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Making my own original percussion loops

Hi guys, still relatively new at producing and am working hard on my second track and its coming along great........one thing ive had to work on that doesnt come to me as natural as making melodies is my percussion.....I really am trying to make my own original percussion just like most fast paced trance songs do and am a little stuck on the best way to go about it....

I have all the vengance loops and some others but dont want to just use these in my track, Im really trying to do my own thing.....most artists seem to do this really well, Sean tyas, daniel kandi or thomas bronzwear are some I listen too....there seem to be able to get these really nice sounding repetitive loops that they might layer over another loop when introducing a track, and every trak its different, im wondering how these guys do it?? Ive heard some artist use the same loop that someone else has used on an occasion so I guess there are guys out there who do use sample packs

If anyone has any tips or can guide me somewhere on the forum that discusses making loops in more detail? it would be greatly appreciated. At the moment iv been trying to make my own loops by chopping up sample loops, adding some original delays, a bit of bitcrusher and distortion and things like that, but be great to hear if anyone has any other tips

Hey, I've been stuck in the same rut, and found some videos that really helped me out:






Also, be sure to check out an old (but good) thread regarding trance percussion on this forum: http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...threadid=224021


Good luck!

Cheers dude ! The 7 skies tutorial was good, what he played there sounded really tight, I like his tip about chopping up loops and throwing them into the EX2 sampler and replaying the loops as midi, i might give that a try, Iv been basically doing that myself but just chopping it up as audio which may not be the most effective way....

Kid mercurys tutorial was good but i think he was using a bit too many loops there, sounding a bit cluttered in when they were all played together...

The basic percussion element iv got going pretty well, i guess going foward ill want every track to sound different in the introduciton and probably have at least 2 loops on top of each other and then hav them fit into the other percussion elements of the trak......

Im thinking it would prob be good to purchase some good sample loop packs if I can find them rather than just chopping up the vengance loops

quote:

Originally posted by Aren Suvan Im thinking it would prob be good to purchase some good sample loop packs if I can find them rather than just chopping up the vengance loops

Rather than this, get yourself some sample packs with plenty of one shots instead of loops. So you build your own loop out of individual drun hits (kick, snare, hi-hat etc). This way you can build a loop up with clean individual drum samples. Not that there is anything wrong with chopping existing loops up, but my advice is to build a loop primarily out of single drum hits, you can always chop up and layer existing loops after if needed.

As far as making good drum loops, there are many techniques to consider but the two that I feel are key are:

1) Choosing the right individual samples that compliment each other and blend well when put together in a loop. There's no specific way of doing this other than practice and experience. Think about the type of sound and frequencies that each drum hit has and add others accordingly so as to get a good balance of sounds.

2) Midi programming (where you put them on the piano roll and how loud they are). Often you may have a certain drum hit that on its own is playing a very simple, even pointless sounding pattern. But when you add another drum hit playing a different pattern, the two together suddenly create a good groove. You could have several drum hits that over a two bar loop, only hit once on the piano roll. Again on their own, this sounds pointless but in the context of the loop, these little hits here and there can give the life and interest that you loop needs. Added to this, how loud they hit is key. I will have several drum hits with a very low velocity so they are barely audible. Almost not there. But they add a vital swing to the loop so that if I were to mute them, I can tell straight away they are missing and the loop no longer has the groove it needs.


There are of course lots of other things to consider such as using delays and other FX, layering premade loops etc and these are all valid techniques that work well. But I'm a firm believer that the two points I've mentioned should be the foundation of a drum loop and whilst I will use FX and other methods as well, the loop will sound good without these things.

Anyway that's my take on the subject, hope it helps.

Great reply G-con, thats sorta what I figured, I think that most probably there is not easy quick solution to making ur own swingy loops except play around with different percussion samples and be creative......I think the things thats thrown me off a bit is hearing some top producers using the exact same loop as one another and I guess im thinking I may be able to get my hands on some of these and use them in my own tracks but Id much prefer to be making my own...

Iv got the latest version of Battery 3 recently that has tones of samples, do you think that would be a good start ? Iv been playing around with it a bit and there is some really good sounding percussion in there

And in terms of playing with one shots here and there on the piano roll, i think ur right, a loop sounds to me like there is a percussion notes being played at a range of velocities so ill def give that a go.......allot of the loops i hear have a really 'wishy washy' sound to them (thats how i describe it), not sure if that makes sense but i think produces may make a loop in midi then export to audio and use some effects like a denoizer etc, i guess u just got to play around until you find the sound you want, thats how iv progressed with the rest of my producing

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