I use loops on client projects and then not a whole lot. Just once and a while they find something in my library that inspires them to work on an idea. I, too, am a trained musician and loops tend to make me feel like I'm cheating. At the same time, isn't using these programs with all these plugs and fx cheating as well? Does it really matter as long as we are able to concieve and complete our musical ideas so easily and conveniently, much less, cost effectively? BTW, there is not a bad shaker sound in the TTS!

I've honestly never felt as though I'm "cheating" when using loops.   Then again, I've never completed a tune that consisted entirely of loops either.   I guess my only principle is that if it works it works, and otherwise principles take a back seat to the desired end result.   So if I use a few loops, piece together a solo because I can't get what I want in one take, use a drum synth instead of a real drummer, or whatever else, it's all good.   As long as the end result is good (subjective).
 
And as was mentioned earlier, genre often is a major factor.  I have a hard time picturing where I might use a loop in a classical piece, but not so much in an Electro-Industrial-Ambient tune.    As always, YMMV.  
 
So in the end I agree with Sidroe - does it really matter as long as one's goal is reached?
 

I love loops.  I've made entire songs out of loops.  I've used them as the backbone or rhythmic filler/backup.  I don't use them on every song, but many. 

With acid audio loops you can have them follow tempo/chord changes just like a human bassist, guitarist or fill in the instrument blank.  Audio loops can be filtered, gated or have applied any other audio effect. Midi Loops (or is it clips in Cakespeak?) can be edited into "something totally different." 

As for the purists, cool.  But let me point out for classical music, you should then (to be true to your philosophy, Horatio) write every inflection for your music, and fire any musician who strays from exactly what you wrote.  Kinda like Stanley Kubrick and his actors.  It can works if you are in his class.  Better yet, play the whole damn orchestra yourself, so it is all your creation as you intended it (or not, if you can't play the instrument).

As for popular music, the same thing goes.  If you feel guilty using loops created by other people, how can you be fine with your other instrumentalists riffing off your riff?  Imagine Lee Hazelwood stopping the Wrecking Crew when they came up with the walking bass line to "These Boots are Made for Walking" since he didn't write it that way.  If you are in a band, you are intellectually using other people's performance the same way a noobie writing his first loop-based techno song from a loop CD.  The band's song is probably better, maybe more "honest" emotionally but not intellectually.

Looping is a tool, just a tool, whether you use it in the song or as a guide for "real" musicians.  Personally, when I bring in someone to play, I let 'em be.  I can't play the guitar or sax or fiddle but I've gotten great stuff.  And I've seen writers/producers ruin tracks by confusing their players by telling them how to play instead of using their god given talents to improve the song.  Then the producer cuts/pastes/massages the "off" performances into something they can use.  Is that really "better" than using loops, more genuine, more pure?

Sorry for the rant or if I offended any real musicians.  But after over a hundred years of recording technology inventions, it just seems silly to argue over what recording techniques is guilt-free.  Loops may be different than using electricity for your guitar amp, but it is a matter of like, not kind of difference, and everyone should be free to pick and choose their poison.

@

Geez, AT...    All I can say is +1   
 
I also understand the purist aspect where everything is played live.  I completely get that, having played live for a few decades myself.  But when it comes to recording, and specifically home/project studio recording, aren't "limits" the one thing we've been trying to eliminate all along?   I say bring on everything we can get in DAW-land.
 

With regard to the subject of using other people's music (loops/samples) in your own pieces, I think it's a valid form of music (as long as you have permission to use them of course!). It's part composing, part arranging. I think you can still be called a musician. After all, it's ultimately your musical ear that makes the choices. 

A musician may "write a song," but the musicians who play on the recording may well contribute their own patterns and "loops" to the composition. For example, take a songwriter like Joe Jackson, and listen to the guitar parts on his first couple of albums. Jackson is not a guitar player. How much of that guitar was written note for note by Jackson, and how much is the creation of guitarist Gary Sanford? Yet we still think no less of JJ's musicianship because he's used the input of other musicians on his compositions. Ultimately, it was his ear that decided on one part over another, in much the same way as the electronic composer may audition loops to find one that fits with his or her composition. 

Although I enjoyed electronic dance music from the late 80's onwards, I think musically I was a little snobby about samples and loops until I heard DJ Shadow's first album "Endtroducing" which was made entirely of loops and samples from other people's music. To create something that was so atmospheric and beautiful from hundreds of snippets was, to me, a wonderful thing. Not sure how much that applies to the use of the prepackaged loops, many of which sound sterile and lifeless, but the principle's the same. 

In addition to the generational aspect of this, I believe there's also a musical genre aspect as well. 

Bubble gum pop, dance, techno, hip hop, rap, etc. will likely heavily rely on loops.  Personally, I'm more of a rock or singer-songwriter person, so have only ever used 'loops' when creating drum midi patterns - by creating the verse part, and copying and pasting it, etc. 

Personally, I much prefer the more organic process of actually playing the instruments, but to each is own.

I play and teach guitar and drums plus play a little keyboards.  I've never used a loop.  If I need a loop I'll make it.  

Rarely and then only for drums.  I have nothing against it, I just prefer to play everything in my songs, and if I can't then I don't put it in there or I simplify.

Dan

I have zero interest in using loops in the creation of music.  However, I think they might have an indespensible role in educating oneself in how to use FX effectively.  One of the things on my (lengthy) to-do list is to learn to use compression properly.  I envision finding an appropriate collection of loops and just messing around until things start to make sense.
 
I just watched the Fab Filter Timeless tutorial by Dan Worrall (sp?) on you-tube.  Watch it and you can easily see how loop playback could provide a lab environment for experimenting with delay techniques using this plug-in.  There is much potential here.

I'm shocked. I thought, with all the loop capability in Sonar and discussions here that there would be more loop users proclaiming allegiance.
 
I feel guilty if I copy a home made clip from one place to another.  If I'm feelin lazy, I may do that for a base line now and then.   But the idea of using loops is contrary to my creative sensibilities.  OK, I'll admit it - I cringe when I hear looping in pop music.   And I'm a hobbyist, and not a young one.
 
So that would be a no.