Living Looper

SuperCollider Quark

A version which runs within SuperCollider can be installed like so:

• Install SuperCollider
• open SuperCollider
  • on Windows, you may need to run as administrator the first time

Automatic install

• In SuperCollider, run the line Quarks.install("https://github.com/victor-shepardson/living-looper-sc")
  • (type it in a press shift+return)
• then run the line LivingLooper.new
  • a LivingLooper window should appear
• Select your audio devices and press the "start audio" button
  • this will prompt you to install NN.ar if not already installed
• See the LivingLooper helpfile to get started

Manual install

• Locate the SuperCollider extension folder from the SuperCollider menu: File -> open user support directory -> Extensions
• Install SuperCollider plugins by placing them in this folder:
  • NN.ar: https://github.com/elgiano/nn.ar/releases/tag/v0.0.6-updated
    • download the zip file for your platform
  • Living Looper: https://github.com/victor-shepardson/living-looper-sc/releases/tag/v1.1.1
    • download the "Source Code" zip file
• In the SuperCollider menu select Language -> reboot interpreter
• then run the line LivingLooper.new

Python scripts

Using export.py, you can create your own Living Looper models from an nn~ compatible (causal) encoder-decoder model, e.g. RAVE.

• bring your own pretrained RAVE model
• clone this repo and create a Python environment with nn_tilde and pytorch
• run your RAVE model through export.py to produce a living looper .ts file

NIME paper

This project was presented at NIME 2023. The full paper is available here

Models

A Living Looper instance includes a pretrained RAVE encoder-decoder and a living loop algorithm, both implemented with pytorch and exported as a TorchScript file. Plugins for music software define a real-time audio and GUI interface, but must load a .ts file which defines the sound and behavior.

You can make your own living looper .ts models from any nn~ compatible streaming encoder/decoder model (such as these) using the export.py script.

Repository Structure

export.py - Python script which converts a RAVE model to a Living Looper model

living-looper-sc/ - SuperCollider Quark with GUI

living-looper-core/ - common components of C++ Living Looper plugins.

living-looper-juce/ - JUCE plugin (WIP, not functional at present)

License

This project incorporates RAVE, which uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.

The plugin components including living-looper-sc and living-looper-juce are licensed under GPLv3.

As I understand it, the above affects what you can do with the source code, for example, publishing your own fork is allowed, but selling a VST based on it is not. You are free to do anything you want with the actual plugins and trained models, including making commercial art installations or music releases.