hey yall,

i ain't never been keen on these loop packages, i usually try to make my own stuff from scratch and i'm doing pretty good, but now i wanna try to download one of these loop packages and chop some of their loops up n play with that.. i heard a lot of fellow producers say it's not cool to just put loops in you arrangement as is.. but how do you guys feel about that? and what if i use some loops and chop em up n stuff? all yall opinions are appreciated

 

and if you do use loops, please explain to me a lil bit how YOU use them in your arrangements, what are your method peeps... bye!

 

@ Amsterdam Pirate,

What an interesting topic you have launched here !
and I hope sincerely that a lot of members will take a look at it and take a few of their 'precious' time to express their own opinions and methods about the 'main' subject of your article, so below you'll find my 'own' opinion related to all these 'pre-made' Samples & Loops Packs.

Very good point for an artist... this denotes a 'creative mind' that try to tend toward originality in his approach.

Here comes my first 'harsh' comment !
What thinking of producers that argue, as you so well stated it, that's is not 'cool' to just put some loops within an arrangement, but that perhaps have recourse to the services of some 'Session Mens' (Studio Musicians - including Vocalists, Backing Vocalists,... ) for playing some parts they need, or at least, they want to hear within their creations ?
(***) Personally, I don't see a real difference between using 'pre-made' Samples & Loops (as those found in the Packs we're talking) and hire the services of a Musician, Vocalist,... In my opinion, only the expected results will be valid and worthy whatever the means employed ! *yes*

My previous last sentence answers you directly to this fact... (***)
We must also take in account that we aren't all 'pure' Genius (here, I speak for myself first ! *yes* )... so I think that each one (artist, musician, producer,... ) must to make his 'bread & butter' or all his 'stuff' like he can, not necessarily as he would ! Some more talented people than others maybe don't need too much external help for their creations, whereas others a bit less talented need to be 'helped' a bit, either by using 'pre-made' Samples & Loops or musicians.

Anyway, 'with' or 'without' additional help, this should in any way prevent you from making music if it's your pleasure and that it satisfies your creative fun ! *yes*

If you're a musician (what I don't know !), all these 'Loops' that you find in all these Packs can be very valuable to create your 'own' Backing Tracks for practicing or for directly making your 'own' Songs where you record your parts with your played instrument(s). I used frequently this method in the past... and also sometimes nowadays.
In this sense, it's a very valuable method as all the musicians don't have necessarily the possibility to have a 'Full Band' at their disposal... *no*

 

I use loops to help get new ideas, especially when I'm experiencing writer's block. If I'm having trouble coming up with a bassline or hook, I'll often just let my drum patterns play and then scroll through some loops for inspiration.

If you are just a hobbyist, I see nothing wrong with just playing with loops. However, you can only go so far using the ideas of someone else. If you want to be an artist and gain the respect of your peers, you will eventually have to generate your own unique ideas.

 

I think that it's not important how you make your music, i mean if you are making your own beats and synths or taking loops and presets. When you use evrything right it doesn't matter how you did it...

I think the best is to make as much as possible by yourself, but when you have to use loops, presets or whatever because you don't know how to do that on your own, there's no problem, perhaps you'll learn faster by looking at loops to see how professionals do it.

 

I think if you use loops and your finished product exactly like the demos included with the loopset, then that's not really creative. If you use loops to create something new, then that is more impressive. Most loopsets steer you toward a certain style/genre/sound. But if you can take those loops (or even loops from multiple loopsets)
and mold them into something new, that is unique.

For example, I am most impressed with my work when I can take loops from two or three different loopsets and make them all work so tight it sounds like these loops were written for each other (even though they are from different genres, loopsets, or manufacturers). Or if I can take loops that were intended for one genre and use them effectively for some other genre of music.

When I first started out with loops, my songs were completely made using loops. Now I combine loops with my own live playing, furthering the uniqueness. My overall goal is to create something uniqie. I'm sure that lots of other people have many of the same loopsets that I do. But I am equally sure that what they create with those loopsets is different than what I do.

Sometimes I use loops as a starting point. I may take a bassline and a drum line from my loop collection but then add my own vocals or keys on top of it. I am a keyboardist. I am not a guitarist or drummer. Sometimes I program drums, sometimes I use use my keyboard to emulate other sounds (guitar, horns, etc). But there are definitely times when the song I am working on calls for more than my technology or talent can render. So I have no problem in those instances using a Sax libray for the sax line rather than playing a sax sound on my keyboard.

Sometimes, I 'mangle' the loops using melodyne, or VST FX, or some other tool. But most times I use the loops as is and add my own stuff on top of it.


The bottom line, as far as I am concerned, is the finished product. Does it sound good and is it unique? If it sounds good and is unique then it really does't matter how it was created, does it?

 

ok here we go. First i think if i would of brought this topic up i would of sounded more like an asshole. you brought this in subtle. now i dont hate on loops. i may use a rex loop for a shaker or tambourine. but i spend too much time tweaking my own percussion. i personally dont do construction kits. i play my own. i came into this game as a musician so i find no need. but for people who dont have a guitar, bass guitar, or know scales or chords but yet still learning i cant hate. loops should not be used as a crutch. but morphing and mangling a loop i dig that because your designing. look at hip hop its taken a blow because when hip hop was a spring chicken all the damn songs where sample based. but since fools cant do that as much because of the cost of getting a sample cleared we faced with hip hop producers with no musician skills. making soulless tracks. souljaboy type whatever!!! construction kits always state what producer style they where inspired by but why would you want to sound like somebody else when you are a creator of you own. live drum loops are cool saves you some time. but its your chord progression and the blends of several instruments in the same key that brings the magic.

 

Yes. Loops are for retards.

 

no loops are not for retards ...if u use the creatively and make them sound as there are new loops i see no problem at all ...and yes to create a very nice loop it takes some time and experience plus some really nice tools combined together ...

 

Opened a can of worms, didn't you? Don't mind using the occasional wave sample (hard to get a horn section to come to my house and play for free) But the "construction kits, in the style of..." West coast, east, dirty south, Dubstep, Drum and bass,techno- don't care. make your own loops and style. I like to assemble percussion samples into loops and chains to play drums along to. Sounds more natural than a drum machine. But loops,chains, and sections of beats chopped up and thrown together sound just like what they are to me. Hard to coax any soul out of 'em.

 

These are my thoughts...

1) Is your music repetitive? Then maybe you could use loops made by somebody else, even as an inspiration...
2) You may use a tool (like the one in Cubase) in order to use PARTS of several loops and build up your own (this mainly applies to drums/perc)
3) You may also use somebody else's (=library) loops in order to EDIT them; cut this, chop that or exchange this and that bit... and build your own versions of them
4) You could (=should) also mix several loops (again this mainly applies to drums/perc) in order to build your own. Or add single sounds with YOUR sequences, so it doesn't sound "like others". Just beciase the downside of these commercial loop librareies is that anybody has access to them. This is why so many [House] productions sound alike -- specially true with Manuel Schleis (aka Vengeance, aka ReFX Nexus) libraries and patches...
4) Also, if they market them as royalty-free I don't see where the problem is...

In short: I think there's nothing wrong, but my advise would be taking those loops as a BASIS from which you should build your own stuff (or just as an inspiration).

 

I only use percussive loops. Like bongos, congos, etc. I will never use someone else's melodies, chords, riffs, etc. Even if my percussion loops has a kick drum in it, I'll filter it out.

 

Never used loops in any of the genre's I've written in. But I would assume that because I'm a musician and a song writer.

There are only a few mildly legit reasons for using loops. Which would be learning and inspiration. Both of which shouldn't involve a pre-made loop making it into a final version of a song.

However a lot of this debate comes down to who is a musician and who is not. Who has been training in different aspects of music [school, lessons, bands, etc] and who just kinda picked it up and started. Because most musicians I believe would be opposed to loops in any form and would rather quit music than use someone else's idea's in that fashion. But for those without the knowledge or training it's like plopping down a heaven sent item.

Most people I've come across that use loops annoy me. The ones that claim its their original music and maybe only has a single synth in the song they wrote that sounds horrible in the first place. And that I have a problem with. You can't drop a main riff or melody in your song to make it not sound empty and then claim the whole thing is yours.

Basically myself and many others I know write music for one reason or another. Some its for enjoyment, some its to impress others, and some like me who use music as a way of expressing feelings and idea's that are often misinterpreted in words. If your adding someone else's music into that then your still using someone else to express yourself and well at that point your not expressing yourself.

In the end I think most musicians get mad at loop users because when they do make a song that sounds great with loops they still know it has little to do with the person and ultimately it belittles the writing process real musicians go through. There have been many times when I had writing block and I would have just loved to rip a riff from band. But even if that band sold that riff as a legal loop it would still be no different than stealing someone else's idea's.

So whatever, if people NEED to use loops to write music it's their thing just understand you'll never get the respect you want from using loops and while I may not be huge into writing techno I don't see that genre taking a difference stance or anyone going pro off of loops [unless you're in hiphop and then you can be p-diddy]

 

The Bomb Squad (Producers of Public Enemy and Ice Cube solo albums) used samples like no tomorrows and those said albums were certified "classic" by the streets and music journalists alike. Armand Van Helden once stated he just picks samples and get the job done....next track to release! Who really wanna discredit either of those examples I posted, be my guest.........

 

hey yall i appreciate all the replies, it's very helpful having all your opinions to think about, i feel like there is a little bit of truth in most of em. i think for me it's okay to use loops in all sorts, but i wille edit them to make them some more original.. i think this will be mad fun. it's something else for a change *yes*

KEEP YOUR OPINIONS COMING!

 

Yeah right... *yes*

 

My opinion:

Is using loops "wrong"?

No, there's absolutely nothing "wrong" with it at all. But let's not kid ourselves it's the same thing as making the content of whatever loops we're on about.

Making music easily includes using loops, and obviously some very good stuff can come from it. But it's more "painting by numbers".... whilst making the actual content of loops is fine art. Just a rough analogy.

I tend to think using loops moves one more into sound engineering/production/arrangement rather than "music", as such. Music is keys, chords, scales, etc...none of which is necessary if you use (only) a construction kit from samples, for example.

Obviously at some point the two are the same - think of a Piano played in a sampler? It's just "loops", right....of one note when you press a key. But the samples are so small and individually insignificant it takes something much more than simple jigsaw skills to put them together.

The more one uses of other peoples' stuff, and the less one uses one's own, the further one is getting away from genuine creativity and the closer one is getting to plagiarism and painting by numbers.

It's easy to imagine a unique and very interesting track coming from people using various samples sourced from all sorts of different sample packs, without them ever applying a single effect or process, not one additional note or anything. But it isn't the same accomplishment as having made all the sounds oneself, and created the music and the arrangement, and blah blah blah. The two are quite different things.

It isn't hard to imagine a classical composer being able to very quickly turn out some great stuff using just a few sample packs and nothing else. But a construction-kit kiddy writing a symphony? Some hope.....right?

Not to denigrate using loops - they're fundamental today, aren't they? They're great shortcuts, and for those with limited ability and experience (such as myself) they're a real boon. And a good learning tool, if one accepts they're something of a crutch.

I suspect the author asking the question is feeling a little guilty about using them. I do. One's personal sense of integrity (and what one wishes to get out of "music", and what style etc) will likely determine whether one's own use of loops is "wrong", or not. As someone mentioned already, using session musicians is fine....so why not entire track samples? Sure.....and there's no need to redo the simplest drumbeat every time either. But it isn't the same as actually doing what the session-guy or gal did.......

Don't kid yourself, and you won't kid anyone else. ;)

 

Hallo Amsterdamse Piraat and all audiosexers,


Using whole loops from one sample package to create a track is wrong in my opinion. That's not creative.

If you combine loops that work from different sources and cut up the loops you are creating your own stuff. Add your own drums and melody lines to this and you're all good.

Make a collage of all your sources! Samples from songs, Loops from packs, play your own midi. etc..


Groeten uit Amsterdam West

 

@Vin, that's exactly what i'm doing right now, i'm usingstuff from all kind of sources. tried this for a couple of weeks and had some fun, but i noticed i tend to play everything in by myself. thanks again for all the reactions...

GROETEN UIT DE PIJP

 

got soundcloud or anything? fellow amsterdammer