Enso Looper vs Sunnandaeg

Enso is a looper. Not a phrase sampler, not a beat slicer: a real looper, built in the image of the pedal loopers and reel-to-reel tape systems that defined the form, then extended well past what hardware can do. Press one button and it records; press it again and you are looping. Up to five minutes of stereo audio, host-synced or free-running. The play and record heads are completely decoupled, each with its own through-zero speed control from -4x to +4x. Play backwards at half speed while overdubbing forwards at double, and things get strange in the best way. Four sectors give you separate loop regions to crossfade between and overdub within, and a built-in effects section (tape-style saturation and hiss, filters, and chorus) can sit in the feedback path so your loop ages like tape with every pass. Enso runs as an AUv3 plugin in your favorite host, and includes a standalone mode for sketching. FEATURES - Full automatic looping engine: simple to learn, exceedingly powerful, with one-button looping control, both host-synced and free time. - Independent play and record heads: through-zero speed from -4x to +4x on each, with selectable increment and decrement values. - Dub In Place: work like a traditional digital looper, or like a tape looper with the effects and speed changes in the feedback path. - Sector crossfading: define four start and end points, crossfade between them, and overdub or re-record within them. - Effects section: tape-style saturation and hiss, high- and low-pass filters, and a stereo chorus. - MIDI Slice mode: play your loop from a MIDI controller, automatically sliced into 4 to 16 equal pieces. - Full MIDI CC implementation: an assignable MIDI CC page covers most of the looping engine, tuned for foot control. - Auto RTZ: automatically return to zero at a chosen interval to keep loose material in sync. - Cross-platform preset format: XML presets that can store the buffer, compatible with the desktop version of Enso. No subscriptions and no nonsense. Buy it once and it is yours, with free updates. Enso is also available for Mac, Windows, and Linux at audiodamage.com.

Sunnandæg is a single-voice instrument. One sine oscillator runs through three folding stages, and the end of that chain is wired back into the oscillator's pitch, sync and FM. There is no keyboard and no sequencer. You play it with four XY pads, the camera, and the tilt of the device. Raise the feedback and the folding starts folding itself, and the same gesture stops giving the same answer. SIGNAL Three folding stages: a squaring drive, a triangle wave folder, a full-wave rectifier. Their order can be swapped. A feedback network of three lines, each taking a stage output, the filter, the resonant EQ, or white or pink noise, and sending it back into a folding stage. FILTER Twin Peak — two resonant peaks with their own positions, range and band mode. Push Q far enough and the filter sings on its own. Rez EQ — eight resonators on fixed frequencies from 60 Hz to 9.8 kHz, each driven by its own source, able to feed both itself and the oscillator. MODULATION A sample and hold with a slope output and a comparator gate. An eight-stage shift register with a stepped three-tap mode. Two LFOs, the camera, and tilt. Every source chooses its own destination: pitch, filter, any folding stage, feedback or pan. EFFECTS Delay, reverb, phaser and chorus, each with two parameters and a modulation source, plus a random switcher. MICRO SOUND Record through the microphone and play the material back in grains, mixed against the dry voice. ALSO Twelve preset slots. A gesture recorder that replays your pad movements. MIDI in and out. An eight-band EQ, a compressor, a leveller and an output ceiling. Nothing leaves the device. The app makes no network connections at all.