Please recommend loops for inspiration

[Phoenix99]

Hi

I like to listen to loops for inspiration and ideas for arrangements etc for compositions. I often load multiple loops to play in time and in the same key to listen for unique combinations of sounds and ideas.

Some of my favorites loop libraries are:
• Heavyocity: many of their libraries
• Vengeance for EDM
• Audio Imperia for cinematic vibes
• East West various libraries
• Big Fish Audio various libraries
• Zero-G various libraries
• Spectrasonics
• Keep Forest

There are also a lot of uninspiring loops libraries out there.

Can anyone recommend their favorite loops, any style, any instrument.

Thank You

[Eddy Deegan]

I know what you mean, though for me it's trawling through presets on synths to find something I like and then taking it from there. Using presets is often frowned on in synth circles but I'll often find a sound that kicks something neat off. Then again I always come back to thinking that the sound isn't unique, it's available to everyone with the same synth so I'll modify the patch or create a new patch from scratch that captures some element of a preset I like.

Loops are creations that people make and each loop is available to everyone who has the same library. If you find loops inspiring then it might be a useful exercise to work on creating some of your own, not with a track in mind necessarily, just a loop.

Over the years I've steadily decreased my requirement for a good preset to get the creative muse going, sat down and created unique sounds from scratch. It's more work but enjoyable and the results are invariably far more satisfying while at the same time being unavailable to anyone else.

I'm not knocking the source of inspiration that loops provide but if it's inspiration you seek then I'd recommend blocking out a couple of hours to listen to two or three albums, in full, from artists you like and then sitting down with that experience fresh in your head to see what sort of things you come up with. You might surprise yourself

I'm sure some folks will have loop library recommendations and I'm sorry I'm not the man to give you any but I would commend finding an alternative that works. Who knows, maybe if you do then other people will be using your loops!

[Phoenix99]

Thank you for your insight.

I do listen to music a lot and get great ideas from great music. I find loops give me ideas not much for melodic composition but for accompaniment parts. I also find many new ideas for arrangement parts buy trying random loop combinations.

[Ben Asaro]

Ghosthack has some great loop libraries for kickstarting ideas. I tend to use them when I need some orchestral percussion loops.

This WIP piece uses a couple of Ghosthack loops mixed with my own orchestration, https://soundcloud.com/asfollowswriting ... al_sharing

[Phoenix99]

Ghosthack has some great loop libraries for kickstarting ideas. I tend to use them when I need some orchestral percussion loops.

This WIP piece uses a couple of Ghosthack loops mixed with my own orchestration, https://soundcloud.com/asfollowswriting ... al_sharing

Thank you. I will check out Ghosthack loops. I loved your piece.

[Ben Asaro]

Ghosthack has some great loop libraries for kickstarting ideas. I tend to use them when I need some orchestral percussion loops.

This WIP piece uses a couple of Ghosthack loops mixed with my own orchestration, https://soundcloud.com/asfollowswriting ... al_sharing

Thank you. I will check out Ghosthack loops. I loved your piece.

Thx!

[The Elf]

The best inspiration you can find is going outside of your norm - so stop auditioning loops and try other avenues.

Just a thought!

[MarkyC]

Interesting subject this one. I’m coming at sample usage from the other direction.

I’d always created everything from scratch myself (often using presets like Eddy for inspiration)
However recently everything was beginning to sound very similar, so just out of interest and in a New Year stupor, started using some free Cubase samples to see what it was all about. Produced a track really quickly which a DJ mate instantly put in his set (which was cool). BUT it did not sound like me so it will probably never see the light of day.

Started a new track and kind of liked some of the samples but found others that were badly recorded or not quite what I was after. I then started recreating what I had heard (Bass, synth stabs, adding drum parts) but with my own slant and then using those.

Again not sure it will ever see the light of day, but being out of my comfort zone is making me think differently.
It’s quite interesting and a very different way of recording. You have to just focus on very short phrases or stabs. The use of delays and reverbs seems quite critical in getting everything to sound in the same room. Also, I have found that using my past techniques they are just too fussy.
So an interesting exercise and will inform how I look at things going forward…..