SuperLooper, Features, Manual & Concept

Why it exists

The looper that refuses to commit

Every other looper makes you pay a price. The moment you overdub, your layers fuse into a single take you can never pull apart again. Add a few milliseconds of hardware latency and the whole thing slowly drifts out of time. SuperLooper was built to delete both of those problems.

Sixteen loops, and every single one stays a separate, living track. Re-pitch it, reverse it, change its speed, mute it, solo it, remix it, long after it was recorded, all locked to one master clock so they never fall apart, with a latency offset that keeps every layer dead in time. It's the creative freedom of a full DAW arrangement, in something you can play with your feet.

Total separation. Sixteen fully independent tracks, not one to five. Every overdub stays its own loop you can touch forever, nothing is ever baked down.

♺

Transform any loop, live. Re-pitch, reverse and change the speed of a single loop after it's recorded, while the rest keep playing.

⏱

Never out of time. Latency offset compensates your interface's round-trip, so monitor your instrument with zero latency and every layer still lands locked to the grid.

⊞

Polymetric by design. A 1-bar hook against a 16-bar progression, every loop cycling at its own length but phase-locked to one master cycle.

≣

Remix your performance. Per-loop volume, mute and solo. Drop a part out, isolate a hook, rebalance the stack like a mixing desk, mid-song.

↺

Re-sync on the drop. Retrigger every playing loop from the top in perfect sync, on cue, for builds and breakdowns.

⥲

Hands-free, any way you play. Footswitches, pads, or Ableton scene launches drive every action, with momentary, toggle or scene behaviour per function.

⤓

Your jam becomes a project. Save every loop as a separate stem to a dated session folder, then carry on building inside the DAW it already lives in.

The main view

Loops, record, layer, perform

The numbered markers point to every control. Each one is explained below, what it does, and the choice it gives you.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1
View tabs. Loops (this view), Mixer, MIDI and the full-screen Perform view. The ≡ menu sets loop colours, waveform-in-cells and hover help; ||| flips the slot grid; % scales the UI.
2
The 16 loop slots. Two rows of eight, each an independent loop track, each with its own colour from Ableton's exact clip palette (right-click any slot to recolour). Recording flashes red, overdub orange; cyan ring = selected. A slot holding overdub layers shows an "xN" badge. Click to select, × to clear.
3
Input meter. Live stereo level into the plugin. Reads "NO INPUT" until signal arrives, so you always know the looper is hearing you.
4
Live waveform. Draws the selected loop in real time, growing from the left as you record, with a playhead sweeping on playback.
5
TRANSPORT. The big REC records the next empty loop and shows which one is next ("next: L9"); press again to close it. Undo / redo and retrig (restart all loops in sync) sit beneath.
6
INPUT: clean the signal. Input gain, a noise gate (threshold dial), and an NS-1-style noise suppressor, so the signal going into your loops is clean. The same chain is on the Perform view too.
7
RECORD: how loops are captured. Quantize (bars / beats / none), loop length, count-in, clock (free / tempo), the ignore 3-beat guard, a multi switch (multiple overdub layers per slot on/off), and the REC button mode: Play + wait, Next slot, Overdub slot or Auto overdub, so the record button behaves exactly how you perform.
8
PLAY: how loops sound. Global 0.5× / 1× / 2×, reverse, tape vs stretch pitch, ± semitone transpose, plus TIMING: latency offset and loop x-fade.
9
Bottom bar. BPM, monitor (thru / off), session name, a one-click save folder, export format (WAV / AIFF) and save + clear.

MIDI control

Map every action, your way

A dedicated page to map a Note, CC or Program Change to each function, on its own channel, and choose exactly how it fires. Pick a press style and combine it with velocity or scene triggers, map all sixteen pads individually, and send the controller's lights back the other way. Whatever your pedal or controller sends, you Learn it and SuperLooper does the rest. Every control has a built-in hover tooltip, so the whole thing teaches itself.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1
Input, default channel & MIDI Learn. Choose the input and a default channel, or arm Learn for instant assignment.
2
Enable dot + function. Green = this mapping is live (click to toggle), beside the action and a one-line reminder.
3
Trigger message + channel. Note, CC or Program Change, the number, and a channel of its own (Omni or 1-16), so different controllers on different channels each hit the right control.
4
Behaviour, combinable. Momentary / Toggle set the press style; Velocity and Scene are add-ons that switch on alongside it (Momentary + Velocity, etc.).
5
Velocity: ON + OFF triggers. Turn on Velocity and the row splits into an ON trigger (fire above a velocity threshold) and a fully separate OFF trigger, its own message, channel, threshold and Learn. One pedal arms it, anything you like turns it off.
6
Scene triggers. Fire from an Ableton scene change: any change, a specific scene number/name, a specific message, or a specific track on that change.
7
Learn, per trigger. Click, then move a control on your device to capture it, on the main trigger and on the velocity OFF trigger.
8
Targeting / Pads + per-slot mapping. Select slot moves a cursor across the 16 loops for rigs without a pad grid; Record pads 1-16 maps a whole pad grid from one base note. Hit 16 slots to expand into sixteen individual rows, each its own message, channel and Learn, for controllers whose pads send scattered values.
9
LED feedback (MIDI out). SuperLooper sends MIDI back so the controller's lights mirror each loop: a colour value per state (empty, armed, recording, playing, overdub, stopped), as Note velocity or CC, on its own channel, with device presets for RC-505, Launchpad, APC40 and Push.

In motion

Targeting, feedback and layers

Three ideas that turn sixteen slots into a live instrument: how you address slots from any controller, how the controller's lights mirror what each loop is doing, and how a single slot can hold a whole stack of overdub layers.

Select slot - a moving cursor

One incrementing message points at a loop, then your single Record footswitch acts on it. For rigs without a full pad grid.

PC 16→ loop 1

Record pads 1-16 - a one-press grid

Each pad owns a loop and records, plays or overdubs it directly. The RC-505 / Push / Launchpad way.

Per-slot mapping - expand for individual control

The base offset maps all sixteen at once. For controllers that send scattered values, expand into sixteen rows, each its own message, channel and Learn.

LED feedback - lights mirror loop state

State	Light
Empty	off / dim
Armed	flashing orange
Recording	solid red
Playing	solid green
Overdub	amber
Stopped	dim blue

Live mirror on the controller

SuperLooper sends MIDI back out so a pad grid lights per state. A device preset (RC-505, Launchpad, APC, Push) fills sensible defaults; set Note-velocity or CC, channel and a colour value per state.

Layers in one slot - overdub stacks separate files

SLOT 3 IDLE

Stay on slot: ON

With multi-overdub on, each pass stacks a new loop layer as a separate WAV file, so you can mute or delete any layer later. The REC button mode decides what happens next: Play + wait, Next slot, Overdub slot (the toggle below) or Auto overdub.

layer playing muted recording

Perform view

Play it like an instrument

A full-screen performance view built for the stage. The loop lattice fills the window so you can watch every loop cycling and phase-locked in real time, with a clean input chain right underneath, all driven from one big record button.

each loop, its own Ableton colour

master cycle + playhead

per-loop playhead

1 2 3 4 5 6

1
Lattice / wave. Flip the display between the loop lattice and a big waveform of the selected loop.
2
The live lattice. Each loop a solid bar in its own Ableton colour (matching the slots), drawn at its own length and repeating (x1, x2...) inside the master cycle, with its own white playhead.
3
Master cycle. The yellow box and sweeping line mark the longest loop, the clock every other loop locks to.
4
Transport. One big REC (with the next loop shown), plus undo, redo, retrig and save all.
5
Input chain. Input gain, gate and noise suppressor as knobs, right where you perform.
6
Input meter. Live level so you can see what is reaching the looper.

▦

The live loop lattice. Every loop drawn at its own length, repeating inside the master cycle, each with its own playhead. The arrangement you can see, not just hear. Flip to a big waveform of the selected loop any time.

◉

One big REC. Records into the next empty loop and tells you which one is next, then stops on the next press. Undo, redo and retrig sit right beside it.

⊿

Input gain. Set the level going into your loops before anything is committed, with a live input meter.

⌷

Noise gate. A threshold dial that silences hum and bleed between phrases, so quiet passages stay quiet.

∿

Noise suppressor. An NS-1-style single-threshold suppressor that smoothly pulls the noise floor down instead of hard-cutting, keeping your tone natural. The gain, gate and suppressor live on the main page too.

◧

The exact Ableton palette. Colour every loop from Live's own clip-colour palette, let each take its own, or narrow it to a single colour, so the lattice reads at a glance.

The manual

Every control, and the choice it gives you

Each card: what it is, the options, and the reason you'd reach for one over another.

Recording & the REC button

next-emptyauto-advance

One button records into the next free loop, then advances, so you build loop after loop without ever choosing a slot by hand.

Your choice: let the looper sequence slots for you, or click a specific slot first to target it.

Rec mode, Toggle vs Momentary

ToggleMomentary

Toggle: tap once to start, tap again to stop. Momentary: hold to record, release to stop.

Why: Toggle suits tapping a switch between phrases; Momentary suits holding a footswitch for exact, punch-in lengths.

Quantize, Bars / Beats / None

BarsBeatsNone

Snaps the start and stop of recording to the grid, so loops line up even if your timing is loose.

Why: Bars/Beats for tight, musical loops locked to the song; None for free, instant capture of unmetered material.

Loop length, the big one

UnlimitedFirst loopFixed bars

Unlimited: each loop is whatever length you record. First loop sets length: your first take defines the master, every later loop auto-stops to match. Fixed bars: pick 1–32 bars up front.

Why: record freely and let take one set the grid, or commit to a fixed length so you can record hands-free knowing each loop will close itself.

Auto-chain

hands-free

When a loop finishes recording, the next empty slot arms and starts recording automatically.

Why: build a stack of fixed-length loops back-to-back without touching anything between them.

Free Looping vs Synced

Free LoopingTempoHost-synced

Standalone: Free Looping works like a traditional pedal, gridless and feel-based, where the first loop sets the cycle; switch to Tempo for a clocked grid with a count-in. In a DAW it's automatically Host-synced to the project's clock.

Why: perform spontaneously with no click, or lock tight to a tempo, the looper detects its environment and gives you the right behaviour without you choosing.

Count-in

Off1 bar2 bars

In standalone Tempo mode, a count-in (with the beat flash) gives you a bar or two before recording starts, so you can get into position.

Why: hands-free, on-the-beat starts. In a DAW it's not needed, Quantize already waits for the next bar, so the control greys out there.

No 3-beat guard

1 ✓2 ✓3 ✗4 ✓

An optional guard so you never get stuck with an awkward 3-beat loop. Stop just after 2 beats and it crops to 2; hold a moment longer and it rounds up to 4. Never lands on 3.

Why: snappy short loops are easy to grab live without nailing the exact stop, the looper protects the timing for you.

Speed, reverse & pitch

0.5× 1× 2×revtapestretch

Global half/normal/double speed and reverse for everything at once; ± semitone transpose per loop. Tape ties pitch to speed (like a tape machine); Stretch shifts pitch without changing length.

Why: Tape for classic speed-and-pitch effects; Stretch when you want a different pitch but the same loop timing.

Monitoring, Thru vs Off

thruoff

Thru: your live input passes through with the loops. Off: only the loops come out.

Why: Thru when you monitor through the plugin; Off (loops-only) when you monitor your instrument elsewhere with zero latency, pair it with Offset to stay in time.

Offset & Fade

offset msfade ms

Offset nudges loop playback to compensate for your interface's round-trip latency. Fade crossfades the loop boundary.

Why: Offset keeps overdubs tight against the original; Fade removes the click where the loop wraps.

The mixer

volumemutesolospeed

All 16 loops as channel strips with waveform, fader, dB, mute, solo and per-loop speed.

Why: shape the balance of a live stack on the fly, drop a part out, solo a hook, halve a loop's speed, without leaving the set.

MIDI behaviours

MomentaryToggleScene launch

Every action maps to a Note, CC or Program Change, and you pick how it reacts to the message.

Why: Momentary for held footswitches, Toggle for press-on/press-off, Scene launch to fire from Ableton scene clips with a Program Change.

Targeting & pads

select slot16 pads

Select slot chooses which loop Overdub/Stop/Clear act on; Record pads maps a base note so 16 pads record 16 loops directly.

Why: drive the whole thing from a pad grid, one pad per loop, or step through loops with program changes.

Saving, formats & Save+Clear

WAV 32fWAV 24AIFF

Pick the export format, then Save + Clear bounces every recorded loop to a dated session folder and resets the slots for the next take.

Why: WAV 32-float matches the engine exactly (no conversion); 24-bit/AIFF for smaller, universally-compatible files. Your loops become usable stems instantly.

Quick start

From silence to a stack in five steps

Put it on an audio track

Insert SuperLooper on an audio track carrying your mic or instrument, and monitor the input so signal reaches it. (In Ableton, set the track Monitor to In.)

Choose how loops close

Pick a Quantize and a Length mode. For tight, hands-free loops: Quantize = Bars, Length = a fixed number of bars, and turn on Auto-chain.

Record your first loop

Hit REC (or your mapped footswitch). The waveform draws as you play; the loop closes on the grid and starts playing back immediately.

Layer the rest

Keep recording into new slots, they all stay locked to the master clock. Overdub the active loop, or Retrigger everything to re-sync on a drop.

Mix, then keep it

Open the Mixer to balance, mute and solo. When the song's done, Save + Clear bounces every loop to a session folder and resets for the next one.

Sixteen loops.
One stomp.