Loops vs. original content

[Dub_Cult]

I'm curious about the ratio of pre-made loops vs. original content in other producers' tracks. My stuff is 99% original content from scratch. Occasionally I'll sample a piece of a beat or use a kick line from a Dj toolkit but overall I'm crafting my tracks from the ground up. Sometimes even creating sounds from nothing.
What are your thoughts on people who use like 75 percent loops made by others to comprise their music?

[Sharmaji]

the end result is all that matters.

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

I think purely using loops is cheap.

Don't get me wrong i use loops sometimes in the construction of a track but that will only be to use a certain rhythm i like which I'll copy from using my own drum hits, then adapt it e.t.c. Maybe even cut certain bitys straight from a drum loop and use them as elements on top of the break.

I'll also use a sample, fuck it up loads and turn it into something else, or copy a certain melody or chord sequence from something if I think it sounds nice, but that's as far as I'll go.

It depends on how much you want to get out of music creation, wether you're doing it for some kind of social feedback ego trip, or wether you intend to gain personal esteem by being competent in the creation of music.

It's a subjective subject, especially now there are so many high quality sample packs out there. The simple in-flux of that commodity is going to effect the industry.

There are creative ways you can use loops/pre made things in creative ways. At the end of the day it's a mercenaries game, some theory heads will argue that nothing is original anyway, we are all standing on the backs of giants and to be 'truly' original you'd have to make something utterly alien to anything that's come before.

Deep subject really.

[wormcode]

Discussed many times here, search for "sample CD" or "samples" etc and uncover dozens of pages of discussion.
I don't care where someone gets the elements of their tune. Good tune = good tune.
No one notices besides trainspotters really. Some classic tunes of all genres including some of the most famous dubstep tracks were made with mostly (or all) commercial samples. Loads of classic 80s music was made from sample disks that came with the first E-MU samplers.

[bassinine]

Discussed many times here, search for "sample CD" or "samples" etc and uncover dozens of pages of discussion.
I don't care where someone gets the elements of their tune. Good tune = good tune.
No one notices besides trainspotters really. Some classic tunes of all genres including some of the most famous dubstep tracks were made with mostly (or all) commercial samples. Loads of classic 80s music was made from sample disks that came with the first E-MU samplers.

nothing wrong with sampling. but pre-produced, synthesized, sounds are a cheap and easy way out - cheap and easy is usually not the correct route to take if one wants to make art.

[didi]

"Ask rza about sampling or photek or any of the other gods who created a entire world from shards"

Off of my twitter.

retweeting a zomby tweet

All about the end product.

[press]

personally, i only stay away from sampling music in the same genre im making and try to keep it to older music and stay away from classics. beyond that its all fair game and if i like it i use.

[datsik711]

if ure a beginner then loops but if you r experienced then originallll

[wormcode]

Discussed many times here, search for "sample CD" or "samples" etc and uncover dozens of pages of discussion.
I don't care where someone gets the elements of their tune. Good tune = good tune.
No one notices besides trainspotters really. Some classic tunes of all genres including some of the most famous dubstep tracks were made with mostly (or all) commercial samples. Loads of classic 80s music was made from sample disks that came with the first E-MU samplers.

nothing wrong with sampling. but pre-produced, synthesized, sounds are a cheap and easy way out - cheap and easy is usually not the correct route to take if one wants to make art.

Art is subjective though. Pre-produced synthesized sounds do not make good tunes by themselves. They take a true artist to turn them into something good. Everyone and their mother had the EZ Rollers sample pack back then, but only Tech Itch made this (and some other tunes) with it:

[Maccaveli]

I'm not too great with coming up with original melodies, so for example in the tune in my signature (EDIT: it's not in my sig anymore) the guitar is a loop from a sample pack that I processed and applied all sorts of effects to. I'm no less proud of the end result, cos aside from making everything else from scratch before I even found the loop, I feel it's no different to any of the great hip hop producers who use samples in their beats. I made a track I'm happy with and other people seem to like it, so why not?

[daeMTHAFKNkim]

I've never used a Loop in any track I've made! I'm pretty much against it....and sampling basses etc. I only sample drums from vengeance packs but I still create my own hits by layering with them.

Everything is 100% made by myself! I think that's how it should be...unless they are vocals.

[jbcrazy]

Whatever gets the job done. If you use 75 percent of loops though... how original is your track going to be? How much will you learn if you don't know how or take the time to synthesize the sounds yourself?

I think trying to do things from scratch is just more fulfilling in terms of creativity as well as production skills. You'll be all the better for it.

Now taking a sample... and making something different and cool out of it... that's another story.

Take bass samples all you want. Just fuck them up till they're unrecognizable!

[Dub_Cult]

Thanks for all the replies! It IS the end result that's important but if everyone uses the same loops we're gonna wind up with a glut of shite.
Slag the "how do you make skrillex bass" folks all you want but you can grow a lot more from that than piling together 20 tracks of Simone else's loops.
It is cool that people can start out plugging stuff into squares like it's a video game and turn out to learn to be a killer musician after a few years.

[jbcrazy]

Is there anyone on the dubstep forum... who would just drag loops onto their DAW like that and call it a day anyway?

Most of us here... I'd say are way too into this and obsessed to even think of doing that to our tracks.

[Huts]

Drum loops sometimes, mostly breaks however thats along the same line.. usually chop them anyway. Basses I won't sample riffs, but sustained notes put into a sampler sure. Melodies i'll sample whole loops and make it the theme of a track, much like hip hop producers do. The entire intro to the tune in my sig are loops, which I then rearrange/chop through the rest of the tune. If I can find a sample that captures the sounds in my head I don't see a point in poorly trying to replicate it just to say I created it from scratch

[Efrafa11]

Right now, I am working with nothing but old rnb, reggae, motown, and soul records if that says where I stand.
No other feeling like find some old gem of a song and loading up kong and banging around like I had an mpc.
Not to mention, going on sampling adventures I have heard so much great forgotten music it's absolutely crazy.
I mean after all a sound is just a sound... You can't literally own a sound

[wub]

I don't give a fuck where you got your samples from if the tune is good.
I'm not sure I even care where you got your samples from if the tune is shit!