good music can be made with any method mentioned in the title.
this is the only thing that matters.
i never ever used drum loops because i’m a drummer 
but YMMV.
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I always want to have control over the exact groove of my drums, but the sounds can come from breaks, sample packs, one shots. I feel the same way about musical samples; I like the idea of using a longer musical phrase, but in practice I end up using single notes/chords or very short phrases because I just like writing more than chopping. It’s all personal preference at the end of the day.
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Here’s what Navie D has to say about the subject:
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I have to say he makes a good case for using (readymade) loops and chord packs, but I still think it’s a kind of form of creative bankruptcy to do so… and this has nothing to do with being a purist in any way. I do think there’s a big difference between sampling and using specifically made loops by the way (see my post above).
His point is basically:
- producers have always relied on other people, and left specialists to play parts of the song they’re producing, so it’s a good thing to let the specialists provide you with loops and chord packs these days.
The role of a producer is of course debatable, but for me, it’s not just serving the artist, it’s actually an artistic role in itself. With all the technological advancements, it’s possible to produce music without any knowledge or skill by just dragging and dropping some loops and midi chords into a project. And this is going to be even easier in the future when algoritms are developed which will put in the right chords or melody aitomatically, or add a buildup to a song based on whats popular. If all a producer does is make a background track as efficiently as possible, I don’t think I want to be one, and I’d rather see myself as a sound designer or electronic music composer or something.
Nothing wrong with using a loop here and there, but my point is: to me that would always be a nice quick workaround, not a great creative achievement. I think his comparison fails in regard to this: coaching a guitar player into playing the perfect solo for the track at that one moment you spend in the studio together is something very different from you going through a folder labeled ‘awesome guitar solo’s for rock/heavy metal by song key’ and picking one.
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I’ve been sort of struggling with this idea for maybe 15 years or so. Not so much about purchased loops, which I’ve never really used much of, but sample-based music in general.
I think it’s partly because over the years I’ve hung around a lot with people that play traditional instruments in bands (drums, guitar, bass, etc) or people that don’t make music at all. I was always really self conscious when playing stuff I made sampling from old records for people and getting the “Which part do you make?” or “Wow, did you play that guitar part?” “Er, no” 
Around 15 years back, I put sampling on hold for a while and starting getting into guitar again, and then went back to sampling a few years later as I realized I really like composing whole tracks. I started struggling with the idea of sampling again maybe a year or two ago and started taking some composition lessons and messing around more with VSTs and real instruments (getting inspired by my musical heroes from those old records, the Kingsway Music Library, Adrian Younge, and lots of artists on YouTube).
These days I don’t really make original tracks using sampled stuff anymore, except for the beat battles. For me, I find the beat battles to be sort of the sweet spot for sampled music, to be honest, as it’s about being forced to be creative with certain source material. It feels creative. It’s fun. I don’t get that same feeling anymore if I’m just doing it on my own. I don’t know why.
The other thing I’ve discovered through the process is that, for me, playing an instrument is a totally different experience than making full tracks. Not better or worse, just totally different. I’m taking weekly flute lessons now, and doing piano/flute duets with my teacher and practicing stuff like a bit of the the Ludwig Van. It feels really good. My goal is to eventually get to the level where I can improvise jazz, and for the first time in my life playing an instrument, that feels achievable as I’m incorporating all of my experiences thus far.
Anyway, this is all sort of stream of consciousness, but I guess, my take on the whole thing is that it’s all just a personal experience. If using recorded material in whatever form stops feeling authentic to you, maybe try another direction and see how that feels. If it still excites you, keep going with it.
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Thanks to a mixture of getting in some shit about sample clearance early on & not being musically capable enough to confidently put two samples from differing sources together in key, I took the route of sample single notes from instruments and building my own loops from there. I will flip melodic samples but rarely for my actual releases - it’s why I enjoy beat battles and sample flip challenges so much these days.
These days the sample clearance thing is a non-issue, but I missed out on some good film/TV placement money due to sample issues and vowed to change my approach to ensure that didn’t happen again. As you might guess, the opportunity hasn’t ever arisen again 
but it became my whole style of production and also resulted in me going down the synth rabbithole.
I’m competent enough to play usable melodies on keys. I’m no soloist, but turntables have always been my main instrument so any solo part I might need tends to be scratched.
The beauty of working with sounds instead of samples (aside from knowing what key and scale they’re in!) is that it forced me to focus on engineering and learning how to process things to make the sounds feel like samples. When we take things from records there is obviously a whole chain of processes that the sounds have passed through. Exploring how to achieve that in my own productions has been one of the most enjoyable and interesting experiences, allowing me to embrace and justify my desire to nerd out over vintage studio techniques whilst also attempting to realise similar results through lesser (and often virtual) tools.
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Etc. 
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Thank you for that Clockwork Orange reference on this sleepless morning.
As a drummer who uses samplers i will chime in to say that i definitely utilize sample packs. Loops, not so much, but i use the fuck out of a Matt Chamberlain sample pack from Looploft, and also a Nate Smith one as well. Cleanly recorded one shot drum samples by some absolute killer drummers? Yes please…
The sample packs also come with loops, and while ive gotten some really cool shit going on in the Octatrack with them, i have always ended up destroying them and resampling them.
Its an open world. Make music. Use anything.
In the peak of an acid trip 20 years ago or so, making sounds out of a Coke can and making it work, a friend of mine said, " If you cant do it on a Coke can, you cant do it…"
I held to that for a long time, but times have changed. Ive changed. My mind has changed.
I see sampling as collage, and collage is fucking amazing.
re-envisioning source material in slices and re-applying it.
Go bonkers how you see fit.
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Funny story. Maybe around ‘99 to 2001 we made a white label on red vinyl. It got a lot of play by a lot of people. Still a really good track. Anyway. The process.
Back then, I’d recently got a computer and NI Battery which came with a ton of samples. We were determined to use Battery and Logic to make a track. We were failing miserably.
So we sampled some drums from the Battery sample pack into the MPC. Also sampled a couple of loops from those old 133.33… loop records.
Made the track on the 2000xl. And from there it was history.
But I think it’s funny we sampled samples to make a track.
I still do that. I sample into my MPC One from Ableton’s preview function. Basically the same thing as sampling a record.
Sampling samples. 
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Found it
I wouldn’t judge anyone on how they prefer to make music, for myself I wouldn’t use a drumloop made by someone else.
But I would use oneshot drum hits if they came from a sample pack, I always retune and mess with them anyway.
9 times out of 10 within a drum pack it’s the same drum hits that have been used for decades, they’re just layered and processed differently.
I’ve never bought a drum pack but I did win a couple of packs about 12 years ago on an online battle site.
I still use them to this day and layer them with other more unique sounds
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Nate Smith sample packs?? 
Exceptions have to be made on occasions (also shouts to J-Zone & Drumetrics, although I prefer to just use the breaks on mixtapes rather than in productions)
Yeah, via Loop Loft.
I think the Chamberlain ones are better. More variety of kits…but i also just dig Matt Chamberlains sound the most. Big, deep, fat snares, booming bass drums, etc…
Some of those Nate Smith loops were super fun to feed to Octa and go nuts on scenes with…and resample and resample…
good shit.
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