as a song writer I use loops often most of the time i buy them at big fish audio
i think tyhat loops are well done and it would take years to get any musicians to sound like them

i have wrote many songs and i have used loops a lot in my songs and so far i had many artists that sings my songs and they get their music done in studio ,  so far with all their professional studio  the real musicians sounds at 65% of the quality of the loops i buy at big fish audio

if you wanna to listen to what i do go to my homw page and go in the musoc section i have a player in there that will let you hear of what i do.

with loops i can build a song in 25 mnutes if i was to build it from scratch and wanted to sound like them it would take me few days..
it's not a matter of being lazy  it's more a matter of doing it fast with accuracy

here is my Home page     www.michelrivet.con   i am into country music

till then  take care and enjoy music

The kind of audio/MIDI loop content that Sonar, Reason, Live etc. come with? No. I don't use them at all. 

I find it easier and quicker to record/program some audio/MIDI than I do to dig through hundreds or thousands of loops in the hope of finding the one that seems least wrong in the required context, then start hacking it about in the hope of making it sound less wrong.

However, I will, depending on the musical context, create and use loops myself. E.g. if the bass line is 4 bars long I might record it a few times (to get some variation) then use the takes as loops. Some things I play all the way through, some things I use shorter sections as loops. It all depends.

I do use MIDI/sequencer loops a lot, in the form of step sequencers, whether hardware or software, though again, I create the loop. And programming drum parts generally involves looping unless you've a ridiculous amount of time to put into it. I can't imagine programming 7 minutes of drums a hit at a time without using looping as a creation/productivity aid/tool......

I currently work as a composer in residence for a gaming company.
I have worked with electronic music since the early 70's... This has included mangling found audio for electronic soundscapes, early synths, theramins, treated pianos.... whatever gets the job done.

I am also classically trained and have worked with everything from quartets to 70 piece orchestras.

Worked extensively in theatre/sfx.... was sampling back when our recorded sounds were being blown onto Eproms and wired onto circuit boards way before RAM was affordable or MIDI existed.

Been in innumeable rock, Jazz, funk, blues bands over the years.
Engineered in major studios... run small demo facilities guested as an engineer, assistant coffe go-getter and hunter of late night chinese food/pizza/burgers/beer for all night sessions
Worked as a "ghost" for a while for a well known producer with a legendary lack of patience for sub-standard musicians. 

I need to work.... music is the only job I have ever had.

my point is?
I see EVERYTHING as being valid. I use loops and have submitted entire pieces, using looped media without blinking and will continue to do so. I also make my own.... sometimes I mangle them, sometimes the groove is perfect out of the box.

Since opening Sonar X2 a couple of weeks ago I have published 2 complete pieces using the included loop library and have a third sitting next to me waiting on some "polish" early next week. This one is a progressive house piece for a game based on a quiz show.
The music I compose for the company I work for at present is published in some 39 countries across the globe with the majority of it sold in the USA and China.... we just returned from a massive trade show in Vegas where one of the aforementioned Sonar X2 pieces was demoed in a game.... ftp'ed the sucker to our Vegas factory minutes before the doors opened :)

Loops are a tool just like any other and can take one to some pleasantly surprising places.... but I am an old man easily amused by electronica and the ways the young folk have evolved my beloved art.
 Like a long beautiful thread.
I would hope that Leon Theramin and Bob Moog (RIP) and Wendy Carlos etc are beaming with pride at the cool stuff we do.
People get too hung up on perceived cred.... I see it as a massive audio pallette where every sound should be available if it transports one to the intended emotional payload.
But as I said... it's a job for me with all that implies.... deadlines, markets and the corporate imperative. Finding the fun in a fog of war can be challenging. Finding inspiration on demand is a constant challenge.

Sometime a loop is all that is needed to kick start the creative juices.

As a songwriter, I find the loops useful to get an idea or a chord progression going, but after percolating the idea into a song, the loops eventually get replaced by live playing and an arrangement of the song idea. The loops will get deleted and overwritten one by one.

The loops that I use to create song ideas tend to be "midi" loops, played through soft synths, not audio loops of pre-recorded instruments / voices / grooves  etc.

michel1949


as a song writer I use loops often most of the time i buy them at big fish audio
i think tyhat loops are well done and it would take years to get any musicians to sound like them

Just had a listen to some of the loops on Big Fish Audio, including some of the country loops.


Jeez, those loops are almost complete songs.  Seriously, any idiot could throw them together to make a song and call themselves a "musician" in the same way you could get a paint-by-numbers kit and call yourself an "artist".


If I made a song from those loop kits, I'd consider myself a fraud.


But then, I'm the old fashioned type who likes to experiment with finding the best way to mic a particular instrument through trial and error to get the best sound possible.  The challenge is half the fun.

my loops library has become somewhat of an illness.
it just keeps getting larger and larger.
i usualy start writing most melodys by picking up an instrument and recording my inspiration.
after this is done,i slice it up into pieces and create the best one song i can,the left overs go into a file marked for their genre.
the loops i do use are 3-5 sometimes up to 10 second loops that can be time stretched or pitched up/down.
i then piece them all together to get a basic foundation.

then i re-record this as a conplete project.
i could probably use the loops but i like every piece to have its own unique sound,not robotic like a loop tends to get,over and over.

loops to me are a songwriters favorite tool,compared to a engineers favorite tool.

I often use drum loops just as a placeholder (as someone else said earlier). Once I've added the other instruments in - typically guitars, bass and strings, I'll go back and create the actual drum track in some detail. But' I'll often use groove clips during that process...

Well,I don't use the "loops" much at all,but I have used some of the patterns in S.I. Strings,and I use a lot of MIDI drum patterns,but then modify them...a lot.

As far as the included "Browser" loops/one shots,I do go through them from time to time,but almost never end up using them.

Nearly all the "things" Iv'e got going are usually guitar inspired,and then I "try"[?] to make drum parts to suit,but for some reason the included loops/one shots,haven't been used yet,as keepers.
Bob

"Looping" (and sampling, for that matter) are more than a technique - they're an aesthetic in modern music, that you can find in everything from Phillip Glass to Daft Punk. Mangling loops - and the sound of that - is one of the backbones of dance music (even house producers who work exclusively with "real" tracks, make efforts to produce loop-sounding effects).I use and make loops, because i like the sound ( esp. LoFi stuff)...but actually don't use much of the Sonar content because it's...uh... kind of vanilla....

Well using loops is definitely not an "age thing", as I am an old fart at 57, and find myself using loops more all the time.  In my opinion, you can use loops and still be a musician.  I view loops much like the colors on an artist's pallete, to be used in the creation of something beautiful.... and after all...what is beautiful????-  It's what YOU think it is!!!  Art and music are so very subjective as to what is "good".

I have found loops can be a source of inspiration just because of a particular sound they make or a mood they evoke... whether I use that loop or not.  Nearly all of my work these days contains at least one loop, and more often, quite a few.  It may be a one-shot or a phrase that is repeated throughout. 

I love using and creating textures in my music, and have found that by combining loops with my own playing, I can blend, layer, solo, or otherwise use the loops to create those textures that might not have been achievable with my own equipment.  And after all, I do not have an aresenal of synthesizers at my disposal, and sometimes the loop was just what I was looking for in a particular sound.

The new content from Sonar has some really nice loops and I've used a few of them already.  It's a shame it is so time-consuming to preview them in order to find just the right one(s).  It can take hours!!  Unfortunately, I don't think Sonar's Loop Construction tool is very user friendly, and there are other algoritims out there that seem to do the required time-stretching chores more handily.  I'd like to see Sonar improve that feature soon!

I have no formal training in music or playing an instrument...only what I've picked up "by ear".  So often, a "piano lick" which I could never play, may be available in a loop, and in the final result (my song), the loop helped me achieve something I consider "music".  After all, it's the final result that matters to the world of listeners...right?  99.99% of the listening public could care less that I spent 487 hours composing this tune.

So I definitely consider myself an artist/musician, even though I utilize loops.  I create with them and around them.  No one has ever listened to my compositions and said "That's not music".

Another positive aspect of using loops is that there are a lot of folks out there who are just starting to realize they may have a musical bone in their body, and creating a song from scratch without any playing ability may be daunting for them, and at least by listening to and arranging some loops on a track pane they may develop some understanding and appreciation for this obsession we call recording.

Happy recording, and have fun using ALL the tools in your musical toolbox!!!