LOOPMASTERS Loopcloud 5

Loopcloud has developed at a quite phenomenal rate since its release a couple of years back. The last time I looked at it, the software was taking huge strides to become a more creative tool, moving away from its ‘sample management’ roots into more inspiring and compositional areas and I’m pleased to say that version 5 continues down that route. In fact, version 5 is the biggest update so far – more a complete rebuild, actually – so there’s a lot to cover. But for those of you new to Loopcloud, I’d best give you a quick summary of where we are at.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT

Loopcloud started out life as pretty much a shell to manage your Loopmasters samples, but you can now bring any audio into the Loopcloud world. Essentially what it does is simply allow you to audition any samples alongside the tune you are working on – in any DAW. There’s a main Loopcloud app that acts as your search filter and editor and is the access point to the inside and outside world of samples. A Loopcloud plug-in is then pulled up per channel like a VST instrument on your DAW channel and acts as your DAW link to the Loopcloud app.

Using this combination, any sample on your hard drive, or in your cloud – or, indeed, the entire Loopmasters back catalogue – can be played along with whatever song you are working on, and this is the best bit, in time and in key. Now