Creating music Loops

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arda21

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I am trying to create wav loops via Wavelab, and then import them into recycle, and then use it with reason, my main question is things to keep in mind, when creating, lets say a guitar loop, and when playing it over and over again, i am starting to realize, it feels choppy, what are the things you watch for when creating a loop for yourself? like, when I listened standard loops, I think the end of the loop has a note of the beginning, to make it connect as a whole when playing repeatetively, is that right or what?


i am curious guys, if any opinions just shoot, or ways you handle this kinda recording... i am more into funky beats, so my loops really hazy and hard to connect together... if you know what i mean..

cheers
Arda
 
MadAudio said:
Dowload the trial version of Acid here: http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/download/step1.asp?CatID=1
(AcidExpress is freeware but ultra-basic). Acid's designed for loop-based material and is way easy to use. Wavelab is good for seasoned veterans of digital editing.
Click to expand...


I don't know if it's a question of changing his digital editing software - If I understand correctly, he just wants to chop a loop before he puts it in recycle. He'll be doing his composition in Reason. Recycle also allows you to fine tune your audio file.

Most of the loops I've created I've taken from existing audio files (as opposed to recording them myself) I've used a lot of world folk music as my source (ex - some old arab ladies playing these big drums & stuff) I use "audacity" a freeware for macs. My boyfreind uses and old form of Goldwave - very cool because it is just an audio editor - it never assumes you are editing music. No analysis of your bpms etc - totally DIY. You learn more that way.

When you say it's choppy - it sounds to me like some kind of artifact from changing the tempo. Can you explain your problem in more detail?
 
Thank you guys for the answer, sorry that I coulnd't get back to you earlier Layla: but here is what I am trying to do with loops...

My loops are just my small compositions, mostly jazzy/funky chords in different beat, to give the songs main riff throughout. thats what I am trying to achieve. however lets say on 4/4 my loop either happens to be 2 bar or 4 bar, and I want to be able to loop that without sounding there is any timing mistakes. I was curious what I should watch out in terms of the fine tuning on the beginning of the loop, and on the end to make it 'loop' just fine, you kinda know what I am sayin'?

cause it is like, i try to count the beats, and watch out for the waves to decide where to cut from to make the loop work, but so far i am not sure if i am misdoing something musically... I guess if my loops were just basic sound samples, or more clean guitar chords, then maybe i would be able to sort this out more easily... anyways, maybe I just need to get on with it more and with more practice, things will make sense, so will my loops...

cheers,

Arda

PS how is boston in these days? i lived in boston for 4 years, from 98-2002
those were the days... college years!
 
just a thought - but if you are doing your composition in reason, and you are using Dr Rex to play your loops - Dr Rex should force you loop to fit the tempo so that 1 is always 1...

I guess it goes without saying that your recording wants to be as in time as possible - maybe you should record with a click coming in on you headphones.

Finally, really loop tweaking is an art, not a science. Keep doing it and you'll get it.
ps: where are you from?
 
hey do you use reason as well? if you do i would love to exchange some ideas with you as i just started fiddling around with the new version, reason 3.0

i m originally from overseas, half turkish half italian, but lived in states, about 98-03, 5 years, i was in boston's guitar scene for a while, house of blues in harvard, and with my band in first 2 years in college, well barely 2 years... anyways, if you use msn messanger, let me know so we can exchange ids there, as for loops:

i am not sure about dr rex, it can change the tempo, but you use a program called recycle and i bring in my wavs for to make them rex loops there, and i get the timind right, but it is something different about playing the part over and over again in a loop player, or playing it over and over again on my guitar, beginning or the end feels not correct to my ears, it is hard to explain,

thanks for your responses,

cheers
A.
 
Hi Arda,

I had a turkish friend who was going to harvard graduate school at the same time that you were in boston...

It may be that your ear is not comfortable with loops - that is you are accustomed to hearing a human being play with all his or her imperfections and your ear hasn't adapted to the machine's regularity. I use reason 2.0 currently. I wish I had my own copy of recycle. I've only used it once, but I'm quite comfortable with the results I got and comfortable with the software.

I use MSN. I'd be happy to get in touch. If you'd like to send me your Dr Rex file and your original guitar loop - I'll see if I can tell what's going on.
(I may get a copy of Recycle, but for the PC - so I'll have an interesting time transferring the files)

Like I said, I use reason 2.0. I've been working on a composition. I'm still not a very good composer - at least I don't like what I do - but I've got a decent techinical understanding of what I'm doing.

Helena

this is my little piece I did on reason.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/writePage.cfm?myType=music&bandid=270517&bandnamesave=laylanahar
 
I started out with MIDI only for writing of rythms & melodies. I graduated to triggering samples, and then using loops. I've kinda graduated to doing real insturment tracks (I'm a drummer), and use sequencing of MIDI and loops, much less than how I used it when I first got into this. The thing that I continuously find is that I draw on what I've learned about the mechanics of music, and music theory in general. It is good that I worked with these things as a learning experience. The editing techniques I've learned, and the general knowledge of music and it's principles, that comes from working with midi sequencing has come to be invaluable. Even when working with "one shots", I can treat them as loops and copy/paste pieces of an arrangement when I want them to be quite easily, all because I took the time to learn to sequence, and or work with loops. It has made me much more comfortable in working with a metronome as a drummer behind an acoustic kit. A lot of people balk at midi, and the use of loops, but I think it's a good thing to learn, towards a good general knowledge of how these things apply to music theory in general. Music is afterall math. A human math, but math none the less. To me they are important in understanding this. Hope I'm not off topic too much here.
 
no - not at all. I'm using reason a lot - how midi is that? but I'm looking on a lot of what I'm doing for it's learning value, rather than worrying too much about the results. Like, it wojuld be cool if I could arrange for strings, written out on paper. Well, if I don't see what I can learn now with the toold availavble to me, I'll never get to that point. And also for sure, the hands on value of learning to make your instument speak is real important for getting the bes result out of a sequencer and synths.

LN
 
Layla Nahar said:
no - not at all. I'm using reason a lot - how midi is that? but I'm looking on a lot of what I'm doing for it's learning value, rather than worrying too much about the results. Like, it wojuld be cool if I could arrange for strings, written out on paper. Well, if I don't see what I can learn now with the toold availavble to me, I'll never get to that point. And also for sure, the hands on value of learning to make your instument speak is real important for getting the bes result out of a sequencer and synths.

LN
Click to expand...


I am not really familiar with reason. I use Acid Pro 5.0 if I'm working with loops, and a lot of times if I'm not. But the thing to remember here is that all of these utilities are based on basic music principles. Most notebly BPM (tempo). Anything that is played to a metronome can be used as loops. This includes audio rendered from quantized midi sequences. You can actually creat loops from quantized midi. A lot of people don't know that MIDI sequences can be an endless supply of audio loops once rendered broken up into sections and calibrated to BPM. All of this is based on basic music principles. So typically data created in one program is usable in all programs if converted to a standard format like wav or mp3.

Most of my earlier productions were done with either all midi, midi/loops, midi/loops/audio combinations. If you want to have a listen and perhaps discuss this even more click my www button and visit my site.

Have you used MIDI at all? Do you know what it is? It's basically a triggering system. Once you learn the basics of it the applications are endless really. It's a great thing to get into trust me. I still use it for writing, and sometimes in production. I've even been known to use it onstage realtime.

http://fjam.zapto.org/

If you are new to this I'd be happy to show you the basics. Once you know the basics it opens up a whole new world of investigation.
 
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