You should have specified at the start. Half the comments here are talking about using sample packs or sampling music, which is unrelated ffs. Also, the reason constant tempo, rhythm and time signature is prevalent now(according to your statement) is because listeners prefer that. It's easier to grasp, more catchy, and lends more space for the vocal to shine in mainstream music. Most people listen to music now to accompany another activity or to relax, not really interested in knowing when the track is modulating its key, or trying to discern the components of the poly meter. If that's your thing, there are a lot of artists that do that, but don't be surprised if they have a smaller audience.

 

The comcept of sampling and looping has been in existence long before hip hop came to existence…

https://www.factmag.com/2016/02/23/pierre-schaeffer-guide/

 

By this I mean, make sure you subtract/add elements now and then, or add flourishes, not overdoing anything obviously.

 

@Epcot
You remind me of those heavy drinkers who detox and quit: from then on they continue to harass anyone who has even just a bud light in their hand, accusing them of destroying their own life. Using loops is just a way of expressing feelings as there are thousands of others, of course it is very exploited but I don't think it is to be condemned just because you have stopped using them. As someone has already pointed out, loop based music has given us many masterpieces and will certainly give us others more.

 

The easiest thing to do in music is to keep the time component constant. The fact is that most of the music we listen to try to cripple time in the first place so that it doesn't jump too much.

Time control in music is the hardest part of making music, but we have been taught to firstly keep the time moving constant and then start adding the next elements. In my opinion, this is a betrayal of time. Many people like to justify keeping the time constant, but I don't think the reasons for any of them are convincing.

 

I don't mean not using other people's works. I mean, let's not make music that looks like a repetitive loop.

 

BS

 

@Epcot ... Foster, is it you buddy?

 

Didn't read, the title was enough.
Is @Epcot Foster? Don't remember latest Foster's nick but I think they didn't ban him yet.

Edited: You just beat me to it @twoheart

 

I think I understand your point and must agree,
music by its nature is some kind of flow,

when performed by musicians, especially live, it's basically result of momentary perception and realtime problem-solving skills of every performing member and the way they play is something unique and not exactly repeat-able no matter how skilled the musician is,

idea of looping originated in seemingly useful idea of shortcut when composing things in modern history, but I'm convinced it was not supposed to result in actual music being directly published from those resources,

now when I think about it, I'd almost bet it's the challenge for next generational step of audio software - to perform randomization of quantization and sequencing in a human realtime-perceptive way, which would mean that the grid in a DAW would be only a guideline for the sequencing/scoring virtual instruments, which would need to communicate all together, as if they were band/orchestra members playing together - that to me, seems pretty impossible

 

Exactly......................

 

I think I get what you're sayin' - in one way. It takes a bit more effort to include pickup beats and to work 'over the bar' when you're working with perfectly truncated loops. Usually, you trigger a loop, and more often than not you're beginning on '1'. :-/

 

I was feeling a little loopy after Mike Tyson knocked me upside the head, but I'm feeling much better now that the swelling in my brain has subsided.

Now back to the show.

 

Is it considered a loop if I repeatedly playback the full song I recorded? In this case don't forget loops or you can only listen to your song once.

 

While I mostly avoid using other people's loops, I believe that a short loop is a great means to stop time (or the perception of time).
As long as it is timed below short term memory span it can provide a fixed point to build your changes around it.

 

Logic Pro X does this, in a sense.
You just record in with no click, then analyse the transients of audio or MIDI and it will create your flowing BPM track, and therefore your 'grid', and so all subsequent takes can also be quantized to your natural tempo.

 

reading through this whole thread, I think the misunderstanding comes from point of what we all consider by term "composer",

since english isn't my native language, I consider composer a person who writes sheet music, eventually with help of midi and other tricks, but does not really create a final sound,

- in that regard your question doesn't make much sense at first sight, because repetitive parts within a composition are core component of music composition for centuries, also because neither musicians nor listeners are able to memorize overly-complex music

for me, person who creates music of hear-able way is producer, or sound engineer, sound guy, musician etc.. from my point of view, and yet I cannot really tell if a person who chops and uses other music pieces (origins of sampling) is a 100% producer, since certain elements are "pre-produced" by someone else,

- in that regard, I understand your question which considers composer simultaneously a producer, plus maybe also a mixing and mastering engineer eventually, in which sense I wrote my mindset in previous post

from my musical background (pianist and drummer mostly, what really got me into MIDI was Seaboard just recently, and truth to be told complicated MPE MIDI is probably not a good way to start with MIDI in general), I still consider premade samples, loops, beats, virtual instruments etc.. as only a minor portion of music, frankly visitor seeing sister site would almost say samples and loops are 90% of music,

I'm glad we got this quite interesting topic going, I'm honestly quite surprised by posts here being rather upset about your point, as if music was mandatory to be stitched from loops and samples nowadays (?)

 

I agree that most of loop based music is absolutely boring, we have just as much boring music played live acoustic. Generally speaking, the percentage of boring music (with or without loops) is very high, but this depends on the composers, not on the technique used.