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Old 10-05-2022, 12:40 PM   #1
wholehalf
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Default midiLooper a live midi clip player and looper

Download here as part of the pizmidi plugin suite, rebooted and compiled for linux by Simon Leiner:

https://github.com/sleiner/pizmidi/a...uns/3185734351

midiLooper is a plugin for launching midi clips and live looping midi!

It is part of the pizmidi suite https://thepiz.org/plugins/ which has not been in development for many years and was originally for Windows and MacOs only. Some of the plugins were ported to Linux in the past (they are available in the kxstudio repos), however the "pizjuce" subset of the collection (in which midiLooper is included) was not available for Linux until now.

All of the pizjuce plugins are well worth a look, but for me midiLooper stands out in particular, as (as far as I am aware) it is the only native Linux plugin that offers midi looping and live clip playback. I haven't had much time to experiment with midiLooper yet, but it seems that with a combination of midiLooper and Super8 a very capable live looping and clip launching environment for both audio and midi material can now be set up in Reaper for Linux, with native plugins. I was really happy to see this reboot and I wanted to share my excitement!

Last edited by wholehalf; 10-05-2022 at 12:55 PM.
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Old 10-06-2022, 08:05 AM   #2
Soli Deo Gloria
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Thanks so much for the heads up!

I've been using MidiLooper a lot since last year to trigger custom midi sequences in my music classes for rythmic parts, percussion, drums, etc (and even some bass sequences). It's a real gem, and I've been really puzzled about the fact that it seems to be unique in its genre and, broadly speaking, not only there has been almost null talk about it, but there seems to be no interest in it from most users. Most midi loopers are in the step-sequencer side (including JS MegaBaby and the likes), which is, in my view, much more limited as a MIDI looping tool. With this, you can craft your own detailed MIDI parts and trigger them in a plethora of ways. I write the MIDI clips in REAPER, with the notation view, and then export them as MIDI files to load in MidiLooper. Just perfect (for my taste, at least), and the most flexible way to do these kind of things.

I've been bridging MidiLooper with Yabridge, which is another gem of a tool. Anyway, it's great to know that we have it now as a native plugin. I'll try it out and comment about it.

Thanks again!

PD to other users : pay attention to this plugin, people! It's a unique and fantastic tool. I can't really comprehend how there seem to be no alternatives for this anywhere (in any OS), and almost no interest from most users.

Last edited by Soli Deo Gloria; 10-06-2022 at 10:02 AM.
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Old 10-06-2022, 12:36 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Soli Deo Gloria View Post
PD to other users : pay attention to this plugin, people! It's a unique and fantastic tool. I can't really comprehend how there seem to be no alternatives for this anywhere (in any OS), and almost no interest from most users.
Well, I would if I knew what the plugin does and how it looks.

I don't understand what's the difficulty in posting a simple screenshot for each GitHub project. Yes, I get it, you are a programmer, don't care for visuals, but a single picture can tell me in a minute more than reading the manual for 10 days.

So, anyone care to explain what this is about? Or I'll just watch some videos to familiarise myself...
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Old 10-06-2022, 01:21 PM   #4
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Well, I would if I knew what the plugin does and how it looks.
The original dev did a short write up here, with some screenshots: https://thepiz.org/plugins/?p=midiLooper

I couldn't find any videos on it though. If you find anything please share!
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Old 10-06-2022, 05:41 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by /AND/ View Post
Well, I would if I knew what the plugin does and how it looks.

I don't understand what's the difficulty in posting a simple screenshot for each GitHub project. Yes, I get it, you are a programmer, don't care for visuals, but a single picture can tell me in a minute more than reading the manual for 10 days.

So, anyone care to explain what this is about? Or I'll just watch some videos to familiarise myself...

Well, leaving aside the rudeness of your irony (completely unnecessary, in my opinion), let's just say that it allows you to import one or more MIDI clips and trigger them with a keyboard/MIDI controller, synced or unsynced to the host's tempo. Hence, you can write your own detailed MIDI parts in REAPER, export them as .mid clips and import them in MidiLooper to trigger them any way you want.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Soli Deo Gloria View Post
I've been using MidiLooper a lot since last year to trigger custom midi sequences in my music classes for rythmic parts, percussion, drums, etc (and even some bass sequences).

My first reply implied what I said above. I sincerely think it's always better to practice politeness and ask in a civilized manner.
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Old 10-06-2022, 05:48 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wholehalf View Post
midiLooper is a plugin for launching midi clips and live looping midi!

Oh, there's also the crystal-clear summary of the OP. And besides, the plugin is called "MidiLooper". It's probably better, also, to read first...

Last edited by Soli Deo Gloria; 10-06-2022 at 07:44 PM.
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Old 10-07-2022, 12:52 PM   #7
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I don't see what's uncivilised or rude here. Yes, I am frustrated by looking at tens of GitHub projects with mountains of text, where a simple video or a screenshot even would immediately clear out what the project is about. But I was not being 'uncivilised' neither 'rude'.

OK, the name is MidiLooper (which got me initially interested), but MIDI looper of what? MIDI clips, songs, phrases... ? And more importantly, how it does this? Does it map to a MIDI keyboard? To the PC keyboard? etc.

If you go and visit the original link (https://github.com/sleiner/pizmidi/a...uns/3185734351) there's a GitHub issue that is irrelevant to an end user. If you go to the main project page (https://github.com/sleiner/pizmidi), there's no explanation whatsoever. One has to find the link to the original project, then go there, read there, understand what's going on, then figure out how the fork is different from that project, etc.

So, yes, I'm frustrated with the lack of easy and brief introductions to GitHub projects alongside screenshots and videos. And developers should make the effort. When having a real job, a family, a side gig, social life, and a hobby, there's simply no time for reading mountains of text and climbing forests of links just to figure out how something works and whether should I dive deeper into it.

Last edited by /AND/; 10-07-2022 at 01:08 PM.
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Old 10-07-2022, 01:32 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wholehalf View Post
midiLooper is a plugin for launching midi clips and live looping midi!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soli Deo Gloria View Post
...let's just say that it allows you to import one or more MIDI clips and trigger them with a keyboard/MIDI controller, synced or unsynced to the host's tempo. Hence, you can write your own detailed MIDI parts in REAPER, export them as .mid clips and import them in MidiLooper to trigger them any way you want.

Well, if these sentences don't explain you what the plugin does, I don't know what will, sincerely...


The rant about Git is understandable, up to a certain point, and may be applied to many other examples in the Linux environment. But this thread does explain the basic functionality of the plugin. And just in case, where you read "keyboard/MIDI controller" above, it refers to a MIDI keyboard. You define the number or range of key/s to trigger the MIDI clip.
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Old 10-08-2022, 05:40 AM   #9
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OK, I could have paid more attention myself also. Thanks for your replies.
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Old 10-09-2022, 07:23 AM   #10
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You're welcome...

I've already been using this native MidiLooper and it's been working just fine, with an obviously much more responsive UI than the bridged version, and what's more important, less CPU usage.

Pure joy.
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