Transition looping in 2021

Yes. Kept it super simple. Just a rec and a clear button on a midi keyboard. Midi tempo and quantization synced.

A13 processor here. 7ms latency.
Motu 828
Thatā€™s even using 1 iPad for source audio send to to another iPad for Enso looping.

Probably Iā€™ll never make it further than streaming on Twitch but if I play with the illusion of hitting the dance floor one day itā€™s something to take into account. At least when Iā€™m the one dancing, silence and harsh transitions kinda break the flow for me.

:100:

I am weaning myself of iPad. Apple just keep needlessly changing the interface and too many apps become obsolete without having a second iPad you donā€™t update. BUT, latency was never an issue. I have used an iPad mini, air 2, and pro and they all worked well with my Roland interface and my ES-8.

I think you will be quite happy with that trio of gear. The OT is a world unto itself, the M:S will provide no fuss drums, and with a shared system (old is awesome) has some amazing modules.

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One way or roundtrip?

Round trip. I route audio between iPads constantly.

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Because they want to keep the dance floor going. And that is perfectly okay.

People are allowed to have whatever mission they desire with their performances.
You can make the point that seeking smooth transitions is painting them into a corner, but recommending they ignore their own desires is just painting them into a different corner.

Now, letā€™s get back to helping the OP find a solution to what theyā€™ve said they already want to do, rather than encourage them to want something else entirely. This isnā€™t reallly a thread for philosophical discussion. There is another thread for that. Itā€™s a thread for solutions.

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Some corners are nicer to be painted into, though. As in, paint me into a corner making crossfades with an OT any day of the week.

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You know whatā€™s real nice?
Walking into the hardware store and asking which paint brush is going to get the job done, and not having someone recommend you just use plaster instead, because youā€™re a ā€œtrue artistā€.

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When you do get your Shared Sys back, and if you do decide that you do want some looping, another option for you would be one of the Aira Scooper modules. Discontinued now so not sure how available they are but theyā€™re pretty easy to clock to a modular so that you can have your loops in perfect time and then process the loop with pitch shifting, shelf filter and the scatter (which works really well when used subtly). The Aira app even lets you tweak further youā€™ve got some virtual modular patching within the unit - I wasnā€™t that fussed about the pitch shifting so repurposed that knob to tweak other stuff.

This video shows how easy it works:

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The EHX 1440 has a nice midi clock sync mode, rec starts one bar after you pressed the rec footswitch and stops one bar after you pressed the footswitch again.

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7ms isnā€™t bad.

I just remember on my A12 that it felt about half a step off.

So then is it best to run through the iPad the whole time., not just for the loop? So that your loop and your live input donā€™t phase if youā€™re mixing between.

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It sounds like it is just a crossfader between live/loop away from being exactly what the OP needs.

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It records 24 minutes 24-bit/44.1kHz wav, stores up to 20 loops, overdub, undo/redo, loop retrigger, reverse, octave down, one shot, coarse and fine tempo control and midi clock sync.
Level, overdub and tempo knobs.

For that price I might try one. Hope the midi clock sync is solid.

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Thereā€™s a few tricks to get a perceived 0ms. Mostly keeps drums on a singular source at at time. Doesnā€™t matter which source, but only 1 at a time. Same techniques you would use as a DJ to transition between sources.

I bring all external audio into the iPads, but mostly for effects and stuff.

Iā€™m looking for the same thing for my Rytm only setup. I like to use longer samples on the AR but that eats up ram pretty quickly. So I need something to fill the gap while changing projects. The OT will stop the sequencer while doing so. The new Boss RC-500 and the small RC-5 have midi sync and look like they can do the transition thing, but Iā€™m not 100 percent sure.

Thatā€™s something I didnā€™t think about, Iā€™ll check it out because from time to time a cheap used one appears on kleinanzeigen.

I think that so far the OT is probably the best device at this exact thing to date, you have a mixer and a fader built right in, so once set up literally could not be simpler.

Amongst a million and one other things of course :wink:

Iā€™ve been down that route, had the KP3 twice. Transitioning is not that easyā€¦ fading up the loop while turning down the gain knob (or changing the input to mic, as a way to mute the RCA inputs) is less than ideal, imho.
You could always have a dj mixer in between, but then again if you want to process the loop with the KP3 effects, you would have to remember to change the input to mic or turn down the gain to avoid a doubling effect, since touching the XY pad letā€™s the input sound come in (assuming you would use it in send mode, which makes the most sense). Although its sampling is as straight-forward as possible, that caveat made me sell it for the second time (plus: it degrades the sound quite a bit, effects are more quantity than quality, and I still needed a mixer in between, which brings me this other comment of yours:

That beeing said, I already had the OT, but was looking for a way to minimize / simplify my setup (ie. easier, no-brainer looping)ā€¦ I eventually came back to the OT, precisely for the reason youā€™re mentioning: thereā€™s no other hardware looper - NONE - which has some kind of crossfading between both sourcesā€¦ which is a reason Iā€™ve cried to multiple developers - of both hardware and software - hoping they would create something similar. (ie. a standalone iOS app that mimics some of the features of the Xone DB4 - looping, good quality fx, matrix routing - without the need of buying a 2k, gigantic mixer).
So far, no luckā€¦ and ALSO, Iā€™ve gone the iPad route as wellā€¦ made multiple setups, specially since my setup is mostly Digitakt and itā€™s now class-compliantā€¦ so very tempting.
Thereā€™s issues there as well: first of all, and the most obvious -stability. I canā€™t shake the feeling that it might crash mid set (it has indeed happened at least once live - I think due to an electrical problem - and Iā€™ve had many apps crashing on me over the years). You could get a pretty nice setup with a few apps, but the main problem (for me) is that is not as easy to get a crossfader curve where you get 100% signal of both channels in the middle, which is kind of the idea if you want to mix tracks, imho. but if you want to mix with individual channel volumesā€¦ itā€™s much easier. I managed to do this crossfading thing btw, but it involved creating custom MIDI mappings with specific curves to be able to make it behave that wayā€¦

OK soā€¦ back to the Octatrack.
My current setup is simply OT and DT. I had a Faderfox UC4 to have quick access to some parameters, but I think I might leave it out, and face those limitations as a way to simplify my music even further - a never ending quest Iā€™m on.
Iā€™ve come to get accustomed to transitioning with the OT, BUTā€¦ it did take many, many moments of frustration until I got it right. And even now, that Iā€™ve been using it for yearsā€¦ the unexpected might happen. So thereā€™s still things to consider, but I have to agree that Iā€™m going deeper and deeper into this method, trying to make it more sophisticated, and my transitions are getting more interesting - sometimes almost turning into tracks themselves, which is something I quite enjoy.
I can explain my setup further, but this post is long enough already! shit, this always happens when I discuss this stuffā€¦ hehe
Anyway, hope this helps. As an alternative, Thereā€™s now finally (relatively) cheap, small pedals with MIDI DIN in, which is something that took a LONG time. EHX has itā€™s 1440, now Boss joined with itā€™s RC-5 (IIRC thatā€™s the model) so if you want something more straight forward and less prone to failure or accident (bad kind of accident) then you could consider a DJ mixer and one of those (I think I like EHXā€™s more, looks more hands onā€¦ yes, itā€™s not a single device, but itā€™s what we have, unless until Elektron comes up with a mixer/looper kind of thing (which I donā€™t think will happen soon since the OT sort of is that + much more)ā€¦ or maybe someone else takes advantage of that hardware gap.

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I only did it a few times, but using the octatrack to capture a loop then mix between that loop and the new material on your other gear, is actually quite brilliant.

You can do amazing things.

Just lately Im thinking of revisiting this approach.

Euro system plus octatrack? Thatā€™s basically godmode.

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