Is what i'm doing honest

[Jude2010]

Right you know the way people can buy 'Prime Loops'
loops/samples?
well am i being honest if i completely use the loops to create a song, i mean i cut bits out and add others in of course
Is it fair for me to use them in that way?
but like how else is someone supposed to used them
i don't have a midi keyboard, yet, and i find it a lot easier using samples already made to create beats
I just feel like i'm taking credit for.. well nothing really. I mean i wasn't the one who recorded a drum, guitar or bass solo
but like I was the one who put them together to create a nice beat

Does this justify what i'm doing?

 

[Jude2010]

Poll Title Miss-spelling

Sorry i wrote 'I'm I' instead of 'Am I'

Stupid automatic spell check

 

[Jude2010]

Poll Title Miss-spelling

Sorry i wrote 'I'm I' instead of 'Am I'

Stupid automatic spell check

 

[gullyjewelz]

hey where can i hear some of these supposedly questionable tracks?
--only thing i say is that if the loops have drum patters in them . . not that its wrong, but many times the drum patterns are somewhat less interesting . .so u have to really layer them up or some other way chop em to create a newer, different pattern . . but only the "makers" know this . .. ppl who just listen to have a good time rarely care . .

 

[Jude2010]

Yes that's what I do
I cut out bits of the drum/guitar etc patttern to make it suite the track better

 

[grimtraveller]

It really depends on what level you take the practice. For me, if your beats are combined in such a way that they are unrecognizable from the beats you cut them out of, then what the heck ?

 

[diggy_dude]

Buying pre-packaged loops isn't any more dishonest than using the preset patterns in a groove box, really. That's what they're there for (assuming you have the author's permission to use them). Of course you run the risk of sounding like everyone else, but if you're splicing and dicing them into original loops, then I don't see a problem.

EDIT:

On the other hand, people who use something that is clearly part of someone else's signature sound (e.g., an Eddie Van Halen solo or the whole rhythm section from a Who song), well, that just pisses me off.

 

[kcearl]

go for it...who cares...eventually you'll get tired of the restriction of straight loops and either make your own or learn how to chop and slice them

if i cant find a sample i like I make my own..then add vinyl crackling to it, hows that for cheating..again who cares...if it sounds like music to someone thats all that counts in my book

 

[madfresh]

I agree with grimtraveller. If you you edit and process the samples so that they sound different from the original then you shouldn't be bothered.

I always think about this stuff when I produce as well. "How creative have I been in making this beat?" and so on. It's good to see other people thinking the same hehe.

 

[1stup]

go for it u are not the only one doing it i promise

 

[Farno]

Yea you aren't the only one, and if you enjoy doing it, do it!

But honestly if you were a big hit and people found out you just pieced together other peoples work (despite paying for it), you wouldn't earn much credit for "making" music.

Isn't making your own beats and instrumental parts part of the fun!?

 

[Greg_L]

I say yes, you are cheating and unoriginal.

 

[AbuseTheMuses]

Who actually uses the presets off a Groovebox anyway?

It isn't any more wrong than karaoke. I can have fun doing karaoke but at the end of the night, I don't go home with the same sense of self worth as I would have singing my own song and playing guitar to it at an open mic or something. It's fun, but I have no delusions about it being an artistic or creative outlet. If that's all you know how to do is use other people's ideas, then eventually you will burn out of it never having your own sound. If I can't do something of my own, I feel stifled and want to learn why not, rather than just fake it.

So yeah, in my opinion, it isn't 'wrong' it's just a kind of unsatisfyingly lame consolation prize feeling compared to actually crafting something myself that I'm proud of and can say is "mine".

 

[stevieb]

Yea you aren't the only one, and if you enjoy doing it, do it!

But honestly if you were a big hit and people found out you just pieced together other peoples work (despite paying for it), you wouldn't earn much credit for "making" music.

Isn't making your own beats and instrumental parts part of the fun!?

Hey, it could happen... But I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for it. But if you become the hip-hop version of Hootie and The Blowfish (you may recall, they got sued by Bob Dylan for lifting just one line, inserted in a song as a freakin' tribute.) Worse-case scenario: Some truly famous, original and talented songwriter sues you, because he heard your rip-off after you sold hundreds of thousands of records. That bit o' press will probably sell hundreds of thousands more copies of your song- so what the heck? As they say, any publicity is good publicity- and that's gotta go double for the "we're all a bunch of thugs" mentality that seems to prevail in hip-hop.

 

[AbuseTheMuses]

Yeah I dunno about that. It hardly serves to raise the bar of expectation much to reinforce the ignorant thieving thug stereotype by literally becoming it, (well, maybe not the 'thug', but the 'ignorant, thieving'... you can always pretend to be a thug and thieve that too, I'm pretty sure it's been done before) when the most noticable part of a track is something someone else did. If anything that could just be a racial or 'urban' music stereotype waiting to happen. Can't do it with your own hard work and talent, but talented at stealing it? Ech I don't even want to go there.

(First one that comes to mind is 'Missing You' by Puff-(diddy-dirty-money-daddy-combey-seany-whatever-the-heck-he-calls-himself-this-week) starring a certain guitar line from the Police. I wonder if that song would have been a hit without that guitar line. I doubt it. Vanilla Ice likewise comes to mind with the very simple yet origional bass-line-plus-flute riff from Queen. If the whole hook of a your song is someone else's little moment of inspiration, then it means you kind of suck. There's the Producer/artist, and then there's the thief who markets himself well enough so nobody wises up to how unorigional he is.

Ignorant producers with a flair for self promotion instead of creativity, serving it up for ignorant fans who just want a hook and some flashing lights and bling to woot-woot at. I doubt if Ice Ice baby was expecting his target audience to even know who Queen was, let alone recognize the riff. Oops.