LOOPS¶
LOOPS builds a moving layer out of fragments of what you just played. Bent Spool records your input continuously into a buffer. Up to six voices then play loops from that buffer, each with its own pitch, direction, level, stereo position and starting point.
On iPhone and iPad, LOOPS is part of the unlock.
How it works¶
- The buffer holds 52 seconds of stereo audio at the host sample rate. It keeps recording while another mode is active, so switching to LOOPS gives you what you played a moment ago.
- LENGTH sets how long each fragment is. The voices read from a window of recent audio that is twice the LENGTH deep. For example, with LENGTH at 1 s the fragments come from roughly the last one to three seconds.
- Right after a reset, before about twice the LENGTH of audio has been recorded, the loops are shorter or quieter and then ramp to full level.
- The six voices are added together and scaled so that the overall level stays steady as voices are added or removed.
Controls¶
| Control | Where | Range, default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| LENGTH (centre knob) | Face | 0.01 to 16 s, 0.40 s | Fragment length. With SYNC on it is a note length from 1/64 to 4/1, including dotted notes and triplets. |
| SHAPE | Face | 30% | Spreads the six voices apart. At 0 they are identical. |
| FREEZE | Face | off | Stops recording and holds the buffer. |
| VOICES | Back | 1 to 6, 6 | How many voices play. |
| OCTAVES, REVERSE, REACH, WIDTH | Back | 50, 50, 50, 100% | Four trims on SHAPE. See below. |
| RATE (fifth knob) | Back | 0.25x to 8x, 1x | Speed of the voice motion. |
| ROUTING | Back | STEREO | MONO adds each voice's left and right together before it is panned. The dry signal stays stereo. |
| MOTION | Back | CLASSIC | CLASSIC or LFO. See below. |
| CHAOS | Face | 20% | Movement and random events. See below. |
| SEED | Back | 00 | Changes each voice's personality. |
SHAPE and the four trims¶
SHAPE is the main spread control. At 0% all six voices play the same fragment at the same pitch. Turning it up spreads each voice's pitch, direction, level, position and pan, in whole steps that are fixed for the seed.
Four trims on the back panel each scale one part of that spread:
| Trim | What SHAPE does to the voices | What the trim does |
|---|---|---|
| OCTAVES | Pitches voices in whole octaves, from two octaves down to two octaves up at the extreme. | Scales how far the octave ladder reaches. |
| REVERSE | Above about 40% SHAPE, some voices play backwards, up to half of them with REVERSE at 100%. | Scales how many reverse. |
| REACH | Moves each voice's starting point back into the buffer. | Scales how far back voices start. |
| WIDTH | Pans voices left and right. | Scales the stereo spread. |
Voice level also spreads with SHAPE, down to as low as 25% of full level, and has no trim.
At the default trims (OCTAVES, REVERSE and REACH at 50%, WIDTH at 100%), SHAPE at 100% spreads the voices up to one octave either way and reverses up to a quarter of them. Raise OCTAVES to 100% for the full two octaves.
The DIRECTION switch, below the knobs next to ROUTING and MOTION, chooses which way the octaves go: ↕ both ways (the default), ↑ up only or ↓ down only. Up only keeps every voice at or above the original pitch, which avoids the muddy low octaves. It also applies to CHAOS: octave jumps go only up and half-speed drops are skipped. Down only is the mirror image.
VOICES¶
VOICES sets how many of the six voices sound. Voices are added from the middle of the spread outward. They fade in and out over about 20 ms and the level is rebalanced, so the loudness stays about the same.
FREEZE¶
FREEZE is a button on the face, shown only in LOOPS. Press it and Bent Spool stops recording. The voices keep cycling through the held buffer. Press it again to resume recording.
- The freeze takes hold once all the voices have started playing, so a press right after a reset can wait briefly.
- FREEZE stays on when you switch to another mode and back.
- A frozen buffer can be saved with your session. See Presets.
MOTION¶
- CLASSIC. The default. SHAPE and the seed fix each voice's pitch and direction. CHAOS adds slow movement to position, level, pan and length. With CHAOS at 0 nothing moves and the result repeats exactly.
- LFO. Slow oscillators move each voice's pitch and direction as CHAOS rises. Voices read from the whole recorded history, and REACH sets how far back. Rate, level and pan changes glide instead of jumping. Direction changes happen at loop boundaries.
The fifth knob, RATE, speeds up or slows down the motion: 0.25x at the far left, 1x at noon, 8x at the far right. CHAOS sets how much motion there is. Pitch, reverse and fragment choices update at loop boundaries.
CHAOS in LOOPS¶
In CLASSIC motion, CHAOS adds slow movement to each voice's position (up to a quarter of the spare window), level (5%), pan and length (10%). Above 50% CHAOS, each voice may also, at each loop boundary, flip to reverse, drop to half speed, or jump an octave up or down. The chance rises with CHAOS, up to 35% for each type of event at 100%. Only one voice at a time can do the octave jump.
In LFO motion, discrete events are off. CHAOS instead controls how far the oscillators pull each voice, and how quickly the glides happen.
The seed fixes each voice's personality, so changing it changes the sound even at CHAOS 0.
Sync¶
With SYNC on, LENGTH is one note length. When the host transport is rolling, the voice boundaries lock to the beat grid, staggered by a sixth of LENGTH between voices. The 0.01 to 16 s limit still applies.
Inside the six voices¶
This model shows where each voice reads from in the buffer and where it sits in the stereo field. It plays no sound. Use it to see what the controls described above do to the six voices.
A silent teaching model of LOOPS. It assumes a full 52-second buffer, SYNC off, ROUTING on STEREO, and OCTAVES and REVERSE at their 50% defaults with WIDTH at 100%. The voice personalities come from one fixed example seed. It is not a live readout of the plugin.
This example starts in LFO motion at LENGTH 1 s, SHAPE 65% and CHAOS 20% so the spread is easy to see. The plugin's own defaults are CLASSIC motion, LENGTH 0.40 s, SHAPE 30%, CHAOS 20% and REACH 50%. RATE only matters when CHAOS is above zero.
Where each voice reads
Bars mark the region of the buffer each voice is looping. Numbered arrows mark playback position and direction. The right edge is the newest recording. The time scale stays fixed while you move REACH, so you can see the regions move. CLASSIC shows a window scaled to LENGTH. LFO shows the whole 52 seconds.
Pitch and stereo placement
Each row follows the same numbered voice. Pitch is relative to the input. The dot shows its left-to-right balance. The source fragment keeps its own stereo image.
| Voice | Pitch and direction | Left, centre, right |
|---|
Try this. Press Play motion to watch the voices drift. Then set CHAOS to zero and sweep SHAPE. Sweep REACH from zero to full, then compare CLASSIC with LFO. Raise CHAOS above 50% in CLASSIC and press Play motion to see reverse, half-speed and octave events. Reduce VOICES to one, then add the others back.
What the model represents
LENGTH runs from 10 ms to 16 s on an exponential knob. SHAPE spreads each voice's octave step, reverse odds, buffer position, level and stereo balance. CHAOS adds slow motion and, above 50% in CLASSIC, tape events at loop boundaries. LFO uses moving octave and direction choices and lets voices read across the recorded history. VOICES turns voices on in the order 3, 4, 2, 5, 1, 6.
The model uses the engine's parameter relationships, not its audio. It leaves out the build-up after a reset, the 5 ms crossfades at loop boundaries, pitch-shifter delay, rate, level and pan glides, and the few milliseconds of random offset CLASSIC adds between voices. WEAR is not included. Moving a control restarts the example, where the plugin changes while it plays. Voice-count compensation keeps the overall level close but does not guarantee equal loudness.