Samplooler
A small looper you play by tilting it. Hold the button and make a sound; let go and it loops. Tip the box forward and the loop runs faster, tip it back and it runs backwards, roll it sideways for a tape delay or a stutter.
PHOTO: the Stack in a hand, tipped forward, screen lit (media/photos/stack-hand.jpg)
Try it and flash it from the browser · Manual · Build one · Get one
The loop is a tape between two reels, and a small operator runs on it, as fast as you tip the box. The screen above is the firmware's own drawing code, run on a computer.
VIDEO: someone playing a Stack, filmed, with its sound, about 60 s
What it does
| Record | Hold the button and make a sound, up to 20 s at 32 kHz. Let go and it loops. |
| Tilt | Forward plays faster, back plays backwards. Snap rounds the speed to octaves and fifths. |
| Roll | Left adds a tape delay, right a stutter. |
| Modes | TAPE (speed and pitch move together) and GRAIN (they move apart). |
| Voice | Optional: SING's 18 voices on the input before it records (autotune, harmonies, choir, vocoder, echo). |
| Speaker | Can be switched off, so only the line out plays, when the speaker feeds back into the mic. |
| Slots | 8 loops saved on the board, kept when you update it. |
| Together | Over the radio with the other instruments: a take sets their tempo or lands on their beat; key and scale are shared. |
| With a computer | USB MIDI and a USB sound card on one cable, and a VST3 plugin that shows and sets everything. |
| Other instruments | More firmwares for the same box: a breakcore-to-doom machine, a singing Buddha with a wall of amps, a flute you blow. |
Other instruments
The same Stack can be flashed with WRECK, MANTRA or HUFF, and flashed back. Install them from the page or with the desktop app in app/. More are in progress (instruments/, ROADMAP.md). Anyone can add one (CONTRIBUTING.md).
Get one
- Buy one: built by hand in Haifa. Write and ask about price and shipping: Dogme84@gmail.com · WhatsApp.
- Build it in the workshop: the ESP32 workshop, 7 meetings at MEZO, Haifa, 2,200 ₪, kit included.
- Build it yourself: order the boards, solder the modules on, flash it: docs/BUILD.md.
Status
Early. The current Stack is rev C: it has been made and runs the firmware (screen, microphone, tilt,
line out and USB MIDI/audio work). The board files here are rev D, which is being tested now (October
2026); rev C's files are at the git tag checkpoint/boards-rev-c. The three other instruments on the list have run
on a board; eight more are in progress. What comes next is in ROADMAP.md. Reports of builds, good or
bad, are welcome in the issues.
What is where
| Path | What |
|---|---|
| ROADMAP.md | what is done and what comes next |
| docs/ | the manual and the build guide |
| firmware/ | the Samplooler's ESP-IDF 5.5 project |
| instruments/ | the other instruments, each a complete ESP-IDF project |
| core/ | the code the instruments share |
| hardware/ | the Stack's schematics, boards and JLCPCB order files |
| plugin/ | the VST3 and standalone plugin (JUCE) |
| app/ | the desktop app: the library, one-click install of any instrument on a board, and the Samplooler back |
| media/ | pictures and screen grabs |
| site/ | the project page and the browser flasher |
| tools/ | flash.sh, sl_midi.py (log and MIDI from a shell), release.sh, library.py |
Licence
- Firmware, instruments and tools: GPL-3.0 (LICENSE).
- Plugin: AGPL-3.0, as JUCE requires (plugin/LICENSE).
- Circuit boards, docs and pictures: CC BY-SA 4.0 (hardware/LICENSE).
Part of Serious S.H.I.T.: instruments, tools and workshops made in Haifa by Yaniv Schonfeld (Willbear). If Samplooler is useful to you, support it on Patreon.