Going all in on 8 or 16 bar loops.

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aeox
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01 Dec 2019

Might be the wrong section for this thread. Although I don't think many people would be interested in my idea, I'll shoot anyway.

Instead of making a full track, just make a 8 or 16 bar loop that you could cycle for a long period without it being uninteresting. The idea is that, once you've got a really good 16 bar loop, you can arrange all the elements into a full track pretty easily adding lots of variation, etc. But the point is to not arrange the full track, just getting the loop sounding as good as possible.


Fun exercise! Post your stuff for our listening pleasure :D

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Periwinkle
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Location: London England

01 Dec 2019

I think this is a good idea.
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.“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

― Banksy

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diminished
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01 Dec 2019

aeox wrote:
01 Dec 2019
you can arrange all the elements into a full track pretty easily adding lots of variation, etc.
Press X to doubt..! :D

Seriously, mixed and stuffed-to-the-max loops are my modus operandi and I could post hundreds of those. But where would it go from there? We could vote / tell the other which ones we like to see become a full song?

oldschoolorchestra08mix07.mp3
(352.54 KiB) Downloaded 50 times
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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Periwinkle
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01 Dec 2019

If they were all the same tempo and key, maybe they could all be assembled into one humongous ditty.
Image

.“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

― Banksy

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aeox
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Location: Oregon

01 Dec 2019

diminished wrote:
01 Dec 2019
aeox wrote:
01 Dec 2019
you can arrange all the elements into a full track pretty easily adding lots of variation, etc.
Press X to doubt..! :D

Seriously, mixed and stuffed-to-the-max loops are my modus operandi and I could post hundreds of those. But where would it go from there? We could vote / tell the other which ones we like to see become a full song?


oldschoolorchestra08mix07.mp3
Nice loop! Could totally whip that into a full track in a few hours haha.

Yea I don't know, I too have hundreds of them. Sometimes I'll go back and listen to something with fresh ears and get inspired to turn it into a full song. I mean, it doesn't have to be stuffed to the max, but whatever works!

I'd say about 95% of my songs start as a 8/16 bar loop :lol: I could turn any of them into a full song, but I only do that to the ones that I relisten to with fresh ears and still hear potential.

Overall, I think doing loops has guided me in a direction where I'm learning more. If you showed someone a loop and they say "wow, i'd love to hear the rest!" then that is a potential starting point for a track. Getting that feedback is harder than it sounds though.

Periwinkle wrote:
01 Dec 2019
If they were all the same tempo and key, maybe they could all be assembled into one humongous ditty.
That would be nuts :P

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TritoneAddiction
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01 Dec 2019

Just finished this track. There might be some minor tweaks here and there. We'll see.



This one was actually born out of the 8 bar bass riff loop idea, which stays in the background for the entire song. Most of the other parts act like different layers coming in and out on top of the bass riff. Most of them could probably be switched out in different combinations and still work together.
Might not be exactly how you described it, but for this track I actually made the concious effort to not change it up too much and instead stay with original 8 bar riff/beat. Not something I normally do.

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aeox
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01 Dec 2019

TritoneAddiction wrote:
01 Dec 2019
Just finished this track. There might be some minor tweaks here and there. We'll see.



This one was actually born out of the 8 bar bass riff loop idea, which stays in the background for the entire song. Most of the other parts act like different layers coming in and out on top of the bass riff. Most of them could probably be switched out in different combinations and still work together.
Might not be exactly how you described it, but for this track I actually made the conscious effort to not change it up too much and instead stay with original 8 bar riff/beat. Not something I normally do.
Awesome track, thanks for sharing!

I know that not all tracks can be made this way, but it does work very well!

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aeox
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01 Dec 2019

I've been looking back on a lot of my loops and forgot I even made most of this stuff!

Crazy how quickly I sometimes can move on from a loop and start making a new one :D

I guess for me it's more of a learning experience rather than actually trying to make a track. Then, when I go into a project with the mindset that I'm finishing it; I can apply anything I learned. That way I don't get too sidetracked!

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TritoneAddiction
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01 Dec 2019

aeox wrote:
01 Dec 2019
Awesome track, thanks for sharing!

I know that not all tracks can be made this way, but it does work very well!
Thanks, appreciate it.
aeox wrote:
01 Dec 2019
I've been looking back on a lot of my loops and forgot I even made most of this stuff!

Crazy how quickly I sometimes can move on from a loop and start making a new one :D

I guess for me it's more of a learning experience rather than actually trying to make a track. Then, when I go into a project with the mindset that I'm finishing it; I can apply anything I learned. That way I don't get too sidetracked!
Please share some loops with us. I mean you can always just upload them temporarily on Soundcloud and then remove them later once the thread dies off.

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diminished
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01 Dec 2019

One advantage of having these instrument packed loops is that you can mix them very intensively with all tricks of the trade. So even when they might get moldy on my HDD later on, I still learned /practiced something. So it's never in vein, which is consoling.

I agree with Tritone, put them online and just ask for feedback on which people like the most. Worst thing that could happen is nobody listening :) (I'd listen.)

I thought about making a "loop reel" myself for quite some time now, for feedback on one hand, and on the other to have easy access to my work. When they're buried in a folder inside of a project that takes two minutes to load (yeah I've got lots of VST slowing down the start up), chances are I'm not thinking about my loops as much as when I had immediate access to them if that makes sense.
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

WarStar
Posts: 296
Joined: 17 Oct 2018
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02 Dec 2019

I use this method quite a bit. Typically make two variations of 16bars with two different kick drum patterns. From there a chorus and verse are usually somewhere in those two loops. From there I strip down one of the two loops into a bridge of some sort then I start to experiment with this skeleton of a song. Many times the bridge might be the most impactful of the three loops that were created. From there it's about creating a intro and outro and a few cool edits and you're good to go.

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aeox
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Posts: 3222
Joined: 23 Feb 2017
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02 Dec 2019

TritoneAddiction wrote:
01 Dec 2019
aeox wrote:
01 Dec 2019
Awesome track, thanks for sharing!

I know that not all tracks can be made this way, but it does work very well!
Thanks, appreciate it.
aeox wrote:
01 Dec 2019
I've been looking back on a lot of my loops and forgot I even made most of this stuff!

Crazy how quickly I sometimes can move on from a loop and start making a new one :D

I guess for me it's more of a learning experience rather than actually trying to make a track. Then, when I go into a project with the mindset that I'm finishing it; I can apply anything I learned. That way I don't get too sidetracked!
Please share some loops with us. I mean you can always just upload them temporarily on Soundcloud and then remove them later once the thread dies off.
diminished wrote:
01 Dec 2019
One advantage of having these instrument packed loops is that you can mix them very intensively with all tricks of the trade. So even when they might get moldy on my HDD later on, I still learned /practiced something. So it's never in vein, which is consoling.

I agree with Tritone, put them online and just ask for feedback on which people like the most. Worst thing that could happen is nobody listening :) (I'd listen.)

I thought about making a "loop reel" myself for quite some time now, for feedback on one hand, and on the other to have easy access to my work. When they're buried in a folder inside of a project that takes two minutes to load (yeah I've got lots of VST slowing down the start up), chances are I'm not thinking about my loops as much as when I had immediate access to them if that makes sense.
I was hoping to hear what other people are creating but I could do that.

It's just that, they never got turned into full tracks for a reason! (or ear fatigue and uninspired?) :P

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aeox
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Posts: 3222
Joined: 23 Feb 2017
Location: Oregon

06 Dec 2019

I'm not going to post any older stuff in this thread just to keep it on topic.

Been working on a project/loop today, I've been using to improve my mixing, synth drums, etc. I guess a lot of the time things start off that way. Opening up Reason with the intention of improving my abilities and knowledge in sound design, mixing, composing, etc.

This idea is promising to me, but time will tell I guess :P I guess a lot.



Definitely need to change melody

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TritoneAddiction
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Posts: 4219
Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

06 Dec 2019

aeox wrote:
06 Dec 2019
I'm not going to post any older stuff in this thread just to keep it on topic.

Been working on a project/loop today, I've been using to improve my mixing, synth drums, etc. I guess a lot of the time things start off that way. Opening up Reason with the intention of improving my abilities and knowledge in sound design, mixing, composing, etc.

This idea is promising to me, but time will tell I guess :P I guess a lot.



Definitely need to change melody
Sounds good. The only thing that didn't speak to me was the last notes (0:20-0:22). But the rest of the melody was good imo.

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aeox
Competition Winner
Posts: 3222
Joined: 23 Feb 2017
Location: Oregon

06 Dec 2019

TritoneAddiction wrote:
06 Dec 2019
aeox wrote:
06 Dec 2019
I'm not going to post any older stuff in this thread just to keep it on topic.

Been working on a project/loop today, I've been using to improve my mixing, synth drums, etc. I guess a lot of the time things start off that way. Opening up Reason with the intention of improving my abilities and knowledge in sound design, mixing, composing, etc.

This idea is promising to me, but time will tell I guess :P I guess a lot.



Definitely need to change melody
Sounds good. The only thing that didn't speak to me was the last notes (0:20-0:22). But the rest of the melody was good imo.
Thanks and I agree there, got to change that melody up a bit :P

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