I have a few comments and questions after my first 12 hours with the Loop Pad. I should preface this by applauding the very well-done “getting starting” guide and the videos, which are generally also very clear. AND, the Loop Pad itself is a wonder.
Questions:
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The LED colors for the pads are problematic for me. What I’ll call the orangey ones are too close to being the same color. When a video referred to the “salmon colored pad”, I had no idea which one that was. I’m old enough to have brunessence caused by cataracts, so that may contribute to my difficulty seeing the color differences, but I have not had this with other hardware. I made a little chart mapping the physical pads to the “LP Map” page in the configuration app - that helped greatly.
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I’m very interested in using Groups. By trial and error I have figured out how to create groups; maybe I missed something, but between the video and the manual, there is information missing. But I have that sorted and have moved on to trying to use them as I wish…
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… for instance, recording into a group. I’d like to be able to have a Group, let’s say 4 tracks, into which I can record/o’dub/play on all 4 tracks simultaneously, after which I would switch to treating each track separately (say half speed, scramble, reverse…). I tried a lot of approaches to this and wasn’t successful. Is this something the Loop Pad can do?
Lastly, is this forum the best place to be posting comments and questions? Is the F’book page preferred?
Tested both Nektar Panorama P1 and Faderfox UC4 as controllers. Neither is the best controller for Loop Pad. but I am troubleshooting and they are what I had on hand for this.
Neither are recognized by the Loop Pad.
The colors are unfortunately what can be produced with the hardware as it is. This is not likely to change and you’ll have to figure out what color banks that work best for you. The LoopPad does have a Copy function that can be used to replicate a track into another. Set As Result Track can be used to determine the destination track. Normally Copy stops the original source track, but you can restart it with a Play Now. The other thing that you will need to contend with is the volume increase of doubling the track. Decreasing each track volume will be necessary. Multi-track recording does get confusing for the average user, but I’ll add your request to my list, but I want to think about the best way to accomplish what you are looking for. As for the Nektar Panorama P1 and Faderfox UC4, the question is whether they produce MIDI messages or operate some other way. I haven’t worked with those controllers and know nothing about them.
OK, colors as is. Perhaps along the lines of “… banks that work best for you”, I’ll just forego either salmon or orange.
I’ve seen the Copy function, and using that was the next approach I was planning to try…but it seems pretty clear that programming one button for this won’t work. Maybe including a Group as a Copy target would help. I’m going to shelve this for now- do please put this on the Feature Request list.
The issue of greater consequence for now is the matter of controllers not working. All 4 of the ones I’ve mentioned work flawlessly with a laptop and my LP-1. They can all send Notes and CCs. Oddly, the oldest of them (ZeroSL) comes closest to working, and as I said I paired it with the Loop Pad to control Track Volume and Track Feedback. When it works, great, but then it will stop working for on reason I can see.
Are you aware of a controller that pairs perfectly with the Loop Pad? Other users, what has been your experience with controllers?
If I can’t use my feet and some dials, the Loop Pad is rendered radically less useful to me.
A laptop and an LP1? What are you running on the laptop to bridge the messages to the LP1?
BTW, I’m looking to see if there is a way that I can automatically determine the mode that your devices are in. Keep in mind that the LoopPad and the LP1 actually work identically. Your difference is the computer between the device and the looper. I’m going to look to see if the LoopPad can easily do that translation on its own.
I’m going to make a change to support the relative CC modes and support the multiple subdevices of the ZeroSL. The software will learn based on what it sees from the controls. I will suggest that you use the Generic MIDI template on the Zero SL. I should be able to have something within the next few days.
That is al great and deeply appreciated. HOWEVER, if I can get the Pacer working that would actually be much better, because it works with feet, unlike the ZeroSL. Any idea why the Pacer’s note messages are not being recognized?
Which preset are you using?
Cantabile. Easy to reroute incoming. But the laptop/Cantabile setup isn’t necessary to use Pascer with LP-1. I haven’t done it for a while, but I just set it up with Pacer–>midi cable—>LP-1 and that works fine.
Which preset is the Pacer set to?
It’s one I made. Sends notes only.
FWIW, it was very easy to use Cubase to capture the Pacer messages that are sent by the Pacer preset “LP-1”. They are just notes with a fixed velocity.
Velocity greater than 0, correct?
Try this upgrade: rpi_lp1_3_28b.bin