Two odd portable synths reviewed - Bastl SoftPop and Gecho Loopsynth

These two synths couldn't be more different, and yet they are both portable, special and can make water sounds....
Check out SoftPop here: bit.ly/SoftPop
and Loopsynth here: bit.ly/Loopsynth
Want to get ALL my tips in one convenient place including those to come in the future? Check out my In-Complete Book of Electronic Music Ideas, Tips and Tricks (hint: it's in-complete because it's always being updated…):
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► Ziv (at) loopopmusic.com
Here's a timeline of the video:
0:00 Two travel buddies
0:45 SOFTPOP by Bastl
1:50 Pre-routed madness
3:25 Sequencing
3:55 A look around
4:35 The secret chamber
5:05 The patch bay
6:25 Eurorack connectivity
7:00 Pros and cons
7:55 LOOPSYNTH by Gecho
9:25 Effect channels
9:45 Granular channels
10:20 Controls
11:10 Programming chords
11:50 Resonance and arps
12:40 Pros and cons
13:30 Jamming together
14:35 The Bean
NOTE: Occasionally I’ll try out affiliate marketing and include affiliate links. This means that I may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via affiliate links. The content of this clip is entirely my opinion, and was not paid for or dictated in any what by the company creating the gear. Without addressing the particulars of products shown here as they might be under NDA, gear shown on this channel may be either sent by the manufacturer, on loan for review or bought at a discount.

[@Stadsjaap]

And together they spell LoopOp 😆

[@loopop]

Finally someone notices ;) little Easter egg...

[@braincoral9866]

wow softpop looks like a crazy toy DJ mixer but sounds like some sort of demented robot. I like it. Love the 80s phone speaker too

[@squiredog]

Got both of these beauties.so pleased to see a thoughtful and informative walkthrough of them both. Also, to my shame, I’d never considered hooking them up. Many thanks 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@PaulBoos]

This was an awesome review. I have a SoftPop and now I want a LoopSynth. Adding it to my eowave Quadrantid Swarm will give me a super cool set-up...

[@PaulBoos]

And one thing I super loved was how you described the routing in SoftPop...

[@MichaalHell]

Love these two devices. Thanks for a great video!

[@Calverhall]

At last, the Softpop in the spotlight! I have this rowdy little critter, and whilst its really unstable, particularly the patchbay, some days just not working (could be my rough handling however) its a wonderland of unpredictability, the noise box Ive always wanted!

[@Deaphdot1]

totally want this combo... hopefully Loopsynth v2 will be available for pre order end of the month

[@AlsRides]

Didn't even get a notification and I ended up here. Guess you could say I'm a committed viewer. :) Thanks for the quality content mate!

[@FiveElementNinja]

I love my Softpop, especially running external audio though it. I highly recommend doing that if you have one.

[@johnchesters81]

Finally!! A decent Softpop review. Absolutely love mine, finding it hard to tame but I’ve started to run it through a tape echo pedal and it sounds great!

[@chris.dillon]

Yeah, it's wild as in animal. I put mine on an effects pedal too. :\ Time will tell if I keep it.

[@mikeexits]

@@chris.dillon So? Did you keep it?

[@spinchange]

Exceptionally cool pairing

[@igorsabara7438]

what an amazing combo!!

[@Psqwall]

Before watching this video I did not want either of these synths and now they are both on my want list ! Damn You !

[@setphaser]

i really want that loopop. i love the tiny box, though i kind of wish it were more volca sized.

[@antfactor]

thank you... been curious about Gecho for a while...

[@brucebaldy]

You mention the price for Sofpop but no mention of the Gecho loop it is very nice looking and I thought initially the patch section were dip switches. Its very cool, both are.

[@DashGlitch]

Psychedelic and rowdy, yes please :D

[@denis_lengart]

Wish to see some more things with this combo!

[@sqriations]

Loopop review of the SoftPop, makes my day! I love the little bugger. I've been off my game recently but I'm planning on taking a forest vacation this week and this little guy is gonna come with my Volca Sample. Love your videos, got to see the cool little Loopsynth too! Have you done much by making the SoftPop fully modular? I tried swiching mine over once when it was low on batteries and thought I broke it! Gonna have to give it a shot again.

[@loopop]

Thanks ;) yes going fully modular tames Softpop if that’s what you want. What a nice combo with the Volca Sample!

[@rickbustamante]

I'm here for the Bean. Great demo brother.

[@cameronleggett]

Mayo, Peter, Vaclav... Bravo!!

[@luma345]

Yaaay! New video!

[@thomasbeckett1174]

This is a great introduction to both devices. Gechologic may owe you a sales commission on a unit for me. Q: how did you get Softpop to play the Peter Gunn bass line? Was that an external sequencer or did you get lucky with it’s Pattern Generator?

[@chris.dillon]

Unexpected fountain.

[@kostantinosmag2986]

Great super...this small psychedelic sound system ....Power....thanks for the video....

[@arturmpuga]

very nice video (as usual)

[@ProfessorSynth]

Oh, didn’t realise you were at Knobcon, would have loved to have said hello, Rob

[@loopop]

Rob Jefferys thanks... will try and make travel plans more public next time...

[@Philipplus]

Hummm... now I want to buy them. The Loopsynth appeared to be quite noisy, but I reckon it is probrably dur to the fact that you were controlling it using the microphones. Do you have any estimate on the noise level of the Loopsynth when ignoring the mic (i.e. using the line in as audio input)? Keep up the great work! Cheers!

[@loopop]

Thanks! Yeah the mics are super sensitive. I didn’t notice noise when using the line in at all but didn’t measure scientifically... :/

[@gechologic]

Dev here :) Good point. That's the residual noise from IIR filters in low pass mode, they're never 100% effective. It also depends on how strong signal you let in, how you set input levels... Other "patches" (e.g. high pass, DCO, granular, reverbs, chiptunes) usually don't add much noise, there can be other artifacts though. Mics themselves add some, also op-amp and ADC but that's all the typical semiconductor (shot/thermal) noise and a lot less audible than this. Also, it's easy to post process - cut off above the useful signal, still I prefer if all demos capture raw sound :)

[@Philipplus]

Thank you for your reply... no need for scientific measurements. I'm actually glad to know that the mics are very sensitive :) Cheers!

[@Philipplus]

Thank you Gecho dev for the detailed information. Post-processing is always a nice option, and I'm happy to accept some noise in exchange for such an interesting approach to synth control. I'm looking forward to buy one once the next batch is ready. ;)

[@thesnipecatcher116]

Takes a ‘special’ sort of person to give this a thumbs down...great reviews, thanks!

[@Finnsnor]

You had me on Chicago

[@valdiskrebs566]

For those who thought the Roland Boutiques were too small... The Loop Synth would be a great iPhone app.

[@danpreston564]

Valdis Krebs I had a similar app a few years ago.

[@valdiskrebs566]

Dan Preston What happened to it? I think Brian Eno was also doing something around generated ambient soundscapes on iOS.

[@AndreVibrations]

Amazing

[@kevinbirge2130]

SoftPop is an a lot of fun.

[@Sarahbuildsstepsequencers]

And they’re soooo cute!!! 😀

[@SyncdAlien]

Yes, they really are!

[@LimGiong]

Thanks.

[@felipesigne901]

wow very very good video

[@liquidcrystal47]

I can see my old apartment building at 0:11!

[@sumocloud]

Nice review! So can the Softpop track 1 volt per octave? Also why on earth did they give it that little speaker? It actually puts me off I'd literally rather just have empty space there.

[@loopop]

Thanks! Yes it’s tracks 1v octave. Regarding the speaker - beats me - doesn’t do justice to how good this sounds on proper speakers - maybe just to jam in bed or something

[@cockur]

Was that the Blues Brothers theme ?

[@mikeexits]

Damn, I wish Softpop wasn't discontinued and hard to find. I'd gladly pay for it brand new if it were available and if I had the money.

[@vaaalsongs4867]

Why did Softpop get discontinued?

[@ganjabudweedful]

Great video but could have done with a bit more Chicago Dogs ;-)

[@apostatatheprovost3041]

Wrigley Field ❤️✌️

[@SculpArts]

Is there a way i can sync the soft pop with a drum machine?

[@loopop]

Which one?

[@SculpArts]

@@loopop its cool, ive looked at a few more vids & ive seen how the softpop can be synced with a drum machine. The soft pop looks good :)

[@nathansudnick3867]

@@loopop Roland TR-8?

[@dillipphunbar7924]

I really like both, for their own sonic possibilities, but the softpop is very expensive. The loopsynth is much more affordable.

[@AlfredoEsqueda]

does the gheco loop synth sync through midid ?

[@loopop]

I think the new one does

[@jusufzemplin]

It looks as review of Czecho-Slovak products... :-)

[@HorrorWorldx]

10:10 pls don’t let it fall 😨

[@strangersun7721]

At about $200 for the softPop, I'd pick one up. Twice that feels steep.

[@h2o1969]

I am shocked that soft pop is over 4 years old already.

[@mralkyo]

Oh my Gad ameising

[@zipnone1996]

Bastl 🤙

[@soundvandal3570]

Just checked their site and they have a new and improved version: gechologic.com/preorder/

[@WildernessMusic_GentleSerene]

My perspective on good sound must be off - why would a manufacturer put a horrible sounding speaker in a music device. Yamaha did it with Reface, Roland with Boutiques....and more...Why when even a 10 dollar headphone sounds 1000x better than a 1 inch speaker????? Am I missing something? My friend is an excellent vocalist, but she will listen to music on her phone speaker, I don't get it??? I would rather go to the dentist than listen to music through a phone speaker.

[@HorrorWorldx]

Wilderness Music ok

[@sumocloud]

@@HorrorWorldx i agree it's so annoying. it actually puts me off buying the softpop even though i love the sound. the speaker is a waste of space, who wants to play an expensive analog synth through a crappy tiny speaker??

[@anthomusic]

I think the manufacturer added the low quality speaker for the aesthetic of the hardware but the phone speaker thing is so true. I seriously don’t know how people can listen to music through a phone speaker lol

[@CerialKillah]

Here be lizards. halp

[@somnaut]

People in Chicago probably recognized you from your voice right, not your fingers?

[@yetkin.]

I don't know the price of it but its PCB, jacks, buttons and especially the DIP switches look very cheap and I think it should be mentioned. DIP switches are quite problematic components in general, good designers usually avoid them. It really looks much cheaper then a Volca.

[@gechologic]

Huh? Not sure what you mean but those aren't DIP switches. But yeah it may be hard to see what is what, unless you have it in your hands. Once someone asked me "how do you play that little capacitive keyboard?" (It's not a keyboard). We never had any problems with any of those components, you don't even know what they are, no need to spread this nonsense. We build things to last, and giving unlimited warranty, did you know that?

[@yetkin.]

@@gechologic 4:48 this is DIP switch.

[@gechologic]

@@yetkin. ah right, I missed that bit. I wouldn't think there's any problem with it as it's probably not used too often.

[@virgobro2025]

The softpop is acool little toy but too expensive

[@virgobro2025]

Fuck. You changed my mind. Maybe if it goes on sale...

[@fredthebasspro2256]

$350?! jeeeze.. shits getting ridiculous these days

[@thechronicnoizeco.6675]

Tiny