zenAud.io has introduced ALK – a new Mac OS X music app that they describe as ‘a cross between a sequencer and a looper’.

Like a traditional looper, clips are performed live and then looped to create layers of sound. Like in a sequencer though, loops can be drawn, moved, copied, cut and pasted in a musical arrangement.

When it’s time to perform a song, ALK follows your arrangement, pressing the necessary virtual pedals to arm channels, trigger effects, and record and play loops at the right time.

Features:

• Familiar, web browser-style tabbed interface, allowing multiple documents to be open at once. Tear off tabs into their own windows, rearrange and toggle between – if you can use a web browser, you can navigate ALK with ease.
• ALK’s loop sequence view lets you take in your entire arrangement at a glance. Break away from endlessly layered loops and create structures: verses, choruses, b-sections and soloes.
• MIDI looping is supported out of the box, giving you the ability to create loops using your entire array of software synths and beat machines. Adjust the tightness of your groove on the fly using ALK’s elastic quantize feature, simply by turning a dial.
• Symmetric Routing is ALK’s answer to traditional mixer channels and effects sends/returns. Any track (audio or MIDI) can act as a mixer or group, and an effect send simply becomes a regular output.
• ALK supports VST/AudioUnit effects and instruments. Best of all, plugin editors open front and center in the current tab, and a single swipe takes you back to the loop sequencer view.
• ALK’s Magnetic Note Repeat automatically smooths out notes triggered off-grid, easing them gradually into lockstep. Perfect for laying out a four-on-the-floor kick drum or eighth-note hi-hat pattern on the fly.
• Draw accurate automation using intuitive trackpad gestures. Using a combination of mouse position, horizontal and vertical swipe gestures, and rotation gestures, you can control the shape of your curve. Adding control points for more precision is as easy as clicking within the region.
• ALK’s approach to performed automation, like filter or reverb sweeps, is to treat the knob, pad, or pedal as an instrument in its own right: on its own track. Routings are dynamic and can be changed over a song or set, so a single knob could control a filter sweep in one song, and a reverb sweep in the next.
• With ALK’s panic features, you don’t need to worry about making the occasional mistake. Through a click of a pedal, you can either get another shot at the loop, or have a perfectly played reference version of the loop replace it – useful for when you absolutely need the song to progress.
• With hover auditioning, changing sounds is as easy as hovering the mouse over the track in question. However, it’s still possible to leave monitoring on or off by switching to manual auditioning in the track’s context menu.

zenAud.io Video Demos

Pricing and Availability

ALK is available now, with a launch price of €59 (normally €119). A free demo version is also available.