LAPS is a Daisy-powered effects pedal designed for crafting intricate layers of sounds. It was developed by Micah Frank of Puremagnetik and can record the input audio into 3 separate tracks (referred to as laps), with each lap allowing up to 20 seconds of stereo recording at 24-bit/48kHz. What we love about this pedal is how it allows artists to instantly start transforming their musical ideas into immersive soundscapes that they can explore!
Development Journey
Before Micah began developing sound content and plugins through his label Puremagnetik for nearly 20 years, he worked as a professional composer and sound designer. Much of Ableton’s factory content and Native Instruments synth content was produced by him between 2004 to 2010. Under Puremagnetik, he has developed and released many plugins. Many of his effects are designed to transform sound into rich evolving textures as demonstrated by plugins such as Auras and Sage.
For a long time, he has been deciding when and how to make the leap into hardware. Though he has built DIY synths, modules, and other devices in the past, he aspired to design his own. Opportunities did arrive often when being approached by manufacturers for collaborative projects, but it proved to be challenging in terms of business. Then, he discovered Daisy Seed and thought “I think I can do this on my own”. Daisy met all the requirements that he had, which were GPIO, plenty of memory, small footprint, and a high quality A/D/A. To him, it was "ready to go out-of-the-box”.
Upon receiving his first Seed in November 2023, he familiarized himself with it by building a looper. However, he found that looper to be uninteresting in itself, so he looked at the Puremagnetik plugin catalog for inspiration. He decided that a hardware version of Small Winters would make an amazing hardware device for both on stage and in the studio. Made in collaboration with sound artist Taylor Deupree, LAPS's core idea—the three individually controlled loops—can be found here.
With this new direction in sight, he began putting together the breadboard by adding basic functions such as looper controls, modulation controls, and true bypass relays. After several iterations over the following months, he finalized a hardware version he was satisfied with in May 2024. At this stage, he asked Puremagnetik artist John Whitlock to design the enclosure.
After finalizing the code for his first working prototype, he once again collaborated with Taylor on a project. He sent the pedal to him for feedback and to bounce ideas around and tinkered with the algorithm for another month. He also collaborated with several community members from Taylor’s 12k Discord channel after they bought the first version of LAPS and provided feedback. Upon addressing their suggestions regarding filters, mode handling, etc., he was able to provide them with the final version of the firmware. It was exactly one year between receiving his Seed and sending out his first LAPS unit!
We were lucky to chat with both Micah and Taylor to learn more about their unique perspectives on pedal development. They gave us an inside look into the design process, their collaboration, and the inspirations that shaped LAPS.
Interview with Micah Frank
ES - Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us about LAPS! It’s an amazing pedal that we’re sure ambient musicians will explore and get lost in for hours at a time! Its algorithm is based on your software plugin called Small Winters. What were your inspirations and personal goals with granular multitrack looper effects?
MF - I tend to build things that interest me as a musician, composer and live performer. When we came up with the ideas for Small Winters, I had just finished a few years of doing tape loop work with cassettes alongside pedals like the Count to Five by Montreal assembly. I had also played several live shows which were based on live-looping with the Make Noise Morphagene. So I think this naturally fed into the development of Small Winters and consequently LAPS. LAPS is really a combination of all this experience into a recording device that I personally feel is ideal for my production and performance process. My company, Puremagnetik, is known for the granular and spectral plugins we make, so the granular part of LAPS is kind of a signature feature!
ES - A looper instrument with 3 separate looping tracks that can be controlled individually is such a unique and musical idea! Even just varying the end position of each 3 loops can create an interesting texture. What gave you the idea to have 3 separate loops rather than the typical single loop in many looper effects?
MF - I never really approached LAPS or Small Winters as loopers. Of course it records "loops" but I like to think of it as more of a multitrack recorder and sound design / sound collage machine. The whole idea of the LAPS process is to record a phrase and have various parts of it playing back asynchronously, then overdub or multiply the recording and repeat until you have something really unique. I think if someone were to approach LAPS as a conventional “looper” they might be disappointed. Well, each track (Lap) in LAPS is up to 20 seconds. At that point, it’s not really a loop to me but more of a long phrase that is just waiting to be dissected and cut into parts. I think this goes back to many tape music paradigms. And, as you described, creating small offsets, it could even be employed as a phasing tool, ala Steve Reich.
ES - In addition to it being physical, are there distinguishing features between LAPS and Small Winters?
MF - Their feature sets fit nicely into a Venn diagram. The recording process and recording modulation are very similar. The most significant difference is that Small Winters doesn’t have Replica Mode which duplicates your recording across all 3 Laps. LAPS also has a completely different granular processor and a sample and hold modulator whereas Small Winters only has a smooth random modulator. Small Winters also has a track “bleed” feature where you can set the probability of one track creeping into the adjacent track. And from my perspective, the immediate hands-on nature of LAPS facilitates quicker musical results.
ES - As a developer of many commercial software plugins, what were some of the major differences you noticed between programming for a software plugin and embedded DSP hardware?
MF - Honestly, developing for Seed was very straightforward. When I began working with the Seed, it could handle pretty much anything I threw at it. I had to optimize a few things that I otherwise wouldn’t consider in a plugin. For instance, the granular processor had to be significantly less expensive - not as many overlaps as I would usually like. I find it's especially difficult to get that beautiful, glassy granular sound with limited processing power, in real time.
ES - For both Small Winters and LAPS, you collaborated with musician and sound artist Taylor Deupree. We would love to hear more about what this collaboration step looks like and how it affected your design.
MF - When Taylor and I first worked on Small Winters, he was scheduled to release a tape on the Puremagnetik label. Being familiar with his work, it seemed to me — and I haven't confirmed this with him, it's just my own impression — that his albums are each focused on specific sounds that imply a single process for each album. So I thought it would be cool to build him a software device that could be used for that process on his album. We worked for some month's on Small Winters. I think the idea was to create a "broken Portastudio from the future..." or something like that. He definitely directed much of the feature set, the filters, drop-outs and design considerations. I wanted to build him something that he enjoyed working with and was visually engaging. You can hear the results of that work here: https://taylordeupree.bandcamp.com/album/small-winters.
Because LAPS was built around the ideas in Small Winters, I was asking Taylor for feedback from the start. He got the first prototype pedals and gave me feedback on some rough videos I recorded during the breadboarding stage. Throughout much of 2024 I consulted Taylor and got valuable input about LAPS - including the name, design and recording processes.
ES - It’s so cool that community members from the Taylor’s 12k Discord channel tested LAPS! We would love to hear more about that process too. Were there instructions and criteria that you had them test and look out for? Or was it more open-ended?
MF - I wouldn't say that they "tested" it as it was already the first production release that they received — but yes, they were the intrepid first batch orders. LAPS was first announced on the 12k Discord and my personal IG, so I thought that making the first batch exclusively available to that community would be nice. It turned out to be a wonderful group of knowledgeable, experienced music-makers. The initial feedback I received from them was really great and I was able to provide firmware updates almost in real time to the discussion. I didn't provide any instructions other than the Quick Start Guide, let them have a whirl and let me know what could be improved.
ES - What advice do you have for plugin developers who are interested in building their first hardware effects pedal?
MF - While there's a learning curve, it couldn't be any easier with the Seed. For a software-based pedal, the embedded platform is not where your effort will be focused — it's the hardware and build process — the PCB, parts and enclosure! A prerequisite being able to breadboard basic electronics and know a CAD program.
The most important thing I learned during the process: Once LAPS was released I couldn't keep up with the demand and I quickly realised that my assembly wasn't optimized. The parts should go together like Legos. This will make them easier to assemble, easier to troubleshoot and easier to repair. Do this early on to avoid having to constantly refactor your PCB and enclosure — something I wish I had more guidance on when I started.
Interview with Taylor Deupree
ES - We greatly appreciate your taking the time to chat with us about your collaboration with Micah on LAPS!
TD - Studio talk is something I will never get tired of, thank you for reaching out! It was really fun to work with Micah not only on Small Winters but then carry some of those ideas over to LAPS and see how it grew from there into something quite different.
ES - How did you get involved in the development of Small Winters and eventually LAPS?
TD - I had to check back into my email archives to remember how it went down… but I had done some mastering for Pure Magnetik of an album by An Moku that he did with a purpose-designed plug in. Micah and I were already discussing the idea of me doing a release for Pure Magnetik so I simply asked him if it was possible that we try a similar thing, and create a plug-in together that would become the basis for the album project.
Fast forward a few years and Micah, who knows I’m a bit of a looper and guitar pedal nut, told me he wanted to get into making some hardware and decided to do a pedal loosely based on Small Winters… and LAPS was born. He brought me in early on to bounce ideas off of, beta test and all that.
ES - After receiving the prototype of LAPS, how did you go about testing the device?
TD - Basically just putting it through its paces using my own workflow, sounds and general approach to looping. Micah gave me a brief video-overview of the pedal first and then I just started to use it. As with any new gear I get I like to familiarize myself with the manual, all of the intended functionality and get a good basic framework of how it operates. I then like to see where the breaking points are, in a good way. For example, how do the extremes of pitch shifting sound.. or, what about taking those and really pushing the filtering to the extreme. Try to find the sweet spots that make something interesting. Find out where it differs from similar devices.
ES - Were there any differences in your approach between exploring the prototype of Small Winters and LAPS?
TD - No, only that one is software and one hardware. I do prefer the hardware, I don’t often do looping with software instruments. But exploring and testing them both was the same… just jump in and use them in my workflow and see what works and what doesn’t. What pushes me to do new things and what feels comfortable.
ES - What do you tend to look for in effects like LAPS that encourage improvisation and exploration?
TD - I have a lot of hardware looping devices.. from more traditional loopers like the EHX 22500, or 2880, and my favorite, the Strymon Volante… to more esoteric things like Count To 5 and 856 for Zellrrsasn.. Kaleidoloops, Norns scripts. When I’m not after more traditional tape-style looping (the Volante being my go-to) then I love when the units interject further manipulation controls and then even further, various iterations of controlled randomness. LAPS is set apart by the quite simple parameters of loop start and end. The only hardware unit I have that does this is the Eventide Time Factor. Combine this with 3 independent loops and LAPS quickly becomes a manipulation machine. I’m not sure if I have any loopers with resonant filters built in, either. (and my favorite type, Bandpass). Replica mode turns it into what makes the Count To 5 so interesting but with many more controls… and when you start combining these parameters or even twisting knobs without knowing exactly what you’re doing it quickly becomes apparent by Micah called it a “multitrack collage machine.”
Even if I’m not happy with an initial loop I record into it there’s enough manipulation available that I can often turn it into something quite interesting and usable and totally different from what I put in.
It’s also stereo, with panning available for each loop. I haven’t done this yet, but it’s quite easy to hard-pan loops to different channels and then be able to process those further down independently with additional pedals or hardware. Seems like an avenue ripe for exploration.
ES - What were some details that Micah was attentive about during the collaboration that made the whole process go smoothly and fun that other developers can take note of?
TD - Well, this is where it really got interesting. During the initial testing and discussions I kept pushing Micah to put more traditional looper features in, or to make it work like my favorite loopers when it came to overdubbing and pitch shifting, like the Volante. We exchanged a lot of emails about the exact functionality of the pitch shifting. Micah kept pushing it away from what I wanted and at first it was frustrating but I eventually realized it was much more interesting. Why recreate the functionality of a device I already have a dozen different iterations of in my studio? I’m so glad Micah stuck to his ideas and made something more unique, despite me pushing him in a different way at first.
The whole process was totally smooth and collaborative. Often we’d get tripped up on semantics or very very specific functionality that we were having trouble explaining to each other. We’d exchange brief phone videos or hop on zoom calls to demonstrate what we were talking about.
On the other hand, there were certainly features and behaviors that I wanted that Micah was happy to implement and would always take my advice and try things out to see if it worked, or benefited the overall vision of LAPS. There were a lot of small functionality tweaks, like the behavior of the “age” control or the button-pressing combos… especially those, making sure there was minimal hidden functionality. We even discussed the graphics on the front panel. I think he original had 4 circle designs on the front and I suggested dropping it to 3 to match the number of loops (laps) in the design. Small things like that, trying to think of the whole presentation.
As with Small Winters I wanted to see a device with an odd number of tracks. Odd numbers of things are far more interesting to me when it comes to design, creation, etc. Even is too symmetrical, too centered, LAPS is something more dynamic than that.
Conclusion
An open collaboration played a pivotal role in shaping LAPS, with valuable contributions from Taylor and a community of passionate musicians who shared a vision for a truly unique tool. The result is a device that invites the exploration of new sonic possibilities.
Visit Puremagnetik for more information about LAPS, as well as Micah's work in plugins and sound design.
To learn more about Taylor and his 12k record label, visit 12k.