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IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0004307ardourfeaturespublic2011-09-20 17:31
Reporterajkandy Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityfeatureReproducibilityN/A
Status newResolutionopen 
Target Version3.X 
Summary0004307: Support for timesliced loop files and simplified loop creation/editing
DescriptionI do a lot of beat loop-based composition in addition to straight-up audio recording and mixing. I'm loving how easy to use and good-sounding Ardour is (I'm using it as part of Harrison MixBus 2.0) but I'm really missing the loop features I'm used to from other DAWs (Reason, Logic, Live).

It would be great to support existing timesliced audio loop formats like REX2 and Apple Loops;
these follow session tempo by simply altering the playback timing between slices, as opposed to a CPU-intensive audio timestretch operation. That would also make it more useful for users on lower-powered machines.

Secondly, it would be fantastic to have a simple "drag to loop" UI for regions. For regular audio regions, you'd also be able to trim the original and have the edit reflected automatically in the downstream looped area.


*Working with timesliced audio loops*

- Should support REX2 and Apple Loops
- Once a REX2/Apple Loop region is placed on a track, it should be possible to loop it to an arbitrary length by simply dragging the lower-right corner, with a special "loop cursor" change (as in Logic/Garageband), and/or specifying a loop time numerically via a contextual dialog
- Playback of these loop files should follow the session's tempo / tempo automation track
- Loops should also be able to be non-destructively transposed in pitch, either globally (transpose the entire session or track) or per-region (contextual menu) without affecting playback timing
- Optionally, automation applied to the original loop segment can also be looped
- It would be desirable to be able to render a looped region in place as a new audio file


*Audio region looping*

- The same drag-to-loop edit function should work for any audio region; without slices, these would follow tempo changes via the timestretching algorithm (more CPU intensive - unless it renders a temporary file etc?)
- Again, arbitrary, nondestructive pitch transposition would be a nice-to-have.
- Plus the same render-as-new-audio-in-place as above.
- Thinking there should be a visual differentiation between the original segment and looped "virtual copies," maybe opacity or brightness.

*Audio loop trimming*

- Once an audio region has been looped, it should be possible to trim the original loop region and have the change reflected as a "virtual ripple edit" down the length of the looped segment; this is useful for making more precise loops

As well, since MIDI is coming to Ardour 3:

- Support for looping MIDI regions with same drag-to-loop UI and 'ripple edit' from original segment
TagsNo tags attached.

Activities

paul

2011-09-20 17:31

administrator   ~0011543

neither REX nor Apple Loops are a published standard. they are both proprietary standards. i believe some work has been done on reverse engineering REX, but its not complete.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2011-09-02 18:40 ajkandy New Issue
2011-09-03 16:34 cth103 cost => 0.00
2011-09-03 16:34 cth103 Target Version => 3.X
2011-09-20 17:31 paul Note Added: 0011543