Every time you commit a new loop, it will start playing back in one of the 8 layers in the mixer. All of these 8 layers together are called a Rifff. You can adjust the volume, mute and remix these layers or simply keep adding new ones. Endlesss will manage them for you.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Layers and Rifffs
A Rifff is the state of all 8 layers, including the loop in each, the level of each and any additional settings like tempo, key/scale and time signature. Any time you add or remix a layer a new Rifff is created. If you adjust the volume in the mixer or any of the additional settings, click the Create New Rifff button to make a new Rifff with these settings.
Your Rifff history is always there too, so you can easily revert back to a previous Rifff if you want to take your ideas in a different direction or are not happy with a Rifff you have created. You can access your Rifff history directly in the main view or under the Rifff Details tab.
When a Rifff is created, the colour of the Rifff icons are made up of a wrapped around waveform of each layer. The colours of each layer is determined by the device used to create each loop.
Managing layers
Once you have created one layer, any future loops that are committed will be allocated to the next free layer. Once all layers are used up, the layer allocation algorithm will combine any older layers to make room. This way you’ll never run out of layers.
To gain more manual control over the layers you can mute them or merge them. To merge layers:
- Go to FX
- Select any FX like Lowpass
- Target the layers you want to merge
iOS: Tap the layers at the bottom
Studio: Target the layers in the mixer - Wait until they have played into the looper for at least one full repetition
- Tap the looper to commit
The result: All layers you selected are now merged into one layer, opening up more space.
Check out this quick tutorial on manual layer management:
Mixing
To help you balance the different layers and to also help create different variations of Rifffs, Endlesss Studio includes a Mixer section.
Mixer in Endlesss Studio
When a layer is active, you can control the level and mix your different layers directly within the mixer view. Every time a new Rifff is created, the level will reset to 0dB gain.
You can mute any layers to help create variations, for instance, cutting out the Kicks or Snare from your Rifff.
Muting a layer doesn’t completely take a layer out of the Rifff, it can still be unmuted later. However, when adding new layers to the Rifff, the layer allocation algorithm will pick empty or muted layers to fill first, so a muted layer could potentially be overwritten.
If you want a layer to be muted but not overwritten, dial down its volume completely rather than muting it
Creating a New Rifff
Mixer settings like mutes and volume are stored within a Rifff and when selecting a different Rifff, its settings are automatically restored.
If you change any of the levels, mutes etc. those changes won’t be saved until you create a new Rifff. This happens automatically whenever you add or remix a layer with instruments & effects, however, if you just want to save the adjusted mixer settings, click Create New Rifff.