Blog
Tips and guides for getting more from our apps.
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How to Use Your Audio Unit and VST3 Plug-ins in a Live Looper on a Mac
Your amp sim and your favorite reverb shouldn't have to stay in the DAW. Here is how to run Audio Unit and VST3 plug-ins inside LOOM, a live looper for the Mac, and what happens when one of them misbehaves on stage.
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Use an iPad as a MIDI Controller for Live Looping with TouchOSC
An iPad you already own makes a good looping controller: a pad per track that shows what the track is doing, and a fader for every level and send. Here is how to set it up with TouchOSC and LOOM's free layout.
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MIDI Learn in a Mac Looper: Map Any Knob, Fader or Footswitch in LOOM
Choose a control in LOOM, move a knob on your controller, and that knob drives that control. Here is LOOM's MIDI Mapping window, step by step, with what each part of it is telling you.
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Arranging a Live Looping Song in Advance: Let the Song Press the Buttons
Live looping usually means pressing every button yourself, in time, every night. Here is how to draw the song's record, overdub and play moves on a timeline in advance, so the song presses the buttons and you play the parts.
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How to Record a Live Looping Set as Separate Tracks (Stems) for Mixing Later
A stereo board mix of a looping set is hard to fix later. Here is how to record each loop track, instrument and live input to its own synced WAV file so you can mix the set properly afterwards.
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How to Live Loop on a Mac with a MIDI Foot Controller or Pad Controller
A software looper only feels like a pedal once your feet can run it. Here is how to set up a MIDI foot controller or pad controller to drive LOOM on a Mac, note by note.
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Best Live Looping Software for Mac in 2026
There are a handful of real options for live looping on a Mac in 2026, and they are built for different people. Here is what each one does well, what it costs, and where it falls short.
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GigScroll for Solo Acoustic Performers: A Complete Setup Guide
You are setting up for a coffee shop gig. You have 25 songs you could play, but you only remember all the words to about half of them. A music stand, an iPad, and a teleprompter app can fix that.
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From Rehearsal to Stage: Building a Performance Workflow with GigScroll
Most teleprompter apps focus on the moment you are on stage. But the stage is only one part of the picture. Here is how GigScroll fits into the full cycle of learning, rehearsing, and performing music.
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Using Speak2 with Ollama: Custom AI Models for Domain-Specific Dictation
Speak2 has a built-in AI model that cleans up dictated text, and it works well for most people. But if you want more control — over the model, the prompt, or the output format — you can point Speak2 at Ollama instead.
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How to Share Setlists with Your Band Using GigScroll
You made the setlist. You typed in all the lyrics. Now the rest of the band needs it too. Here is how to share everything in one file.
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Using Listen2 with VoiceOver: Accessibility from the Ground Up
A text-to-speech app should be, by definition, an accessibility tool. But most TTS apps treat VoiceOver support as a checkbox rather than a design principle. Listen2 takes a different approach.
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Speak2 for Writers: Drafting Prose by Voice Without Sending Data to the Cloud
Many writers find that speaking their ideas produces more natural prose than typing. But most dictation tools send your words to the cloud, and for writers, that means transmitting unpublished work to someone else's servers.
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Setting Up the Perfect Stage Display: Fonts, Themes, and Font Sizes for Live Performance
You are about to walk on stage and you realize you cannot read your lyrics. The text is too small, or the colors wash out under the lights. Here is how to avoid that.
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How to Listen to PDFs on Your iPhone
You have a 40-page PDF sitting in your inbox. Maybe it is a research paper, a textbook chapter, or a compliance document your boss needs you to review by tomorrow. You know you should read it. But you also know you are not going to sit and stare at a screen for an hour.
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How to Record Your Live Performances with GigScroll
GigScroll is a lyrics teleprompter for iPad. But it also has a built-in video recording feature that many users do not know about. Here is how to set it up and use it during a live performance.
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How to Clean Up Dictated Text Automatically with Local AI
When you speak, you say 'um,' repeat yourself, and start sentences over. Raw transcription captures all of it faithfully — which is accurate but not what you want pasted into an email.
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Bluetooth Foot Pedal Setup for Hands-Free Performing
If you perform with lyrics or charts on an iPad, you have probably had that moment — mid-song, hands busy, and you need to scroll or skip to the next tune.
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Turn Your Saved Articles into a Personal Podcast
You saved 23 articles this week. You read two of them. The rest are sitting in your Safari Reading List, your Pocket queue, or a folder of bookmarks you will definitely get to this weekend. Except you will not.
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Using a Personal Dictionary to Fix Speech Recognition Mistakes
Speech recognition models are trained on general language. They work well for everyday words, but they struggle with the words that matter most to you.
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How to Set Up AI-Powered Dictation on Your Mac Without the Cloud
Speak2 is a small macOS app that turns your voice into text using on-device AI. No internet required, no data leaves your Mac. Here is how to get it running from scratch.
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How to Use Your iPad as a Lyrics Teleprompter on Stage
If you play live music, you have probably forgotten lyrics on stage at least once. An iPad running a teleprompter app can fix that. Here is how to set it up from start to finish.
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The Best Offline Text-to-Speech App for iPhone in 2026
You are on a plane. You have a two-hour flight and a 30-page report you need to get through before landing. You open your text-to-speech app and hit play. Nothing happens. The app needs an internet connection to access its voices.
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Best iPad Teleprompter Apps for Live Musicians in 2026
If you play live music and forget lyrics, you are not alone. An iPad on a mic stand is one of the simplest fixes — but picking the right app matters more than you might think.
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Whisper vs. Parakeet: Choosing the Right Speech Model for Mac Dictation
Speak2 ships with seven speech model options across two engine families. Here is how to pick the right one for your Mac and your language.
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Local Speech-to-Text on Mac: Why Your Voice Data Should Stay on Your Device
When you dictate into an app, you are not just sending words. You are sending your voice — and your voice carries more information than you might expect.
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Best Offline Dictation Apps for Mac in 2026
Your voice is personal data. When you dictate a medical note, a legal draft, or a half-formed business idea, that audio contains information you probably do not want on someone else's server.