Loophole

A stereo, asynchronous Frippertronics-style looping delay with smearing and other modifiers.

This patch is built on a bunch of delay lines, but by leaving the feedback at unison they (can) behave like a looper, which means we can introduce all kinds of effects into the feedback path to modify the loop. This modifier part was inspired by things like the Cosmos from Soma Laboratories and the CBA Blooper.
There’s momentary options for low pass or high pass filtering, for vibrato and for reshuffling fragments. There’s also a very nice ambient ‘smear’ function, and the Record and Erase buttons are flexi-switching, meaning you can turn them on/off like a regular looper, or use them as momentary functions, dropping little pieces of audio in or removing them. There’s a ducking setting that allows you to suppress the looped material whenever new audio is entered, perfect for creating constantly evolving soundscapes without things becoming too crowded.

The delay length is (by default) different on left and right sides (fancily called “asynchronous”), so the loops start drifting over time. By adding notes sparsely things start shifting and interacting in unpredictable ways. Obviously, this patch is very suited for spacey ambient explorations!

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[OVERVIEW]
-Input/Output: Stereo in/Stereo out (or Mono in/Stereo out)
-CPU load: Around 91% (with Firmware 2.0)
-Build: Initial version built with firmware 1.13
-MIDI: Controls are set to CCs (I use channels 21/36, see CONTROLS section for details).

[REVISIONS]
1.0: Initial patch.

[PATCH STRUCTURE]
Audio input goes into 2 Delay Line modules, the delay time of which is set via TIME control on the UI page. Changing this after recording has started will modulate/warp the audio, so best to set and leave before playing. By default, L and R have different times, but by toggling the SYNC button on PAGE1 they can be set identical.

The delays then go into filters and diffusers, aka the modifiers. This whole section is built twice (because left and right channel are completely separated) and each modifier effect starts with a Panner module to send the audio either through a buffer delay (to prevent phasing issues with the dry signal) or through the effects of that modifier (LPF/HPF/Diffuser). There’s also a ‘wiggle’ modifier, which is simply a sine LFO that modulates the main delay lines. The depth is fixed via the Multiplier module on the wiggle page, but the rate can be changed via the WIGGLE RATE value module on PAGE1.

The resulting audio after the delay lines and modifiers goes to the output and to a stereo VCA for feedback. By default, this is set to 0dB so it behaves as a looper without decay but can be set lower for a more traditional delay effect (which can still use all the modifiers). There is also an Envelope Follower that analyses the L-input signal; if Ducking is enabled, the volume of the input signal can affect the feedback value so that new material replaces older looped material.

Finally, there’s two additional delay lines with a slightly shorter time than the main ones and connected oppositely (L -> R and R -> L). By holding the SHUFFLE button, the looped audio is sent into these instead of the main ones, effectively sending some recorded material ‘ahead’ of the rest. If you keep it pushed it simply reroutes everything into a shorter loop, but if you do short bursts of it, it kinda shuffles audio fragments around in interesting ways.

The last part of the patch deals with the circling LED visuals (like, 3 pages or so?). There’s an LFO that scans through an Out Switch, where each output triggers a simple ADSR module, which lights up an individual UI button. It’s a fairly clunky implementation, but it offers some cool tricks; the TIME setting influences the speed at which the circle goes round (though cycle time doesn’t match delay time), and the faster it goes round the shorter the lights decay. When RECORD is enabled, the color changes to purple, and when ERASE is active it changes to blue. Activating SHUFFLE reverses/shuffles the direction and enabling SMEAR nicely diffuses the animation!

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[CONTROLS]
All the main controls are on PAGE0 and are labeled and starred (see below for a “Picture Manual” in the comments). The Stereo Output module with gain parameter is on PAGE1.

Controls on PAGE0:
REC (record input to looper; flexi-switching, red = recording)
MIX (balance between dry and wet sound; goes full wet; cc28)
ERASE (toggles REPEATS to 0; flexi-switching, blue = erasing. Leave enabled for a full loop length to completely clear a loop)

TIME (set length of loop; approx. 1sec to 8sec; will warp audio so use with care; cc21)
REPEATS (sets loop decay; 1 = infinite looping; cc22)
WIGGLE RATE (set modulation speed for WIGGLE; cc23)
DUCKINESS (amount of suppression when DUCK is enabled; cc24)

LPF (low pass filtering; momentary)
HPF (high pass filtering; momentary)
WIGGLE (pitch modulation; momentary)
SHUFFLE (shuffles around looped audio; momentary)

DUCK (enables ducking of repeats with incoming audio)
SMEAR (enables diffusers to smear everything more and more with each repeat)

Additional controls on PAGE1:
SYNC (toggle to set both L+R loopers to same length; will warp audio so use with care)
LPF FREQ (set cutoff frequency of LPF; cc25)
HPF FREQ (set cutoff frequency of HPF; cc26)

LEFT stomp = same as REC pushbutton; flexi-switching.
MID stomp = same as SHUFFLE pushbutton.
RIGHT stomp = same as ERASE pushbutton; flexi-switching.

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[TIPS/TRICKS]
>>> Set the TIME first before you start jamming, cause changing it later will warp the looped audio. Same goes for changing SYNC halfway during a jam. Or maybe that’s what you want, also cool.

>>> Play few notes, let them loop once or twice, then enter new notes. Because of the shift between L/R new combinations and patterns will form.

>>> Made a mistake? There’s no undo, but worry not, there is DUCK! Turn it on and just enter new notes whenever that wrong note comes by; it’ll just replace it with new material.

>>> The momentary modifiers (LPF/HPF/WIGGLE/SHUFFLE) can all be used in conjunction, so try sending specific passages into SHUFFLE while also modulating them with WIGGLE and filtering them! They also stack, so hit (for example) WIGGLE on the same part during each cycle to make it more and more seasick.

>>> Turning up the WIGGL RATE can give an almost ring-mod effect, which is cool to apply momentarily, and then SMEAR it out. Actually, SMEAR in general is just epic. Just leave it on, always…

[THOUGHTS/IDEAS/PLANS]
This is quickly becoming my favorite solo-ambient-jam patch, cause it’s so very ‘playable’ and the momentary buttons fit the ZOIA form-factor quite well. No future plans for this one yet.
If there’s any bugs/questions/remarks/requests or suggestions for improvement, please let me know!
Enjoy!

(image: Tom Hegen)

5 comments on “Loophole
  • An Moku on said:

    One of the greatest patches so far! Love it!!!

  • Meta_Luna on said:

    This is my favorite patch right now. Works great, sounds amazing. Thank you so much.

  • Himynameischad on said:

    Anybody have a demo of this? Would love to hear it in action.

  • thom_flaherty on said:

    Use this in tandem with a Generation Loss MKII and bluesky – it permeates most of my tunes in one way or another.

  • Leave a Reply

      1564 PM
    • Platform:
    • Category: Effect
    • Revision: 1.0
    • License: Do What The F*ck You Want To Public License
    • Modified: 3 years ago
    • Views: 3027
      Likes: 20
      Downloads: 1525
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