Nabla Looper | Hands-Free and Pedal-Style Looper for REAPER

[Hipox]

I am also very interested in a development of this project!
I have a few ideas how to make it work for my needs I could program by myself, but the problem is the binary format of source files (.dat).

At least, if the developer would be so kind and gave us a chance to continue in the development, that would be nice!

EDIT:
Nevermind, I found a way to decompile source files, although I am not sure it's legal.
If I make some progress, I will post an update here.

[mpi]

Had it working a year ago, but on a new installation with the latest version of Reaper it looks like it's no longer working.

It's a shame because it had so much promise -- especially the "arrange" mode which had me really excited.

This just shows that closed-source is dumb. If there was code I or any number of other people could have fixed it and kept it going.

(Incidentally the code is "encrypted" very simply. I don't know why because anyone capable of understanding the code would be able to decrypt it without much effort, but I guess the author has his reasons.)

[D-Reaper]

Fantastic tool.
The best option for real time looping in REAPER I have found so far!! (much better than Super 8 and the Kenny Gioia custom created alternatives).
I wonder if REAPER team is thinking about including something like this in the program itself. Would be gorgeous!

Would be absolutely fantastic if the author retakes the project!!
¡Venga, Esteban, anímate, que esto es una maravilla!

Although it has been abandoned, I´ve been trying it out (REAPER 6.67) and it still seems to work fine. The author´s website is down, so could anybody please pass me the existing manual mentioned in this post? (Contact me by private message)
Many thanks.

[vitalker]

Originally Posted by D-Reaper

The author´s website is down, so could anybody please pass me the existing manual mentioned in this post? (Contact me by private message)

I've found archived version:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210120...ex.php/manual/

[TonE]

Originally Posted by mpi

Had it working a year ago, but on a new installation with the latest version of Reaper it looks like it's no longer working.

It's a shame because it had so much promise -- especially the "arrange" mode which had me really excited.

This just shows that closed-source is dumb. If there was code I or any number of other people could have fixed it and kept it going.

(Incidentally the code is "encrypted" very simply. I don't know why because anyone capable of understanding the code would be able to decrypt it without much effort, but I guess the author has his reasons.)

No the first versions were normal lua, one could continue from there. But I am sure the coder will share or improve his solution if there is enough interest. The main idea is there, plus the first demos as .lua. Details are not so important, if the main idea is out in the Reaper world already. It demonstrated what is possible.

You can always use an older version of Reaper, where it still worked, for example as another mobile install on usb stick. Just for Nabla for example. Just an idea. No need to be hopeless. You have still all possibilities, just use them. Do all your experiments, recordings with Nabla on older Reaper version, save RPP, close old Reaper. Open in latest Reaper. There you go.

[D-Reaper]

Originally Posted by vitalker

I've found archived version:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210120...ex.php/manual/

That´s great. Many thanks!!

[Hipox]

I am really excited, it looks like the developer is working on Nabla Looper again!
This time at his github repo there are .lua files without additional encryption, and update is not probably finnished yet, but for those of you who are eager to test it hot, here is the github repo:
https://github.com/NablaTools/Nabla and here is a link to sync with reapack (backup what you've got now, because old version is not avaliable anymore as far as I know):
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Na...main/index.xml .

Looking forward hearing from Esteban himself soon!

[brk303]

Great idea and decent implementation, I used Nabla couple of years ago when it was developed. I welcome the resurrection of the project, but honestly I would prefer if something like this was standard part of Reaper.

[D-Reaper]

Hi there.
I absolutely love this looper.
Sadly, the Github web is down.
Any new regarding new updates, etc.?

(¡Por favor, Esteban, no abandones el proyecto, que es fantástico! ).

[vitalker]

Originally Posted by D-Reaper

Hi there.
I absolutely love this looper.
Sadly, the Github web is down.
Any new regarding new updates, etc.?

(¡Por favor, Esteban, no abandones el proyecto, que es fantástico! ).

Check some previous posts, okay?

[Dave 2099]

The Nabla manual mode is a regular part of my workflow for spontaneous composition and I love it. I agree with others that it should become a standard feature of Reaper.

I would love to find a way to apply the manual mode (unlimited item replication in play or record mode) for specific tracks. Does anyone know how this might be possible?

[Yahmeh]

I managed to download Nabla through Reaper Extensions but I have no idea how to get it started. I would really appreciate any help.

[bobobo]

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Na...main/index.xml

provided you have it installed via this link
you got the automated version (looper a) as a bunch of scripts

make a customtoolbar and put the nabla a scripts in there.


the infos here
https://github.com/NablaTools/Nabla

are mostly valid.

greetings

[Giakomo]

Reading on the forum I understood that the developer is working on the new version, but right now I can't install it since reapack doesn't recognize all the files and toolbars are completely absent in the repository. Where can I find the files from the previous version (v2), to install while waiting for the new release? In case, could someone send/upload them?

[bobobo]

the actual link for the repo is here
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Na...main/index.xml

best practice could be to put the needed scripts into a toolbar
Script: Nabla Looper A - Settings.lua
Script: Nabla Looper A - ITEM Rename.lua
Script: Nabla Looper A - ITEM Toggle Monitor.lua
Script: Nabla Looper A - ITEM Toggle Record.lua
Script: Nabla Looper A - Start Stop.lua
Script: Scythe_Nabla library path.lua
and Toolbars: Switch to main toolbar

setting path and settings maybe are obligate

obey to create a monitor items direct behind a record (same names)
later you can set more of the monitor items in wild order.

i hope this helps

i made a demoproject that my help a little

https://stash.reaper.fm/v/46888/20230526_NABLA.rpp

[Giakomo]

Thank you for the explanation. So Nabla "A" is the manual mode of the looper, right?

[bobobo]

a is the programmed mode,manual mode doesn't run actually , afaik
but may be i'm wrong here


have you tried this wayback looperthing?

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=233734

[bobobo]

Originally Posted by Giakomo

Thank you for the explanation. So Nabla "A" is the manual mode of the looper, right?

and manual mode can be accompished wth reaper itself i guess.

prepare some audio and midi (instruments) tracks to autorecord if selected. TURN DOWN THE VOLUME BEFORE , feedback warning if you dont use headphones here.

make (midi/keyboard)shortcuts to switch through the tracks

record and get happy

midi/keybordshortcuts for selecting and toggel muting tracks can be handy

ok .. you have to use fixed loop length (til someone have a script to switch a recorded0 item into a looped mode after end of recording this item)

[EricBZH]

Thank you so much for this great tool! When I record audio, it clicks at the beginning of a recording item, and sometimes at the end of that item too. It doesn't click on playback items. Do you know how to solve this problem? If I do a very short fade in and fade out of the recording element, everything's fine. Do you know how to automatically add a short fade in and fade out to the recording element so that it never clicks?

[bobobo]

Originally Posted by EricBZH

Thank you so much for this great tool! When I record audio, it clicks at the beginning of a recording item, and sometimes at the end of that item too. It doesn't click on playback items. Do you know how to solve this problem? If I do a very short fade in and fade out of the recording element, everything's fine. Do you know how to automatically add a short fade in and fade out to the recording element so that it never clicks?

SWS Installed?
and have you set fade length in preferences ?

you can make a custom action
-SWS: SAve selected item(s)
-Item: select all items
-SWS: Set item fades to default length
-SWS: Restore saved selected item(s)

and run this
greetings

[TonE]

Is there any pdf manual for Nabla Looper, in my case for arranged mode.
How should we create new items where recorded items should propagate. In the video it says "similarly named items". Should we do "this renaming" manually or is there a script for this as well?

Manual mode is working here. Arrange mode* does not. Reaper 6.82 running in linux ubuntu 18.04 in wine as win32 version. Until which Reaper version "Nabla Looper Arrange Mode" was working correctly? Maybe after a certain update it stopped working. As mentioned in some Youtube comments, recording into red items works, but propagation to "Playing items" does not here, here also the items stay grey and OFFLINE, as other users described in above posts or in Youtube comments. Same behaviour here, unfortunately.
The only current solution would be finding the working older Reaper version for Arrange Mode. At least Manual Mode seems working here. Thanks Esteban for sharing your great work, again from here.
The reason I tested it so lately is more or less because the tool was not shared fully, only in "dat" "crypted form" and not directly as lua files as is common for "real sharing". This is now kind of "limited sharing" with consequences as in mentioned cases, having some troubles here and there, or in future updates.
Would be cool having a working Arrange Mode with later and latest Reaper versions as well.
Now we can hunt the last working Reaper version for Arrange Mode.

But Manual Mode is already great fun. I only would have experimented a bit with Arrange Mode. Maybe a few years later I can try again.

TonE sharing points(TM) for Nabla Looper:
- idea and concept: 100%
- implementation: 100%
- form of shared code: 99% (working fully, both Arranged Mode and Manual Mode here, 1% less because of dat files. )

* ReaScript Name: Nabla Looper Arranged Mode
Version: 0.2.9

[bobobo]

https://github.com/NablaTools/Nabla


the arrange mode is somehow bugged .. the fixed items shoot accross and maybe some actions aren't what there were before R7 .. don't know . it runs partly
using last sws beta and a pure installation with reapack but only the nabla onboard.
and some tweakings in the toolbar ARR -> AN -> main

my config is appended here

best practice is to start reaper with the parameter
-cfgfile alternatereaperpath\reaper.ini

this alternatereaperpath should contain your lic file

suppress the plugin scanning in the first run
import my config (all)

install the sws (preferable the last beta from here https://www.sws-extension.org/download/pre-release/
and the reapack.dll

the config for reapack is in my config
though you hav eto set the update setting yourself in the reapack browse settings

my config ignores external fx stuff
but has the nabla-stuff and two toolbars (sws and reapack for easy convinience as well) on board

have fun

[TonE]

Dear bobobo, thanks for your help. I will check this as soon as I can.
It would be cool knowing which system (win, mac, 32bit/64 bit, exact version number of Nabla Looper and exact Reaper version number) you are using.
Then adding: It (Manual Mode or Arranged Mode) works. Or It (Arranged Mode, in my case) does not work.
Also writing if you are using the later "dat-file Nabla Looper" or previous (full .lua source Nabla Looper).
I could see version 0.3 Nabla as source code in github, not sure if this is now the latest version?
Not having one place with latest version, with full source code (no .dat file) can bring "problems" as described above. Thanks friends , have a nice day.

[TonE]

Is there any manual for the "Manual Mode" as well?
Just to know what is possible with it, "at maximum".
To my luck manual mode is working here.
So I could explore this a bit deeper.

What I would like to know, if it is during manual mode possible recording your own midi items, for example, then letting this new item propagate as well? Probably yes, we need to create our own custom action. Leaving manual mode, restarting it again probably.

[bobobo]

windows here , w10 64 , as there are do real dependencies it should run where the sws and reaper runs.
and i use the github version i posted above. lua uncompiled


install and prereqs are here
http://nablatools.com/

(this website has no certificate)



arr mode in reaper 7 is something missing
and man mode is obscure for me


it would be nice if you could provide a small howto about the man mode.


i have collected the doc for the arr mode here
https://bobobo-git.github.io/nabla/docs/

[TonE]

Today, Arranged Mode seems working as well. Not sure what I did wrong yesterday. Probably started placing record item at bar 1. We should start after bar 2 or so. Maybe this was the failure or something else. Yesterday I tried with audio, now trying with midi it works kind of. Time to play around a bit.

Regarding manual mode, as far as I understood you can place items into arrange, then when playing cursor is passing it, it will auto-extend all items at the end of arrange. Best is starting with zero and experimenting. It should work. Good luck friends. Thanks a lot dear Esteban again, for this great tool. Can report back with my discoveries, hopefully.

[bobobo]

i declare the Arrange-Mode as functional too (i wrote above that it is strange, but strange is not nonfunctional )

Manual Mode :

short howto
install scripts and toolbars
(goto an empty toolbar and import from REAPER\Scripts\Nabla\Toolbars the Nabla Looper B.ReaperMenu)

Thse actions in the toolbar can be keyboard-shortcutted as well , you have to do this manually

provided yu have the toolbar

start blank project

create one track
go to the Start (w)

click settings and study what you see but don't change now. click save

click Start in the toolbar (Reaper will change playstate to run and the start and Core toobaricon will be active)

click Trigger, this will activate record at the next measure with a prerecordingtime you saw in the settings
click trigger again wil deactivate record at the next measure and the rfecord will jump to the measure where it starts and where it ends and will be looped automatically

create and select a new track (or record on the same, takes or fixed item lanes will be created then) on the fly while running
and hit trigger again will record on this track measurewise

as long as the start and core are lit all items will be looped automatically

to get around in a pracical way you can keyboardshortcut or put miditriggers to an external device (midi footcontroller or stuff like that)

OR
install the sws extensions an create !-markers with the appropriate actions

OR

use your brain


plan the performance , don't overdo it with too many tracks

a typical piece has a rythm , another rythm , bass, chords .. and then a solopart

to mute tracks while running you have to use actions to mute them
maybe a folder structure is handy here ...

esteban made some videos https://www.youtube.com/user/elhuis
with older versions of nabla , but the workflows seems to be similar

[ChicoVaca]

Originally Posted by bobobo

i declare the Arrange-Mode as functional too (i wrote above that it is strange, but strange is not nonfunctional )

Hi to all! Thanks for keeping this thread alive, I really like this tool. After recording in arranged mode in R7, it creates fixed media item lanes which is... a bit messy. Could you find a workaround to that? I couldn't really get that. Or are you using a previous reaper version?

[mehmethan]

Hi Nabla Looper users. I'm trying to use Arranged mode and I have 2 problems.

1- When I record Audio there is a fade out in the end of the recording.
2- When I record midi and monitor it, there is a problem in the beginning of first monitor item. First notes are missing or stuck, unquantized.

I tried to change all possible settings but it is not solving my problem. Any kind of help would be great.

(reaper v7.14, latest Nabla, Apple M1)

[bobobo]

Originally Posted by ChicoVaca

Hi to all! Thanks for keeping this thread alive, I really like this tool. After recording in arranged mode in R7, it creates fixed media item lanes which is... a bit messy. Could you find a workaround to that? I couldn't really get that. Or are you using a previous reaper version?

i found something in the
Nabla Looper A Start/Sto script

line 335
{ item_action = 41329, setstate = "on" }, -- Options: New recording creates new media items in separate lanes (layers)

put two of those - before to switch the line off



i haven't checked if this introduces drawbacks .. but at first sight this solves the "lanes" thing.

STOP !! without this line it won't create copies in the monitor items .. so this is no solution.

[bobobo]

Originally Posted by mehmethan

Hi Nabla Looper users. I'm trying to use Arranged mode and I have 2 problems.

1- When I record Audio there is a fade out in the end of the recording.
2- When I record midi and monitor it, there is a problem in the beginning of first monitor item. First notes are missing or stuck, unquantized.

I tried to change all possible settings but it is not solving my problem. Any kind of help would be great.

(reaper v7.14, latest Nabla, Apple M1)

for the 1 : Maybe try again with a portable installation, some settings may be inappropriate.

FOR THE 2 : i see a negative offset about a markable value 0:00.60 . that pushes the beginning before the beginning .. this occurs after the record is done, while recording it seems to be ok.

seems to be pre rec dependant . i get another offset when changing the pre rec in arrmode.
don't know how to solve this ..

[mehmethan]

Originally Posted by bobobo

for the 1 : Maybe try again with a portable installation, some settings may be inappropriate.

FOR THE 2 : i see a negative offset about a markable value 0:00.60 . that pushes the beginning before the beginning .. this occurs after the record is done, while recording it seems to be ok.

seems to be pre rec dependant . i get another offset when changing the pre rec in arrmode.
don't know how to solve this ..

thank you