Loop Editing

[M!nd_Ctrl]

Help w/ Loops

Ok, now I don't know much about music theory so I hope I'm using the term "bar" correctly.

I have a drum loop CD that contains a bunch of different styles. The problem I have is that some of the loops are 3 bars, when I'm used to making stuff with 4 bars. Cutting and pasting another bar doesn't help because the timing is obviously different. Even when I chop shit up it's hard to get it to sound right.

Here are my questions:

Does a 3 bar loop have a place in Hip Hop?

Can I convert a 3 bar loop to a 4 bar loop?

Ctrl

I have attached examples:

 

[brooklynstyle]

usually in hip hop, pop, dance, r&b n shit u use 4 bars or 2 bars. So u may wanna stick to the 4 bar rule. On the other and hip hop is all about creativeness and originality and this means that the 4 bar rule is not a rule at all. All this means, if u make it sound tight with 3 bars then it's cool.

U can have your 3 bar loop and u can add another bar breakdown to wrap up the whole loop. Pretty much try to expand your loop one more bar.

 

[Guevara]

YoU CAN CHoP iT AND CREATE A FoUR BAR MELoDY oR YoU CAN LEAVE iT THREE BARS AND MAKE iT HoT. EVERY HiP HoP SoNG DoESNT HAVE To BE FoUR BARS. You JUST GoTTA HAVE A CoNSiSTENT DRUM PATTERN.TRY To PoST SoME AUDiO, You MigHT GET BETTER FEEDBACK iF FoLKS KNEW WHAT YoU WERE WoRKiNG WiTH.

RELEASE;

 

[Guevara]

usually in hip hop, pop, dance, r&b n shit u use 4 bars or 2 bars. So u may wanna stick to the 4 bar rule. On the other and hip hop is all about creativeness and originality and this means that the 4 bar rule is not a rule at all. All this means, if u make it sound tight with 3 bars then it's cool.

U can have your 3 bar loop and u can add another bar breakdown to wrap up the whole loop. Pretty much try to expand your loop one more bar.

YEAH JUST GET CREATiVE, YoU CoULD EVEN REPEAT A BAR, MAYBE CUT THE FiRST BAR oUT AND REPEAT iT To MAKE iT A CoMPLETE FoUR BAR LoOP.
oRUSE THE LAST BAR.

RELEASE;

 

[M!nd_Ctrl]

Thanks for the help! Yeah I already tried cutting and pasting, but the timing is different and the drums are off beat. I already tried chopping and it was REALLY bad, but I'll try again.

Ctrl

 

[zone]

just use 3-bar loops if it works, know what im sayin? fuck all that chopping bs, start a new trend.

 

[Chrono]

you could try adding something subtle to the end or the begining of the 3-bar sample. Try some different sound or effect that would make it 4 bars. But, something like that might take a lot of experimenting (an time) and never work. but if it did work it would be real interesting, and new. post something up if you go anywhere with it.

 

[esentric]

chop and make it double up to fit. like Guevara said... make hot!

 

[chewbux]

you can also change the pitch, tempo of the sample to stretch it to 4 or cut it to 2 bars, it will change the sound of it a bit but it could sound tight, you just gotta play till you get something nice!

 

[Carpe Diem]

3 Bar Loops sound kinda dodgy from wat ive heard, but try it, u can make it happen!!!

 

[Shwaz]

REcycle

I would get a copy of recycle. Its used to break beats up into their seperate insturemnets so they can be re-arraged. You will probably have more success making a 4 bar beat with this then trying to do it in a wav editor.

If you want to stick with a 3 bar, I would suggest putting a simple 4-4 kick-durm beat ontop. If this doesn't clash-and it might- the emcee could use either a 3 bar or 4 bar beat to structure their ryhmes. Not sure if this is gonna work without hearing the beat, but it might.

 

[Aminimity]

I have done this alot, in fact i did it today, heres what i did.
I use soundforge 6.0 for this:

Take the loop and mark it off in sections; three bars, three sections.
Take note of the amount of time each section runs.
That will let you know how it will sound when you chop it.
naturally you want all three sections to run the same amount of time and have the same amount of time in between the one's and two's. so when you chop it up to create a fourth bar you will get somthing that will sound right (to varying degrees)

but rock the odd time signature if you want to.

 

[spin]

just chop it up and try to fix it in a 4 bar loop