The Songcrafters Loop project - Let's all get Loopy!

[64Guitars]

Inspired by Hook's "Let's ALL collaborate!" topic where everyone contributed a single line to the lyrics, I thought it would be fun to try a project where everyone contributes a short musical phrase (typically, one to four bars) performed on a single instrument. After we've accumulated enough of these phrase samples, any member can download the phrases he likes and assemble them into a song using Audacity or any other DAW to loop each sample as desired. He can then add vocals, lead guitar, or whatever and post his finished song in the Original Songs board. It will also count for CollabFest since other members created the phrase samples.

For this particular project, let's make all of the phrase samples in the key of C at a tempo of 120 bpm so that all of the phrases will be compatible with each other. If this project proves successful, we might try similar projects in the future using other keys and tempos. In your finished song, you're welcome to use software to change the tempo or pitch.

Use any instrument you like to create your phrases, but each phrase should be only one instrument. If you want to post several phrases that go together, that's fine. But post them as individual files rather than a mix of all the instruments together. You can also post non-lyrical vocal phrases such as "la-la-la", "oh-oh-oh", "do-do-do", etc.

Phrases should be no longer than they need to be. Remember, the idea is that the phrase will be looped as many times as needed in software. So, for example, create a short rock riff, a few bars of fingerpicked guitar, a short chord progression on guitar, keyboard, ukulele, or whatever, a short bass pattern, a drum pattern, a drum fill, etc.

Your phrases don't have to go with the existing phrases that others have posted. Variety is good! It will allow us to create songs with different sections. And everyone can use different phrases to assemble their songs so they don't all sound the same.

To keep the sound quality high and avoid timing issues caused by the MP3 format, I suggest we use FLAC or WAV. Since the samples will be short, file size isn't a big concern. However, the total file size per post is still limited to 6MB. So I think it's best to use FLAC to keep the files a bit smaller, especially since I've increased the allowed number of files per post from 6 to 9. Most modern DAWs support FLAC. Audacity certainly does.

All phrase samples should be posted in this topic. Let's build a nice big collection of samples! But please don't post any samples you didn't create yourself. We only want samples performed and recorded by Songcrafters members.

Finished songs should be posted as a new topic in the Original Songs board. Don't forget to credit the members whose phrase samples you used. And tell us what software you used to assemble the phrase samples into a song.

To get things started, here are several phrase samples I created. I made the drum phrases in Hydrogen and the rest with a couple of Linux softsynths (ZynAddSubFX and Xsynth) with my Yamaha PSR-2100 keyboard as a midi controller. The "UAK" in some of the filenames stands for "Ultra Acoustic Kit". It's the name of the Hydrogen drum kit I used.

[64Guitars]

Here's a short, simple mix using the sample phrases above to show that the basic idea works. I'm posting it here rather than in Original Songs because it's not meant to be a finished song. It's just an example to show you how the sample phrases can be looped and assembled in software.

[kenny mac]

Cool ,I'm liking it but there's so much going on here on this site I think I'm going to have to loop my life to find time for it all lol 

[Rata-tat-tat]

This sounds fun.....

[launched]

This is cool - Fruity Songcrafter Loops!

[Hook]

Loopy songcrafter fruits?
I'm in. So I export the track from audacity as a flac and I'll be able to post as an attachment?
Rock On!

[64Guitars]

So I export the track from audacity as a flac and I'll be able to post as an attachment?

Correct. Remember to trim it to just the required number of measures (no count-in or blank space) so that people can import it directly into their DAW and loop it as many times as they need. It's easier to trim if you have a click track for reference so you know where the measures begin. You can generate a click track in Audacity by using the "C* Click - Metronome" plugin from the Generate menu. But I'm not sure if that plugin is included with Audacity or if I installed it separately, so I'll post a click track here which people can simply import into Audacity.

[64Guitars]

Here's a click track which can be used as a reference to see where the measures start. It's at 30 bpm which means each click marks one measure at 120 bpm (4 beats to the bar; 120/4=30). I've made it 6 minutes long. You can trim it down to the length of your song so the unneeded portion doesn't get in your way.

Import the track into your Audacity project and mute it. You'll still be able to see the clicks marking each measure but you won't have to listen to them.

[64Guitars]

I've created a tutorial on Basic Looping in Audacity which you'll find in the Guides under Home Recording / Audacity. It walks you through all the steps needed to assemble the samples I posted above into a simplified version of the Loop Test example tune (I left out the fills to keep it simple).

If you're interested in doing some looping for this project but not sure about how to do it, give my tutorial a try. Although there are a lot of steps to it, it's actually quite easy and shouldn't take too long (half hour at the most, I'd estimate). When you're done, you should have enough basic clip editing skills to create your own song out of the samples which will (hopefully) be posted in this topic.

I hope you enjoy it.

[cuthbert]

I'm new to this whole looping scene  , but here's a few more loops for the project - two from SonicCouture Novachord, and one from Rhythmus Minipops:

Enjoy,
cuth