Is it Cool To Use Loops?

Performance & Techniques Music Production
1

Is it Cool To Use Loops?

Hi All,

I have just started on my quest to make Jungle & Drum & Bass music.

I have been watching so many Youtube videos and i am still not getting the desired effect.

I figure, when making a track you should start from the ground up right?

Drums, I am now familiar with the sequencer, and i know how to make a basic drum beat pattern, but i don’t really understand Compression and all the other bits and pieces that go with music production at this stage.

I know i have only been at this a couple of weeks, and it will take months, maybe years before is sound remotely professional. But it has been really frustrating trying to get the sound that i am looking for.

I resorted to putting a loop that i got from some website somewhere in my track, and it sounds much much better.

Is it cool to use loops, or should i look further afield for drum hits etc?

If anybody can recommend a book or a guide or something, i would be very interested to read it.

I have logic pro X by the way.

Thanks,

Matt.

2

D&B is all about sampling breaks. Some might consider it cheating to d/l the cut loops off the web but hey you’re just starting out so don’t worry about cool. Just get a few tracks under your belt and then worry about the street cred later. Or go dig for your breaks and cut them yourself. http://blog.whosampled.com/2010/04/29/the-10-most-sampled-breakbeats-of-all-time/

3

Do whatever the hell you want. If it sounds good to you, keep doing it. If it doesn’t’t, change something!

4

No, it isn’t.

(I’m only half kidding)

Your were absolutely right when you said it’s going to take month/years before you’ll really master the art of making music.

Using loops can be kind of a short-cut to get there earlier. A short-cut which can make music production much more fun, since you’ll see results much quicker.

My advice would be: use loops if it helps you at the moment. I think what’s most important about making music is that you have fun doing it. If loops help you to have fun it’s absolutely fine to use them.

Just keep in mind that, whatever you can do using loops, if you can’t do it without loops, you’re not quite there yet… :wink:

5

I do want to know how to do it properly. There just seens to be a shortage of (free) info out there that is directly relevant to dnb and what I want to achieve.

Looks like I have got to put my hand in my pocket again.

6

Yes, it is.

Drum loops are perfectly legit.

7

Drum loops are good, but if you have access to a good sample library and maschine or ableton and a controller with pads, making your own is pretty easy fun and allot more flexible. I’ve never had the urge to use drum loops because machine is so easy to create your own and is the most fun part imo!

8

I don’t have such equipment at the moment. All I have isvmy macbook pro and logic pro X.

9

Ok then, load up the sampler create a 1-4 bar loop on the arrangement view hit command K to bring up the keyboard and tap in some beats.

I logic has 808/909 samples and some other good stuff included.

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this

11

Tell me you’ve been here already?

http://www.dogsonacid.com/forums/production.44/

12

No mate, never seen it before.

Will have a look though.

Thanks,

Matt.

13

Hi Mattalik,

Logic x is absolutely enough, don’t feel you have to spend more money as that’s not the case. So many d&b producers (the top level ones - Spectrasoul, Rockwell, Wilkinson, TC, DC Breaks, etc etc) achieve great things with logic, and the build in plug ins will serve you well.

The number of d&b tunes with a sub bass from EXS24 (the default patch) is huge.

So what about loops? Well Hi Hat loops are fine, shaker loops are fine, musical loops are fine (baseline, melody etc) but I’d probably stay away from a full drum loop, and use individual hits instead.

You can get a lot of good stuff for free - check out Loopmasters, they do free tasters for their sample packs, and have some really good ones for drum and bass. Find a drum loop you like and chop out the kick and snare to use.

Also find as many remix competitions as you can and download the stems.

The sound of D&B has changed a lot over the years, and is moving away from break beats. A more modern, synthesised kick just hits a lot harder, like wise snares.

Achieving a good sound when producing drum and bass is all about starting with the right sounds. You’re much better off spending half an hour finding the right sample than half an hour EQing the wrong sample.

Use 1 good kick sample, 1 good snare (you’ll get into layering as your skills progress) and you can fill in the space between the kick and snare with chopped up breaks, hi hats, rides, bongos, congas etc!

I found the Youtube tutorials really helpful.

The Sub Focus ones for Computer Music are pure gold - he explains what to look for when choosing samples.

If you feel like spending money, Addictive Drums is really good.
DLR has a great video on it.

Keep at it, it won’t happen over night and Drum and Bass is one of the hardest genres to produce well, but once you finally “get it” it’s hugely rewarding.