Using the plugin (VST3)

"Loop now, DAW later" also works the other way around. Loopylicious runs as a VST3 plugin, so you can loop inside your DAW alongside the rest of your project, with the host driving the clock.

The plugin shares the same engine, looping and drum pads as the standalone app. The main differences are that the host owns the audio and the transport: there are no audio device settings or latency calibration in the plugin, and recording follows the host's tempo and bar grid.

The VST3 is Windows-only for now. Plugin builds for macOS and Linux are planned.

Installing the plugin

The download is a .zip containing a Loopylicious.vst3 folder. To install it:

1. Unzip the download.
2. Copy the whole Loopylicious.vst3 folder into your system VST3 folder, usually C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3.
3. In your DAW, rescan plugins (or restart it). Loopylicious then shows up under your instrument or plugin list.

The plugin is not code-signed yet (solo dev, sorting that out), so Windows or your DAW may warn the first time. It is safe.

Adding it to a project

Loopylicious is an audio effect (its plugin category is "Fx") that also receives and produces MIDI. It takes audio and MIDI in, and outputs the loop mix plus any replayed MIDI. Add it to a track the way your DAW adds an effect that needs an input, then:

• feed it the audio you want to capture (a mic, a line input, or another track's output), and
• where your DAW lets you route MIDI to an effect, send it MIDI to capture played notes or drive the drum pads. Hosts vary here: Reaper sends both audio and MIDI to any effect, so the full audio-plus-MIDI workflow is most straightforward there.

The output is mono or stereo.

Recording different sources on different tracks

On the input side the plugin offers 16 input channels (eight stereo pairs), so different loop tracks can record different host sources, just like the standalone: loop 1 the mic, loop 2 the synth, loop 3 the guitar. Each track's input picker lists the host channels ("Stereo 1/2" through "Stereo 15/16", plus single channels), and the picker choice is saved with your DAW project.

• The first pair (the bus named "Input") is the plugin's main input; DAWs connect it automatically.
• The other seven pairs are extra input buses, named "Input 3-4" up to "Input 15-16". In Reaper: give the track more channels (Track routing, "Track channels"), send or route your other sources onto channels 3/4, 5/6 and so on, and the plugin's pin connector maps them onto the matching inputs. The input pickers only list as many channels as the track actually has, so add track channels to see more pairs.
• Hosts with limited effect input routing (Ableton Live is the usual one) may only feed the main stereo pair. The plugin then simply works as a stereo looper: every track records the main input. If you need more sources there, add one plugin instance per source track; they all follow the host bar grid, so the loops stay aligned.

Following the host

In the plugin, Loopylicious is not the master clock; your DAW is. It reads the host tempo, time signature and playhead every block and locks to them:

• Loops quantise to whole bars of the host grid rather than to the first loop you record.
• With the transport running, a new loop starts on the next bar line and its length snaps to whole bars, so layers line up with the rest of your project.
• With the transport stopped, there is no host grid to follow, so recording starts immediately, just like the standalone app.

Set your tempo and time signature in the DAW before you record, and Loopylicious will follow them.

Saving with your project

You do not need to export anything to keep your work: the plugin saves its whole session into the host project. When you save your DAW project and reopen it, Loopylicious restores:

• every track's recorded loop audio,
• the MIDI captured on each track,
• the mix (gain and mute) and MIDI routing, and
• the tempo and musical tags.

So a saved session comes back exactly as you left it, with no extra files to manage.

Because the host owns the loop, there is no Save in the plugin. The loop menu instead bridges to your shared loop library:

• Replace from library drops a saved library loop into this plugin instance (your library copy on disk is left untouched).
• Export to library parks a named copy of the current loop in your library, and Export to zip writes it out as a .zip to carry elsewhere. Both build from what you have live right now.
• Import zip to library adds an external loop zip to your library so it shows up under Replace.

This is how a loop crosses between the plugin and the standalone app: export it from one, load it in the other.

What is different from standalone

• No audio settings. The host provides the audio in and out, so there is no audio device, driver or buffer-size picker in the plugin.
• No latency calibration. In-the-box recording is sample-aligned and the plugin reports zero added latency, so the round-trip calibration the standalone uses for real-world devices is not needed.
• The transport is the host's. Play, stop and tempo come from your DAW.