Bottom Bar
Every bottom bar control from left to right. Drawers, Edit and Perform, transport, ADVANCE, RETRY, TUNE, PANIC, meters and the status line.
The bottom bar has two rows. The top row holds the controls. The bottom row is the status line. The tables list the controls from left to right, as they show on Mac, Windows and Linux.
The Shortcut column shows the default key. The MIDI target column shows the target to choose in View → MIDI Mapping…. See MIDI implementation.
Drawers and modes
| Control | What it does | Shortcut | MIDI target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timeline overview (icon) | Shows or hides the timeline overview strip. Hidden in Perform. | ⇧⌘O (Ctrl+Shift+O) | — |
| Mixer (icon) | Opens or closes the mixer drawer. See Mixer. | ⌘M (Ctrl+M) | — |
| Plugins (icon) | Opens or closes the plugin drawer. See Effects. | ⌘P (Ctrl+P) | — |
| Automation (icon) | Opens or closes the automation drawer. See Automation. | — | — |
| Play drawer (piano icon) | Opens or closes the Play drawer: pads and keys for the armed MIDI track. Shows only when Settings → General → Built-in instruments is on. See Instruments. | — | — |
| Edit / Perform | Switches the Arrangement between Edit and Perform. Shows in the Arrangement only. See Edit vs Perform. | ⌘E (Ctrl+E) | — |
A lit drawer button means that the drawer is open.
Position readouts
| Readout | Where | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Bars | Left of the transport | The playhead position as bar : beat : tick, for example 001:01:00. |
| Time | Right of the transport | The playhead position as minutes : seconds . milliseconds, for example 00:00.000. |
Transport
| Control | What it does | Shortcut | MIDI target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rewind (⏮) | Stops, and moves the playhead to the start of the song. | — | — |
| Stop (■) | Stops playback or recording. The playhead stays where it is. | — | Transport → Stop |
| Play (▶) | Starts playback. While the song plays, the button shows pause, and a click stops it where it is. | Space | Transport → Play |
| Record (●) | Starts recording. If Count in is set in the toolbar, the count-in plays first. The button is lit red while recording. Pressing it again while recording does nothing. Press Space or Stop to stop. | R | Transport → Record |
| Loop | Turns the Arrangement loop on or off. When you turn it on, it uses the last loop range, or one bar at the playhead if there is none. | — | — |
Recording goes only into rec clips on armed tracks.
Live actions
| Control | What it does | Shortcut | MIDI target |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADVANCE | Releases the held loop region, so the song moves on. It is dimmed when no loop region holds. After you press it, it reads RELEASING and fills to show the progress. A second press does nothing. See Loop regions. | A | Performance → Advance |
| RETRY | Restarts the current recording pass from the top, without leaving Record. It works only while you record. | — | None |
| TUNE | Turns the input tuner on and opens it. While the tuner is on, the button shows the note and how far it is out of tune. | — | Performance → Toggle Tuner |
| PANIC | Shows only when a backup take exists. Swaps the backup take in for the rec clip at the playhead (or the last one before it). It does not stop MIDI notes. To stop notes, press Esc. See Backup takes and PANIC. | — | Panic → Swap to Backup |
Meters
| Meter | What it shows |
|---|---|
| OUT | The output level, left and right. |
| IN | The input level, left and right. |
Status line
| Item | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Audio format | The sample rate and buffer size, for example 48 kHz · 256. See Settings → Audio. |
| Hold | Shows only while a loop region holds, for example ⟳ HOLD bars 2–3 ×4: the held bars and the number of passes. After you press ADVANCE, it adds · RELEASING NEXT. |
| Project and song | The names of the open project and song. During a plugin scan, it shows Scanning: with the plugin name and the progress in percent. |
| Beat dots | One dot for each beat of the bar. The current beat is lit. |
| License | Shows only when your license needs attention. Click it to open your dashboard on looper.studio. See Sign-in and license problems. |
| CPU | How much CPU the audio uses, for example CPU 12%. See Settings → Performance. |
Settings
Every setting, page by page. Audio driver and devices, latency, MIDI, clock sync, performance, routing, general, updates, storage, account, Cloud Sync.
Effects and plugins
Built-in effects: 32 effects plus a tuner, with every control and default. PRE and POST FX chains, sidechain, A/B, chain presets, AU and VST3 plugins.