Introducing Stacks ~ 4 Track Granular Looper, Sequencer & Synthesizer

[@Pxlhg]

Looks (and sounds) really cool, looking forward to the iOS version 😃

[@deepsleepvibrations]

Same!

[@gesslr]

Incredible. This is a sonic world in itself…

[@WasabiCookinUp]

This video really helps in understanding the app. Also, it’s very fun and very experimental, thank you

[@stuwood4389]

Outstanding work, I just love it. Like Strokes once I'd started using Stacks I didn't want to use anything else!

[@tubelog]

Fabulous!

[@hhal9000]

Absolutely fascinating.Looks like a wonderful sonic playground.

[@peanuthamper]

fantastic! i love strokes on iOS and this looks like so much fun!

[@andrewgambier2971]

Absolutely love your stuff, this looks amazing!

[@markseagraves5486]

Minutes in and having too much fun. This grain engine is smooth as silk and thanks for the dedicated LPG.

[@tomhallsonics]

Awesome work mate!

[@VJFranzK]

good project! [ & nice tunnel graphic ]

[@bjamminsincebirth3494]

Wow. This looks fun!

[@CookieMCMLXXXI]

Cong Burn makes all the best toys! 🧸

[@DuchessOfWales]

🔥Achtung: "May be habit-forming"🔥

[@3tree]

Great work John, looks really creative.

[@3tree]

Does it interact with the daw on Mac or IOS, eg modulate other instruments/parameters?

[@cong-burn]

@@3tree this is something that will be worked out during early access. for strokes this was possible since all the modulation was sent over CC. in ableton, there is a max for live for strokes that lets you hook up to parameters using map buttons - this will have a similar solution soon

[@3tree]

@@cong-burn good to know, thanks (although I don't have suite!). maybe getting ahead of things, but how about in iOS - will parameters be exposed in the likes of AUM?

[@daviHuggMonster]

weee that looks and sounds nice

[@michaelscottpettis]

This looks fantastic

[@mrtinacrispoti]

I love your apps !

[@patrickklingler5383]

oof this thing drones so hard ty!

[@Nomo_Popo]

Hey wait, I knew your name sounded familiar, I've got a lot of your NTS shows saved lol!

[@seanhenriques808]

AWESOME!!

[@scotthjohnson1558]

Fantastic... this is really exciting. I was just thinking I'd love to have this on ipad, and then you mentioned that : ) Excellent feature set, and well thought out UI, which makes a huge difference sometimes in terms of workflow and actual usability. This is definitely a direction I want to go for sound design, etc. I'm using the mac version, and am finding it to be stable so far... will buy the ipad version when its in the app store. Great to see the audio in, too!

[@pongtrometer]

Nice one m8 👾

[@MrSTAYUP33]

Maybe a section by section breakdown for us with bad vision

[@KrisCadwell]

That is pretty cool

[@CMDRRDM]

Hell yes

[@zerorossing207]

Nice.

[@sub5electronics]

Thanks. Sounds wicked.. Can I midi map the knobs to my midi controller.. I really want to buy this but I'm worried about the cpu level on my windows laptop..

[@cong-burn]

yea there are 215 midi mappable parameters currently. to save on performance: - you can switch off the convolution section of the reverb which is the biggest cpu spender - use the clean vca instead of the low pass gate model in the amp section - there's a switch to turn off some of the animations each of these can be toggled individually so you can work out the best combination

[@sub5electronics]

Thank you.. I bought it and love it.

[@danielwilliams5019]

Hi, absolutely love this! If you buy this as a Mac app can you get a discount on the iPad version?

[@No.0.o.0]

Good design,

[@lextron-audio]

Can’t wait till it’s available in my country

[@cong-burn]

drop me an email :) congburnwaves at gmail dot com

[@ueberlicht_]

Very cool device!! Bought it today. Are there any presets (as starting points). cheers (Can´t wait to get my hands on). A Reset button for every section to intial settings would be cool and maybe some basic presets for the sequencer to 1-click set them to basic starting grooves ;) )and some scale settings would be nice imo. I´ll check it out as soon as it arrives. Love your work. AAA+++

[@cong-burn]

I think we discussed on discord but scale presets went in today :)

[@ueberlicht_]

@@cong-burn thank you sir!!

[@MeerkatMuzic]

What’s the minimum requirement for desktop ?

[@audiblevideo]

You have Strokes and Stacks. Next is S'mores ( or Snacks )

[@darcangelo1966]

Not yet available on the App Store?

[@cong-burn]

it should be available some point this week as a pre order

[@ueberlicht_]

How can i record external VSTs in the DAW directly into the ABCD Looper? thnx!

[@cong-burn]

this is gonna depend on your DAW, for Live you use the sidechain input

[@Hyper5nic]

Wonderful concept! My first wish would be a lighter GUI / skin. Especially the dials and labels on the upper right are a little less clear to read. Other than that, very well thought out! This really invites us to do a lot of sonic exploring!

[@cong-burn]

thanks ! a UI overhaul is planned once the new features are in :)

[@CMDRRDM]

Might there be a bundle deal on iPad if one already has (n loves) Strokes?

[@cong-burn]

Thanks ! I'm trying to keep the price low so I don't have any sales/discounts/coupons planned sorry

[@CMDRRDM]

@@cong-burn made a deal with myself, if i open Strokes and have a good time, im buying it...and then i got lost having fun so, I'm in!

[@moonmonkey303]

Purchased! Understand its early access and a lot of things are working great already, but some functionality seems a bit flaky and id like to add some feature requests?

[@cong-burn]

sure head to discord -> discord.com/invite/ETKn7kBpzn

[@Nomo_Popo]

Woww geeez this is incredibly well thought out, to pack so much ability into that size of the interface. Well done! Will there be any discount for desktop customers if they also want to get the ios version?

[@cong-burn]

no discounts besides the early access discount I'm afraid!

[@thomasbrown3325]

This app would make a nice fourth page for Strokes! Do you plan any interface between the two apps? Any plans for external audio into the looper?

[@cong-burn]

yes interfacing with strokes is something for me and the early accessors to figure out over the next few months! you can change the osc to receive audio from the plugin sidechain, so you can sequence other plugins/hardware with the sequencer, and record it into the loopers. this is something I'll explain more in another video :)

[@thomasbrown3325]

@@cong-burn I would gladly purchase Stacks as an IAP inside Strokes. But if I had to set up my own midi map between the two separate apps, I probably would never do it out of laziness and distraction. If I'm going to do a bunch of wiring and patch-building, I'll just use VCV Rack instead. The appeal of your apps is that they eliminate a lot of the tedious setup aspects of modular, and just expose the fun parts for jamming. More of that please!

[@cong-burn]

There is definitely going to be some crossover in the future, some of the things I've added to stacks would work really nice in strokes. Likewise strokes will eventually get the stacks reverb and some other things. I am thinking about modifying dispatch to use it as a bridge between strokes/stacks since it has the mixer and all the connectivity already built in You can record audio into the loopers, and as of today you can drag and drop samples into the loopers too

[@bjamminsincebirth3494]

Question: Is there a way to play the synths via midi versus just using the sequencer?

[@cong-burn]

yep! just turn off all the notes in the sequencer and you have a regular 4 voice poly synth

[@TheAudioDabbler]

Can you import your own audio into the loopers?

[@cong-burn]

Yea you can change the osc to instead record audio input in via the plugin sidechain. So you can send midi out from the sequencer to another plugin/hardware synth, and record that synth into the loopers

[@cong-burn]

you can drop samples in directly now :)

[@deanivan3951]

@@cong-burn SOLD!

[@fumarolas]

Wow this looks amazing, is there a demo? I bought too much stuff lately. But I think I'm gonna love this :)

[@cong-burn]

thanks ! its tricky to do a demo without DRM / internet activation but I'll have a think about it :))

[@jackcimino8822]

Will there be a demo/trial version so I can find out how much CPU it uses on my computer?

[@bjamminsincebirth3494]

That was my next question.

[@cong-burn]

I don't plan on having a free demo sorry, I don't use DRM so I'd have to either have the app self destruct after x minutes (I hate this) or limit some of the features (I hate this more) Hope you understand! There's a few ways you can save on CPU - use the algo reverb rather than spring convolutions - use the clean vca rather than the LPG emulation - switch off the XY pad animation With these things switched off it's pretty low CPU

[@Beatsbasteln]

what's EFM and LFM?

[@cong-burn]

that's Linear and Exponential FM (Frequency Modulation) linear is good for tonal sounds since it stays roughly in tune exponential is good for noisey/complex sounds

[@Beatsbasteln]

@@cong-burn sounds nice. i never consciously experienced this difference in a synthesizer before

[@noodlingaround2023]

What's in the latest update..? Thanks

[@cong-burn]

- add your own samples directly into the looper - pitch quantiser has preset scales (major, minor, mixolydian etc, there are about 30 different scales) - various performance / ui improvements

[@noodlingaround2023]

Cool. Thanks..

[@julian_behrens]

Oh man, that is some great stuff! Let me know if you ever want to collaborate on a UI design (eventho i think it looks amazing already :)

[@davemaric4057]

This seems great. But I can't tell if you're able to loop live audio or not, or is it just the built-in synths - or maybe imported audio files?

[@cong-burn]

Thanks! Yes you can loop live audio currently in the standalone app and vst3. Where it says Osc: Wavetable, you can use that dropdown to select Audio In, then you send audio to the VST3 sidechain (or setup an input in standalone app)

[@davemaric4057]

@@cong-burn so not Mac AU or iPad? Those would be my two platforms!

[@TheOriginSoundtrack]

Looks cool! Can you record external input into the looper?

[@cong-burn]

thanks ! you can via plugin sidechain :)

[@unterwasserbeatboxer]

Yeah, ios!

[@broncohenry_]

hard, it is free?

[@nohface7565]

Free?

[@cong-burn]

£35 rising to £49.99 soon on Mac & Windows £19.99 on iOS

[@diddab2375]

Noise generator, absolutely not musical, review your offer

[@gkillmaster]

Amazing work and creation! Having a hard time following the mouse cursor if there's any way to highlight or color it in the future would be less stressful. There is so much to take in!

[@cong-burn]

thanks! great idea I'll do this on the next video :))

[@gkillmaster]

@@cong-burn I appreciate that!