Take Your Loops to the Choppin’ Block

By Joe Gore

Greetings all, and welcome to May's installment of LE Boot Camp. As some of you may recall, last month Dusty broke the news that he and I are going to be putting together an IDM tune in this column over the course of this year. Also in last month’s column, Dusty demonstrated how to add some boom to your loops, and illustrated a very cool tip using two of the DigiRack plug-ins that come with Pro Tools.

This month I'll be following suit and showing you some cool ways to make a very ordinary beat not so ordinary. In doing so, I will only be using DigiRack plug-ins and some key commands we learned about a couple of months back when discussing some of the new features in Pro Tools 6 software.

The drum loop Dusty used last month was actually a very simple, ordinary loop — making it perfect for what we're up to this month. I'm going to use the same loop and show you some ways to make it more interesting. If you didn't download last month's session or you just mangled it beyond recognition, here it is again:

Download the session:

PC | Mac

Too Many Loop CDs
First, let's face the facts: There are more than enough drum loop CDs out there to circle the globe a few times. This presents a somewhat annoying problem: how to choose among them and figure out which ones have the beats you're looking for without spending a fortune. Let's sidestep that question and focus on the bright side: This month's technique should make even the most boring loop sound more interesting.

For this project — which I'll refer to as "Boom" (the session's name) — we're going to experiment with a simple beat. If you're not into the drum loop we're using this month, you can probably do a quick search on the net and find something interesting to use. Personally, I like to start with a beat I'm either tired of or never liked in the first place. I guess I like destroying the loop until it no longer sounds like it did originally.

Chop First
Let's begin by opening the Boom session. At the top of the session, there is a single stereo loop duplicated out over four bars. First, let's copy the regions on the "loop 1" track and paste them into a new track directly below.

	Make sure Tab-to-Transient is selected and Command Focus mode is activated (Click image to enlarge)

Next, make sure all four bars of your loops are selected on the "loop 1" track, and copy the regions on that track with the simple key command Command/Ctrl + c. Now paste those regions onto the "chopdrums" track you just created with Command/Ctrl + v.

At this point, the regions on the "chopdrums" track should still be selected, so make sure Tab-to-Transient is turned on and that the single-touch edit keys are activated (Command Focus mode). You can easily confirm this by clicking on the symbols for these settings on the black bar that runs along the top of the Edit window in Pro Tools.

Next, let's turn off Solo on the "loop 1" track and activate Solo on the "chopdrums" track. For the rest of this column we'll be working only with the "chopdrums" track — but in a couple months we'll have other uses for the original "loop 1" track, so keep it muted in your session for now.

Notice that the cool Tab + b trick automatically dices your loop up into nice, bite-size bits wherever Pro Tools detects a transient in the region (Click image to enlarge)

With the four regions in the "chopdrums" track selected, hit the letter e twice and bam: your selected regions have automatically expanded to fit the current size of the Edit window.

Next, make sure that you're at the beginning of the first region on the "chopdrums" track. Hit Tab, then the letter b; repeat this until you've reached the beginning of the second region.

What we just did was to cut the audio file wherever Pro Tools detected a transient in the region. However, if you listen back to it, you'll notice the region still sounds the same. Select all of the broken components of the first loop. (An easy way to do this is to click with the Grabber tool on the very last slice of the region, then hold Shift down and hit Return.) Now hit e twice and the effects of what you just did will become instantly clear. Here's where it gets interesting.

Go up to the AudioSuite menu and open the Reverse plug-in. Select the second loud kick you hear in the loop (it's about 3/4 of the way through the loop), and hit Process on the Reverse plug-in interface. Now select the entire loop again and listen to it.

Notice the feel of the loop is already a little altered? Playing around with individual elements of the drum loop can drastically change the feel of it. Continue doing this with some other slices in that loop and see what sounds good. Go overboard — you can always go back.

	Click image to enlarge

Select the hi-hat slice, then open up the Time Compression/Expansion plug-in under the AudioSuite menu. In the plug-in window, change the "destination bpm" setting to 214, double our session tempo.

Process the selected hi-hat and you'll see the region shrink to half its original size; hit the Process button again, and it's only 1/4 of its original size. While this small slice of audio is still selected, duplicate and paste it out with Command/Ctrl + d to completely fill the original hi-hat space. Now hit Return and give it a listen. Ok, so it's not the most original thing you've ever heard — but it's prime sonic real estate ready to be built on.

Click image to enlarge

Do whatever you like to the loops in this four-bar measure — it's all yours. Go through the loops and practice what you've just learned — and whatever you do, experiment! Time compress/expand and reverse the different slices and see what you come up with. Dice up those individual drum sounds until they're your own. Don't be afraid to try new things — you can always undo or delete what you don't like.

As you can see, slicing, dicing, and processing can be performed very quickly with Pro Tools. Loops can be reinvented and developed to create your own style. Slice your loops up and start experimenting with the Reverse and Time Compression/Expansion plug-ins to create some cool rhythmic textures. Before you know it, you'll be makin' your own IDM loop CDs.

Next Month
Next month we'll add some bass to the session. Of course, we'll do some experimenting with the bass sound as well, to fit the mood we're after. Until then, take those cheesy loops to the choppin' block.

Click here to read previous columns.