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  1. Change the downbeat
  2. Duration matters
  3. Getting that human feel
  4. Please release me
  5. Short is good
  6. Small is good
  7. So that's what they mean by voicing
  8. Triggering vocal fly-ins
Change the downbeat

A technique for loop-based music is to change your perspective on what you're hearing. For example, if you know where a particular rhtyhm starts and ends, try chopping it up in unusual places so that the obvious placement of "one" isn't necessarily where the sample loops. -- Bean

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Duration matters

Changing the sequenced note's duration will affect the way the sample loops. For example, if you play an eight-bar sample with a MIDI note that’s one measure long and re-trigger it every measure, you'll have a one-bar loop. -- Doug Morton

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Getting that human feel

Percussion pads often flow much better if you adjust their timing in the sequencer relative to the kick and snare. For example, a great shaker or conga loop might sound even more effective if it comes in a little ahead of the beat so that it "pushes" the track. If you're looking for a more laid-back effect, try delaying the percussion loop relative to the kick and snare. -- Jason Miles

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Please release me

Always leave some extra audio past the end point of a loop. If you add a little release time, the loop will fade more smoothly, which will allow it to transition more seamlessly back to the beginning if the loop is being re-triggered at the next bar line. This can also eliminate the slight gap that can occur if a loop is just a tiny bit shorter than the ideal length. -- Jason Miles

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Short is good

The trick with doing loop-oriented music is being able to make a variety of loops -- drums, guitar, bass, voice, etc. -- sound like they were meant to go together. Using short loops definitely helps, because it gives you more flexibility in arranging. I'll often break eight-bar loops down to four or even two-bar loops. But while short loops are easier to deal with, pulling loops from longer sections is much better. Once you find the right loop length, you can slide the loop around to different parts of the audio and save a variety of loops, each with a slightly different playing. -- Jason Miles

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Small is good

With remixes, I like to retain some elements of the original song. In a recent project, I sampled the different guitar parts in small eighth or sixteenth-note sections and laid them across the keyboard for easy arrangement. After breaking up the track into small parts, it's easy to do the things that aren't physically possible when playing a guitar live. -- Statik

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So that's what they mean by voicing

I'm not big on replacing live musicians with samples, but sometimes its very cool to replace samples -- or at least augment them -- with real humans. For example, suppose you want to get a low floor tom to sound w-a-a-a-a-a-y deeper than what was actually recorded. Get a good mic, and vocally emulate the sound of a deep tom. Also, try sliding the pitch down with your voice. Mix it in with the tom sound, sample it, and surprise yourself with how good it sounds. -- Elliot Randall

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Triggering vocal fly-ins

Several samplers lets you trigger the recording of a new sample with an incoming MIDI note. If you put this note at the beginning of a bar when sampling vocals that need to be flown in, you can play back the sample from the same point, even perhaps from the same note. As long as you don't truncate the sample, it will always stay in sync with the track. This also lets you move parts around in a sequence very easily. -- Ricky Lawson/David Wills



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