Tape Looper
A downloadable looper
Tape Looper is a mini audio recorder for Playdate that lets you load samples recorded from the built-in microphone. You can change the playback speed, reverse direction, set loop points and add a delay effect. Recorded samples can be saved to the device and imported back later, or saved to computer via USB cable.
Controls
B to start and stop a recording. A to start and stop playback. While playing left and right set loop cue points, up jumps playback to the start cue point, and down resets playback rate to 1.0. During playback the crank changes the playback speed and can reverse the audio, B toggles the input mode between live looping and effect controls.
When in effects mode the directional pad moves between controls and the crank changes values.
Purchase
In order to download this looper you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.50 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Tape Looper 3.0.0 releasedOct 19, 2023
- Tape Looper 2.0.1 UpdateAug 01, 2023
- Tape Looper 2.0.0 AlphaFeb 13, 2023
- Tape Looper 2.0.0 sneak peakFeb 11, 2023
- Tape Looper 1.1.1Feb 10, 2023
- Tape Looper 1.1.0Feb 09, 2023
Comments
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Heya!
I'm just wondering what happened to your Field Recorder?
https://orllewin.itch.io/field-recorder
I was hoping to buy & use it to use the PlayDate as a little memo machine or something.
Your projects are super cool, btw
Hey - I removed it because I couldn’t get the Playdate to work nicely with an external microphone and the code wasn;t great, it was an early effort for me with Lua and the Playdate. I might knock up a better solution some time soon.
Ahh, I see! Thanks for letting me know!
Is it possible to layer your own loops on top of one another? Be fun with a mic plugged in for vocals... I'd love to see a 'how to' video :)
For this you want to experiment with some of the sample modules in Modular Play, they’re quite buggy (they were the last thing I implemented before burning out a little) but I’ve written some good experimental sounds with it: https://orllewin.uk/playdate/ModularPlay#Sampling
love this app but is there a way to trim the loop or save the loop points when they are set?
Sorry for mega late reply - you can trim the start/end points with the sample player: https://orllewin.uk/playdate/ModularPlay#Sample+Play - the sampling area is a little buggy though, it’s asking a lot of the Playdate and needs some extra dev time really - once life settles down a little I’ll try and spend more time with it.
Shit, sorry, thought this was Modular Play not Tape Looper!
One of my favorite apps! Already made some tracks with it.
Thank you for version 3 - very good !
Feature request - Would be really really nice to be able to play the sample 100 % with the crank (and not just control the speed). Also, would be nice to be able to drop mp3 samples via usb.
Thank you :)
I did try implementing a scrub control with the crank but it’s just not possible with the way the Lua audio API works in Playdate. TapeLooper would need to be rewritten in C to do that I think, not an easy task.
I know there’s a music box app for Playdate that does work with the crank, but that’s triggering samples as you turn - much simpler than dealing with sample frames in a file/buffer.
understood - and you are at the forefront of music creation on the playdate. I was asking because I saw a pedal that could play a sequence with a rotary dial on a cassette and I realized that the play date could do same thing ! Thanks for your reply - appreciated :)