A bit more on how DopplerPad works

Thanks to John-Paul for this comment which makes things a lot clearer:

Hi there, this is John-Paul from Retronyms.

Many people have asked for a feature along these lines - the ability to change the tempo of a recorded loop. I understand why people would want this, and we'd like to address it.

One thing worth understanding about DopplerPad is that its not traditional "midi sequencing". It's a very different animal and the recording method we use is actually closer to actual audio recording (imagine a tape recorder).

So instead of recording a midi-based sequence which then controls your synths and samplers, we're recording the actual signal stream.

One could almost consider this a philosophical difference between the world of "sequencing" and the world of "recording".

There are advantages to the recording philosophy. for example, there is no limit to the amount of layers you can record. You could record hundreds or thousands of layers of audio, and performance wouldn't suffer. This is handy on a "lower performance" device like the iPhone.

So DopplerPad doesn't have the granular control of a midi sequencer, but in my opinion, it makes up for it with a more expressive, iterative, "jam session" type of workflow more akin to playing an instrument. This is getting at the underlying concept of DopplerPad.

We are interested in possibly merging in some "sequencer" concepts... but it requires some careful thought.

... which brings me back to your original comment: tempo. Given that this is "recording", changing the tempo of a loop would mean either a pitch change or a timestretch approach (again, think tape deck or digital recording). To be honest, both could be cool... and we're experimenting with it :)

This makes a lot more sense of how DopplerPad operates, and thanks again to John-Paul for explaining it.