[originally posted to cohost]
Loops get a bad rap for being “basic” and “boring” and “easy,” but they are a highly effective tool for crafting music! I just think the wrong kinda advice gets thrown around (i.e. the same one piece of advice…). Effective Loop Usage is something I think about often, but I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about (maybe people do talk about this… idk, hopefully this is still helpful tho!), so whether you are writing your own loops, using premade ones, or using a mix of both, hopefully this can help you!
So what’s the common advice I hear? Something along the lines of:
a quick and easy way to build a song is to take a lot handful of loops, layer them, and add an remove them every 4 or 8 measures! something should always be changing every 4 or 8 measures!
– a lot of music tutorials
A common thing many beginners do is to start with a single loop, and keep adding loops till you reach a “peak,” then remove them one by one until you return to where you began, creating a sort of “arch” form.
Is this a wrong way to make a song? Not at all! Is it the most effective? Not always. Music built this way tends to be:
- Predictable – if you’re just adding something new every 4 measures, it’s very easy to predict what will happen, more or less. There’s not really much in terms of a journey; we triumphantly peak without any obstacles, then just… revert all our progress?
- Stagnant – there’s only so many combinations of muted/unmuted tracks you can do. Excess repetition isn’t always bad, but not something you always want (for example, house music playing the background doesn’t need to develop as much!). Adding and removing tracks is a great way to imply form, but there’s not much movement in terms of harmony, melody, or rhythms.
- Jarring – it’s scary when the drums just come in without warning! It can be exciting a few times, but grows tiresome after awhile (imo). This might also lead to your music feeling disjunct and disconnected.
- Lacking focus – if you just keep layering stuff, you can easily lose any sense of focus or subject; every new loop becomes the many focus! Eventually, it becomes so busy you can’t tell what you’re listening for! Not all music *needs* a melody or focus, but a lot of good music does!
Music that has these characteristics tend to feel… “amateurish?” “Not as good?” It’s not *always* bad (hey if you like it, you like it), but maybe there’s some more interesting options!
So, how do we use loops in a way that feels organic? Has a sense of direction? Is less predictable/cliche? And how do we do this without just… writing a bunch of new stuff?
There’s two parts to this problem:
1. The clunky nature of simply adding and subtracting loops.
2. A lack of form/heirarchy
For now, let’s just address the first problem! All it takes is three easy steps!
1. Apply Spackle
2. Add some Paint
3. Break it up
STEP 1: APPLY the SPACKLE ♡(>ᴗ•)
If there’s on thing you take away from this it’s APPLY the SPACKLE.
This was advice that my composition professor passed on to me. Just as you use spackle to hide breaks and holes in a wall, it helps to blur the lines between sections in a composition. Sure, jarring transitions are still fun sometimes, but smooth transitions are usually more satisfying and lead to a more cohesive piece of music overall.
While this advice was mostly referring to the gaps between sections in a large-scale form, I find this advice works well on a smaller scale (i.e. loops!).
How do we apply the spackle? It’s easy!
1. Make the changes happen before and after the transition points. Both sides of the transition point should be balanced, more or less.
2. Make changes happen at different times.
Just as spackle is applied on all sides of a crack or hole, your changes should happen around your transition point!
Here’s some quick examples to explain!
“Building Layers” example
Here’s an example of how we can layer loops one-by-one in a more effective way.
In the “no spackle” example, everything just comes in on the down beat. Not bad! But feels kinda stiff.
In the “with spackle” example, the bass and the melody have a little pick up, and the drums have a lowpass filter to make them sorta fade in. Feels way more organic, almost like a band playing together (how often do band members just abrutly start/stop playing?). Notice that the “spackle” doesn’t even have to be much (it can just be one note sometimes)!
“Sections/Form” example
This example is more like the sections in a song, where many changes happen at once: the drum loop is added, the keys are removed, the lead instrument is changed, and the bass starts playing something different. Then it returns to its previous state.
Note the difference between this straight “hard cut” and the “spackled” version. The “cut” version feels a bit disjuct; not horrible, but not great. The “spackled” version is buttery smooth, and all I did was add a few things before and after the cut. No noise sweep required!
For the “spackled” version, note how nothing changes at the same time: the drums fade in and out with a filter. The keys trail out and fade back in; the second lead has a short pick up and also holds a long note past the second transition point; the bass introduces faster and slower notes a bit before it starts playing something different.
STEP 2: Add some PAINT °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°
Here’s some extra “paint” you can add on top of the metaphorical spackle to make it pretty and help lead the ear!
Here are some ways to dress your transitions:
– Noise sweeps, reverse cymbals/notes, risers, etc. – probably the easiest option! These sounds naturally build anticipation with their rising pitch and volume; we’ve come to understand that they mean change is coming! Just don’t overuse ’em!
– Effects Automation – Filter sweeps, adjusting reverb wetness, etc. are more ways we’ve been conditioned to anticipate change! They are also effective as “spackle” and are more interesting than simply fading in and out.
– Fills – similar idea; when instruments do a fill, we know change is gonna happen! We’re breaking away from the pattern; something’s gonna happen! Drum fills are the most common; bass fills are underrated! Explore fills on all instruments!
Here’s an example!
Here, I’ve added some sweep-y transition effects, a subtle drum fill (just took it from a separate drum loop), cymbals, and a tiny piano melody to bridge the gap when there’s not a lot of melody playing.
STEP 3: BREAK it UP ヽ(`⌒´メ)ノ
Probably the worst part of that overshared advice is to make things change every 4 measures. Let me just say: stop!!!!! Your music will become instantly more interesting if you break away from this! Here’s some ideas:
– VARY the RATE of CHANGE – you don’t actually have to break away from powers of 2; instead of doing every four measures, maybe switch it up between 2, 4, 8, etc.
– REPEAT the last one or two measures – a good way to say “hey! this section is ending!” by reiterating an idea + disrupting the pattern.
– SKIP a measure or two – The opposite of the last one! Just skip some measures and move on to new stuff! Maybe not as common, but you can do it!
– POLYMETER (and stuff) – If your song is in 4/4, what if you layered it with a loop in 3/4? The loops wouldn’t alight, and you’d have 12 unique beats of music!
– Different LOOP LENGTHS – You could even just have a four-measure loop against a three-measure loop! That’s 12 unique bars of music now! Add a five-measure loop? That’s like 60 unique measures!!! (Might feels a bit same-y, but it’ll be clear that it’s subtly evolving. Great for background elements!)
If you’re using audio loops, remember that it’s okay to chop ’em up if you need/want to!
Here’s the last example!
I added two extra bars before it switches to a new section. The first transition is just a little break—a palette cleanser if you will! It’s a bit more surprising, but way more satisfying that jumping head-first into the new section, in my opinion.
For the second transition, I repeated the last part of the phrase, as though to say [in a posh voice] “Yes, I said what I said! Now go away!”
I also added a little ostinato that’s three 8th notes long, so it doesn’t line up neatly with the bar, just for a nice bit of texture!
Conclusion
So! That’s how you make loop-based music feel a bit more interesting without just like, writing longer loops lol. Hopefully this has helped you, or at least you just found it interesting! Remember:
1. Spackle!
2. Paint!
3. Break!
Also remember, repetition is your friend! Loops are your friend! While a big goal of in music is to avoid monotony, repetition is how we establish our music’s identity! It’s all about balance, baby!!!!!!!
Listen to music! Study how they imply structure and switch between sections!
I feel like this would be a good video, so maybe I’ll do that. so until then… DON’T STEAL THIS (or at least ask me first lol let’s work together). If you steal it I’ll send hbomberguy after you or something idk.
If you have any questions, go ahead and ask em!
Thanks for reading! I’m gonna write Part two sometime! Go make music! Okay! Bye! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ