Circular Labs

Mostly I just want to echo (pun intended) the other reviewer's review. This FREE piece of software more or less eliminated a $1500 piece of kit. (Looperlative) It's honestly like having 16 Echoplex Digital Pros (run as 8 stereo pairs) but without the memory limit.

If you're new to the world of looping, this software will probably seem confusing and daunting. The interface is no beauty, and can even be a bit buggy at times, but in the end you'll find that your MIDI controller becomes your interface and it really doesn't matter what it looks like. The good thing about it is that the interface is very customizeable and when you get used to the way it works you can strip it down to only what you need.

Why not mouse around? Unless you're a vocalist, you'll want your hands to play while you are using Mobius. This is a performance oriented piece of software.

So, what does it do? In a sense, it allows you to create 8 stereo channels of loops. Each channel can hold multiple loops, but only one at a time. For instance you can create an A, B and C loop in channel one, and then do the same (I'm not sure how many you are limited to, probably as much as your RAM allows) in the remaining channels. Get it? That's a lot of loopage and each loop can be different lengths or sync or not sync to your clock or host.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg. You can multiply, insert, pitch shift, time slip, fade and so much more. It's deep. Very deep. My suggestion, if you've never played with such a device, buy one of the less expensive loopers, like the Boss Loopstations, get the idea of it... then bring it right back to the Guitar Center and start learning Mobius. It's so addicting I swear it will change the way you make music forever.

OK, I just want to bump this amazing and recently updated plug-in. I don't hear much about this VST (comes in a stand alone version too) on this forum, but I have to say that if you have not tried it (it's free Windows VST or Standalone) you do not know what you're missing. If you have tried it and went, "What the hell is this?" you didn't give it a chance. I think people don't quite understand what it can do so I thought I'd post a little example of one way to use it.

1)Start sequencer (in Live) listen to drums for tempo. Put Mobuis in A Send track.

2)Start improvising a bass line until you have something you like. A few beats before the beginning of a new measure I send a MIDI message to it that automatically puts it into record at the start point of the next measure and then ends it a specified amount of measures. (This is part of the new update, but you can also end it manually too. I like to quantize it to a measure, but you can also have no quantize or quantize it to a beat)

3)Then start overdubbing. What ever you like. Make a nice groove.

4)Next, open a new track. Repeat step 2 but this time back off the feedback to about 80% meaning your loop will gradually fade. Make something nice and then exit overdub.

5)Switch back to the first track and then send a midi message that will cause it to switch to a new loop at the end of the current loop and automatically go into record. Your old one is still there, don't worry. Repeat this step as many times as you like. I find 3 or 4 to be a good amount most of the time.

6) Don't forget about track 2! It's fading! Keep that plate spinning and keep adding to it so you have a constantly changing loop that runs over your first track of fixed loops.

7) Switch up between loops while improvising over them, sometimes visiting your 2nd track to keep it running.

Then... Song! This is the tip of the iceberg of what it can do, but if you haven't tried to make music this way I believe you're missing out.

I reckon this is the BEST software looper out there for PC.

If you are into live loopin gthen this does it. I use it as a VST in Tracktion and have the 8 separate outputs on 8 separate tracks with different efrfects on each one. I'ma saxophonist and use it for creating rich ambient textures on live gigs with my buddy, an MC and beatboxer, who uses Ableton Live (He's on Mac, but would use Mobius if it was ported to Mac in preference to Live, how about that for a recommendation!!!)

Jeff, though I've not asked many questions, runs a lively and fequently used forum.

The documentation is pretty good, though requires quite a bit of knowledge of what looping is and what the hardware Gibson unit can do to make lots of sense.

But once I got my head round it it's wonderful.

USER INTERFACE

It's very basic but it's scaleable and configurable, and actually, once you've got your MIDI controller figured out, you don't need some flash GUI.

SOUND
What you put in you get out. It loops reliably, rarely crashes and is syncable with hosts and with other computers through MIDI clock.

FEATURES
I haven't really delved into Mobius' full capbilities, I believe it can do a lot more than I am asking of it. reversing loops, stretching them, copying and transforming, all on the fly.

PRESETS

It doesn't come with any, but you can create whatever presets you want for different situations.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

As mentioned, there is a very active user forum that Jeff, the developer is at pains to support on a very regular basis.

VALUE FOR MONEY

It's free!!!!!!

STABILITY

Yes, it has crashed as a VST. There are some MIDI timing probs and sometimes Mobius and Energy XT refuse to get along (which is why I worked out how to use it in Tracktion, where it behaves perfectly).

As a standalone application it's been as solid as a rock for me.

I just want to sign off by saying that I havehad very little contact with Jeff and the user group. I just wanted to put a review up here, as I use KVR a lot and have relied on other peoples reviews in the past.

I think that this is one of the great pieces of software and ought to be more widely known. It's ugly to look at and is for a niche market, but it is superbly crafted for live musicians who want to get into using their computer to stretch the boundaries of the music they can make.