Loops just got smarter in Songzap V3! You can now build full songs from simple ideas in a matter of seconds, import external loops and record (headphone-free) in two different modes: Pre-Roll Mode and Live Mode. We’ve introduced these Premium new loop features to let you easily integrate external sounds and musical phrases into your mobile workflow, and cater for different styles of music making.
Pre-Roll Mode will be ideal for singer-songwriters and instrumentalists who like hearing a click countdown before jumping in and recording specific song sections. While our brand new Live Mode will appeal to improvising musicians, beat-makers and MCs who prefer to stay in the zone, experiment and jam. In this quick breakdown, we’ll introduce these new features showing you how to import external loops, capture your own loop recordings, and layer and balance it all together. We’ll even deploy Songzap’s groundbreaking Headphone-Free Recording technology, so you don’t have to worry about plugging in headphones when inspiration strikes!
Setting up for Loops
Hit the New Song button (+) in Songzap’s Home Page to open up the NEW SONG menu, name your song and adjust the BPM slider to your preferred tempo. We’ll go with ‘Loops’ for the song name and set the tempo to 103 bpm. This is because we’ve already prepared some musical beats and phrases externally at 103 bpm, and it makes sense to match your Songzap song to what you will be working with. The NEW SONG menu also provides options for selecting an Arrangement Template, and switching the Count-In and internal Drum Beat on or off. Let’s choose ‘Basic’ for the Arrangement Template, and disable both the Count-In and Drum Beat before tapping on Create New Song (this is because one of the external loops we’ve prepared already features beats). Feel free to adjust these settings to your preference depending on the loops you will be working with.
The Loop Window
Next, tap on Songzap’s LOOP icon within the GROOVE pane of the Home page, which opens up the LOOPS window. This is where we’ll create all of our looping magic! LOOPS features four tracks (TRACK 1, 2, 3 and 4) with selection buttons and volume faders at the bottom half of the screen (just above the transport controls), and an adjustable loop window at the top half of the screen. In between the two areas, you’ll see buttons for Record, Loop Play, Loop Window (adjust) and Metronome (on/off) – everything you need to work with and record loops. You can also tap on a TRACK label to solo any of the loop tracks, which will come in handy as we start to layer ideas.
Loop Import
Above and to the right of your loop window you’ll see four buttons corresponding to Loop Import, Delete (a loop), the Headphone-Free function and Loop Record Settings. Let’s make sure TRACK 1 is selected (blue button below the first track fader) and then tap on the Loop Import button. This opens up the Import Loop Audio from iCloud menu, and tapping ‘Confirm’ takes you to your iCloud library where you can browse and select the loops you have prepared. (You’ll also see a warning that: “importing an audio file from iCloud will overwrite the current recording on Loop Track 1”; but you don’t have to worry about that if you’re just starting). We’ll select ‘Freight Train V Beat’, which is an 8-bar section of an electro/hip-hop instrumental produced by Stereo Mike.
Great – you’ve imported your first loop! Make sure the speaker button is on near the top-right of your screen and you can also tap on the cycle/loop button just above it, as we’ll be spending some time looping around within the same (BASIC GROOVE) arrangement segment. The audio file you’ve imported will be cropped to 16 bars starting from the beginning of the file, so keep that in mind when preparing loops (if you want to work with longer, song-length files, it makes more sense to use Songzap’s TRACKING page of course). Now you can adjust the loop window by dragging the yellow brackets right and left, or tapping on the yellow arrows below the loop window (we’ll drag the right bracket toward the left to match the duration of the 8-bar loop we have imported, playing it in its entirety). The yellow display numbers between the arrows indicate the start bar, end bar and loop duration, and you’ll notice that both the brackets and arrow buttons snap to full bars. Hit Loop Play to listen to your selection and you can continue adjusting the loop length while playing back. Once you are happy with your selection, tap on Pause (Loop Play) and we can move on to Loop Track 2.
Select Loop Track 2 by tapping on the button below the second fader and repeat the same steps to import a second loop. We’ll choose ‘Bass V’ from our iCloud library for this and, following similar adjustments, we’ll select a 4-bar section to loop around. Hit Loop Play to hear how the two loops sound together. Great! Feel free to experiment with the volume faders of the two tracks until you are happy with the balance of the two loops playing together. And don’t forget you can also solo individual loop tracks to check how they’re looping on their own. You’ll soon find this to be a very intuitive way to build loopable layers and experiment with new ideas on top. Which brings us to…
Loop Record
Pre-Roll Mode
For our third layer, we’ll record something new using the iPhone/iPad mic! We’re going to capture a loop of some moody acoustic piano notes to add to the feel of the arrangement.
Let’s review our loop recording settings by tapping on the Loop Record Settings button and opening up the corresponding menu. In the ‘Loop Record Settings’ menu, we’ll select Pre-Roll Mode for our piano recording and set up a ‘Count-In Duration’ of 1 Bar. You can also leave the ‘Auto-Stop after 16 Bars’ selection on. Great! You can now close the menu and you’re ready to record.
Select Loop Track 3 and when you’re ready, hit Record to record-enable the track, then Loop Play to begin recording. You’ll get a 4-beat (1-bar) count-in at the end of which you can record your new idea. You can record for 16 bars, then select the best section of your performance using the loop-window adjustments. For our example, there’s a tight version of the intended piano motif in the second section, so we’ll adjust the loop window to bars 5-8. Great stuff! Now, try out your own vocal or instrumental ideas and trim them down to the best bits.
Live Mode
For our fourth layer, we’ll record some voice, again using the iPhone mic; but this time we’ll loop-record in Live Mode. Tap on the Loop Record Settings button to open the corresponding menu and select Live Mode from the top. Here, you can also choose how long you want the ‘Loop Duration’ to be – we’ll go with 16 Bars, even though we’ll aim at repeating an 8-bar vocal phrase. This provides the opportunity to record and practice for longer, knowing that we can later edit the loop window to the best section of the performance. Leave ‘Sync Enabled’ on if you want your loop-recording to sync with the loop window start (which means you can keep practicing after you hit Record, freeing your hands while getting ready to record in the next cycle).
Close the ‘Loop Record Settings’ menu, and hit Loop Play to listen to your previous loops and get into the zone. When you’re ready, hit Record and lay down some new ideas. In the video, you’ll notice Stereo Mike rehearsing his Greek rhymes before recording. Once happy, he lays down his verse twice, then adjusts the loop window to select his preferred 8 bars. Use the Loops window faders to quickly balance the musical elements of the section, or go the Mixer window where you can refine the loops further by adjusting panning, reverb, EQ and compression.
There you have it. A song section quickly done and dusted using loop import and the two different loop record modes! You can easily build a whole song this way, by moving on to the next arrangement section (a Chorus or a second Verse), importing variations of external loops and recording more vocal or instrumental performances.
Find out more about Loop Record and how to populate a full song arrangement with loops in this User Guide tutorial.
The Future’s Headphone-Free
You may have noticed in the video that we didn’t plug in any headphones for our piano and vocal recordings. And yet they sound great, without any of the iPhone speaker bleed from the beats, bass and loop overdubs being recaptured as we recorded using the device’s mic. This is due to our AI-powered “Headphone-Free Recording” (HFR) technology which cleans up the recording as you perform!
If you want to check out the recording results before/after HFR (or blend in a bit of the ‘bleed’), tap on the HFR (headphone) button to the left of Loop Record Settings. The headphone icon will turn pink and a pink fader will appear to the left of your Loop Window, letting you adjust the amount of HFR clean-up. (Fader at the top for completely clean, fader at the bottom for original, and anywhere in between for different levels of blend.) Amazing right? You’ll probably want to leave the HFR fader near the top, but feel free to experiment with what sounds best to you. Tap on the HFR button again to hide the ‘clean-up’ display and, if you want to find out more about HFR, click here.
Happy loop importing, layering and creating!
