LoopNest is a VST3 + AU audio effect for Mac DAWs (Ableton, Logic, Reaper, Bitwig, and friends). It turns a folder of loops you love into a beat-making slot machine.
The loop is: curate → spin → shape → hatch. Point it at a folder of loops,
hit spin, and it pulls one out at random. Trim it, pitch it, dirty it up through
a six-stage lo-fi rack until it sounds like yours, then hatch a .wav and
drag it straight onto a track.
Hear it and watch it work at loopnestplugin.com.
loopnest-reel-r3.mp4
Version 2 is a rebuild of 1.0. LoopNest now sits on a track as an audio effect, locks to your song's tempo and bar grid, and can run the track's own audio through the rack.
- Sync: follows your DAW's tempo with the pitch held.
- Free tempo: drag the tempo and the loop plays at a tempo of its own.
- Bar-grid lock: with SYNC and LOOP on, the loop runs on the song's bar grid and starts and stops with the DAW's transport.
- Audition and Live: AUDITION plays the spun loop. LIVE runs the track's own audio through the rack.
- Drag in: drop audio from Finder, Splice or Live onto the tape rack to add it to your loop folder.
- Print bins: hatch into subfolders of
~/Music/LoopNest/Prints/. - Back and forward: ◀ ▶ step through your spins and bring back the whole sound.
- Reverb types: PLATE, HALL or SPRING.
- Spin: the big rotor pulls a random loop from your folder. Spin as much as you want.
- Shape: pitch, trim, and a six-knob rack: warp · flutter · drive · echo · reverb · width. Every knob is clean at zero.
- Focus: give each effect its own slice of the spectrum, plus a master EQ and a dry/wet mix.
- Presets: 11 factory looks that only touch the rack.
- A/B: flip to the untouched loop, level-matched.
- Hatch: bounce the loop to a
.wavand drag it onto a track. Dry by default; switch on FX to print what you hear. - Curate: point the funnel at a sample library and it pulls just the full drum grooves into a folder.
Download the zip from Releases
and follow INSTALL.txt inside. Needs macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon. It isn't
notarized, so INSTALL.txt has the one command that lets macOS load it.
Version 2 replaces version 1. Sets made with version 1 open with LoopNest missing; 1.0 is still on the releases page for those.
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/andrewmfoster/LoopNest.git
cd LoopNest
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --config ReleaseBuilds both a VST3 and an AU. The AU needs full Xcode, not just the command-line tools.
Source code: MIT. The plugin binaries are built with JUCE under the AGPLv3, so the VST3 and AU ship under the AGPLv3. Third-party notices: THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt. JetBrains Mono: SIL OFL. © 2026 Andrew Foster.