Loops

[nvisibl]

I've always programmed my own drums and find it easier to mix and apply effects and so on to each individual drum hit. Recently though I have been playing around with some loops and thinking about incorporating them into my sound. Though right now i'm thinking that I will loose much of that control over mixing/effecting with loops rather than individual hits and that it may not work out so great.

Whats your take on this, and how do you yourself incoporate drumloops into your mixes?

Cheers

[Drammy]

With loads of EQ!

I find the best use of drum loops to be fast percussiony loops where I can use certain frequencies to add some pace to my own percussion.

Hats and Bongos with sticks and claps. That kind of stuff. Stick a fast delay on it and just ease it into the drum buss, hey presto instant pace and roll...

As for the loop itself, almost anything that is not perfectly quantised seems to work for me...


Drammy

[Tomer=Trance]

i guess it depends what style of music you produce.

[nvisibl]

I hear you Drammy

I prefer good loops without Kick Drums, or at least a light Kick drum.. not always possible though.

Stuff I write is mostly Dance orientated, Dance music in its many flavours and sub styles. I also focus on Tribal and Medatative music too.

[Merlot]

I use loops for my drums sometimes. Programming drums is my weakpoint, so I turn to whatever help i can get.

[Khazul]

Originally Posted by nvisibl

I've always programmed my own drums and find it easier to mix and apply effects and so on to each individual drum hit. Recently though I have been playing around with some loops and thinking about incorporating them into my sound. Though right now i'm thinking that I will loose much of that control over mixing/effecting with loops rather than individual hits and that it may not work out so great.

Whats your take on this, and how do you yourself incoporate drumloops into your mixes?

Cheers

It depends what tool your using. Reason v3 is ideal for this as you can set up a step sequencer to drive CV to EQ and other fx and so redically change the loop, or just do subtle stuff like panning different sounds from a mono loop, and gating in reverb onto a specific snare hit for eg.

Im from your school of drum mixing (from mixing up drum kits ages ago) - processing each drum sound separately into separate tracks. This is another reason I tend to do my drums mostly in Reason as its easy to apply this level of control.

The biggest problem I find with loops is that they are usually processed and squashed to hell to the point of being more or less dead - can take quite a bit of work to breath life back into them.

[Hollowcell]

I never use complete loops for my music. I like to chop them to bits and layer from there to build new kits. Gives more variation and control at the recording stage. Also being able to play the individual sounds where you want is a must.

[jasedee]

Originally Posted by Hollowcell

I never use complete loops for my music. I like to chop them to bits and layer from there to build new kits. Gives more variation and control at the recording stage. Also being able to play the individual sounds where you want is a must.

Thats the way to go... Again, HC nails it!

[nvisibl]

Thanks guys, yeah Khazul - I hear Reason is good for such. I'm put off a little though with the thought of adding yet another application or editor to work things out on. Seems to be taking me longer and longer to get the creations down into the sequencer these days

Hollowcell wrote:
I never use complete loops for my music. I like to chop them to bits and layer from there to build new kits. Gives more variation and control at the recording stage. Also being able to play the individual sounds where you want is a must.

Thats the way to go... Again, HC nails it!

Yeah, thats sort of the way i've been working all along (see first post up top). Now toying with the idea of using full loops in some instances most probably backed up with my own other percussion elements, wondered how others here may be dealing with drum loops from a mixing perspective, EQ, applying FX etc.. i'm of general noobiness in this area right now.

Cheers all

[Merlot]

Originally Posted by hollowcell

wondered how others here may be dealing with drum loops from a mixing perspective, EQ, applying FX etc.. i'm of general noobiness in this area right now.

Cheers all

Experimentation my friend. Seriously htough, I like to layer 2 to 3 of the same loops with different eqing, delays, and panning. Good luck!