Ableton Forum

Guys! Help. My loops limp. My loops lump. My loops don't funk. I'm learning how to make loops at the moment, using Reaktor to produce the sounds then cutting them with a sound editor, but it's hard to get them sounding absolutely amazing AND in phase with percussion. Any surefire tips on making rump-shaking loops that swing like a gate.

Thanks people. I really appreciate it.

Yeah my loops suck aswell.I think it is just trial and error.I did read quite a good article in the latest computer music mag about making decent loops which is worth checking out.So far I've picked up these tips which you might already know.

1.Use clean samples so you can fatten them up yourself with compression,overdrive.
2.Have little ghost kicks\snares fitted in around the main beats to add the feel of a real drummer if that's what your after.
3.Choose your sounds well.Imagine your building a drum kit that all fits together well.
4.Mess about with groove templates if your sequencer allows it.You should be able to stick a loop that you like the feel of into your arrange page and export the groove\quantisation of that loop onto your own loop.If you use Logic I can tell you how to do this.
5.If you want to be completely original play around with the position of the individual hits,shifting them a little bit before and after the lines.you will have to take of the snap to grid function for this.

My loops definitely sound better having tried all this,if you have any other ideas I'd like to hear.

cheers Caper

Get a REAL drummers,,,a guys who know's what a good loop is,,,,

Just kiding....

What's with people expecting a response just because they asked a question? Anyway....

caper wrote:5.If you want to be completely original play around with the position of the individual hits,shifting them a little bit before and after the lines.you will have to take of the snap to grid function for this.

If you're just using live, this is really the only way of making things funky.

Sometimes adding a bit of 3/4 time delay will help with "swing". Try adding it in some places, but silencing it in others. Mess with the dry/wet in real time till you fine something nice.

Or try this: loop 1 bar in live, and add individual waves until you come up with something that sounds good and UNUSUAL (no 4/4s). render that down, throw it on top of a 4/4 kick, and resequence it until it works on top of the kick.

The essential ingredient is, as caper said, shifting the beats in very small increments. This give a "live" feel. Irregularity is what makes real drummers groove, and this applies to electronic music as well of course.

Warp markers and altering the start position of loops when you have more than one playing together is perfect for this. Also, layering up the loops and tweaking the volume in their clip envelopes to just leave/highlight certain beats and avoid a giant rhythm mush is a winner. As in many cases production-wise, taking stuff out can be more productive than throwing more in!

it would be nice LIVE offered triplet (or varying degrees of shuffle) positioning in the warp markers, so we could swing our beats to the same shuffle/quantize..

I thought "Sample Offset" changed the groove of a loop?

sample offset can change the placement of beats, but not to triplets, or to shuffle amounts...