Help with BASIC remixing project

[Rattykins]

Pardon my ignorance; never got around to learning how to use

looping programs (despite having an old version of LIVE) or

samplers or the like. Dreadfully ignorant...

 

Despite that, I found myself volunteering to 'extend' some Salsa

music for a friend; there are a number of places where breaks

can be pulled out and looped; I thought it would be a simple

procedure. However...

 

I cannot for the life of me get a precise BPM match with a metro-

nome, and without an accurate grid I've no idea how to make

precise splices or crossfades or whatnots or whodads...

 

I guess I'm looking for someone to give me a little primer into

the world of loop-making/remixing. Anyone willing to help

a poor ignorant soul?

 

(Have a bit of software to work with; I usually just find myself

toying with softsynths and guitars and Tracktion)

 

Justin

[Yoozer]

You edit waves with a wave editor... my personal fave is Sony's Sound Forge, but any of 'm could do the job, like Cool Edit, Wavelab.. etc. I don't think Live is really fit for that kind of stuff unless it's got a built in editor which I like, totally missed. Which is probably the case because I only got to work 5 minutes with it or something.

 

What you need is not a grid, but a length in seconds. Those are 4 beats. If the BPM is 120, every 'beat' will last 60/120 = 0,5 seconds. Find out the length of those 4 beats in case you're not precise enough (or 8 if you're a sucker for accuracy), divide that length by 4 or 8 so you've got 1 beat, then divide 60 by that number and you've got your BPM.

 

When you build your song, use single loops, otherwise you're going to get out of sync rather soon.

 

Another thing that works is having a VST plugin that allows you to 'tap tempo' .