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Subject:Best way to compose loops
Posted by: JESUniversual
Date:11/11/2003 7:34:49 PM
Hi, i've been using acid pro 3.0 for the last two years or so and I just recently upgraded to 4.0. I've composed many songs (beats) using acid pro 3.0 and 4.0, but im still a beginner. I want to learn every thing possible about the programs. I was wondering what is the best way to compose your own loops. For example I was told from some friends (who also use Acid products) that they compose... for example their drums from many different samples...ie. a snar from one sample, a kick from another and a hi-hat from another and compose it all into on drum loop. All i've been doing for my tracks is taking the entire sample and looping it, but all my drums loops ie. melody samples are sounding the same. My friends tell me to use the chopper to compose it, and i've tried but that is extremely difficult (to me). Is it easier to find samples with the same bpm, because most of the time if I find a sample from one place and another sample from another and try to compose the two it doesn't sound correct and most of the time they are not the same bpm. Any suggestions would help. I'm just trying to try new things so my music does't always sound the same |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: marcarotsky
Date:11/12/2003 12:18:52 PM
you can use one shots in the time line and compose beats. (render your tracks to one new track) although that is a pretty primitive way to do it. works though. use a vst drum plug-in (acid 4.0 supports vst synth plug-ins) so you can use a program like fruity loops or something. what i do, is i invested in reason (the mother of all programs) if you do a lot of original work, reason is DEFINITELY a program you should look at. it mirrors acid EXCELLENT!!! you can use acids sequencer to trigger your own beats and synths in reason. or buy RECYCLE. you can bring any existing loop into recycle and resample/resize/redo it to any other thing youd like. (these are both propellerhead products) try recycle out first. it is designed just to resample existing loops to whatever your heart desires!! --marc |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: DKeenum
Date:11/12/2003 12:27:11 PM
With the free trial FL Studio you can save your work as a wav. file. So you can try it out and use the results in Acid. |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:11/12/2003 2:32:32 PM
There are a few ways to create your own loops, none of which is actually better than the other, due to the way different users work. Note that I'm being general with the following tips. They can be applied to loops that contain drums or loops that contain sounds that have a pitch (like guitar). You've already listed a couple of ways. Creating a loop in ACID is the most easiest, as any rendered sample becomes automatically "ACIDized" based upon the key and tempo of the overall project. Still another is to create the loop from scratch within something like Sound Forge, which has tools to help tweak your original loops. However, this is a lot more involved. Sound Forge doesn't know, for example, what key you want the loop to be in (or no key at all for percussion loops) unless you tell it. You could also create the loop within ACID and edit it externally in Sound Forge. In any case, ACID would be my last step with original loops, as ACID Pro has the ability to work with stretch markers. (Note that ACID Pro is the only version of ACID with this feature.) Some basic music theory would help too in helping to manifest what you would have in your head real, since ACID can work very much with this concept. (ACID's grid can be set to a particular note value.) Sadly, some users get lost because they have a rhythm in their head but can't make it happen; they just don't know their note values. One more important thing: As far as ACID and Sound Forge are concerned, the length of the sample determines the tempo based upon a four beat selection. For example, let's say you create a new sample in Sound Forge that you intend to make into a four beat loop. Let's also say you want this loop to be included in a project that has a tempo of 120 BPM. In order to make such a loop that will fit into that tempo, the sample you make must be exactly 2 seconds long. Why? The process is mathematical. Assume, at the most basic level, that you want four beats every second for a minute. What you would you end up with? 240 BPM. Take 240 and divide that by 120, which is really the intended tempo you want for four beats per measure. You get 2 seconds. What if you wanted the four beat sample to fit a tempo of 185 BPM? Again, take 240 and divide by 185. You get 1.297 seconds. (I'm rounding.) It gets a little more complicated from there. I'll continue if you'd like. HTH, Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: JESUniversual
Date:11/12/2003 5:30:25 PM
Thank you Marc for your suggestions. I will definitly look into the two programs you suggested and see if those might help me discover what I want to try and do. As for the vst drum plug-ins - can you explain this to me a little more ? (sorry im not familiar with using it) I also own fruity loops and if I can incorporate fruity loops with acid I would definitly like to see how this works, this might also help me out on what I want to accomplish. Thank you again Marc for your help and guidance |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: JESUniversual
Date:11/12/2003 5:37:14 PM
Thank you mD for your guidance I never really looked at composing my tracks the way you described above its very interesting, and It makes a little more sense to me now on how to recieve the tempo Im looking for while using different bpm while sampling or composing my own loops. Is it best to always go with a four beat sample? Thanks again mD |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:11/12/2003 6:50:52 PM
You're welcome. :) You do not have to go with a four beat sample; it just happens to be the most common. Also be aware that, as I've said, ACID and Sound Forge evaluate a sample based on a four beat selection. That means, for example, if you wanted to make a sample that's exactly eight beats long in a tempo of 120 BPM, just double the amount of length in time. Since a four beat sample is exactly two seconds long in 120 BPM, an eight beat sample would be four seconds in the same 120 BPM tempo. Remember the understanding that this could be a two measure sample; four beats per measure. It could be eight beats per measure. Use your own discretion as to what time signature the sample fits into. To get even more intricate, let's say you want to make a three beat sample. Remember what I said about taking four beats per second in a minute to give us 240? Instead, use three beats a second per minute—which gives us 180. Then use that result and divide by whatever tempo you need for three beats per measure. So if you want to create a one measure, three beat, 120 BPM sample, just divide 180 by 120 (the desired tempo), which gives us 1.5 seconds. And like the four beat sample, if you want to create a two measure, six beat, 120 BPM sample, just double the length, which would be 3 seconds. HTH, Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: marcarotsky
Date:11/12/2003 6:51:06 PM
using a "vst" plug-in is quite easy. and if you already have fruity loops, youre half way there. fruity loops, i BELIEVE is recognized by acid as a "soft synth plug-in" i could be wrong but im 99% sure that is the case. if it is so, then all you need to do is click on "insert soft synth" and click fruity loops as youre plug-in. make your loops in fruity loops and it will play through acids sequencer. IF fruity loops is not recognized as a "vst" plug-in.....dont fear...you can still do plenty. fruity loops can syn to midi clock. acid would be your host application. click on tools and click on generate midi clock (or time code) now acid will trigger your sounds in fruity loops. so, whatever loops you make in fruity loops will be sequenced to acid. at acids projects tempo and key. and last but not leat...just make your loops in fruity loops and save them as a .WAV and export them as "acidized" and import them into acid. but, still check out reason and recycle. (reason is a hefty price...around $399 i believe now. but its worth every penny. recycle is about 80 bux i think) good luck, if you need more help, post again.... --marc |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: JESUniversual
Date:11/12/2003 7:08:40 PM
Thank you guys for all your help! I really do appriciate it. I will try and incorpoarte fruitly loops with acid. Thanks Marc for explaining on how to do that, and thanks mD for your further explanations, you two have been a great help. I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks again to you both. |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: marcarotsky
Date:11/12/2003 7:18:39 PM
no problem! :-) -marc |
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Subject:RE: Best way to compose loops
Reply by: Iacobus
Date:11/13/2003 1:18:21 PM
You're welcome! -Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid mD's ACIDplanet Page |