Gauss Field Looper, created by Bram Bos (Rusimaker) and the Berlin-based musician & YouTuber Hainbach, is a new iOS app that brings vintage tape-looping arts into your pocket.
Happy Birthday Stefan aka Hainbach. Normally, the task of the birthday presets is left to family members, and friends. Hainbach, however, is giving itself a new iOS app. After already successful collaborations with sonicLAB and AudioThing, he has now shared his deep sound design knowledge with Bram Bos, creator of the Ruismaker apps. GAUSS Field Looper is the result of both creative minds in which Bram Bos was responsible for the coding, Hainbach for the design and functionalities.
GAUSS Field Looper brings old-school/vintage tape looping art to mobile devices. Like real tape loops, Gauss takes you off the grid of your DAW. This has the benefit that you can adjust tape speed and direction, even during recording. The flow of your loops will drift organically as the tape follows its own cyclical timeline. Thanks to the AUv3 support, you can not only create overdubs but also use the app in multiple instances. As if you had several tape machines in front of you with the same functions only in virtual.
Gauss Field Looper
Bram Bos and Hainbach’s goal was not only to design a virtual tape looper, but also one that sounds like it. So with the same beloved sound behavior of magnetic tapes.
We want this app to be a celebration of digital audio technology, so when audio quality is degraded it will do so in a pleasingly crunchy digital way. For example, recording on low tape speeds will give you longer recording time, but at the cost (or pleasure) of a distinctively lower recording quality. So Gauss mimics the behaviour – not the sound – of magnetic tape.
And that’s what they did with GAUSS, an app that works like this. It allows you to set the length of the tape, record and overdub your audio, and play around with tape speeds. Exactly what we love from tape machines, only realized here as an app and operable with a swipe on the touch screen. Basically, GAUSS captures the essence of two ends of tape stuck together in all its unsynchronised, free-running glory. Both creative minds go even further. It also has a 4-step polyrhythmic sequencer for sequencing tape-speed changes.
Further, you have a built-in multi-mode filter and a delay unit to finalize your loops. A perfect looper with which you can discover the endless worlds of sound. It invites you to experiment, combine sounds, or just to jam around. It works both as a standalone app or as an AUv3 effect plugin.
Features
- designed as a standalone field recorder and an Audio Unit effect plugin (AUv3) in one package
- universal app: plugin and standalone work on all iDevices, iOS11 and higher
- variable tape speed; seamlessly change direction and speed during playback or recording
- 4-step sequencer lets you trigger (polyrhythmic) tape-speed changes in sync with your host tempo
- variable inertia for the tape drive motors (from instant to very slow speed changes)
- built-in multi-mode filter with LFO modulation
- delay effect with optional host-sync mode
- “1989” mode uses a special 8 bit/11KHz tape head for a last-century vintage digital sound
- 45 seconds maximum loop size at 1x speed, proportionally longer at lower speeds (.e.g 90 seconds at half speed, etc.)
- overdub at any speed or tape direction
- plugin supports global cross-host preset handling (requires iOS13+, compatible AUv3 host)
GAUSS Field Looper by Bram Bos (Ruismaker) and Hainbach is available now for iPhone/iPad for $6.99 USD on the Apple AppStore.
More information here: Bram Bos
“birthday presets”? Nice! Especially from family and friends. Nothing tells someone that you’re thinking about them like a customized preset. Richard Devine’s relatives are a lucky bunch.
As for gift-giving customs… Different parts of the World have different traditions. I was in Mali on my 30th birthday and that’s when I’ve learnt that the person celebrating a birthday is the one giving gifts to others.