Loop Behaviour Options

Aeros Loop Studio Feature Requests
1

Hi Singular Sound and All,
I have a recommendation below for the Aeros Looper, “Behavior” Menu, for Loop Behavior Options.

Just to let you know where I am coming from, I have been a professional live looper for over 15 years. I do a mix of covers and originals and play on average 2 or 3 gigs a week, for 3 hours at a time. I have around 500 songs in my potential set, many of which I have learned to loop in a particular way.

Until now, I have always used the Digitech Jamman two-pedal looper. But many of you know that this, and other older loopers are “static loopers”, which have outputs that generate a certain amount of hiss. I played a couple of massive gigs recently where the sound engineers were complaining about it, so after some major research, I decided upon and purchased the Aeros Gold.

My style of looping has always been Freeform. I’ve never used a click and have no desire to. Often, I will start with some beatboxing and loop that, then I might overdub a bass line and guitar. I will Undo these for the verse and Redo them for the chorus/solo. I don’t use an external pedal to save pedalboard space. My looping philosophy is mainly to build up the loops as quickly as possible and get the song started. I play for 3 hours at a time, so I don’t want the audience to get bored of me building up loops.

I’ve got my Aeros Gold now, been practicing, obviously for me, 2x2 mode in Freeform Mode is the best place to start. I’ve looked into and adjusted all the relevant settings to me, I think. For example, I was very happy to see there were different Stop Modes, and I haven’t decided which I prefer yet. Another crucial tweak for me was to be able to change the behavior of the “Play/Stop All” button to “Release”, because before doing this, my stopped loops would play for a moment before I could delete them. This would have been no good in a live situation.

RECOMMENDATION
In time, I may explore using the Aeros Gold in other ways, but I’m not going to re-learn how to re-loop 500 songs! So, I am in 2x2 Freeform Mode, and I have started exploring using the Second Loop, and I think the following “LOOP BEHAVIOR” options would be so awesome for any live loopers similar to myself:

There should be an option to (i) lock the length of the Second Loop to the length of the First Recorded Loop and (ii) to be able to begin recording the Second Loop immediately upon pressing the button. At the moment, the second loop only begins recording at the beginning of the measure, which to me is incredibly frustrating (and I couldn’t see any way to change that). In this way, the Second Loop would essentially act just like an Overdub, but on a separate channel.

I really hope you can consider these for the next update. I imagine they would not be too complex to action and to me seem very obvious! In time I will be using the Aeros Gold at gigs and in my cover videos instead of the Jamman :slight_smile:

Here’s one to give you the idea:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1093240074166417

2

Have you looked at what you can do with midi as a work around?

3

Quad I appreciate the response again! Like I said, I have 500 songs that it would take me forever to re-learn how to loop in a different way and pedalboard space is precious. I would love to upgrade my pedalboard with the Aeros Looper much sooner than forever! :slight_smile: I can’t be the only one, and I think my feature request is still solid!

4

You can do everything that you were asking about on the Aeros…Record immediately ect… Play around wtih the song settings.

5

I’ve spent hours and no I cannot. The loop length of the second loop is not lockable to the first, nor have I found a way to begin recording 2nd loop immediately. If you would like to actually be specific that would be helpful thanks :slight_smile:

6

Think tracks and mute/unmute, not parts (and change parts) if you want loop lengths to match.

7

Thanks again Quad, I have played around with this a bit somewhat. Perhaps I could do more playing around but so far as I can tell, my suggestion would be beneficial to people who loop in a similar style to myself - again for the reasons that - unless I am wrong, from everything I have tried, the second track only begins recording on the first beat, and not whenever you want it to. If I am wrong about that, please let me know where exactly I can change that. If when recording the second track you exceed the length of the first, it then doubles the length. If the length was locked it would continue as an overdub automatically.

Secondly, the way you are referring to involves more button presses on the Aeros vs the technique I am proposing - in amongst all the other pedals that I am pressing under pressure in a live situation (octave/overdrive etc), what with holding down the main button to access the other menu etc. My suggestion would involve less pedal presses on the Aeros and a smoother looping experience for the likes of myself :slight_smile: Again, I think my original feature request would be a solid addition!

8

Having played more with the Aeros Looper - and still a little stuck in terms of the limitation I have highlighted above (main reason is loop building efficiency), I have a couple of further thoughts about this feature request.

It would make more sense for it to be available in Song Settings, as opposed to Behavior Settings. This would give users the option to lock all track lengths to the length of the opening loop and begin recording other tracks at any point. This way, the feature would only be in the songs we find it useful for. In my case, pretty much all of them!! :slight_smile:

As I understand it, you would need the track lengths locked to the original loop to have the ability to begin recording other tracks in the middle of a loop, and this option could then be hypothetically implemented in both 2x2 and 6x6 modes.

9

Hey there,

I think you missed the Sync Tracks song settings, here is the excerpt from the manual

Sync Tracks

The Aeros will designate the current longest track in Quantized/Auto mode or the shortest track in freeform as the base track. The base track will decide the behavior of the other tracks around it.

Sync Length:

After the first track is recorded, all tracks will be forced to be proportional to the length of the base track. In Quantized mode, all tracks will be forced to be any whole number multiple (x2, x3, x4, Etc) or whole number unit fraction (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, Etc) of the base track.

For example, if the base track is 12 measures long, other tracks will be forced to be either 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 24, 36, etc. measures long depending on when the end recording/start playback command is received. In freeform, all tracks will be whole number multiples of the base track (no fractions allowed).

A new track recording can be started at the beginning of the next measure in Quantized mode or immediately in Freeform so this feature only affects when recording stops and playback begins.

Sync Start and Length:

In addition to the Sync Length rules above, after the first track is recorded in the song part, all new recordings will begin at the next start of the longest track loop in the song part.

This behavior is already possible, if you want things to locked by length and not by start point, set Sync Tracks to Length only.

Let me know if you have any questions, thanks for the post!

1 Like
10

@BrennanSingularSound Thanks very much, don’t know how I missed this, I thought I was very thorough with exploring the menu options… but evidently not! Cheers and can I just add that your support on the Singular Sound forum is second to none, legend!

I would also like to thank Quad and Brook who did in fact advise me that this behavior was hypothetically possible, and I will be going home to play with this after my weekend run of gigs here in Scotland :slight_smile:

2 Likes
11

My pleasure!

12

Unfortunately for me though, @BrennanSingularSound …locking the Sync to Length only is not performing the behavior I described in my OP at all, so I thought I would make a video to demonstrate why there should be an option to do so… This feature request has not been implemented so lemme tryna explain why bettr…

Think of locking the length of the tracks in terms of the second track acting just like an overdub would - so if the opening loop is 2 bars, then all other loops on all other tracks are also locked to 2 bars. This way, you don’t get the gaps I ended up having in this demo.

I really think, as someone who has been looping professionally for 15 years, that this is an incredibly significant issue. I am so so so close to absolutely loving the Aeros… but just … GAHHH :laughing: Why??? Having the option to completely lock the lengths of all loops like this should be the first and most obvious thing to do? impo

Back to my original Feature Request… still a good, a very very very good idea as an alternative option for a much smoother and efficient looping experience. Over to you please :slight_smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufNwWRiwOB0

1 Like
13

This is a really interesting point from soularpower! I’ve been looking at various loopers over the past year to replace the pretty basic one I use just now, and Aeros has always been significant in reviews.

However, soularpower raises a significant weakness in it’s program that I think, if rectified, would prove a boon to all looper users. Would this be possible at all? (here’s hoping :crossed_fingers: )

1 Like
14

My Aeros arrives tomorrow and I’m going to try this right away. It seems like what you are trying should work. That gap shouldn’t be there

15

I disagree with the implication in recent replies that the gap is evidence of a bug or design flaw. It only occurred because OP chose to start recording track 2 on bar 2 of a two-bar loop. OP could have avoided it in this instance by starting track 2 on bar 1, by making track 1 a 1-bar loop, or by hitting the overdub button sooner. [edit: this is incorrect, bars are irrelevant here]

Would OP’s requested option be nice to have? Sure, it would make life somewhat easier for certain kinds of performers. But I certainly wouldn’t want to lose the far more versatile existing functionality (which, to be clear, OP is not requesting).

16

Ah I see now after watching the video again that the punch in for track 2 looks a little late. I would have punched in during bar 1. But take what I say with a big grain of salt because I don’t have my Aeros yet. This is just judging from my previous experience with other loopers

1 Like
17

Actually I made a mistake in talking about bars in my diagnosis; I didn’t realize it was in freeform mode. But an earlier overdub command would certainly have avoided the gap.

1 Like
18

To Big Bob… thanks for realizing the merits of my feature request :slight_smile:
To jxsh and riddled thanks also for responding.

I should clarify, I am not suggesting it is a design flaw, but to my mind, an obvious oversight that should be rectified with my feature request. The gaps and mistakes were made on purpose to demonstrate how easily these can be made. Now imagine under 50X pressure on stage…

Browsing videos on the Aeros Looper you mainly find content where it is used as a songwriting or practice tool. There is very little on live performance. I play 3 hour gigs every weekend, and the audience does not get bored of my looping. This comes down to looping efficiency, so perhaps if you don’t do what I do, you won’t realise how my idea can hep with this, along with eliminating the potential for the easy-to-make mistakes I demonstrated in my video.

I am not suggesting that any existing functionality is lost, simply that another option is added in the song settings under “Sync Tracks”. At the moment there are three. Add a fourth called “Locked” or something like that… we need an option to truly lock all loop lengths such that any loops on other tracks created after the opening loop would act just like overdubs impo! :love_you_gesture:

2 Likes
19

I think the request is for Freeform mode in Synced length to not do multiples of base track length but to always keep the length of base track for other tracks and start overdubbing them automatically after reaching this length.

I did not use my Aeros lately (but I am going to), but is not the workaround to set ROP and stay on the base track and overdub it and with undo - redo erase and reapply these ovedubs? So basically avoid next tracks and keep overdubbing the first track? Undo - redo overdubs are easily doable from midi controller by short press. I tried it on midi maestro, but it should work from any other midi controller as well I guess. You could use some very small programmable midi controller and use it solely for undo redo functionality if it is not available well enough (if you do not like long press) from aeros itself.

Is this what you ask for? Or is this workaround not good enough?

The second option that I think about may or may not work for you: Imagine using 6x6 mode which gives you 6 parts. If you lock first track of first part, this locked track will be included in all parts. Some external midi controllers of unspoken brands have the ability to send multiple messages at once. I am not sure how would aeros react to this bombardment of multiple messages, but if aeros can on single press end recording of current track in current part and start recording new track in next part, you would be able to use parts as substitutes to overdubbs even without midi controller. I can imagine this kinda working in 2x2 mode also, but this time with some serious timing and external controller that executes multiple messages only: lock track 1 in part 1 and at the exact moment of end of current measure execute multiple actions from external controller to do the following: switch parts, delete track 2 of newly selected part, start recording new track 2. But I have no idea if it would work at all and if deletion of recorded track returns part to its original length.

20

Hi Midlo in essence yes you do understand exactly where I am coming from and your proposed idea I already have implemented using a very nice small (and expensive) Jet MCX midi foot controller. But this does not give me track separation, and does not address the issue that my Sync Locking suggestion would be a much smoother way for many looping artists to work with tracks.

The way sync functions now, you don’t get a smooth connection opening and closing loops as you do when you use overdubs. There is a lot of potential for gaps and clicks and pops and just unrefined or messy connections when using more than one track, and I am sure that my suggestion - as an additional and very obvious option - would add a lot of freedom to the Aeros looping experience in freeform and possibly all modes, depending on the song structure.

In the meantime I am considering trying out a Pigtronix Infinity 3. Maybe Aeros isn’t the looper for me if they aren’t interested in implementing my Feature Requests, based on 15+ years of live looping experience! :star_struck:

EDIT: I have just run some checks with my new MIDI foot controller to action Undo/Redo and it is buggy. I will post a video about it elsewhere on the forum