Getting Loops Right Options

[K.G.]

Hi all, again I have a really stupid newbie question. How do you get loops to sync up right. I made a drum beat using the sampler, and then I looped it. However I can't get it to sound right when it loops the beat back. I can get it to either hit to soon or hit to late. Is this just a problem with the orignal loop or can I do something to fix this.

[leamatic]

The term 'loop' is unduly confusing: even if your sense of timing is second to none, you would never sample a section of beats and leave it to play from start to finish over and over again without triggering it at the beggining of every bar (or section of time of the sequencer that tallies with how long you want the loop to last). The most accurate way to work, though, is to cut the 'loop' (section of audio) into individual hits and trigger them on the beat, where you want them ton appear. If you are using a software sampler then this is elatively easy... just chop the audio up in an audio editor of some sort and then put them seperately into the sampler as an instrumrnt. If you are using a hardware sampler, eg an AKAI, you need to keep copying the original loop and chop the copies into the seperate hits. I use Propellorheads Recycle to do this automatically, and I can't reccomend it highly enough. It is a great little program, especially if you are using a software sampler which it can 'talk to'.

[K.G.]

Thanks for the info. So I should do this even in Logic. The only reason I ask is because Logic has an auto loop feature, so I was under the impresion that I could just allow that to loop my section.
I could be totally wrong, what your saying makes a lot of sense but seems to be a little beyond me at this point (I am really just starting)

[Synthetic]

yes... you can use the loop feature in Logic to do what you want but... that loop has to be trimmed or scaled to the exact BPM or tempo of Logic or it will drift out of sync with anything else you add to it.

I like to use a good editor for loops to get them exact and so I know what bpm they are before I toss into Logic for looping... so many times I will open loops in Recycle or Peak LE and try to trim the loop so that the first hit is at the absolute beginning of the loop and then give the last hit enough space to make its beat count and then crop it. If it doesn't match the tempo I want, then I will use time stretching to make it fit within minus or plus 10bpm usually.

The whole thing with loops is finding the beats... counting the beats... and then cropping to fit a one bar, two bar etc. region that can be looped without any stutter (unless this is what you desire). Peak LE is great for this. It will allow you to fine tune a looping section of audio before cropping so you know how it will sound looped. Recycle is good too as it wil let you change speed of your loops without changing pitch and its lets you save to many formats.

[K.G.]

yes... you can use the loop feature in Logic to do what you want but... that loop has to be trimmed or scaled to the exact BPM or tempo of Logic or it will drift out of sync with anything else you add to it.

I like to use a good editor for loops to get them exact and so I know what bpm they are before I toss into Logic for looping... so many times I will open loops in Recycle or Peak LE and try to trim the loop so that the first hit is at the absolute beginning of the loop and then give the last hit enough space to make its beat count and then crop it. If it doesn't match the tempo I want, then I will use time stretching to make it fit within minus or plus 10bpm usually.

The whole thing with loops is finding the beats... counting the beats... and then cropping to fit a one bar, two bar etc. region that can be looped without any stutter (unless this is what you desire). Peak LE is great for this. It will allow you to fine tune a looping section of audio before cropping so you know how it will sound looped. Recycle is good too as it wil let you change speed of your loops without changing pitch and its lets you save to many formats. 

Does this apply to the virtual instruments as well. Since it automatically puts midi with in measures? (I know that might be a stupid question). Also I know Peak might be better but is it possible to use Logic, my budget only really allowed for me to get logic audio. Thats about it. Again thank you for you time.

[bishop263]

KG, i dont know if logic works the same as digi 001, but if u go to digidesign.com and check out disk flix it might give u an idea of looping inside of your sequencer. digidesign rocks!

[dixiechicken]

The above described process of aligning/scaling loops to the correct length/bpm in Logic, works much the same way in DP4 and I'll hazard a guess, in other DAW:s as well.

I DP4 you select the loop & tell DP the lengt of the loop.
DP calculates the bpm.
Drag the soundbite/loop to the right startposition.
It will align the startingpoint automatically.
You set the soundbite to sequence tempo, it will scale accordingly.

You're done

Cheers: Dixiechicken

[boze]

Hi KG-
Hope you're getting a clearer understanding. The short answer is that looping is so important that there are a bunch of vst instruments designed to give you more flexibility. Programs like Reason, Phatmatic Pro, Stylus, Recycle, and even Cubase are all taking the approach dixiechicken describes: a loop is analyzed and but up into 'slices' so that it can be played back at a different tempo than it was originally recorded if necessary. The slicing process tends to become less accurate with samples that don't include drum hits, but it's still a really useful idea. Honestly, I think it's lame that a program as robust as Logic doesn't handle this by itself in some way.

Can Logic make use of .rx2 files yet, dixie? I can't remember. Can DP4?