmicrobot.com

Features:

Three virtual Tape Loops running 24-bit recordings of real analog tape.
Each Loop can be loaded with Saw, Double Saw, Triangle, Square, Sine or Noise waveforms.
Each Loop can have its length chosen from 0.5, 0.66, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 17 seconds.
Each Loop has a switchable High / Low pass resonant filter.
Each Loop has four LFOs: Filter, Amp 1, Amp 2 and Pitch.
LFO wave shapes can be chosen from Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth, Square and Random.
Full AHDSR envelopes for each Loop.
Global tape-based Effects section with Saturation, Chorus, Flanger and Delay.

Loopscape is available now from Rhythmic Robot's website and is priced at £34.95. It is compatible with Kontakt version 4.2.3 and above (including Kontakt 5). Kontakt Player is not supported.

All the best,

The Professor (and Mongo)
www.rhythmicrobot.com
Pumping new voltage into old technology!
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Very cool concept! The demo mp3 don't wan't to play right now but I'm looking foward hearing demos of this "synth". Looks like great stuff!

Hiya!

You're not the only one. Several people are having problems playing the demos. I wonder if it's our little embedded player that's causing trouble.

Please could you do me a favour? I've posted a different kind of demo player on the Loopscape page, right at the bottom of the page in among the Google ads. Please could you try it, and see if it works properly for you? If it does, I'll replace the existing player type with that one. You may have to reload the page in your brower for it to show up.

If that doesn't fly, I'll find some other way...!

Many thanks for letting me know!

IT'S SORTED NOW: PLEASE SEE THE POST BELOW
Last edited by the professor on Fri May 18, 2012 3:38 am; edited 1 time in total

I was excited by the first demo.
Definitely getting this.. the urge is far too strong. I love these sort of sounds. Tuned, and controllable, but unusual, lo-fi, with a pinch of magic.

Looks very cool.

Looks like there's a problem between our embedded audio player and some browsers. All our demos now have an extra link to a page where they're presented as simple MP3s - so if you've had trouble playing the demos on any of our instruments, do please pop back to the website and check them out

Best wishes,

The Professor (and Mongo)
Last edited by the professor on Fri May 18, 2012 11:49 am; edited 1 time in total

Just tried it using IE and could not play the demo-I clicked on the mp3 on another page and that played fine.
Interesting creation-I like the GUI aswell.

Thank goodness the MP3s are working at least! That'll teach me to do clever HTML5 things

And thank you for your kind words, too!

I'm on Firefox & the embedded player doesn't works. Of course, the mp3 works. It sounds exquisite!

Awww... thanks

You can see why it took us such a long time compared to one of our little drum machines!

It really is a shame with html5 isn't it?
I coded part of my website in lovely html5 so you can stream our music on iOS. But people with older versions of IE/Firefox can't get it. All that work, useless!

Sometimes I wish we were still back in the good old days with BBC Bs and wood-burning networks...

A quick plug: our Keyboard Vault stuff has just been reviewed in Sound on Sound! Very nice review, four stars, pretty pictures They called ShelTone "Terrific value" and said that Magnus was "nasty" (in a good way...)

Next month it's the turn of the Laboratory gear, and then Loopscape (yay!) and Logan will get their own reviews in the following issues. Okay, shameless self-promo moment over

Just got this. AWESOME! Love it for pads, and really organic-sounding. Really cool idea guys.