Turning Riffs Ingto Loops -ACID Product Family - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:Turning Riffs Ingto Loops Posted by: Tombolino Date:1/6/2003 10:33:03 PM Hey Say I play a little bass part on my guitar into Acid... What prepping do i need to turn into a full fledged loop? thanks :) Sebas
Subject:RE: Turning Riffs Ingto Loops Reply by: dkistner Date:1/7/2003 7:15:54 AM Since nobody has answered you yet, I'll answer from my limited knowledge. If you have a one-shot recorded, FIRST set your Acid project's tempo to the tempo of your loop. Set a loop region around the one-shot and play it with looping turned on until you get it so it sounds like it's looping correctly. Then Export Loops and name it something meaningful (the project name, or your original recording name, is probably not what you want). Acid should automatically "acidize" the loop. But you may still have to pull it into an editor and be sure the top and tail of the loop are appropriately faded. I found when I exported loops this way, there was still a little work to do to get them perfect. Maybe there's something you can do in Acid with the end fades to avoid the extra step. It's best not to add any effects to your original loop but to keep it dry. That way, you can apply all kinds of different effects to it later.
Subject:RE: Turning Riffs Ingto Loops Reply by: Gordian Date:1/7/2003 9:22:59 AM I'd say the better way would be to use the chopper or to edit the file in sound forge.
Subject:RE: Turning Riffs Ingto Loops Reply by: DKeenum Date:1/7/2003 11:22:34 AM I like to hear some more about this. What do you do once it's in sound forge?
Subject:RE: Turning Riffs Ingto Loops Reply by: Iacobus Date:1/7/2003 2:05:22 PM Both Diane and Gordian's tips are great. I actually use both techniques. I first turn loop playback on as Diane suggested and record a take until I feel it's right. I then set the Loop Region over an area of the take that I want, solo the track, and then use CTRL+M to render the result to a new file. (When rendering, you may want to set the volume of the track to 0.0 dB before doing so, as the volume is taken into account during rendering.) Once that's done, I will typically edit the loop externally in Sound Forge per Gordian's suggestion using Sound Forge 6.0's (excellent) Loop Tuner tool, which is only available in Sound Forge 6.0, not Sound Forge Studio 6.0 (the lighter cousin of Sound Forge). Note that tweaking a loop externally in Sound Forge will change the ACID properties of a loop. For example, if I have an exact 2 bar loop (which is 8 beats in typical 4/4 time), open it externally in Sound Forge, and trim it just a tad, it's not exactly 8 beats anymore; it's more like 7.575. That means that when I go back to ACID, ACID will stretch it so that it fits 8 beats within the project's specified tempo. That means the loop will now sound differently, possibly introducing artifacts such as echoing as a result. How to get around this? Well, you exactly can't, other than to apply really quick fades rather than trimming to eliminate pops and clicks while a file loops. You could also ensure the loop stretches properly to another tempo by opening the track's properties in ACID and inserting or modifying stretch markers under the Stretch tab. You'll want to insert markers where strong subdivisions of the beat occur. (In other words, where the waveform is more pronounced.) I always would suggest this regardless, as using this technique makes your custom loops sound much better when stretched to another tempo than if you were to leave the stretch markers alone. ACID does a good job by itself, but there may be instances where you feel a certain part of the file should be accented for stretching. HTH, Iacobus

Subject:Turning Riffs Ingto Loops

Posted by: Tombolino

Date:1/6/2003 10:33:03 PM

Hey

Say I play a little bass part on my guitar into Acid...

What prepping do i need to turn into a full fledged loop?

thanks
:)

Sebas

Subject:RE: Turning Riffs Ingto Loops

Reply by: dkistner

Date:1/7/2003 7:15:54 AM

Since nobody has answered you yet, I'll answer from my limited knowledge. If you have a one-shot recorded, FIRST set your Acid project's tempo to the tempo of your loop. Set a loop region around the one-shot and play it with looping turned on until you get it so it sounds like it's looping correctly. Then Export Loops and name it something meaningful (the project name, or your original recording name, is probably not what you want). Acid should automatically "acidize" the loop. But you may still have to pull it into an editor and be sure the top and tail of the loop are appropriately faded. I found when I exported loops this way, there was still a little work to do to get them perfect. Maybe there's something you can do in Acid with the end fades to avoid the extra step.

It's best not to add any effects to your original loop but to keep it dry. That way, you can apply all kinds of different effects to it later.

Subject:RE: Turning Riffs Ingto Loops

Reply by: Gordian

Date:1/7/2003 9:22:59 AM

I'd say the better way would be to use the chopper or to edit the file in sound forge.

Subject:RE: Turning Riffs Ingto Loops

Reply by: DKeenum

Date:1/7/2003 11:22:34 AM

I like to hear some more about this. What do you do once it's in sound forge?

Subject:RE: Turning Riffs Ingto Loops

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:1/7/2003 2:05:22 PM

Both Diane and Gordian's tips are great. I actually use both techniques.

I first turn loop playback on as Diane suggested and record a take until I feel it's right. I then set the Loop Region over an area of the take that I want, solo the track, and then use CTRL+M to render the result to a new file. (When rendering, you may want to set the volume of the track to 0.0 dB before doing so, as the volume is taken into account during rendering.)

Once that's done, I will typically edit the loop externally in Sound Forge per Gordian's suggestion using Sound Forge 6.0's (excellent) Loop Tuner tool, which is only available in Sound Forge 6.0, not Sound Forge Studio 6.0 (the lighter cousin of Sound Forge).

Note that tweaking a loop externally in Sound Forge will change the ACID properties of a loop. For example, if I have an exact 2 bar loop (which is 8 beats in typical 4/4 time), open it externally in Sound Forge, and trim it just a tad, it's not exactly 8 beats anymore; it's more like 7.575. That means that when I go back to ACID, ACID will stretch it so that it fits 8 beats within the project's specified tempo. That means the loop will now sound differently, possibly introducing artifacts such as echoing as a result.

How to get around this? Well, you exactly can't, other than to apply really quick fades rather than trimming to eliminate pops and clicks while a file loops. You could also ensure the loop stretches properly to another tempo by opening the track's properties in ACID and inserting or modifying stretch markers under the Stretch tab. You'll want to insert markers where strong subdivisions of the beat occur. (In other words, where the waveform is more pronounced.)

I always would suggest this regardless, as using this technique makes your custom loops sound much better when stretched to another tempo than if you were to leave the stretch markers alone. ACID does a good job by itself, but there may be instances where you feel a certain part of the file should be accented for stretching.

HTH,
Iacobus