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2 2 CONTENTS Introduction...3 Requirements... 4 Installation...5 Loopcloud Overview... 6 Loopcloud Browser...7 Finding Sounds Previewing Sounds Downloading Sounds...16 Loopcloud Plug-in Editing Tags...18 Preferences...20 Keyboard Shortcuts...23 Advanced Search Features...24 Copyright and Licence Information...25

3 INTRODUCTION Loopcloud is an application and plugin that give you access to all your content from Loopmasters. It s free and it will change the way you use samples with your music software.

3 3 INTRODUCTION Loopcloud is an application and plugin that give you access to all your content from Loopmasters. It s free and it will change the way you use samples with your music software. Every loop, one shot, synth preset or pack you ve ever bought from loopmasters.com is available in Loopcloud Use Loopcloud to browse and download samples. We want you to be able to find the sound you re looking for quickly and easily. So you can search for sounds and filter your library by selecting the file type, musical genre or the instrument. High quality compressed previews stream quickly over the internet and as soon as you download the files, they ll be in their original full-quality uncompressed format. Loopcloud integrates seamlessly into your workflow. You can drag single or multiple files directly from into your music software. The Loopcloud plugin allows you to preview audio in sync with your projects tempo. It works like a virtual instrument so you get the output on a track, meaning you can add e.g. a spectrum analyser plug-in, EQ or Compress or any FX onto your preview track. It s very useful. Try it. We ll also be giving you weekly free content. So, if you re in a creative rut, just have a look at the New Inspiration from Loopmasters folder.

4 4 REQUIREMENTS This section covers Installing the application and plugin Searching for your first sound Having it play back in time with your track SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Mac OSX OSX and later 64 bit application with and 32 and 64 bit plugins Windows PC Windows 7 and later 32 bit and 64 bit support INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIREMENTS When you first start Loopcloud, you need to be connected to the internet so that you can log in and download the database of your sounds. This is a list of all the sounds and tags you can download the sounds themselves later. You can use Loopcloud offline once the database download is complete, but only sounds downloaded to your local disk will be available. Loopcloud works best if you have a fast (10 mbps or better) internet connection. The performance when listening to previews and downloading sounds is all related to the speed of your internet connection. So please bear this in mind. PERFORMANCE The speed of search results will be dependent on the size of your sample library and how powerful your computer is. Here s a rough guide to performance: LIGHT USERS (10 SAMPLE PACKS, UP TO 10,000 FILES) HEAVY USERS (400 SAMPLE PACKS, UP TO 400,000 FILES) CPU Intel i3 Intel i7 RAM 4GB 8GB Disk Speed Any SSD recommended Graphics Open GL capable graphics card Open GL capable graphics card Note that you may want to exceed the recommended specification if you have heavy DAW sessions running simultaneously with Loopcloud. LICENSING AND LIMITATIONS You can use Loopcloud on up to two machines that you own. If you require Installation on more than 2 machines, then you will need to contact support. All sounds and samples in Loopcloud are covered by the Loopmasters Licence.

5 INSTALLATION Download Loopcloud from https://www.loopcloud.

5 5 INSTALLATION Download Loopcloud from Double click the installer (it should be in your downloads folder) Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation Note that PC user will have the option to manually select the VST plugin installation location Once the installation has finished open the Loopcloud application. LOG-IN When you first open Loopcloud you will be asked to log in. On Mac it s in your Applications folder On Windows you have the option to use a desktop shortcut or you ll find it in the start menu. Enter your and password here. This is the same as your loopmasters.com and password. If you cannot remember it, click Forgot password. If you are having log-in issues, please go to INITIAL DOWNLOAD OF CONTENT Loopcloud will then download all the data about your content (Tags, BPM data, etc). You need to let this complete as it will restart from the beginning if you close Loopcloud. Depending on the size of your library and internet speed, this may take while, but it only needs to be done once. a

Click on a sample file you should hear a preview.

6 6 LOOPCLOUD OVERVIEW Hopefully by now you ll have a list of sounds available. We recommend: Have a quick look in Preferences (click on the gear icon in the top right) and see if there s anything you want to change Click on a sample file you should hear a preview. Open your DAW Put the Loopcloud plugin on an instrument track Go back to Loopcloud and click CONNECT - the icon will change from grey to blue. Press Play button in Loopcloud it should now play through the plugin. If you hit play in your DAW the sound should play back in time with your track.

7 7 LOOPCLOUD BROWSER YOUR CONTENT All the packs you have bought from Loopmasters.com will appear in the browser, organised into folders FREE CONTENT If you ve never bought any content from us, we ve given you some free content to get you started. There is about a gigabyte of samples from various Loopmasters packs. We re also giving away over 150 free samples every week. You ll need to log into Loopcloud once every week or you ll miss them! These free samples are all in the NEW INSPIRATION FROM LOOPMASTERS folder. It s marked with a star. You have two options Click on the i to go to the Loopmasters.com page where you can buy the whole pack Click on the + icon to add the samples to your library - once added they icon for that folder changes from a star to a folder icon.

8 8 NAVIGATION All your sounds are organised in folders. This is just like looking at your library as you would in Windows Explorer or OSX Finder, but all the content is in the cloud. Use your mouse or press up, down and left, right to navigate and open and close folders. You can also right-click a folder and choose Show sub-folders or Expand all to open all folders and view all files within that folder.

9 TAGS AND OTHER INFORMATION Every file in your Loopcloud library has been given various tags. Folders are tagged with an overview of the tags of all the files within that folder.

If the tag is bright, then all files in that folder have that tag, if the tag is dim, then there are some files with that tag, but not all of them have it.

9 9 TAGS AND OTHER INFORMATION Every file in your Loopcloud library has been given various tags. Folders are tagged with an overview of the tags of all the files within that folder. Right-clicking on the title bars of the browser allows you to show or hide more information about the file / folders. If the tag is bright, then all files in that folder have that tag, if the tag is dim, then there are some files with that tag, but not all of them have it. When viewing a single file, you get all the tags for that file, plus additional information such as the BPM, file size. All columns can be resized and reordered to suit your preference of which information you want to see, and to fit your screen or window size.

10 10 FILE This is the full file name. FAVOURITE Click the heart icon to favourite the file so it appears in your favourites list. Full hearts have been added to Favourites, empty hearts have not. STATE State shows two icons, a HDD symbol and a cloud symbol, denoting whether the file is in the cloud (i.e. not on your computer), on your HDD, or both. To get the file onto your computer, right-click and select download (this works for single files, multiple selected files, or single or multiple folders. Or press CMD+ D / CTRL D to download the file. BPM Shows the BPM. Only Loops should have a BPM. The BPM value is used to accurately time-stretch the file to match your DAW tempo. Files with no BPM will not time-stretch KEY Shows the key or root note, and whether in a major or minor key. TAGS Tags organised into the following categories: Instruments Formats Content Types Genres Labels Additional ADDITIONAL This is a tag category for when you want to add your own descriptive tags see tag Editor for adding tags. SIZE The size of the file (in Bytes)

11 FINDING SOUNDS IN LOOPCLOUD Loopcloud has a great search and tagging system that allows you to quickly find the sound you re looking for.

You will only see the tags that are relevant to your own personal library, so every tag you see will give a result.

11 11 FINDING SOUNDS IN LOOPCLOUD Loopcloud has a great search and tagging system that allows you to quickly find the sound you re looking for. There are several options - text search, tags, key and BPM. TAG FILTER Tags are organised into categories so click on any category to see the tags. You will only see the tags that are relevant to your own personal library, so every tag you see will give a result. So here is an example tag filter: To find a specific file format, then click on FORMAT category, then the WAV tag You ll now see your search results as a list of.wav files To further filter your results, go to the INSTRUMENTS category and click on the SYNTH tag This now shows all synths, so you can filter further, clicking the PAD tag Go to the CONTENT TYPES category and click the LOOPS Tag Now you will see all your Synth Pad Loops wav files in your library Note that you can close the tag filter by clicking on the selected category.

12 12 BPM AND KEY FILTERS All melodic content will be tagged with a Key. This can be just a root note e.g. A, or a chord or harmonic line, e.g. A Minor. BPM allows you to set a limit the range of BPMs, so if you re looking for a loop that would work with house choose e.g. Min 115 Max 135. If a file does not have a BPM (e.g. a drum hit, or one shot) then it will be omitted from these results. SEARCH BOX The search box allows you to look for words, numbers or symbols that appear in the file name of the sound you are looking for. For example, searching for funk will give you all the samples, MIDI files, presets, - all the content which has the word Funk in its file name. ADVANCED SEARCH All search and tag filtering is about reducing the number or search results. There are advanced search (Boolean search) options such as: Drum AND Kick AND NOT Bass Searches the file name Flute OR Pipe, or TAG:Flute OR TAG:Wind (first is searching file name, second searching tags) FOLDER:Drum (to search a specific folder) you can use Please refer to the Advanced Search chapter at the end of this user guide.

13 CLEAR As you click on tags, they are added to this area. If you want to start from scratch, click CLEAR and your search terms, tags, Key and BPM filters will all be reset.

13 13 CLEAR As you click on tags, they are added to this area. If you want to start from scratch, click CLEAR and your search terms, tags, Key and BPM filters will all be reset. Remember that you have history of all your searches, so you can always revisit any search you want. FAVOURITES While browsing sounds you may find something awesome that you want to save for later. Just click on the empty heart icon in the file browser or right-click on the file / folder and add to favourites, or. The heart will go solid to show it s been added. To view your favourites, click the heart icon, top right on the UI, and it will turn blue. The favourites list is fully searchable and you can use the tags to filter, so it s a great way to view a more relevant library of sounds.

14 14 RANDOMISE SEARCH RESULTS Click the random icon to randomise your search results. Click again to return to default search order. You can click again to get a different randomisation - great for finding unexpected sounds. HISTORY Click the Clock icon to open the History sidebar. Displayed are all the searches that you ve made, plus all the files that you ve previewed. Click on any item and Loopcloud will repeat the search or preview. Now you are able to quickly go back in time and find the sounds you were looking for.

BPM AND TIMESTRETCH PREVIEW PATTERNS Loopcloud offers a number of rhythmic patterns that You can choose to listen to your sound in context.

15 15 PREVIEWING SOUNDS Loopcloud supports preview of.wav.aiff and.rx2 files. These automatically play when you select them from the browser. Click on the transport controls or press space bar to start, stop, re-start the preview and use the volume slider to change preview volume. BPM AND TIMESTRETCH PREVIEW PATTERNS Loopcloud offers a number of rhythmic patterns that You can choose to listen to your sound in context. You may want to hear a hi-hat repeated every 16th, or a clave play a rhythm, or you can have a sound repeat once a bar, or once a beat etc - good for experimenting with loops. The BPM setting will allow you to change the BPM of the pattern. Selecting AUTO will play the sound all the way through before repeating. Sounds with a BPM value can be timestretched - any tempo from 40 to 240BPM. Double click the number in the BPM box to change the BPM. You can double or have the playback speed using x2 and /2. PITCH Use the PITCH slider to transpose the sound to match the key of your track. You can shift + or 12 semitones.

16 DOWNLOADING SOUNDS DOWNLOADING HQ FILE DOWNLOADING MULTIPLE FILES/FOLDERS If you want to download multiple files at once, or whole folder, or even your entire Loopcloud library then you can.

This compressed file is small so it s quick to stream to your PC, but if you want the to hear the full quality version and then use it in your music software, then you need to download the file.

added. This works for all.wav,.aiff, and.rx2 files - i.e. ones that can be previewed. For all other files, such as MIDI files, you can drag the file out once it s downloaded.

16 16 DOWNLOADING SOUNDS DOWNLOADING HQ FILE DOWNLOADING MULTIPLE FILES/FOLDERS If you want to download multiple files at once, or whole folder, or even your entire Loopcloud library then you can. You would want to do this if you are going to be without internet access. Loopcloud streams audio by downloading a PREVIEW QUALITY version of the file. This compressed file is small so it s quick to stream to your PC, but if you want the to hear the full quality version and then use it in your music software, then you need to download the file. Press the download HQ file button Wait for the download to complete Then you can drag out either the original version of the file or processed version - with any timestretch, pitchshift or patterns added. This works for all.wav,.aiff, and.rx2 files - i.e. ones that can be previewed. For all other files, such as MIDI files, you can drag the file out once it s downloaded. DRAG AND DROP Once the files have been downloaded, you can drag them to your DAW, to a folder on your HDD, or anywhere that you want them. Note that the files are also downloaded to the Loopcloud download folder. (See preferences chapter for more info). Right-click on a file or folder and select Download in background. INSTALLING PLUGIN PRESETS Loopcloud currently supports Native Instruments Massive Lenar Digital Sylenth Xfer records Serum Use the FORMATS category and then click on your desired tag. Then from the search results, right click on a file and select Install. (CTRL + I / CMD + I). Once installed, you should see an INSTALLED icon to the right of the file. See the Preferences chapter for more information. We will be supporting more synthesisers, samplers and DAW in the future.

17 LOOPCLOUD PLUGIN If you are using Loopcloud with your DAW software, then you should be using the Loopcloud plugin -it really improves your workflow and offers great ways to preview sounds in

LOADING THE PLUGIN IN YOUR DAW Open your DAW, and load the Loopcloud plug-in onto an instrument track Now go back to Loopcloud application and click on the connect button Loopcloud then connect to

17 17 LOOPCLOUD PLUGIN If you are using Loopcloud with your DAW software, then you should be using the Loopcloud plugin -it really improves your workflow and offers great ways to preview sounds in context with your track. LOADING THE PLUGIN IN YOUR DAW Open your DAW, and load the Loopcloud plug-in onto an instrument track Now go back to Loopcloud application and click on the connect button Loopcloud then connect to the plugin in Ableton Live, or whichever DAW you are using. The Connect button will change to blue colour and say Connected to Ableton LIve, or whichever DAW you are using When you start the transport in your DAW, Loopcloud will automatically play your preview in time. TIP You can use the Loopcloud plugin as a simple in-sync sample preview, but you can use it like any other plugin, so add some FX after, route it to a drum bus - hear your previews in context with the rest of your track. You can have lots of fun with adding creative FX to the Loopcloud channel. If your DAW has the feature, route the output of the Loopcloud channel (with or without additional FX) to an audio channel. You can now record the Loopcloud preview directly as an audio file. Or try switching between samples in Loopcloud, in real time, or choosing different patterns. Record the output for using in your track.

18 EDITING TAGS TAG EDITOR If you are searching through your library and want to add additional tags to your sounds, then press the pencil button to open the tag editor.

18 18 EDITING TAGS TAG EDITOR If you are searching through your library and want to add additional tags to your sounds, then press the pencil button to open the tag editor. You want to have 1 or multiple files selected - selecting multiple files or folders will apply the changes to all files together. Here you will see several bars with headings. Double click in a bar to fully open it, or click and drag to resize it. To add a tag, start typing in the text box to add another tag and it will auto-complete. EDIT KEY Chose a root note by clicking a note on the keyboard. Chose a scale by clicking Major or Minor EDIT BPM Enter the BPM here. CURRENT TAGS All the tags for the selected file are displayed. If multiple files are selected, then more brightly tags apply to all files, and the dimly lit tags apply to some, but not all the files. To remove a tag, click on the X.

19 TAG MANAGER The tag manager shows all tags for each category, ordered into folders. At the bottom of the manager is ADD or EDIT TAG. First make sure you have selected where you want to add the tag.

19 19 TAG MANAGER The tag manager shows all tags for each category, ordered into folders. At the bottom of the manager is ADD or EDIT TAG. First make sure you have selected where you want to add the tag. You cannot create a new tag if you have not first clicked on a category or folder. Click CREATE NEW Name the Tag Choose a colour. If you add the tag to the wrong place, you can drag and drop it to a new folder. Factory tags cannot be edited or dragged. You can add tags directly from the tag manager by holding your mouse to the right of the tag and selecting SET or REMOVE TIP User Tags have a number of interesting uses. If you want to add more details to the existing tagging, e.g. you ve got some guitar samples, but want to tag some as acoustic and some as amped, then you can add these user tags, then enrich your library with this data.

20 20 PREFERENCES You may want to tweak a few preferences before you get started using the app. Click on the Cog Icon and select preferences. OPTIONS Library folder As all samples in Loopcloud are stored on a cloud server so you ll need to download them to use them your DAW. When you drag and drop out of Loopcloud into your DAW, Loopcloud will automatically download the file for you. This file will be put in the default download folder. COLOUR SCHEME Here are a few alternative colour screens that may be easier for you to use. ENABLE DEBUG LOGGING You shouldn t need to use this! But if you are having technical issues and are in contact with support, then turn this on and we can get some diagnostics from you. If you want to change this folder (perhaps you want it on a secondary HDD), the select the location here. Depending on what DAW or music software you are using, the sample may be copied into your project folder, or you may need to do a special save where it copies the file to the project. Either way, Loopcloud will keep a copy of the file on your HDD, so next time you want to use it in a different project, it s already downloaded.

21 EXCLUDED FILES Here you can tailor what content types are displayed in your search results. We ve already removed some content types that are not yet supported.

on that) You can use this to your preference in DAW software e.g. if you use only Ableton Live and Apple Logic, then you can disable all Reason and Cubase instrument files.

21 21 EXCLUDED FILES Here you can tailor what content types are displayed in your search results. We ve already removed some content types that are not yet supported. (Sampler presets that require a folder of audio files do not yet download the additional files but we re working on that) You can use this to your preference in DAW software e.g. if you use only Ableton Live and Apple Logic, then you can disable all Reason and Cubase instrument files. DEFAULT INSTALL DIRECTORIES Loopcloud can install plug-in presets directly to the correct folder so that they will work with your plug-in without any manual installation. Currently supported are Native Instruments Massive, Xfer Serum and Lennar Digital Sylenth. We ll be adding more in the future. We ve already selected the default locations for these plug-ins, but if you have installed them differently then you can select the location manually. When you find a preset in your Loopcloud content, just right click and select Install, to have the preset installed in the right place.

22 22 AUDIO SETUP Select the Audio Tab in preferences Select your soundcard, outputs, sample rate and audio latency setting.

23 23 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS AUDITION Space Shift-Space Start/stop play Restart playback. (fullstop) Stop playback ctrl/cmd-p DOWNLOAD & INSTALL ctrl/cmd-d Show/hide audio player Download selection (will make it available offline). Downloads can be queued when offline and will download when Internet connectivity is next available. Downloads can be cancelled from the menu in the top right. You can download individual files, folders, sample packs or absolutely everything if you have enough disk space. Loopcloud works offline when files are downloaded. TAGGING A - Z Tags can be assigned to the letters A to Z. Right click on the tag in the Tag Cloud view to assign the shortcut. Pressing the key will then assign the tag to the selected items. ctrl/cmd-c ctrl/cmd-v ctrl/cmd-t ctrl/cmd-e OTHER Copy tags from item. Advanced: If multiple items are selected then the tags will be copied from all items, and paste will only paste the tags to items with the same name. This is useful for copying tags from a bunch of WAV files to say RX2 files with the same names. Paste tags to item. Jump to tag entry box Open/close the properties window ctrl/cmd-i FAVOURITES ctrl/cmd-b Install selection - for supported sampler and synth preset formats Add to favourites (bookmark!) ctrl/cmd-, TAG KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Open preferences You can assign tags to keys. Pressing the key will automatically assign the tag to the selected files. Right click on a tag in the Tag Cloud to select the keyboard shortcut. ctrl/cmd + shift B Remove from favourites

24 24 ADVANCED SEARCH FEATURES TEXT SEARCH Case insensitive. Just enter some text to use this search. It searches the file name, including the extension, but not including the folder name. BOOLEAN SEARCH Use AND, OR, NOT and parentheses to refine your search. Searching for a tag includes all the sub-tags in the hierarchy of tags. So searching for tag:house includes all types of house music, and searching for NOT tag:genre Will show all samples not tagged with any genre. USE COMMAND folder: tag: regex: FUNCTIONALITY Search foldername Search tag by name or UUID Search filename using regular expression Examples: exacttag:house bpm: Match a bpm or bpm range BPM SEARCH Reggae AND NOT Drum kick OR (tom AND low) Search by bpm using: TAGS bpm: Search for a Tag searching, e.g. tag:house Tags with spaces need to be in quotes, including the tag: prefix. tag:drum Loops if you really only want to see items with the specific tag of house. REGULAR EXPRESSIONS - POWER USER TOOL Nerd friendly and powerful. They let you perform magic. You can find all the files with WAV extensions that start with the word BASS and contain a number in the file name. If you can think of it regular expressions can do it. Regular expressions are also case sensitive, unlike our other kinds of search. regex:.*\d{1,3}_.* FOLDER NAME SEARCHES These are case insensitive: extension: favourites: AND OR NOT () Search by file extension Show only items marked as favourites folder:drums Again, use quotes around the whole thing if you need spaces in there, like folder:drum loops

>25 COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE INFORMATION LOOPCLOUD Copyright 2008-2017 Loopmasters. All rights reserved. Loopcloud is a registered Trademark of Loopmasters LTD.

25 >25 COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE INFORMATION LOOPCLOUD Copyright Loopmasters. All rights reserved. Loopcloud is a registered Trademark of Loopmasters LTD. [No: UK ] VST VST PlugIn Technology by Steinberg Media Technologies, VST is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH ZPLANE Time stretch engine: elastique Pro V3 by zplane.development Tempo and beat tracking engine: AUFTAKT V3 by zplane.development

Working with Apple Loops

7 Working with Apple Loops So you want to create a complete song, but you don t know how to play every instrument? An Apple Loop is a short piece of music that you can add to your song. It can be either