I use Radial reamp pedal to match the output impedance of my TC Electronic SK48 audio interface with a bunch of different analogue pedals. I think guitar pedals are very creative, inspiring, and they sound just awesome. Not to mention that they're really cheap! I also use a Drawmer 241 compressor and SPL channel one to process tracks. Nothing too "esoteric" or expensive, but it gives that really great analogue "mojo" to the tracks. Pedals especially.

The pedals I use are mostly from Electro-Harmonix.

 

Last edited: Jan 1, 2016

There has NEVER been a magical "right" way to create music. Even the 'concept' of "music" has always been open to all kinds of questions and debates. Shit. What's music to my ears, may be total garbage to someone else's ears. For example, I almost exclusively (subject to change at any given time) play a form of Hip Hop Jazz, fused with sprinkles of R&B and Southern Soul. Some folks (especially the older "purists") absolutely "hate" it, but I couldn't care less. Creating any kind of music, in and of itself, is a very weird and mostly selfish endeavor to begin with. You sit at your instrument, waiting for an idea to come, and when you 'think' you have something that satisfies your palate, boom, you plow forward! Damn the critics and fans alike. Like it or not, just about every musical idea conjured from the well of something, some idea, some notion, that has been (in some form or other) conjured before. So, unless we are musical geniuses or prodigies, we are basically at the mercy of extemporaneous forces. Now, I'll go back to my keyboard... Who knows what will pop up? For the most part, the "loops' will remain in the box.

 

Last edited: Jan 1, 2016

Don't take me the wrong way, I do think that using others' loops can help your creativity.

But using solely others' loops to make "your" music is utterly lame. I think everybody will agree to that. That's even worse than making a replica of somebody's song and call it yours. I mean WTF? eh? And what's the purpose of doing that? then we can call all those hundreds of thousands of karaoke singers "artists" and "musicians", too!

 

No doubt! Even if you have a modicum of music ability, your first step should be panning and scanning your own mind for ideas. In the long run, you'll get a hell of a lot more satisfaction. Thank goodness my mother, her brother, and her sisters made sure that we (all of my nine brothers and sisters) learned to play an instrument at a very early age. When it's all said and 'sung', nothing really beats creating your own loops, eh? HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Eastern Standard Time).

 

UGH! Just had to mention karaoke didn't you SineWave!! Don't get me started on that lame ass dreck. The pure, absolute death of live music.

 

When Sonic Foundry's Acid first came out in the late 90s, all of a sudden everyone claimed they were a producer. After getting over how cool the technology behind Acid was, and playing with it for a while, I came to the opinion that DJing loops is not really writing or composing; more arranging and/or DJing other people's writings or compositions, even if those compositions are merely 4 bar loops.

Arranging and/or DJing definitely is an art in itself, but I wouldn't say I produced a track myself if all I did was arrange loops in an interesting way.

Now had I produced the loops as well, then the argument becomes slightly augmented.

Having been in rock bands, it seems there is something to playing, and being able to play again, each track through from beginning to end. Green Day albums started sounding loopy when they went Emo, which seemed stale. I pretty sure Floyd, Zeppelin or the Doors didn't use loops, though each definitely utilized the effects racks as instruments in themselves. (whether it was the band or the producers or a combination of the both)

I ponder are we playing with technology that hasn't yet been fully realized as the truly modern day instrument?

It seems as though the boundaries between writer/composer/producer/arranger/mixer is somewhat blurred with the availability of this ever-evolving technology, which really wasn't a reality only two decades ago.

Acid - The Sonic Foundry Story 1998

 

Will just end this right here and now.

 

Look where are Prodigy and Chemical Brothers now and everything will be clear to you (chops and loops are no no) :D

 

both liam howlett and the chemical bros have used loops extensively. i remember an interview with one of the chemical bros the one with glasses and he said he used the zero-g planet of the breaks on loads of tracks so even the "experts" use loops now and again. someone earlier said it best when he said its hard to get a horn section into his house for a session.

 

He can be an expet but I am still not the one with the glasses. I have glasses but don't know what I have with him in common. I read that he buyed Focal Sm9 (appareantly)...

 

Last edited: Jan 6, 2016

Just listen the first and the last album of Chemical Brothers.

 

This is something everybody thinks. In my opinion it's just how you make it your own.
You can always exaggerate with going back to the purest form of some creation but in the end there is not so much that hasn't been done in the past. So feel free to use whatever you like, chop it up and create some cool new stuff as long as you make it your own by using the tools (Sound Design) you have

 

The more premade a thing is, the less control you have over it's detaills.

It's not good or bad either, it is what it is.

 

Enigma, Public Enemy (Terminator X), Prodigy, KLF (top selling records of 90's, and because of that they burn all earned money and make bricks ), and many more...
It's ok of course, but with a little creativity and imagination... Just analyse Enigma songs. There is a site on web about samples used in songs. Cretu is genius. He used one drum loop 1/1 from Spectrasonics RMX Metamorphosis bank... but just at half speed Interesting...
Also few how it's made "prodigy" videos on youtube... what a creativity, hands down.

 

The rules are there are no rules.

 

Honestly, for about 99% of my production, I use percussion loops because organic drums sound so damn good! Now, do I use the straight up loop? Hell no, there's so much you can do with a loop to make it your own. For the most part, you probably wouldn't even recognize the original loop from my prearranged effected one. There isn't a whole lot of difference between programming a drum machine and programming sampled slices of a drumloop. You're still being JUST AS CREATIVE!! and that's what I do with my loops, slice every part of the loop and arrange it to my liking, then overlay with my drumrack drum machine in Ableton.

In my opinion, you just can't get a good percussion without some good raw organic loops. Even with Kontact, you just can't get that human like sound of the drum without a loop!

 

Last edited: Mar 6, 2016

If you look at these recreations of Prodigy and how it's made, people who don't understand artistic talent will tell you, "well look, it's not that hard, they just used some samples and loops" but it's not that easy. Coming up with an idea for a song and creating a composition out of it, with or without samples can be very challenging. I always tell people who react with those words, "well, if it's so easy, why don't you come up with your own idea for a hit track using similar methods and see how far you get?"

Prodigy is freaking genius. The "Experience" album and "Fat Of the Land" still blow my mind. It's not the sample bites that make the song, it's how he arranges them and composes that really makes the track.

It's all about coming up with the idea. If you don't have a broad imagination and creative mind, good luck!

 

With Melodyne 4 you can fuck up your loops so much that even the hardcore loop collector won't recognize em anymore

At the end of the day you make music for the simple folks out there, thats like 99% of the population and they don't give a shit if your music has loops inside as long it sounds good. Shit most of them can't even tell the difference between a maj or minor chord.

The best thing is to cook: Mix all that shit together: Synths, loops, live recordings, whatever
Just try to cook a 5 star meal haha

 

No. Why should it be? Even Armin uses loops. So why don't we?!

 

Ther r no rules.