About the Settings Hierarchy

Loopy has a powerful and flexible system for managing settings at different levels. Understanding where settings are made and and what they apply to is helpful for getting started and to unlock Loopy's true power.

There is a hierarchy for looping settings starting with Track settings which apply globally to all tracks unless overridden at a lower level. Below this there are color settings which apply to all tracks of a particular color. Color settings override track settings.

The lowest level of settings are for individual tracks, which in turn override color and global track settings. Not all settings are available at the individual track level. For instance, loop quantization and recording options are not available here, only some settings such as Volume, Balance, Pitch, and speed are available at the individual track level. Looping settings need to be made at the color level.

There are many settings available. These aren't described in this article.

When starting out to record loops, you probably want to start with the settings that fit the way you're approaching looping. Loopy has a lot of flexibility in this regard. The simplest place to start is probably at the global track settings level. Remember, this sets the default behavior for all tracks unless overridden at the color level. Later on colors can be leveraged to have different settings for different uses.

To get to global track settings long-press the pen icon at the top-left, then go to Settings > Track Settings. Alternatively, tap the pen icon at the top left to get to the editing screen and then the gear at the bottom right, followed by Track Settings.

You'll notice Color at the top of the settings. This is one place where you can drill down into settings for individual colors that can override settings at the global track level. Another way to get to color settings is from settings for an individual track.

To get to all the settings for an individual track, get to the editing screen then tap the pen icon at the middle of a track. You'll see that there are settings available here, but not for looping settings, which as mentioned earlier need to be set at the global track level or at the color level. Fortunately you can get to color settings from the individual track settings.

Remember, the lower a setting is made the higher its priority. For instance, if volume is set for an individual track it is used rather than the volume setting for a color. If Loop Auto Threshold Recording is set for a color it is used rather than the global track setting.

This could warrant an article of its own. However, in brief, the settings hierarchy is a good way to organize behaviors into defaults (global Track Settings), special cases (Color Settings), and fine-tuning or mixing (individual track settings). For instance, one can set aside colors for certain types of looping, with all the settings needed to work that way. Then changing the behavior of a loop is as simple as changing the color of the loop (which is available at the top-right of the settings menu of the loop, or with the paint bucket icon on the edit screen). You can even assign color to a loop from an action, such as from a foot controller - making multiple settings changes from a single button tap!