TIPS FOR BETTER LOOP-BASED MUSIC

Make your loops more interesting with slicing, dicing, offsetting, and detuning

by Craig Anderton

Loop-based music is much more than the province of dancing and DJs. I’ve used loop music for three movie soundtracks, two industrial videos, a radio commercial, several remixes, and for rock as well as dance-oriented music. But using loops is also a friendly way to get into music, as the process is more like collage—you don’t need great musical technical chops to put together a satisfying musical experience.

However, you do need good source material, and most importantly, the ability to move beyond the constraints associated with this method of making music. The tips presented in this article, coupled with a reasonable amount of time spent editing, will hopefully help you add a more creative, humanized element to your loop-based music.

First of all, avoid letting loops repeat ad infinitum. You need to slice, dice, and otherwise modify them to maintain interest. The following examples show screen shots from Cakewalk Sonar, but apply to other programs as well.

PERSUASIVE PERCUSSION

A lively percussion loop can complement a drum part, but the point of these instruments is to add variations. To keep the loops from getting too repetitive, cut them into pieces. Rearrange the pieces in various orders, but maintain some level of repetitiveness to “anchor” the part (for example, try always repeating the same quarter note fragment at the beginning of every measure or two). Fig. 1 shows a tambourine loop before and after slicing and dicing.

Fig. 1: The last two measures of this four-measure loop have been "sliced and diced" to create a different part compared to the original loop. A couple of the louder hits have been repeated to accent the part, and some of the smaller hits have added 32nd-note flourishes.

BREAK THAT BEAT

An important element in some dance-oriented music is the breakbeat, where the sound “thins out” dramatically just before a figure repeats. The breakbeat provides the element of tension/variation in the “tension/release” equation.

For example, suppose you have a two-measure, repeating drum loop. Let it go for seven measures, then cut the 8th measure. This throws the spotlight on whatever is playing in the background, such as a bass part.

Conversely, you could cut out the last measure of bass, and let the drums carry the piece by themselves; or cut both the bass and drums, and stick in a drum fill that’s different from the main drum loop. You may even be able to use the slice and dice technique mentioned previously to create a fill variation out of the drum loop.

In addition to a major breakbeat effect during the eighth measure, I’ll sometimes throw in a slight variation on the fourth measure, like erase the second half of the measure, and repeat the first half of the measure in its place.

EXITING THE BREAKBEAT

As you come out of the breakbeat, adding a few kick drum hits can be a really effective lead-in to the next measure. As many dance-oriented drum loops start with a kick, if you draw in just the first sixteenth note of the loop, you’ll hear a short kick. To lead in, set snap to 16th notes, then draw two 16th notes just before the beginning of a measure. Also, try lowering the first kick’s volume a bit to provide some dynamics leading into the next kick hit. If you can’t find a loop with a suitable kick at the beginning, you can always drag in a one-shot kick drum and trim as needed (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: The kick that leads off a loop (highlighted in yellow) has been copied twice and inserted as 16th-note lead-ins. Note the red clip gain envelopes; the two kicks get louder as they lead into the loop.

PART SPLICING

Sometimes a continuing part, like a rhythm guitar, can get really b-o-r-i-n-g as it loops and loops and.... It really helps to cut a small piece from a similar or related part, and splice it in to break up the monotony and add a useful accent. For example, if there’s a funky guitar part doing most of the work, add a wa-wa flourish from a different loop magicmagat the end of the measure.

REPAIRING PAD LOOP SEAMS

No, “pad loop” has nothing to do with Thai food. Rather, pads are sustaining sounds, like string beds or drones. Pads are difficult to loop, whether in samplers or digital audio programs, and a common fix is to add a short fade to the beginning and/or loop end so that there aren’t any clicks when the end transitions back to the beginning. Unfortunately, this causes the sound to drop out momentarily, thus negating the loop’s continuous nature.

The simplest way to fix a gap is to duplicate the looped pad, and offset the copy so its peak occurs during the original loop's volume drop, thus masking it (Fig. 3). For the best masking, pan the two loops to the same point in the stereo image.

Fig. 3: Two tracks of the same pad loop (loop repeat points highlighed in yellow for clarity), offset with respect to each other to cover a loop transition.

DETUNING

Here’s another wonderful anti-boredom tool, particularly for drum loops. Suppose a drum loop plays during the intro to a verse, and during the verse itself. Detune the portion behind the verse by around a half-step or so; this adds a timbral difference that supports the change in the song from intro to verse.

Detuning is also great with cymbals, as you can use it to turn one cymbal into a family of cymbals. If you define the cymbal as a one-shot instead of a loop, changing tuning also changes duration. In fact, you can get a gong-like effect by layering two cymbal sounds. Detune one by about a half-dozen semitones; detune the other by a much greater amount, like 20 or more semitones.

Craig Anderton is Editor Emeritus of Harmony Central. He has played on, mixed, or produced over 20 major label releases (as well as mastered over a hundred tracks for various musicians), and written over a thousand articles for magazines like Guitar Player, Keyboard, Sound on Sound (UK), and Sound + Recording (Germany). He has also lectured on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and three languages.