[muso] Drum loops drum loops drum loops wanted wanted wanted

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I'm in need of some good drum loops with lots of fills and a mixture of patterns. I don't particularly mind the kits but due to what I'm doing anything more towards rock and pop please.

I picked up a collection on torrents last year but while it did give me masses of stuff they didn't really have a full intro, variation, fill etc so there wasn't really the basis of a whole song there.

I'm looking to make some bedroom rock C86 type indie pop but I'm not really having much joy with these drum machine synths and I don't think they really produce the same sort of thing that the real C86 bands churned out with their hardware drum machines.

Loops are an easy way of doing it, but does anyone here use them regularly, and would they care to upload for me?

[mcbpete]

How about something like a virtual drum VSTi - http://www.rayzoon.com/jamstix3_vid.html
That way you can create all sorts of loops yourself including intros, fillins etc.

(or is that what you meant by drum synths?)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Similar, but I like synths of all kinds so it's always worth a try I guess.

I'm not a drummer, I'm a guitarist and a dodgy keyboardist, and enjoy playing around with sound editing, so I really want some loops + samples I can construct verse-chorus-verse-chorus (maybe even a bridge with), and with some good fills to link them up and so it doesn't sound too repetitive.

[Kane Jones]

I can possibly help if you want a real drummer to play on them.  If you send me the song, I can record a whole drum track to a click and send you the finished file for you to drop onto your recordings.  Unless that's the last thing you want, in which case ignore everything I just said.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Well, all I have is acoustic guitar recordings not done with a metronome so there could be places where rhythm goes in and out. I want to translate them in to full compositios with a drum backing so if you are able to do anything that'd be great.

But I also like doing songs from scratch while playing with drum loops so I guess i need slightly different help for that side of things!

[Kane Jones]

Well, all I have is acoustic guitar recordings not done with a metronome so there could be places where rhythm goes in and out. I want to translate them in to full compositios with a drum backing so if you are able to do anything that'd be great.

But I also like doing songs from scratch while playing with drum loops so I guess i need slightly different help for that side of things!

Well, I won't be able to help with the drum loops for your demos, but if you ever get to a place where you want some live drums, then by all means drop me a PM.

[Johnny Yesno]

Well, all I have is acoustic guitar recordings not done with a metronome so there could be places where rhythm goes in and out.

Won't that still be a problem if you do get hold of some drum loops?

[Kane Jones]

Won't that still be a problem if you do get hold of some drum loops?

True - even if your time-keeping is impeccable, it'll be all over the shop once you put a drum loop under it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

EZdrummer (or the fancier version, Superior Drummer). There's lots of different style packs you can get (they work with both) which are shown here

http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp

Each one comes with a set of loops which you just drag into your DAW. For you, I'd recommend getting Electronic, Pop, Vintage Rock, maybe Twisted Kit too. Fiddle with the mics a bit, add a good amount of reverb (EMT-140 plate or something with Altiverb), an analogue tape vst like Kramer Tape and you'll probably get the right sound.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Won't that still be a problem if you do get hold of some drum loops?

I won't be trying to add drum loops to acoustic demos- tried that before and an iffy area to say the least. I more interested as to whether Kane was abel (sorry) to drum to them. Apparently not.

Thanks for the recommendation El Unicorn, ill check that out.

Found it surprisingly difficult to find good drum loop torrents.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=71

This looks like the sort of thing I'm after. It is all in MIDI so that's new but presumably it will be recognised and appear as a track on my DAW. Will it not be trickier than .wav editing where you can see the .wav form and know exactly where to slice things up? Worth a go.

Oh but I'll need way more than 450 sequences/loops so please keep recommending stuff- especially that can be torrented!

[Kane Jones]

more interested as to whether Kane was abel (sorry) to drum to them. Apparently not.

I'm happy to give it a go, Shoulders.  It's easier with a count-in and click track, but if it's just to get an idea of how the songs are going to sound, then send me some stuff and I'll do what I can.

[Johnny Yesno]

I won't be trying to add drum loops to acoustic demos- tried that before and an iffy area to say the least. I more interested as to whether Kane was abel (sorry) to drum to them. Apparently not.

Ah, got you. You want the drum loops so that you can record the acoustic guitar again.

Another approach, which would allow you to use what you already have recorded, is to edit the guitar parts so that they are in time with a metronome. It's time consuming but not that hard. What I'd do is:

1) Figure out what the most common tempo in your recording is
2) Create a project at that tempo
3) Add the guitar part and a click track
4) Move the whole guitar part back and forth in time until as much of it matches up with the click as possible using visual and aural cues
5) Put the rest in time by editing

[REVEEN!]

http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=71

This looks like the sort of thing I'm after. It is all in MIDI so that's new but presumably it will be recognised and appear as a track on my DAW. Will it not be trickier than .wav editing where you can see the .wav form and know exactly where to slice things up? Worth a go.

Oh but I'll need way more than 450 sequences/loops so please keep recommending stuff- especially that can be torrented!

Addictive Drums is another vsti worth a look. It's of a similar quality to EZ Drummer but uses a lot less system resources, has a bit more variation in the available kits and I personally prefer the way it's laid out.
Most DAW's have a built in midi editor so editing or creating midi based loops is fairly simple.
In Reaper you load the drum prog the same way you load any other virtual instrument (vsti). I then dock it at the bottom of the screen and just drag the loop I want to the workspace, once it's in the workspace just double click on it to open it in the midi editor where you can move,add or delete hits to your hearts content.

[El Unicornio, mang]

http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=71

This looks like the sort of thing I'm after. It is all in MIDI so that's new but presumably it will be recognised and appear as a track on my DAW. Will it not be trickier than .wav editing where you can see the .wav form and know exactly where to slice things up? Worth a go.

Oh but I'll need way more than 450 sequences/loops so please keep recommending stuff- especially that can be torrented!

It will be the same kind of technique, you'll just be editing the midi pieces instead of .wav forms. Although what I sometimes do is compile a load of EZdrummer loops (or grooves as they're called in that software. You can play them within the programme before you drag them into your DAW to hear if they sound right) so I have a full drum track, then render it as a .wav file and edit that.

I actually recommend the Nashville EZX, even though the kit itself is more of a country rock style, it has a great selection of grooves divided into Intro/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Fills, etc. which makes it a lot easier to piece together a full track.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

That sounds great, if not perfect Unicorno, thanks.

No money for this stuff at all but I can poke around and see what's available.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Yeah, they're all available in the usual places.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I'm going to give Superior Drummer a go- despite it probably being way above my needs it looks like it's practically idiot proof- which is good because I surely am one fucking idiot.

[Kane Jones]

Superior Drummer is ace.  Good choice.  Must say, I'm a bit gutted that you didn't seem to want to try my idea (mainly because I'm always up for a new project or two), but that's cool.[nb]It's not, it's shit. Don't like you no more.[/nb]

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Well, I just honestly don't think a rough demo is really worthy of your time, and if I sent you a couple of tunes I'm sure you'd agree! I do appreciate the offer very much though, so as it happens I'll upload them later in the week for you anyway.

I also saw on Toontrack there's a piano synth called EZ Keys which looked interesting for songwriting, especially the quick harmonising, or if not- very good fun.

[The Masked Unit]

Must say, I'm a bit gutted that you didn't seem to want to try my idea (mainly because I'm always up for a new project or two)[/nb]

Maybe you should check out this little failed project http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=34506.msg1811435#msg1811435

I for one would be really interested in you adding little fills, hi hat pateerns etc to my programmed drum loops, which you can find on there.

[Kane Jones]

I'll have a wee look at that, cheers.

[The Masked Unit]

What I'm thinking is something along these lines with a basic electronic beat with a bit of finessing on the toms etc, especially from about the two minute mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypVVbJqxmEs

[Kane Jones]

What I'm thinking is something along these lines with a basic electronic beat with a bit of finessing on the toms etc, especially from about the two minute mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypVVbJqxmEs

Cool - I will look into that.  I can't promise anything, as I've never worked in that way before, but I'll give it a bloody good go. 

[Kane Jones]

What I'm thinking is something along these lines with a basic electronic beat with a bit of finessing on the toms etc, especially from about the two minute mark

Oi, Unit.  I've had a bit of a fuck around with one of your pieces on the SoundCloud page. I can email it to you if you like? It's just a rough thing to see if it's the kind of thing you were after.[nb]makes excuses, back-tracks, etc.[/nb]

[Kane Jones]

*EDIT* The penny's dropped.