I originally wrote LoopSampler for the Euroburo factory set. I’ve had a version of V2 kicking around for… since we released the Euroburo factory set, but Ryan Holmberg’s “QuickSampler” patch sort of kicked me into gear to get the update published: you’ll notice some similarities between the patches, but also some obvious differences. I’m not trying to compete with it; I think the two patches complement one another well, with some approaches better suited in QuickSampler and some better suited in LoopSampler.

When I wrote the patch I had two major objectives in mind, as far as use:

— Creating a “polyphonic” “sampler” for the Euroburo. When the patch is in “trigger” mode, loops will play out to their end. More loops can be triggered to begin playback, before subequent loops have concluded, hence the “polyphonic” element. (This is similar to the “polyphony” of the Mutable Instruments Rings, although, obviously, in a very, very different application.)

— Create a glitchy, generative patch that could shift between different loops via CV, which is why I paired LoopSampler with a small suite of randomization tools.

A quick rundown of changes in version 2:

— A new recording mode — Threshold recording — has been added. This allows you to set a minimal threshold for audio, which, once it passes this threshold, will begin recording. This helps eliminate silences at the begining of loops. Recording is cued when the record button/stompswitch is hit (or when the record CV input receives a gate); it begins once the audio input passes the threshold; it concludes when the record button/stompswitch is hit again (or when the record CV input falls to 0/the gate ends).

— An internal routing option for the random tools. Originally, the patch was written so that these tools could be taken from the outputs and applied to the inputs (specifically the “Play” input and the “Sample select” input). In this version, those tools can be routed internally, for use with the pedal-version of ZOIA. This also opens up CV outputs for other applications within a eurorack ecosystem, if you so choose.

— Actions previously controlled by user buttons are now replicated in stompswitches (see below).

— MIDI clock was added as a clock option. MIDI clock will override tap tempo.

— The audio input now sums to the mono. In the original version, only the left input was recorded. The left input is still solely used for the threshold recording.

— A “circular” recording mode has been added. In the original version, when recording finished on the eighth loop it would stop recording new material. When “circular recording” is enabled, the next recording signal will loop back to the first loop buffer. This is particularly useful when used with the “clocked” recording mode, as it allows you to keep a running collection of samples, going back through the last eight clock cycles.

The circular recording option also allows for a kind of glitchy delay. Under normal circumstances, the internal routing is disabled during recording, but when circular recording is selected, the routing is active, which means you can record audio and hear it played back a different points in the buffer while new audio is recorded. (Note: occasionally the buffer being recorded into is selected for playback, which will produce silence. I couldn’t figure out any CPU-efficient way to exclude the buffer being recorded into from the playback options.)

— To select a loop to record over, in the previous version you had to advance all the way through the buffers via a button, until you got the buffer you wanted to record into. Kind of tedious. Now you can just select the buffer from the control page.

— You can also use this selection process to performatively limit the range of samples used for playback. Note: When you do this, you cannot restore the eighth buffer to playback, because of how selecting a buffer for recording limits the range of available samples. However, it can be restored by initiating the circular recording option, which makes all the buffers available to playback.

— A reverb lite was removed from the output signal path for CPU reasons.

Controls:

User buttons/stompswitches:

Left user button/stompswitch — RECORD. This works differently depending on the mode: In Manual mode, recording will begin immediately. In Threshold Recording mode, recording will be cued and recording will begin as soon as the audio input passes the threshold (set on the second page). In Clocked Recording mode, recording will be cued and will begin on the next received clock signal.

Recording concludes when the record button or stompswitch is pressed again (latching behavior). In Manual mode and Threshold recording mode, recording will conclude immediately. In Clocked recording mode, it will end at the next clock cycle following the release of the button/stompswitch.

Right user button/right stompswitch — RESET. This resets the recording sequencer to the first loop buffer (keep in mind, the contents of the buffer remain intact until they are recorded over)

Middle stompswitch — TAP TEMPO (also available as a UI button on the second page). This will set the tempo for clocked recording, as well as the randomization tools. Tap tempo is overriden by MIDI clock or CV clock.

CV inputs:

CV 1 (0-10V) — Record. When a gate is high at this input, recording will begin (in the same manner described above for the user button/stompswitch, depending on mode) and conclude when the gate falls low (or at the next clock cycle if in clocked recording mode).

CV 2 (0-10V) — Play. This will play which buffer is indicated by the “Loop select” input when a gate or trigger is received. (Playback is affected by the “Gate or trigger” option on page two. When “gate” is selected, playback will be limited to when a gate is high at this input. When “trigger” is selected, a buffer will playback until its conclusion once selected, unless it is selected for playback again before the conclusion of its buffer.)

CV 3 (0-5V) — Loop select. Selects the loop buffer for playback. The range of this input is limited by the loop selected on the control page (that limitation can be overriden by putting the patch in “Circular recording” mode using the associated button found on the second page).

CV 4 (0-10V) — CV clock input. When CV clock is detected, tap tempo and MIDI clock are overriden and cannot be restored without reloading the patch.

CV outputs:

CV 1 (0-5V) — Random voltage

CV 2 (0-10V) — Random clocked gate (the likelihood of a gate being produced is set via the “Random gate chance” control on the second page)

CV 3 (0-10V) — Clock (this clock is delayed to correspond with the other CV outputs)

CV 4 (0-10V) — Random gate (this is the same as the random clocked gate, except it is not multiplied by the clock, so rather than producing a gate every clock cycle, based on the chance setting, it will go high or stay low through the entire clock cycle; high gates and low gates can be combined into longer gates)

Control page:

The TOP ROW SERVES A FEW PURPOSES: it shows where the loop recording sequencer is in its progress by changing from red to yellow as a buffer is filled. The first red button is the next buffer to be recorded.

It can also be used to playback the loops manually. If the “Gate or Trigger” button is off (gate), the loop will playback as long as it is pressed (until it reaches the conclusion of its buffer). When the button is on (trigger), the loop will playback until its conclusion (unless the button is pressed again, which will restart its playback).

You can also use the buttons to performatively limit the number of loops available for selection via the loop select CV input/internal routing.

The rest of the controls on the front page are controls for each individual loop buffer: SPEED-PITCH, REVERSE, START (for trimming the beginning of a loop), and END (for trimming the end of a loop).

Second page:

The RESET button/stompswitch is reproduced in the top left corner of this page.

The next button is GATE OR TRIGGER, which determines whether playback is gated or triggered (when gated, a loop will be heard only as long as the gate at the play input is high or the button on the control page is held; when triggered, a loop will be heard to its conclusion, unless it receives another play command before that conclusion, which will cause it to restart playback).

Below these are the recording mode select buttons.

MANUAL RECORDING — recording will begin as soon as button/stompswitch is pressed and conclude when it is released (or via the CV input recording will begin when a gate at the input goes high and conclude when the gate goes low)

THRESHOLD RECORDING — recording will be cued when the record stompswitch/button is pressed; recording will begin when audio crosses the THRESHOLD set on the bottom row (there is a pixel to indicate when an audio signal is above the threshold); recording will conclude when the record stompswitch/button is pressed again (or via CV, recording will cue when a gate at the record input goes high; recording will begin when audio crosses the threshold; recording will conclude when the gate goes low)

CLOCKED RECORDING — recording will begin on clock cycle following the press of the record button/stompswitch/CV going high at the record gate input, and it will conclude when the button/stompswitch is pressed again/CV goes low at the record gate input and the clock cycle subsequent to that is reached

Below the clocked recording mode button is the butter for CIRCULAR RECORDING (explained a couple of times above).

Below the circular recording button is the TAP TEMPO. This will flash according to the tempo and the gate length setting.

To the right of these controls are the controls for the random tools.

The RANDOM CLOCKED GATE OR CLOCK button determines whether the random CV is generated only when the random clocked gate produces a gate (set by the RANDOM GATE CHANCE control — 0 will never produce a gate; 1 will produce a gate every clock cycle; points in between represent different probabilities that a gate will be produced on a given clock cycle) or at each clock cycle.

The GATE LENGTH control determines the length of the gates produced.

The INTERNAL ROUTING button allows you to route the random CV and random clocked gate internally to control playback of the loop buffers. Turn this off if using external CV.

Along the top right side of the page are controls for the output. DRY LEVEL sets the level of audio passed through the patch; this audio is passed through in stereo. The STEREO SPREAD control restores some sense of stereo field for inputs that are summed to mono. The LOOP LEVEL control sets the output of the loop buffers.