Thanks for your thoughts guys, you're starting to get through my thick skull. I am the problem! The only recording I have made with loops and synth drums etc., is something from Todd Rundgren called New World Order. I loved that record, particularly while bike riding. I would be honoured to accomplish something like that.
 
I've been mulling it over since the OP and I've come to realize that I'm the weak link. I don't have the skills to do something with the materials at hand and it bugs me. Now I have to learn and move forward. Hopefully Cakewalk will produce some material on the basics. I've looked at a couple video's on using the matrix and they didn't really help.
 
After messing with the Matrix and failing, I loaded a repetitive but interesting midi pattern into Battery and fired up Z3ta+2. I added the drum track with an arp setting from Z3ta and just went for a rolling pattern. I don't know if I'd call it music but it was pleasing, so maybe there's hope.
 
I have to say I found trying to get a usable sound out of a violin was easier than stringing loops together.

We all have things we find more intuitive than other things. Can't stress enough the importance of listening to things that inspire. I think it's hard for anyone to grab a loop and make something pleasant that is not repetitive. See if you can find something you like thaty uses loops and try recreating it. I gave some kids an excercise once to to make a song using nothing but the james brown funky drummer loop as the sound source for every element. Some pretty much looped it, but others went so far james brown would not recognize. 

ampfixer
I guess what I need is some sort of book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-gB_LQZnlY
 
Remember to add the melodic content

Like you, I was looking for a way to create music from loops and samples.  I sing and play guitar, but had little experience with any of this 'in the box' music production 18 months ago.
 
If you click on my profile links and listen to a few bars of some of my songs, you'll hear PG Music's Real Tracks from Band In A Box.  There are several Youtube videos on using BIAB with Sonar or other DAWs.
 
Guitarhacker, an experienced user of both applications, explained his process and it is working well for me.  You can find his music online as well at:  http://www.herbhartley.com
 
Some more links:
 
http://www.pgmusic.com
 
At PG Music go to Forums, User Showcase.  Folks there are using BIAB, Real Band (DAW) and other DAW's to do what I believe you'll find very interesting.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qCscIjxkuI
 
The Youtube video covers the steps many people are using to arrange songs and import complete wav files (samples) into the DAW of their choice.  Afterwards you can use Sonar and all of its tools and plugins to edit the imported wav files and arrange and export the song.

ampfixer
Thanks for your thoughts guys, you're starting to get through my thick skull. I am the problem! The only recording I have made with loops and synth drums etc., is something from Todd Rundgren called New World Order. I loved that record, particularly while bike riding. I would be honoured to accomplish something like that.
 

Pink Floyd - Money. Say no more, and long before the days of digital.
back in the early 70's I remember watching some guys in a Art school music department stringing a massive tape loop around microphone stands.

sharke
I think you're missing the creative potential of loops. Yes you can just cut and paste them together, but there is also a serious art in processing and mangling loops into something musical, ....

There is also a fine art in choosing samples or loops which work together. Choosing a couple of loops at random and playing them together might yield interesting results but it usually doesn't. You have to be prepared to spend hours going through samples to find ones which work together musically. If you have an ear for it, you'll happen across accidental magic every now and then. What makes throwing loops together interesting (when it works) is that you have these totally separate, disconnected recordings that were made in different rooms with different reverb and processed on different gear by different people, and you end up with very interesting textures and depths. There is something very special about bringing together multiple samples and hearing them work together as if they were made for each other. ....

Is it cheating? Well, try it yourself and see how hard it is to get it right. Takes years of practice, no different to any other art form.

 
+1 Sharke.   Totally agree.  And often, for me anyway, a loop might provide a spark of inspiration for a creative concept or motif for the next piece I write.  The little 8-note flute line (loop) at the very beginning of my tune "Ethereal Funk" was the theme for it, and you can hear it in the other instruments I played.
 
I think finding ways to make loops musical is creative art in itself, and I'm not sure why so many people are "against" them.  For me, they're just another tool in the musician's toolbox.

Some of the most interesting loops you will ever hear is in Alchemy. Moving the mixpads around gives almost unlimited variations on them too.
 
 

I love Alchemy and sadly, people over at KVR are getting rid of it like no tomorrow. Now would be a great time to buy it for dirt cheap (lowest I've seen is $75.......of course you do need to have a Camel account already set up). I picked up a few libraries for a fraction of the cost. It seems people are losing hope after Apple bought out Camel.........and Windows support might be null & void, but the product works flawlessly and there's a good backup system set up.
The loops in Alchemy are truly unlimited when you tweak/mangle the sounds to your liking and there's just so much in there for your creating inspirations. 

ampfixer
I guess what I need is some sort of book. Do they make an idiots guide to getting ahead on the work of others? Maybe beat oriented music for old white guys?
 
Perhaps Craig could do a how to guide for using his content.

 
GOOGLE it!
Ton of information out there and well as artists who use loops.....
 
they slice and dice and chop and corrorupt them....they beat them down and beat them up...resize them....take bits and pieces....retune them....reorder them.....grind them down and up....stretch them to fit.....shrink them to fit....layer them......strip them....rip them apart and sew them back together backwards and sidways.....
 
All this before breakfast!