Perhaps a real stupid question concerning loops.

[ShaneR]

Alright, I have a feeling this is a question that everyone will direct me to Google in reply...yep one of those

Anyway, been away from the music scene for a while and have never "really" used loops, but find myself intriqued lately (looking at the huge amount available with RAW). I'm just a hack (a little background ) simply a hobby that I am able to spend a few hours a week on if I'm lucky.

So, how do YOU use loops? Do you compose an entire song with them? Use them to lay down a rhythm track only and build from there? use one or two to add a "missing something" to a completed track? Use them as a scratch pad before recording with your own instruments and playing? All of the above and more?

I guess, in my inexperienced mind, they seem to be better suited for dance music etc rather than say Jazz, rock, blues, or what I might call the more melodic genres (what I lean towards)...making sense?

Anyway, I have played with them a little in the past, and it was great to have professional sounding tracks right away (and it was fun )...just wondering how everyone uses them as I'm unsure how they would fit in with what I would want to do...maybe I can only find out by actually doing it, huh?

Just curious

PS. knowing me, I put this in the wrong forum, but since I'm considering RAW and I've been wanting to get some SR products for a long time..figured this would be a good spot

[Xnah]

All of the above and more... And I'm just a newbie in loop-world.

You can use the loops as is, e.g. if you need drums for a rock song but don't play it yourself;

You can slice and reorder the loops, to use the sounds but with a different groove and feel (e.g. look at Devine Machine or at the new Audiodamage plugin);

You can extract the rythm to MIDI and use your own sounds;

You can slice and add FX on the different slices, from gentle (EQ, delay) to crazy (filters, granular, etc).

Some people construct songs with only loops (e.g. a large part of the AcidPlanet.com community). My own approach is a mix. As a side effect I create my own 'loops', 1-2 measure parts that can be re-used or mangled again.

[Reverend Rhythm]

Have you looked at the difference between .rex loops and acidized loops?

[Squids]

Well with R.A.W. you get both Rex2 and Acidized Wave loops (and Apple Loops).

Yes, they can be used for almost any style of music actually, not just dance music. They are building blocks for anything from creating the drum track of your song to experimenting and writing to adding production elements. Some people make songs using ONLY loops which is entirely possible especially if you have some tools like Kontakt, Reason or Stylus RMX that allow you to load say the Rex files and rePLAY the individual slices. You can change the pitch of notes in a bass line loop for example and make it different, perhaps suit your song better. I've done some songs with JUST loops from R.A.W. before. In fact, here's one that I am working on that is for a trip hop band. Check it out: http://www.sonicreality.com/squidscorner/heroinev2.mp3 That is completely loop-based from the R.A.W. Gold Edition. Woops, no I take that back. Some melody lines were played on Sonik Synth 2 but not many.

But, most likely you could use the loops in conjunction with products like Sonik Synth 2 or SampleTank 2 or Refills for Reason or Sonik Capsules for any other sampler to create your full songs with. Loops are good for quick ideas, for doing parts for you that you may not be able to do otherwise (such as grooves with certain feel or playing proficiency). They are just good tools to have for music making and R.A.W. is a nice source for variety and quality.

[Kim Lajoie]

I finished a film project yesterday where I used some R.A.W. loops. I needed to put together a handful of demos for the producer, and the rock loops were great to get a groove quickly that I could jam to and be inspired to come up with a bunch of different ideas quickly - faster than scheduled.

The producer liked the demos so much that the R.A.W. loops ended up in the finished soundtrack. They sounded so good that there was no reason to rerecord any drums. Great sound, great timesaver.

I don't usually use loops for my solo projects (except occasionally shakers or other percussion in the background). However, they're great when I'm doing work for a client and I need to be inspired quickly (or come up with music faster than I can be inspired). In this case, it made the difference between delivering on schedule, and delivering the night before. That kind of stuff makes a difference.

-Kim.

[Caleb]

Loops to me are like a whole new musical (or rhythmic) playground.

I have my trusty LiveSlice plug-in and I can do all sorts of things with the original material including mixing and matching various loops together. Whether it's to borrow a sound (say a kick drum) that I liked in a loop for my own purposes, or to mangle the hell out of what I'm hearing - or even just to speed it up/slow it down and use it in its entirety in my track.

I must admit I use drum loops more than any other, but I'm not averse to using a cool bass loop and reordering and repitching it.

There's some great tools out there for loop processing these days depending on the format of the loop and your budget, or you can do it old school and cut the loop up in a sequencer/audio editor and do it that way.

Sometimes, when I'm looking at a blank sequencer track, it helps to be looking at something more than a blank sequencer track.

The other thing is that if I work this way sometimes, I find myself going in directions that I wouldn't ordinarily go. I like that.

Regards
Caleb

[Reverend Rhythm]

In fact, here's one that I am working on that is for a trip hop band. Check it out: http://www.sonicreality.com/squidscorner/heroinev2.mp3

Nice track, Squids!

[ShaneR]

Thanks for the insights, guys

From Squids' description, sound like their worth is really found after mangling them a bit in your chosen software...I do have Sonar, and I know it can handle Acidized loops, so perhaps I'll take a look to see what it can do with them(4PE...the lastest is 6, I guess). I'm not ready to spend a fortune on gear...one learning process at a time

[funkychickendance]

Xnah's reply says it all. Loops don't get no respect on KVR, pretty often anyways.

They are a major timesaver, excellent way to built sketch tracks to fit lyrics to, often of amazingly good sonic quality and content. Lately I use them a lot less, but that tide will turn again, I'm sure.

If Sony ACID didn't take so frigging long to load synths (alright, I have way too many ), I'd use it for everything, I believe. As it is, it's taking second place to eXT, FL 6 or FL7, eXT2 (soonish) and Podium (depending on type of music) with me at present.

LiveSlice: amazing!

/funxi

[zai]

Loops are, to me, a real time saver. I have a small "collection" of different types of loops, ranging from Rex2 to Acidized Wave.

Not only can you build an entire song out of it, I like to effects on them and turn loops into "background" sounds to create another layer to my tracks. It's fun! I work in Live most of the time and loops are just way to much fun to play with!

Zai

[telebunke]

It's also nice to use loops as an inspiration source and rebuild them (or rebuild something similar) using other sounds / samples.

tele