MSuperLooper auto overdub disable option

[hb_kvr]

Hi All,
The new MSuperLooper seems very powerful considering all the other features it offers, and the introductory price makes it a steal.

However, after searching the manual it seems to be missing an auto stop for recording when the duration is completed. The plugin needs to do a crossfade to reduce the click in the loop, so I assume it needs to record just a little over the bar to get the crossfade section.

Having to click exactly around the end of the recording gave me an overdub on a part of the recorded loop, because I wanted to record sounds that sustain.

When recording a live loop in sync mode, it makes it a lot easier if you can play a little over the end of the loop without worrying about hitting the button to stop recording.
Perhaps the plugin could also have an option to mute the live input once the loop is recorded and starts playing.

I'm hoping that the developer will respond to this feature request on either this thread or any other thread. I currently own MRhythmizer and MVocoder, and a live looper by the same dev would complete the trio

Thanks.

[MeldaProduction]

Hi, I'm afraid I'm quite lost. All you need to do is press "Record" again to stop recording, without it it can hardly know you are already done . Anyways it doesn't crossfade - it creates a tiny fade-in and fade-out, pretty standard for loopers imho.

[hb_kvr]

Thanks so much for replying! Now that I think of it more clearly, essentially my request is to have an option to disable auto-overdub.

To your point of it knowing when I'm done, here is what your manual says:
When Sync is enabled and Default bars parameter is set (that is, not "Off"), the length of the main loop is actually specified by that
number, so you don't need to click the Mark end button, the plugin set the loop end automatically when the desired number of bars is
recorded.

It looks like the plugin sets the loop end automatically, if used in sync mode and default bars is set.
I am using it in sync mode with default bars set to 1, and see it ends the loop when the cursor reaches the end of 1 bar, yet it goes on overdubbing until I manually click stop.
My hands are both occupied playing my instrument till the very end of the loop cycle, with not enough time to reach and click stop before the next cycle begins.

In case I'm missing it, is there a setting in the plugin to disable auto-overdubs, so that it stops recording once it completes the first cycle?

[Mister36]

If this isn't there (and I didn't find it either when trying it out), the option for going directly to playback and not overdubbing immediately is definitely required and on a per track basis.

[bojanboyss]

In other thread about MSuperLooper I asked user Chandlerhimself, the guy that made all MSuperLooper youtube video (watch!), about some things I was curious about. Im gonna quote his reply here because I think it might be helpful for a method or workaround for issue you are having ie going to unwanted overdub after loop is recorded:

...
I thought I explained undo, but if I didn't I'll try to explain it here. You you overdub something and then want to erase it use undo. If you clear the track everything will be lost, but by clicking undo you will just erase the current overdub. I often used it because once the loop is over I take me hand off the guitar and the strings are ringing or some noise happened. Using Undo will erase that overdub with the noise, but keep the previous overdub with my playing. Its also useful if you flub and overdub. Just hit undo and try again when the loop comes back around. I hope that helps

...
I am using it in sync mode with default bars set to 1, and see it ends the loop when the cursor reaches the end of 1 bar, yet it goes on overdubbing until I manually click stop.
My hands are both occupied playing my instrument till the very end of the loop cycle, with not enough time to reach and click stop before the next cycle begins.
In case I'm missing it, is there a setting in the plugin to disable auto-overdubs, so that it stops recording once it completes the first cycle?

In his videos you can see him often first pressing "undo" then "record" to stop the recording. So he also go into auto overdub mode but with this simple solution it isnt an issue.
Just because auto overdub Im on the fence on buying it. Thats the one future I couldn't master with Mobius. I wish it doesnt get removed but maybe it can get a switch to turn this on/off

If this isn't there (and I didn't find it either when trying it out), the option for going directly to playback and not overdubbing immediately is definitely required and on a per track basis.

I watched videos carefully and just tried it out for the first time. I was expecting that in sync mode and with default number of bars it would do just that. I pressed "record" to stop before ending specified number of bars and it immediately stopped record while I was expecting it would stop recording at the end of the loop.
Maybe just need to get using first "undo" then "record" to stop.
I think all this is because we are all used that "record" button records if there isnt anything recorded, if there is it erases it then record. And there is "overdub" button too. But in MSuperLooper there is only "record" one, maybe just needs getting used to that workflow.

[bojanboyss]

Just noticed after some experimenting, if I have already at least one loop in there, and if I disable "sync" and "all loops same length" then I can press record again to stop recording and it will continue to record until same time previous loops or multiplication of it. Auto stop.
Basically if I have loop of 4 seconds on the first track, while recording second track I can stop recording at 2nd or 6th second ant it will auto stop at 4th ie 8th second.
Not bad to know.

[hb_kvr]

Thanks for sharing your inputs and suggestions.

In his videos you can see him often first pressing "undo" then "record" to stop the recording. So he also go into auto overdub mode but with this simple solution it isn't an issue.

The workaround is helpful, and I was able to follow it.

I'm hoping to use this in a live percussion situation, to record a shaker loop, for example, that sustains notes till the end of the loop.

I'll try to illustrate my understanding using three tracks to represent the recorded content(track 1), a smooth loop with fade(track 2), and a chopped loop without a fade(track 3), in my DAW(Reaper). Hopefully, the developer or anyone else can correct me if I'm wrong here.

Loop fade overdub.jpg

The distance between marker 1 and 2, shows the length of the loop.
I am assuming that the looper requires a small overlap to create the fade and generate a smooth loop(track 2). If there is no fade(track 3), the loop would have an audible click.

If the overdub is not muted, there will be an overlap louder than the rest of the loop. With the workaround, I will still have one cycle with this loud overlap playing live.

I've previously tried a free looper GLoop(only found a beta version) which had a record auto-stop when the duration was completed. It also had an option to auto-mute the incoming audio (loop source) when playing after record.
However, GLoop starts recording within one beat(not one bar like MSuperLooper) of clicking record, and that might need a foot controller to trigger in time. Also, the recorded loop in GLoop has a very audible click.

MSuperLooper obviously is loaded with many more features than the free beta looper. Considering how configurable it already is, I hope that eventually we don't need workarounds.

To summarize, options for overdub disable and mute input on playback, would provide a looper that we can trigger and forget.

[bojanboyss]

Some small things I noticed in my tests regarding:
"With the workaround, I will still have one cycle with this loud overlap playing live. "
Melda looper doesn't play immediately, only in the next cycle what was recorded previously. Unless you used to record live track output in Reaper than that would happen.
In my previous experience with Reaper and loading loops from external looper, if audio clip playback rate isnt 1, like in your pic too, I would often get nasty click which was hard to get rid off. So I always check that and fixing with either setting same bpm prior to loading audio clips or manually setting it to 1 if its something unrelated to bpm. Check that. Its kinda weird but at original rate it would loop perfectly and when Reaper changes playback rate of it it would make small glitchy click. That was my experience anyway ymmv.
"To summarize, options for overdub disable and mute input on playback, would provide a looper that we can trigger and forget."
Agree just don't remove option completely to have auto-overdub

[hb_kvr]

Melda looper doesn't play immediately, only in the next cycle what was recorded previously. Unless you used to record live track output in Reaper than that would happen.

That's the point, I am actually using it to record live output.
You will see that the overdub section overlapped notes are louder, because it is playing both the current overdub and the last loop cycle.
The border of when the loop ended and the overdub began is too precise for a human to determine exactly, because a percussion pattern needs to be played past the end till the first note of the cycle.

I find Melda plugins are very configurable, which got me thinking about requesting this as an optional feature.
Instead of having a few shiny knobs and hiding everything else, their plugins actually give you an incredible amount of control.

[bojanboyss]

If I understood correctly the issue here, here is how I would approach to it: record loop into plugin and record would be still on when cycle ends and go into that auto-overdub ie as you said "played past the end till the first note of the cycle". Doesnt matter if I let it auto-overdub till half the cycle cause undo will erase that second cycle. Press "undo" then "record" to stop and as a result I would have 1 loop cycle without overdub. From there I would use plugin to export wav loop or record track live output only then when that loop is already recorded, not doing (recording) in both places at the same time.
To check if Reaper play rate is messing with the loop you can load it into audio editor and play it looped. If it loops there perfectly then you will know that Reaper play rate is the cause of a click.
Havent submitted on their forums this as a bug so far cause I rarely need it, hard to explain and doesnt happens always.

[bojanboyss]

Here is a zip of the loop I made last year in some other looper to test Reaper playback rate (direct link too download!):
https://filebin.net/75mnarn7hwj7cenk/Me ... t=g41seyal
Load in Reaper and when playback rate is 1 it will loop perfectly. Duration of the loop is 8 bars. Use alt+mouse drag to stretch it to 8 bars. Duplicate it and play. There is now a click in the transition from 1st clip to the copy of it.

[bojanboyss]

Not sure if I just experienced same issues you have or... Tried to record pads sustaining sounds. In Reaper. Whichever method I used, undo-no undo-overdub-no overdub, whatever I could think of, I couldn't make 1 perfect loop. Its not exactly click but some change in sound, inconsistency in sound when it loops over. I don't know why, if sound from near end continue to be recorded to the (even previously empty) start why it isn't perfect transition? It should be like you sliced audio clip in 2 then place back to back. Something´s not alright

[hb_kvr]

Thanks for your response.
Please don't get me wrong, but I would like to wait for the developer to respond at this point.
It might get difficult to find the original post if we add any more to this thread.

Hopefully he is willing to take another look at my earlier explanation of the feature request.

[sekim]

I've previously tried a free looper GLoop(only found a beta version) which had a record auto-stop when the duration was completed. It also had an option to auto-mute the incoming audio (loop source) when playing after record.
.
.
.
To summarize, options for overdub disable and mute input on playback, would provide a looper that we can trigger and forget.

If I understand OP's description, the workflow is to arm for record within one bar of desired start, MSL records the defined loop size exactly one time and immediately switches to playback (and optionally mutes input) upon looping.

Provided my understanding is right, definitely +1

As a guitar player wanting to use this live, I have exactly one foot and zero hands to use for control purposes and the one foot already has a pretty big workload with pedals, wahs, amp switching, etc.....so would find the described "one-shot" mode very, very helpful.

[hb_kvr]

If I understand OP's description, the workflow is to arm for record within one bar of desired start, MSL records the defined loop size exactly one time and immediately switches to playback (and optionally mutes input) upon looping.

Your explanation was concisely worded using the precise technical terms. Thank you!

This might help the developer understand it better.