piz midi looper (beta!)

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I'm working on a midi looper/sampler for live use. Now upgraded to "Beta" status! It should be stable and usable, but I may still add or change features, so if you use it in a project now, it may not be 100% compatible with future versions.

Latest GUI screenshot:
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Windows VST (64-bit) - updated January 30th, 2012
Windows VST - updated January 30th, 2012
Mac VST - updated August 29th, 2009 (old, fewer features, more bugs)

Source code is available via Google Code. Feel free to add or remove features, compile for other platforms, change GUI (built with The Jucer), etc.

The final version will not be free, but will be reasonably priced (if I can manage it, less than ten million dollars). Feel free to make a donation now, and you will get a license for the final version, which will also remove the annoying "DEMO VERSION" text from the GUI.

magic button:
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Features/limitations:

- Annoying "DEMO VERSION" text when not licensed (no other demo limitations)
- Optionally delay playback until start of next bar
- (Sucky) Piano roll editor with settable loop area, time signatures, etc
- Pattern chaining: play a specified number of times, then switch to another loop
- Can play multiple loops at once (ctrl-click for multiple, right-click to play one exclusively)
- Can record live midi and optionally start looping it as soon as you stop recording
- Load midi files by drag & drop
- Optionally syncs to host timeline (position within a measure is kept)
- Loops whole numbers of bars/beats/8th/16th notes, or arbitrary lengths
- When recording, rounds down the loop size if it's close (instead of bumping up to next step)
- Optional input quantize
- Can apply a velocity scale and transposition (by semitones and octaves) to the loop in real time
- Adjustable start and end points for loop playback
- "Beat shift" time offset with wraparound
- Selectable midi channel (input filter, output filter or transformer)
- Records and plays back all midi events it receives, so it's up to you to filter what you don't want
- Optionally overdub to add data to an existing loop (needs work)
- Supports program change
- Plays in a synchronized/unsynchronized loop, or unsynchronized one-shot
- Trigger loop from midi notes (mono/polyphonic, with optional transposition), or automate the play parameter
- Play/mute groups
- Force to freely definable scale, and transpose within the scale, optionally based on midi input
- Writes an editable midi file when saving plugin state (or by save button/parameter), and loads it again at any time
- Windows only (Mac version is currently outdated)

Please note that this plug in is amazing.


Simple usage example in XT2:
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Diagram showing "smart" loop length detection, midi file output, etc:
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How to edit/create a loop in energyXT 1.4:
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If you don't use a "loop area" track, it will round up the length to the end of the next bar (based on time signature).


To do:
- Documentation
- Allow playing of material before and after the loop area (start and end points separate from the loop points)
- Option to play/stop at next beat
- "Full release" for record and play
- Fix overdub mode (including better cc overwriting)
- More step sizes for beat shift and playback start/stop points?
- "Wait for events before starting recording" mode
- Optionally remove silence at beginning/end of recording
- Reverse, alternating forward/backward, & random playing
- Note length manipulation?
- Swing/shuffle/quantize output
- More input quantization options
- Keep playing the current loop until recording is finished (already happens in overdub mode)
- More piano roll features
- Integrated MIDI file browser
- Better GUI
- Linux version
- etc etc
Last edited by insertpizhere on Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:16 pm, edited 68 times in total.
wrongtastic, baby
tucson's number one gothic rock band since 1995

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As i said, it's not working on my setup!!
What did I do wrong? I am using energyXT 1.4. And how can I configure system to start recording when I press sustainpedal and to end recording and start looping when I release it?
Some options:
-A database with 16 SONGS of 16 PARTS and 16 LOOPS per PART, every LOOP on its own midichannel.
-individual PARTS and BANKS can be loaded with just one controlltrigger on a programmable midi controller.

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are you using it in the main window of energyXT standalone? if so, the synchronizer/master needs to be playing.
wrongtastic, baby
tucson's number one gothic rock band since 1995

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....and the angels sang..
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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

L
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PIZ I've been fooling with this one and a temporary fix for the 1 bar loop minimum issue could be a sync on/off switch. This could be automated in conjucntion with the play on/off switch to create irregular start times for play and record..

Just something to mull over..
insertpizhere wrote:if jorgen would make the gui-less vst window resizable, yes. otherwise every plugin would have to be given a gui just to make the window big enough...
Dam it your right it would have to be implemented from the host (which isnt going to happen in 1.x :cry: ).. Well for now I'll have to put a channel filter rule before your plugs..

L
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Lagrange wrote:PIZ I've been fooling with this one and a temporary fix for the 1 bar loop minimum issue could be a sync on/off switch. This could be automated in conjucntion with the play on/off switch to create irregular start times for play and record..

Just something to mull over..
i plan to have the recording length increment be selectable. right now it's one bar, but it could be smaller, or turned off. there will be a lot more triggering modes as well.
wrongtastic, baby
tucson's number one gothic rock band since 1995

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PIZ I'm wondering can this (and your other plugins) work in MGUI by chance? I dont know if you've tried it at all..

L
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i haven't tried it, but i'm sure it would work.
wrongtastic, baby
tucson's number one gothic rock band since 1995

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the next upload will have better behavior when you start recording in the middle of a sounding note, and hopefully no more stuck notes when transposing.
wrongtastic, baby
tucson's number one gothic rock band since 1995

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update:

- fixed hanging notes. you can now transpose wildly with no ill effects.
- added transposition by octaves.
- you can now choose between bar and beat for recording length increments
- new trigger mode: unsynchronized one-shot.
- it will save a midi file of the loop when saving the state of the plugin (from the host, or when saving a preset)

same link: http://thepiz.org/xt/midiLooper.zip
wrongtastic, baby
tucson's number one gothic rock band since 1995

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Nice plugin, really.
I guess it will be used quite intensively :)
Would you be up for some FR ?
THere are 2 things that would make me it a weapon of choice for real time improvisation & beat mangling :

1- a (tempo-synced) "shift" parameter : when you'd move the "shift" fader, it would shift the loop playstart cursor for Xbeat/bar, so you could reach more hypnotic / philp glass-y loops quite easily, or create delay-alike, artifacts without a midi delay.

2- the ability to shorten the recorded loop points (all of this with tempo synced signature) : for example, you start recording a 4 bar loops, but you'd have 2 faders : 1 for "start point", one for "end point", and you could move them to shorten the loop (to make it play bars 1-2, or 1-3, or 2-3, etc). DOes it make sense ?

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thanks for the feedback...
sinkmusic wrote:1- a (tempo-synced) "shift" parameter : when you'd move the "shift" fader, it would shift the loop playstart cursor for Xbeat/bar, so you could reach more hypnotic / philp glass-y loops quite easily, or create delay-alike, artifacts without a midi delay.
thanks for reminding me! i thought of this while falling asleep last night. will definitely do it.
2- the ability to shorten the recorded loop points (all of this with tempo synced signature) : for example, you start recording a 4 bar loops, but you'd have 2 faders : 1 for "start point", one for "end point", and you could move them to shorten the loop (to make it play bars 1-2, or 1-3, or 2-3, etc). DOes it make sense ?
if i understand you correctly, i'm planning on doing this too.
wrongtastic, baby
tucson's number one gothic rock band since 1995

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yeah
double cool
:)

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Lagrange wrote:PIZ I'm wondering can this (and your other plugins) work in MGUI by chance? I dont know if you've tried it at all..

L
Coming soon ... (probably)

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that second skin looks really nice.

i'm probably going to add more parameters every day though... i'm adding one right now, in fact
wrongtastic, baby
tucson's number one gothic rock band since 1995

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