How do you guys do it?

I love the general depth of percussion that creates big rhythms in the tracks Wally Lopez plays, examples in the set below.

I assume its from a good mix of loop samples and drum machines.

I've always found creating good swinging beats from scratch impossible so I've recently gone to ableton in order to stick percussion loops together to come up with something but I'm still not getting the bigger sounds, I'll post samples later, I may need some better loop sample packs but at the same time nobody wants want to make tracks where you can ID it was a blatant rip from a loop, you have to sound unique!

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Last edited by daeus on Sep-27-2010 at 21:49

i wana help pal but first look back at your post then understand how you could make it easier for us to help! youtube links soundcloud anything but 52 mb files from hotfile!

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i think Wally Lopez's percussion is not that good, you should check





i find that this tracks have an awesome percussion.

So on topic, i'd say 90% of the percussions are made from loops, but as you say it's a bit lame if people say:

-"Hey this song is using XXX library loop 3 and 15"

What you can do to sound unique is slice this loop, open the wave of the loop in your editor and cut the parts you want. If the loop structure is

Kick Hat Perc Kick Hat + Snare you can retrieve that particular percussion you want and replace the snare with a clap for example.

However people are a bit careless of the loop usage, i can overhear a lot of loops from the Vengeance CLub samples and i don't care that much if the song it's cool and people neither i think.

quote:

Originally posted by Rodri Santos So on topic, i'd say 90% of the percussions are made from loops, but as you say it's a bit lame if people say:

No

quote:

Originally posted by orTofønChiLd No

maybe you make your own loops, i did and now i usually take parts from other loops as explained above but i thinked loops were only for noobs and nope, i've seen many tutorials by big names and they use loops exactly as amateur does.

quote:

Originally posted by Rodri Santos i thinked loops were only for noobs and nope, i've seen many tutorials by big names and they use loops exactly as amateur does.

So, because the "big names" use loops, that means everyone else should use loops as well?

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quote:

Originally posted by daeus How do you guys do it? I love the general depth of percussion that creates big rhythms in the tracks Wally Lopez plays, examples in the set below. I assume its from a good mix of loop samples and drum machines. I've always found creating good swinging beats from scratch impossible so I've recently gone to ableton in order to stick percussion loops together to come up with something but I'm still not getting the bigger sounds, I'll post samples later, I may need some better loop sample packs but at the same time nobody wants want to make tracks where you can ID it was a blatant rip from a loop, you have to sound unique! [[ LINK REMOVED ]]

I'm not going to download that (too big) but I find the combination of loops and the specific cutting of certain elements to be the key.

Some loops need to be mono'd to stop panning issues, and some should stay in stereo otherwise they lose their separation and some of the groove.

An well known engineer I worked with (on score) really showed me how to work with loops, by combining rhythms, and the key to it is to accentuate accents and remove conflicting percussion hits - that's how you get complex grooves without them being to busy or muddy.

Another really useful trick is to take a loop and either low, band or hi pass it just to get that element you want from that loop, then maybe combine it with another loop that has had the opposite element Eq'd out - it can be clever may of getting two loops to work well that don't initially go together.

Finally, with FX I find less is more and you should really focus on the compositional elements as your primary concern when compiling loops. That said flangers, gates and delays, when used in moderation can really get the groove driving.

quote:

Originally posted by floyd741 So, because the "big names" use loops, that means everyone else should use loops as well?

Everyone is free to use them or not, what counts is the result, and i find some kinds of sounds in loops that i haven't got alone in a sample pack , i could synthetize them but i doubt i could get that sound and would be almost a waste of time since slicing and addings some fxs is less than 5 minutes.

I am not encouraging to use loops but when my producer idol Airbase explained that nearly all the bassline and percussion of his tracks is made with loops resampled i changed my point of view.

If 90% of percussion is made from loops then my balls are also made of loops.
But I'm just curious how people get percents like this when they outright admit their "research" is soley based on youtube videos. Seems like a rather inaccurate way to derive percents from.

Not to mention loops like vegeance are distorted so badly they almost make my ears bleed.

As for the OP, this is not a simple answer.
If you wanna get good with percussions I suggest actually staying away from loops. The more you have to rely on loops for filling out your percussion the less you actually learn how to do it from scratch. Even if you use a combination of one shots and loops, the loops are usually added to fill out space, but they never seem to glue to the overall cohesiveness of the drum groove.

Sure you can make it work, but I found one shots are the way to go. If you hear a loop you like, rather than use it in your track, try buidling that same loops with one shots. Thats a pretty decent way to build your skillset overtime.

As far as actual grooves I always try to have 1-2 sounds that add most of the depth to my percussion. Those 2 sounds usually fullfill the "ask/answer" part of the loop. And then the rest of the sounds merely compliment them. Also, don't be closeminded and think you have to use standard drum/perc sounds to construct your loops. Some of the best percussion sounds I hear don't even sound like percussion in the first place. Some of them sound like fxs that were arranged to sound like drums. Other times I suggest taking your finished loop and running it randomly through something like effectrix. Play around with it untill you hear things you like.

If you wind up with a cool effect for the last bar, render that bar out and put it back into the original loop. You can wind up with all sorts of subtle variations to the original that keeps the track plowing forward.
Also what DJ Rann said is something I do alot with accentuating accents and removing conflicting sounds. I will sometimes look for the "peak" of the groove, and find another sound to layer just over the peak so it defines it better or adds some depth. If you have random sounds playing outside the groove make sure they aren't distracting the listener from the main groove. I find a lot of times too much can very quickly become too much. Thats why it helps to only have a couple sounds define the main groove, and work the rest of the sounds around that. I find with hats/cymbals you can also timestretch as brief as a few ms's just to add tension where they need it. It really depends on the project though. But always be sure to be breaking old habits and trying new things, thats really how you learn is just by experimenting.

G/luck!

great artists don't use loops. But most people are mediocre so don't let that level of standard stop you. Great producers do whatever it takes to finish a project in time. There is a difference between a producer and an artist. Well in my opinion. One person makes a work of art, the other makes a track. My fav producer scot project has never nor will he ever use a loop as he is an artist, not someone that pumps out tracks and needs a quick fix.

quote:

Originally posted by Mad for Brad great artists don't use loops.

here we go again.

one example: liam howlett of the prodigy use loops.

you know what I mean. People that use pre made loops that you get in a sample cd ie Vengeance. ANy producer that has ever used one of their loops is a hack or incredibly lazy.