Making beats: starting from scratch vs using pre-made loops

[thegeek]

Watch Avicii's Masterclass with Future Music. 100% sample loops for the drums except the kick and clap. And I'm sure he's not the only one. So say what you will about Avicii, but one thing is certain: you don't HAVE to make your own drum patterns to be successful.

At the end of the day it's about what sounds good and works well for you. I prefer to program mine, but I do basically everything in MIDI except FX.

[Lilac]

Usually I use drum loops. Sometimes I can't be bothered to find that one beat that I want. They don't take a lot of time to make.

[lolski]

It has taken me exactly 20 years to collect all my drums sounds.

Sampled just about every drum machine out there in existance that I could beg steal and borrow. Plus sampled the shitnuzz out my huge, huge vinyl collection, not just the breaks but single hits.

Its the back bone of all my productions....... all in easy to find directories as well.. years and years of work.

But thats my sound... we had to do it the oldskool way. If ya starting out I would find a pre made loop you like and then try to mimic it by single hits... you will leran then.

The are gillions of free sample packs out there....... go have fun!

Do you release your song commercially? I always wanted to sample from song like that but am worried about legal problem that might arise... not that I'm a big artist but still

[BiggChev]

BOTH

i highly suggest finding a loop you like and deconstruct it. that way you'll learn how make a groove and, really understand it, it will give you a better understanding when making your own loops. like many have mentioned layering loops on original drums, hell i've sampled a drum loop from a record, beefed it up with my own kicks, snares etc. and then layered another pre-made loop over it. there really are no rules. i feel like the guys who get upset are the ones that didn't think of it.

that being said, if your whole track is comprised of pre made loops, (bass, pads, leads, drums) do you really feel proud of it at the end of the day? I used to use Acid, and even my Maschine has a load of stock loops that I do make use of, but it's not just about that. If it sounds good, feels right then by all means go ahead.

One of my things I used to do, and should get into the happen of doing again, is just making drum loops. I used to sit in front of Acid Pro for HOURS just making drums loops, with different variations. Sometimes i sampled, sometimes they were all original, then save them as wav files, so when a bass line/melody/chord progression came to me I could quickly pull up a drum loop with 4-8 variations on it, and almost bang out a whole song.