airport loops ST for st-st-stereo
If you know, you know.
In order to make space for the stereo loops, quite a number of features had to be removed (the master tone, corrosion, and tape age controls are all absent from this version, as are the features that allowed for stompswitch recording and syncing to a MIDI clock). The length of loops has also decreased, from 32 seconds to 16 seconds (the timer has been changed to reflect this difference). I think it’s a fair set of compromises for looping in true stereo. If the stompswitch recording is important to your workflow, contact me — I have a version of this patch that keeps the recording but loses the tape age parameter (modulating looper speed with noise is CPU-intensive). I can either send it to you, or if response is robust, just release it.
Along with stereo looping, I’ve also reworked the gain-staging. Now, at the default level (.5), volume is at unity gain. You can boost each track up to 6 dB going above this level. Hopefully, this allows for more dynamic mixes.
The master “tape speed” control now passes through the track and holds for pitch, allowing you to change the whole pitch of the patch at once, either continuously, or by holding down the right stompswitch, only upon release of the right stompswitch, jumping from one pitch-speed to another.
I’ve kept the controls in their legacy position, but it’s worth noting that the panner for each track precedes the reverb send in this version (and the reverb has been expanded to stereo input as well); in previous versions, that order was reversed, with the reverb send coming before the panner.
This patch was updated in the most recent firmware (5.32); the CPU when all tracks utilize tape age hovers a bit over 100, and can reach higher with tracks being pitched up. But so far — fingers crossed — it has been stable and hasn’t reached clipping. If you’re concerned about clipping, just keep the tape age at 0 for at least one track and you should have plenty of headroom, but again, so far, in this firmware, it has been stable, if running a bit hot.
You can find a full explanation of previous versions of the patch here:
https://patchstorage.com/airport-loops-four-unsynchronized-loopers-for-experimentation/
I hope you enjoy!
