Loop libraries: does anyone actually dl and use loops beyond typical drum breaks?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

I’m curious to know people’s feelings about using prepackaged loops. We all love samples obviously, being in a forum about samplers.

I’m not here to hate on them or discredit them and I don’t want this thread to be a negative rant. I’m actually considering creating some free loop packs for my store.
Digital modular sequences and breaks. They would all be pretty left-field. And maybe focusing on particular frequencies- top layers, kick and tom layers, etc. Anybody think you’d find that useful or inspiring for sample mangling?

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#2

Me personally, no. I make my own loops with my synths and stuff.

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#3

I personally use a lot of shaker/percussion loops on my tracks because these are almost impossible to recreate properly with a DAW/sampler and they add a lovely human feel. I’d need a treated room and a better sense of rhythm to make my own! Splice is great for this<3

Otherwise I never use melodic or full drum loops, for me that’s the fun part! :sparkles:

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#4

I don’t, but a lot of people certainly seem to going by how many bundled loops are included with every sampler sold today, Loopmasters, SFM, Splice, etc etc. And the popularity of such libraries.

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#5

Not really. On another forum that caters more to film/TV composition, I’ve heard professional composers say they use them if they sound good. Particularly people that have to work quickly and be concerned about clearance issues. There are some pretty niche ones out there, so if somebody needs to say quickly put together some generic disco music for a scene, it’s cheaper and quicker than recording a live band.

I could see using them for YouTube background music as well.

I personally don’t like using loops for my music though.

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#6

I recently chopped up a one bar flute loop but other than that I never touch the stuff. I really like making my own loops and sampling them. I use lots of one shot samples from various packs all the time though.

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#7

Yeah I kind of figured this would be the general consensus, I’ll probably just stick to one-shots…

#8

I also mainly use top loops as they are hard to create, or impossible for me if I’m after a specific sound. I’ll sometimes use the whole loop or pick parts of it out.

You should check loopcloyd out. Imo miles better than splice for this

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#9

I love a good loop to slice up and assist with finding new chord progressions and such, then delete it later. This is a way I get unstuck when I’ve made a nice drum groove or find a lick I like but not sure where to go with it.

TL;DR: Loops can be nice writing tools IMO

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#10

Do I use straight unedited loops? Rarely (if I do its usually hand drums or shaker loops or something that have that loose live feel). But I do chop things up. Slice them to my samplers pads. Absolutely. Sometimes I’ll load up four synth or bass loops sequence different parts and resample that into something entirely new. All four of those channels might have different FX, filter and EQ on them. Then I might do some kind of saturation (or compression if the situation calls for it) over the whole thing when I resample it.

edit: Frankly, I’ve been working with found audio (from all kinds of sources) pretty exclusively lately…but I’m not playing paint by numbers.

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#11

ever since future music started having cover CDs (and maybe before) loops have been used by artists in their productions, some more discreetly than others.

These days the way premade awesome sounds are supplied within popular DAWs (logic and ableton etc) and packs are marketed on youtube as a viable method of music creation i find problematic. There’s no pop ups saying “chop this up, add some DSP and make it your own!”

I wish there’d be more music education from an early age encouraging the creation of your own sound library and self made loops leading towards a more personal sound. Combining a few of someone else presets/creations and proudly calling it a track is dangerous for young peoples understanding of creativity, but appreciate this can possibly be a gateway to learn more (think i’m guilty of using Magix music maker 1994-6 and it must’ve helped me along the way somehow)

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#12

I have a ton of old Akai sample libraries converted into Kontakt format as I’m too lazy loading them up in the actual Akai or E-MU units.
What I do use from those are “cliche” things like vocal snippets, vocal adlibs/shouts etc. mainly found in what I produce - house, techno etc.
Otherwise I do have a growing collection of my own shit.
I’d say the libraries sold nowadays sound too polished sound-wise. Drums too compressed, leads and basses too “full” to bother with them. You’ll spend more time taking stuff out via EQ to be worth it.
Some are good, most are too impersonal for my taste. Dancers don’t care, it’s just an ego thing, I can make these drums sound like a record say.
I like the ones that are supplied with Logic however they’ve been rinsed to death. As is most electronic dance music nowadays too.

#13

When I practice drumming almost daily I will play along with a random loop in my collection and set the metronome to that. It’s to the point where once I put a random melodic loop in i know how to play the pocket and the fills to it.

If I’m playing synths I will have a drum loop play I am practicing my scales and chords to the metronome as the loop plays. You’ll be shocked that when you do this you’ll figure out how to play parts against the loop because you’re so familiar with it.

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#14

Very eloquently put.

I myself never use loops, and I did feel like I would be somehow contributing to the downfall of humankind’s creativity by making loop packs, but I just wanted to see some other perspectives. I’ll design interesting one-shots all day and feel quite accomplished, but i think making loops would probably make me feel like a cog. I think I’ve made up my mind about it.

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#15

Loops are no different than any other sampling source. They can be used in really creative ways, chopping them up beyond recognition, or you can go full P. Diddy and leave everything as is, maybe adding a bass drum or synth pad on top. Both methods have been around as long as samples have existed, though bedroom producers trying to score a buck are maybe making the latter more ubiquitous these days.

Personally I stick to one shot samples most of the time. The amount of editing I have to do to breaks or loops in order to not feel like a hack makes them, ironically, a bit harder for me to use.

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#16

Haha good point

#17

Yes - all the time. No shame in my game.

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#18

Let’s say you had a friend that was a really good bass player. Better at playing bass than you with better sounding gear. You email him a beat you were working on for his opinion and he dug it, then recorded a sick bass line to that beat and emailed it back to you.

If you liked his bass line, it fit in perfectly with the song you were working on, and allowed you to concentrate on all the other aspects of the song… would you use it?

Now what if he wanted to charge you $.99 for that song? A small price really for a royalty free song element from a skilled musician.

Now you’ve got a nice song, with a great bass line that you didn’t write or perform, would you still consider yourself the producer of the song? Would it make the experience worse using his contribution? Does using elements not produced by you automatically make the song of a worse quality, even if that individual element used is, in actuality, of a better quality than you could ever create?

Fun and interesting to think about for sure.

I say make the melodies, and they will come.

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#19

I was thinking about this yesterday watching the video for NIs new soft synth - their take on Outputs arcade. My thoughts were - that’s sounds good - but it’s unsatisfying using sounds that anyone can just have….

But then, on the other hand, in hardware we strive for that sound - for that Moog sound or that Sequential sound or whatever… and that’s cool - aspirational almost….

No real conclusion, just an observation on my own inconsistency.

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#20

I suppose the thing about loop libraries is that they can take you to sonic spaces, textures, chord progressions and harmony that you’d never arrive at just by playing. Whatever their merits otherwise - that is the thing that I like about working with them - they give me a richer palette.

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