I use a lot of vocals and top loops. Like smash them with a vocoder and granulize heck outta them. Makes for lush dub stabs.
I also been using more texture samples ever since I got my head round pigments sample engine. There’s only so many cool sounds in my world I can do justice with my cheap zoom handy mic.
I’m a big fan over layering snares with a single syllable vocal chop, bit of reverb. Thank you, ma’am!
I never use loops as a basis for a rhythm or melody as they’re things I add after I have a solid concept down.
I also dl a lot of kicks. I have kick2 vst to get me started but sometimes I’ll replace it with a sample part way through if it’s not cutting it. Claps, snares etc. Mostly stuff that you can’t really get the widest pallet going through synthesis.
someone insert that video of 4-tet going through his 20+ year old archive of self sourced/created samples and loops tagged in folders by month and year.
that’s what every electronic musician should be aiming for. (waftlord whispered)
do what the F I want, just the thought of giving a F what somebody else thinks contaminates the process.
if using loops makes you happy then let nothing get in your way of using them, if it makes you unhappy then let nothing get in your way of not using them.
sorry didn’t quite answer the question did I , yes I download and use loops, and just recently got into making loops for others to download and use.
I started a bit of a collection of samples, and for the most part it’s one-shots, as these can be used to make kits and instruments so they give the maximum flexibility. Where I do venture into loops, is with things like shakers and tambourines which (as others have mentioned) I find quicker to use loops than to programme with one-shots. I might do some light chopping or processing, but I usually don’t mainly because it’s like adding a little salt to your food (the meal is 90% done and it just adds a little something - but the salt cannot save bad cooking!)
As an example of when I pushed back against a loop - I tried out Arcade by Output. I love this thing and it has fantastic sounding vocals. But compared to some of the Kontakt instruments where you “play” the vocals on a keyboard, in this case you hold a key and it plays a portion of a loop. You can then modify the loop with the black keys, which creates stutters and rhythmic elements. It’s a load of fun and super quick. The reason I didn’t want to use this one is someone else could hit the same key combination fairly easily. And the biggest thing is that this would have been a major part of the song which didn’t quite sit well with me. So I took it out and replaced it with another sample that I had chopped up more manually. Still a sample, but one I had to work a bit more on by myself.
Just an example of the lines I draw when it comes to this stuff. Interesting to hear how others do it.
, yes I download and use loops, and just recently got into making loops for others to download and use.