Producers and composers often find themselves jumping between their DAW and their library of choice with varying degrees of ease. We check out one solution with a new update that hopes to bring it all together.

With the amount of content that arrives with most modern sample libraries, it’s not surprising that up until recently many third party products arrived on a hard drive or stick of their own. Fast forward to now, and despite faster internet connections, the ‘problem’ of how to distribute and bring developers’ libraries into the DAW has seen different approaches emerge alongside the physical media approach. As well as the issue of distributing these libraries, there’s also the issue of curating the right content for the project in terms of genre, tempo, and key signature.

Sample Downtime

Of the mainstream DAWs with included content, Logic X for example sees users able to install the platform’s assets either at the time of purchase, or later on on an ‘as and when’ basis. While this approach can really help those with restrictive bandwidth on an internet connection, it can be a workflow killer when things have to stop for that greyed-out sample in the Library to download. Third party libraries in many cases have developed their own apps allowing users to manage things like purchases and downloads. While these avoid those mid-session pauses to grab content, the process still takes time one way or another.

Curating And Arranging Samples

Another head-scratcher can be that of finding suitable content from a third party library that is right for the project. While all let users search by genre, not all support things like tagged searches, and fewer still are aware of the project tempo in the DAW or key of the music. Being able to zero-in on the musically relevant samples is preferable to preserve headspace and to stay in the creative zone, and moreover being able to discard content that is entire wrong is essential to this end.

Loopcloud 6

Loopcloud is Loopmasters’ content hub that makes over 4 million Loopmasters samples available from within a single application working in tandem with your DAW. As well as the Loopcloud app, subscribers get both the Loopcloud DRUM and Loopcloud PLAY suite of DAW instrument plugins as well.

What is significant about Loopcloud is its deep integration with your DAW. Loopcloud itself is a fully fledged app that runs alongside it; both can communicate transport status and song data such as tempo and key via the Loopcloud plugin that sits across a MIDI or instrument track in the latter. What is really important to know is that the platform lets the musician stream content online from Loopmasters’ servers in sync with the DAW, meaning that there is no need to wait for downloads or indeed use them at all if the content is discarded.

Users can search tagged content and audition it online through the Loopcloud app in sync with DAW playback. Content can be stacked up and mixed the app’s mixer and have automation and/or Loopmasters’ own plugin processing applied. Content can then be downloaded and exported into the DAW for export if desired, either as individual assets or even as a mix with effects from the Loopcloud app mixer.

You can watch Si Gordon’s detailed walkthrough of Loopcloud 6 below.

Loopcloud Collections

Collections brings a new way for Loopcloud users to organise content, share content playlists, and integrate their existing content. Many users will have their own content from years of collecting; this content can be brought together alongside Loopmasters content into one place. Loopcloud plans include online storage for users’ own content with between 5GB and 250GB available depending on the subscription.

Watch in the video below how we curate our own collection to get making music right away.

A Place for Everything

By allowing synced online playback of content, Loopcloud makes the traditional problems associated with large content libraries go away. By allowing the user to only commit drive space when needed, and to seamlessly audition samples in concert with an open DAW project, it starts to look very useful indeed. Added to that, the intelligent transport sync, and key and tempo-aware tagging and integration with the DAW could seal the deal for many. Now with the addition of Collections, there’s no doubt that for some, Loopcloud will be the easiest way yet to use both existing content and fresh new inspiration from the cloud.