L is for Loop

 

Loops are concise phrases of music which make a good basis of a song when repeated.

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A loop could be anything from one to four bars in length, and is defined by its repetition. How about Fedde Le Grand’s track ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’, for example?

Click here to see the video for ‘Detroit.  Loops are used here to build a conventional song, albeit in a ‘Detroit Techno’ style: the loops are obvious as the tastefully selected sounds are repeated over and over again, so you can almost march to it – typical of pure techno.

And let’s not forget the one lyric that functions as verse and chorus– Put your hands up for Detroit – looped over and over again.

Loops are often put together by using tape loops, delay effect two record players (cutting), sampling or through very clever software.

Loop-sided

Repetition like this in music is not purely a phenomenon of the hip hop movement in the 1980s.The first musicians to use loops were electronic pioneers Edgard Varèse and Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was Stockhausen that influenced the Beatles in 1968’s avant-garde Revolution #9, which brought looping into the mainstream.

Brian Eno and Robert Fripp are also godfathers of loops as they used two tape machines as the technical foundation for the No Pussyfooting album – a concept later dubbed Frippertronics.

However, when hip hop took the idea of looping music, the use of pre-recorded loops was born, thanks to Grandmaster Flash and his skill at turntablism. Pre-recorded loops have seeped into many styles of today’s music, but most notably in hip hop, techno, drum and bass and dub.

Since 1992, dedicated digital devices have been invented especially for use live on stage.

Royalty-free loops are so readily available that they are almost as commonplace a commodity in creativity as paint. The most reputed online source for free online loops is Sonic Foundry. Click here to visit the loop library.

Some artists that have created samples for loop software, including Nine Inch Nails drummer Jerome Dillon, and multi-instrumentalist Bradley Fish.

Loop technology

Loop software is based on a simple function – a loop command. If x is inputted, then loop, until conditions are made to change.

But there is, of course, much more to the software: user-friendliness, a range of features and at an affordable price tag. Loop software is accessible and an integral part of any music producer’s set up.

Some of the most widely used include Sony’s ACID, Cakewalk Sonar, Propellerhead’s ReCycle, GarageBand, FL Studio (Fruity Loops), Ableton Live, Augustus Loop, Multi Loop and Ambi Loop.

Packages range to suit many levels of creativity and budge, from an entry-level program to full-on professional production systems.

Lowdown on loop programs

Sony ACID Pro

Originally published by Sonic Foundry, the loop-based music production software is now a product of Sony. It runs on Windows and is the most powerful editing tool to shrink and stretch sound without altering its pitch.

ACID Pro has over 20 DirectX audio effects, and utilises the impressive new Media Manager technology – the Beatmapper Tool, the Chopper tool and the ability to mix in 5.1 channel surround sound. 

With such tools, the mixing function can slice bits of the sample apart and then rework it with individual pitch and FX tools. It works similarly to Windows, even including copy and paste functions. It is a very accessible and user-friendly. Its loop-library features its trademark acidised samples and much more.

Cakewalk Sonar

FL Studio is a big player among the hobbyist community, as it is affordable, but stoic enough to get some electronic tunes out quick.

This program offers more to users than a simple loops program. Cakewalk is used for recording, editing, mixing, mastering and outputting music and other types of audio.

Sonar is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and is capable of performing tasks once reserved for expensive professional equipment. The PC can function as the centre of the audio studio as Sonar can record and manipulate audio and MIDI data, with the whole process automated.

Version 6 was released in early October, 2006.

Propellerhead’s ReCycle

Swedish software developers Propellerheads Software designed ReCycle to run on both the Mac and PC. The idea behind the loop editor is that the user should be able to alter the tempo of the music loops without changing the pitch or without changing the sound of the original loop. ReCycle achieves this by dissecting a single loop into a series of separate beats, which you can then play back in any which way with the same sound present as individual beats.

Propellerhead made their own file format known as REX2, which has become a standard for musical loops.

FL Studio

Formerly known as Fruity Loops, FL Studio is a DAW created by Image-Line Software. Music can be created by placing MIDI data together to create a song which is then saved as an .flp (Fruity Loops Project). Songs can then be exported as a Microsoft WAV file or an MPEG-3 to make it compatible with most music players.

FL Studio is a pattern based music sequencer, which allows users to create songs in a step-by-step fashion (patterns) by way of the Step Sequencer and the Piano Roll view. Then users can piece the segments together using the ‘Playlist’ window.

The effects panel is the window to a plethora of effects that can be automated; such effects include dynamic sweeps, rolling bass lines and texture changes.

This program is a big player among the hobbyist community, as it is affordable, but stoic enough to get some electronic tunes out quick.

Virtually play

To make electronic music, understanding the power of a hard hitting and catchy loop is essential, and piecing together a number of samples to loop over and over again can be one of the most enjoyable puzzles ever.

Further reading

Fruity Loops REsource
PeaceLove Productions – Royality Free Loops
Sonic Foundry
scenta’s A-Z of Making Music

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