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CanonLooper

Captures sound and loops it in multiple layers to create musical canons (rounds).

CanonLooper records and loops a single track, playing multiple copies of the track (up to 16 copies) at equally spaced intervals to form a musical canon or round. Each copy is routed through its own mono output, so it can be mixed or have effects added to it using additional contraptions. You can also choose from a variety of Ending modes, or ways to end each track in the canon. You can get each track to complete its cycle before before it ends, or end all tracks in sync with the others.

This contraption synchronizes to the global clock when using Sync to mode. Remember to press play.

See the Adjusting Contraption Properties section for information about using sliders, knobs, presets etc.

Related Contraptions

LiveLooper

Parameters

Ending Mode

(EndingType)

Controls how the canon will stop. There are four Ending Modes, which are activated when you press the End button. The four modes are:

End all tracks when first track reaches the end of the loop (or loops).

Once the first track ends its loop(s), end all subsequent tracks when they reach the end of their loop.

End each track when it reaches the end of its loop.

End all tracks immediately.

Sync to clock bars (0.0625-128)

(SyncToClockBars)

Quantizes the onset of each phase to the selected number of bars in the selected time signature, after you press the phase advance button (top left corner of the Property Editor). To activate this parameter, the Sync to checkbox must be checked.

Reset

Immediately ends all playing tracks and clears all recorded tracks, returning the CanonLooper to the Idle phase.

Record Monitor

(RecordMonitor)

When checked, Record Monitor passes the CanonLooper's input through to output 1 during recording. When unchecked, output 1 will be muted until you stop recording Track 1. You cannot change the Record Monitor parameter during recording.

Repeat Limit (0 to 100000)

(RepeatLimit)

Controls the number of times the primary track will loop. When set to 0, the track will not loop. A value between 1 and 100000 will loop the track the specified number of times. When Track 1 reaches the end of its loop(s) as specified by this value, the CanonLooper will automatically switch from the Looping phase to the Ending phase.

Uncheck the Repeat Limit checkbox to enable continuous looping, and use the End button to manually stop it. Once recording is stopped, the playback Repeat number is displayed in the looping phase panel (the button in top left corner of the Property Editor).

Track Limit (1-16)

Limits the number of tracks that can be played (including the original). When the number of tracks reaches the limit, the CanonLooper automatically switches from the Recording, added tracks mode to the Recording, all tracks added mode. The number of active (currently playing) tracks is also displayed next to Track Limit.

Instructions

Canon Process

The operation of CanonLooper is based on a process of clicking one button to advance between each phase of the process. This button is located in the upper left hand corner of the Property Editor, and is labelled Start Recording when the CanonLooper is idle. As you move through each phase, the label on this button changes to reflect each forthcoming action (Start first canon track, Stop adding canon tracks, Stop recording, End). The current phase is also indicated along the bottom of the Property Editor. The phases are listed in order: Idle, Recording, Recording, adding tracks, Recording, all tracks added, Looping, Ending.

Button

Following Phase

Description

Start Recording

Recording

Starts recording.

Start First Canon Track

Recording, adding tracks

Starts the first canon track and sets the interval (the time taken between pressing Start Recording and Start First Canon Track) at which all subsequent canon tracks will be added.

Stop Adding Canon Tracks

Recording, all tracks added

Stops adding canon tracks. This occurs automatically when the number of active tracks reaches the limit specified by the Track Limit parameter.

Stop Recording

Looping

Stops recording of Track 1 and sets loop length (equal to the length of Track 1) for all tracks .

End

Ending

Activates the Ending mode.

Each track displays a progress indicator, which displays the current Track location or playback position of that track and a Track Status indicator (see below) showing whether the track is recording, playing or stopped.

Track Status

The Status indicator displays an icon indicating the current status of each track, which can be one of the following:

The track is empty, no sound has been recorded into it.

The track is recording.

The track has a loop recorded into it, but it is currently not playing; it is stopped.

The track is playing.

The track is playing, but will stop as soon as the next synchronization point arrives.

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