Loop Making

[elsupermanny14]

Hi guys. First time poster on this forum, long time member of the HC community. Up to this point I have been using a lot of pre-recorded software loops for when I write music, but I'm hitting a point where I want to expand out and have more input in my loops. I'm definitely at the point where I would like to start making my own loops.

 

I have a couple questions.

1. If I use more advanced loops how does one avoid infringing on someone else's music and avoided legal disputes?

 

2. If I make my own loops what is the best way to go about it? Midi controller, drum pad, software plus keyboard? I don't really know...

 

How many of you guys make your own loops and what is your process? Just looking to get some more information on this. Thanks!

[Zooey]

You can't make a loop of copyrighted material without a license from the copyright owner. You can use pre-licensed material like loop libraries, or you can try to find public domain content, but you would have to be careful that both the recording and composition were not covered by copyright. Or you could take your own recordings of your own compositions, and make loops from that.

 

All you really need in the way of equipment is an audio editing and sequencing program and a mouse. Making a loop is really easy. Just select some audio, and adjust the loop boundaries until you like what you hear. There are some loop friendly applications like Ableton Live and Sony Acid that take the busy work out of time expansion/compression and pitch shifting, but almost any DAW has a workflow for that.

 

A MIDI control surface like keyboards or drum pads can be useful if you want to trigger loops manually to inject some improvisation, but it's not necessary. You could just as easily sequence the whole thing in software.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Hi guys. First time poster on this forum, long time member of the HC community.

 

Welcome!

 

Up to this point I have been using a lot of pre-recorded software loops for when I write music, but I'm hitting a point where I want to expand out and have more input in my loops. I'm definitely at the point where I would like to start making my own loops. I have a couple questions. 1. If I use more advanced loops how does one avoid infringing on someone else's music and avoided legal disputes?

 

Don't sample your loops from commercial recordings. If you do, you need to get sample clearance and licensing, which means paying the original songwriter(s) royalties. If you write your own grooves and sample your own loops from material you created from scratch and own the copyright to, or create your own loops via your DAW and MIDI and virtual instruments, and by using audio editing of license-free sample loop libraries to create new, fresh loops, you avoid the issue entirely.

 

2. If I make my own loops what is the best way to go about it? Midi controller, drum pad, software plus keyboard? I don't really know...

 

A good two track / sample editor program would be really helpful. I really like Sound Forge since it has the ability to "Acidize" loops that will work with Acid, which is Sony's loop based program that kind of functions similarly to Garage Band in the way it works with song creation via loops. Sony has a very large library of Acidized loops that can be purchased. Sony's Vegas DAW / Video Editor, Avid's Pro Tools, and other DAW programs can work well with loops too.

 

A drum controller / sampler / sequencer, such as the Akai MPC line, would be a valuable tool to have for beat and loop creation. Your computer is obviously an incredibly useful asset. A good DAW program is a must, and a small keyboard controller is too. You'd also want a couple of good virtual instruments. Many DAW programs come bundled with some basic models of drum machine and virtual synth and keyboard plugins to get you going, plus there are tons of freeware ones available online, not to mention commercial models you can purchase.

 

How many of you guys make your own loops and what is your process? Just looking to get some more information on this. Thanks!

 

I do so occasionally, but not that often. When I do, it's typically something I "play", then add more parts to, then loop. For example, I may find a drum groove that I like via a virtual instrument and maybe a short MIDI sequence of a drum pattern. Sometimes I'll use something like Avid's Strike (a virtual drum instrument plugin) and mess around with that until I find one of the onboard patterns that I like or that I can edit to suit my needs. I may then add a keyboard bass line or real bass part to that, then maybe add some keyboard pad, stabs and / or a "hook" riff to that... then do a mix of it all to a stereo track and loop it.

 

It really depends - most of the looping I do is whenever we think we want or need a loop for a section of a song, and frankly, it only gets called for once in a while on the type of material I typically work on.