Loops CD's ?

[Resonator]

What's the fun of loops CD's? To me it's like a microwave meal. I prefer ripping mighty drumsounds, cool brasses, heavy basses and other cool audio-bits from CD's. That might be a bit more labor-intensive, but the results are 'warm' and 'real'. Sound forge is an excellent tool for refining the loops and samples.

[SPINSTERWUN]

Some people don't have access to various CD's. So, the are not afforded the luxury that you have.

Plus, some of the CD's have GREAT sounds that a perfectionist would love.

[dafduc]

1) there's licensing issues with using CDs, obviously;

2) there are granularity issues - if I want separate control of a drum track, but the drum never plays alone on the CD, then I've got very few options - I'm stuck with the chords too (though I did write a whole song designed to work over shifting parts of a 2-bar excerpt from Funkadelic's "One Nation");

3) along the same lines, if you're manipulating the notes on a part from a CD, but the drums are on that track too, then the drums will change pitch along with the instruments - ugly;

4) It's only a microwave meal if you don't jack with it. I do - a lot of slicing and dicing, pitch shifts, etc.

[Resonator]

Well, SPINSTERWUN. There are loads and loads of cheap or second hand CD's available. Every CD contains nice sounds. And, hey, then we have sound editors !! That's the part I love: restructuring samples and loops. And therefor dafduc, you can hardly recognise the samples I use.
The problem is indeed to find 'clear' samples, but half a bar of drums will do. Everything you need for a good drumtrack might be in there. Just slice it, get the snare, hihat, kicks etc. out of it and there's your drumkit.

[DKeenum]

I see the benifit of the creativity the slicing and dicing gives you, but sometimes you are in a hurry. To me it is like hiring a really good but very inexpensive player.

[lilcapn]

i got a bunch of loops CDs with Acid Pro 4.0, including something called "8 Packs".

when using these loops, is it best to save them onto your harddrive, or use them off the disc?

thanks

[dafduc]

Hard drive, if you have enough room. They read way faster off HD, and will always be there - if you leave them on CD, you'll always have to shuffle your CDs so the right one's loaded. I did that for a while - what a pain!

[Resonator]

Just make project-folders. Keep everything related to that song in 1 folder, including the samples. And if you think the song is ready or if you 're getting tired of the song, just save it to a CD-ROM.

And OK, ripping samples of CD's is creative, but it's very hard to find proper samples of cymbals. Any suggestions?

[DKeenum]

I hope I'm not being overly simplistic, but with cymbals you just start a collection. You can find a lot on the 'net, but they are usually short. I've gotten some good ones from the 8 packs. In fact, there is a pretty good gong in this months "get media." I think the mick fleetwood CD has some good cymbals as well. I've had to break down and buy the loop CDs, and I must say that they have been helpful.

[Resonator]

Mick Fleetwood would it be, then. I'll give it a try. Do the samples have a '70's feeling'? 'cos that's the drumsound i really like.

[DKeenum]

I think you would call it 70s feel. It's definately Mick, but the drum sound is now. Plus there are some percussion loops. There a number of blues (swing) loops, and to me that is 70s. The drum sugar CD is also great. It thends to work in a lot of styles, but it is on the funk side where mick is on the rock/pop side.