Music loop
Encyclopedia
In electroacoustic music
, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato
patterns. A loop can be created using a wide range of music technologies
including digital samplers
, synthesisers, sequencers
, drum machines
, tape machines, delay units, or they can be programmed
using computer music
software.
pioneers such as Pierre Schaeffer
, Halim El-Dabh
, Pierre Henry
, Edgard Varèse
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
. Stockhausen's music in turn influenced The Beatles to experiment with tape loops, and their use of loops in early psychedelic works (most notably 1966's "Tomorrow Never Knows
" and 1968's avant-garde "Revolution 9
") brought the technique into the mainstream. The stereo version of The Kinks
' 1967 song "Autumn Almanac
" (which appears on the 1972 compilation The Kink Kronikles
) also features a psychedelic tape loop during the fadeout. Later, inspired by Terry Riley
's use of one tape
on two tape machines, Brian Eno
and Robert Fripp
created the technical basis for their No Pussyfooting album—this technological concept was later dubbed Frippertronics
.
Another approach was the use of pre-recorded loops, exemplified by Yellow Magic Orchestra
, who released one of the first albums to feature mostly samples and loops (1981's Technodelic
), and Grandmaster Flash
's turntablism
. Major producers like Timbaland
, and underground producers like Jimmy Spice Curry
, as well as the group Sir Mask, and others often create their own sound loops then incorporate them into songs.
Use of pre-recorded loops made its way into many styles of popular music, including hip hop
, trip hop
, techno, drum and bass
, and contemporary dub, as well as into mood music on soundtracks.
In the early 1990s dedicated digital devices were invented specifically for use in live looping
i.e. loops that are recorded in front of a live audience. Live looping is not exclusive to electronic music and is found in the singer/songwriter genre, achieving new popularity in the employ of popular artists such as Imogen Heap
, Ani DiFranco
, Andrew Bird
, Marbin
, and KT Tunstall
.
Computer programs to create music using loops range in features, user friendliness, and price. Some of the most widely used are, Digidesign
's Pro Tools
, Sony
's ACID
and Sound Forge
, Cakewalk Sonar
, ReCycle, GarageBand
, FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops), Propellerhead's Reason and Ableton Live
.
Many hardware loopers exist in rack unit
, effect pedal, or other forms. Early examples of rack and pedal loopers are the Gibson
Echoplex
, DigiTech JamMan
and the Electro-Harmonix
16 Second Delay.
In 2004 there were 20 live looping festivals in 12 countries in this burgeoning international movement. These include Loopstock established in 2002 in San Luis Obispo, California
, and the Y2K? series, established in 2000 in Santa Cruz, California
. The Y2K4 International Live Looping Festival in October 2004 in San Francisco and Santa Cruz drew 50 loopers from 5 different countries over four days.
The musical loop is one of the most important features of video game music. It is also the guiding principle behind devices like the several Chinese Buddhist music boxes that loop chanting of mantras, which in turn was the inspiration of the Buddha machine, an ambient-music generating device. The Jan Linton
album "Buddha Machine Music" used these loops along with others created by manually scrolling through CDs on a CDJ
player.
A major advantage of looping that it can be used continually, and not have the quality degradation that is inherent when musician playing a musical part repeatedly (human error). Additionally there can be huge cost savings, on the production end.
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
patterns. A loop can be created using a wide range of music technologies
Music technology
Music technology is a term that refers to all forms of technology involved with the musical arts, particularly the use of electronic devices and computer software to facilitate playback, recording, composition, storage and performance. This subject is taught at many different educational levels,...
including digital samplers
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
, synthesisers, sequencers
Sequencer
Sequencer may refer to:Arts and Entertainment* Sequencer , 1976* Sequencer , 1996Technology* DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sample...
, drum machines
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
, tape machines, delay units, or they can be programmed
Programmer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
using computer music
Computer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
software.
Definitions
- "Loops are short sections of tracks (probably between one and four barBar (music)In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
s in length), which you believe might work being repeated." A loop is not "any sample, but...specifically a small section of sound that's repeated continuously." Contrast with a one-shot sample. (Duffell 2005, p.14)
- "A loop is a sample of a performance that has been edited to repeat seamlessly when the audio file is played end to end." (Hawkins 2004, p. 10)
Origins
While repetition is used in the musics of all cultures, the first musicians to use loops were electroacoustic musicElectroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
pioneers such as Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...
, Halim El-Dabh
Halim El-Dabh
Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh is an Egyptian-born American composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who has had a career spanning six decades...
, Pierre Henry
Pierre Henry
Pierre Henry is a French composer, considered a pioneer of the musique concrète genre of electronic music.-Biography:...
, Edgard Varèse
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. Stockhausen's music in turn influenced The Beatles to experiment with tape loops, and their use of loops in early psychedelic works (most notably 1966's "Tomorrow Never Knows
Tomorrow Never Knows
"Tomorrow Never Knows" is the final track of The Beatles' 1966 studio album Revolver but the first to be recorded. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was written primarily by John Lennon...
" and 1968's avant-garde "Revolution 9
Revolution 9
"Revolution 9" is a recorded composition that appeared on The Beatles' 1968 self-titled LP release . The sound collage, credited to Lennon–McCartney, was created primarily by John Lennon with assistance from George Harrison and Yoko Ono. Lennon said he was trying to paint a picture of a revolution...
") brought the technique into the mainstream. The stereo version of The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
' 1967 song "Autumn Almanac
Autumn Almanac
"Autumn Almanac" is a pop song, written by Ray Davies and recorded by the musical group The Kinks in 1967. "Autumn Almanac" has since been noted for being an "absolute classic", "a finely observed slice of English custom", a "weird character study" and for its "mellow, melodic sound that was to...
" (which appears on the 1972 compilation The Kink Kronikles
The Kink Kronikles
The Kink Kronikles is a USA compilation double album of singles, B-sides, album tracks and previously unreleased tracks recorded by The Kinks between 1966 and 1970...
) also features a psychedelic tape loop during the fadeout. Later, inspired by Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
's use of one tape
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
on two tape machines, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
and Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
created the technical basis for their No Pussyfooting album—this technological concept was later dubbed Frippertronics
Frippertronics
Frippertronics was a specific tape looping technique used by Robert Fripp. It evolved from a system of tape looping originally developed in the electronic music studios of the early 1960s that was first used by composers Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros and made popular through its use in ambient...
.
Another approach was the use of pre-recorded loops, exemplified by Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
, who released one of the first albums to feature mostly samples and loops (1981's Technodelic
Technodelic
-Personnel:*Ryuichi Sakamoto: keyboards, vocals*Yukihiro Takahashi: drums, vocals*Haruomi Hosono: Bass, keyboards, vocals*Peter Barakan: Lyrics *Hideki Matsutake: Technical assistance...
), and Grandmaster Flash
Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Saddler better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing....
's turntablism
Turntablism
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
. Major producers like Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
, and underground producers like Jimmy Spice Curry
Jimmy Spice Curry
Jimmy Curry is an entertainment producer, human rights activist and writer with credits in various ventures. Jimmy Spice Curry has worked with Grammy Award winning Rock artist Lenny Kravitz , H...
, as well as the group Sir Mask, and others often create their own sound loops then incorporate them into songs.
Use of pre-recorded loops made its way into many styles of popular music, including hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, trip hop
Trip hop
Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music which originated in the early 1990s in England, especially Bristol. Deriving from "post"-acid house, the term was first used by the British music media and press as a way to describe the more experimental variant of breakbeat which...
, techno, drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
, and contemporary dub, as well as into mood music on soundtracks.
Modern looping
Today many musicians use digital hardware and software devices to create and modify loops, often in conjunction with various electronic musical effects.In the early 1990s dedicated digital devices were invented specifically for use in live looping
Live looping
Live looping is the recording and playback of looped audio samples in real-time, using either hardware or software. It is a process with numerous sonic directions, open to instrument textures, improvisation and composition techniques. Famous musicians who use this technique include Australian...
i.e. loops that are recorded in front of a live audience. Live looping is not exclusive to electronic music and is found in the singer/songwriter genre, achieving new popularity in the employ of popular artists such as Imogen Heap
Imogen Heap
Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap is a Grammy Award-winning English singer, composer and songwriter from Havering, Essex. She is known for her work as part of the musical duo Frou Frou and her solo albums, which she writes, produces, and mixes...
, Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
, Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.- Early life and the Bowl of Fire :...
, Marbin
Marbin
Marbin is a Jazz-Rock group based in Chicago IL.Marbin first started in 2007 as an improvised music duo consisting of Israeli-American guitarist Dani Rabin and Israeli saxophonist Danny Markovitch. Markovitch and Rabin met shortly after Markovitch had completed his military service as an infantry...
, and KT Tunstall
KT Tunstall
Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from St Andrews, Scotland. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland...
.
Computer programs to create music using loops range in features, user friendliness, and price. Some of the most widely used are, Digidesign
Digidesign
Avid Audio is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, and during 2010 the Digidesign...
's Pro Tools
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's ACID
ACID Pro
Sony ACID Pro is a professional digital audio workstation software program. It was originally called "ACID pH1" and published by Sonic Foundry, but is now developed and sold by Sony Creative Software....
and Sound Forge
Sound Forge
Sony Sound Forge is a digital audio editing suite by Sony Creative Software which is aimed at the professional and semi-professional markets....
, Cakewalk Sonar
Cakewalk (company)
Cakewalk, Inc. is a company based in Boston, Massachusetts that develops and sells music production software. The company's best known product is their comprehensive music sequencer named SONAR, which is designed for professional use. SONAR incorporates multi-track recording and editing of both...
, ReCycle, GarageBand
GarageBand
GarageBand is a software application for Mac OS X and iOS that allows users to create music or podcasts. It is developed by Apple Inc. as a part of the iLife software package on Mac OS X.-Audio recording:...
, FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops), Propellerhead's Reason and Ableton Live
Ableton Live
Ableton Live is a loop-based software music sequencer and DAW for Mac OS and Windows by Ableton. The latest major release of Live, Version 8, was released in April 2009. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool for...
.
Many hardware loopers exist in rack unit
Rack unit
A rack unit or U is a unit of measure used to describe the height of equipment intended for mounting in a 19-inch rack or a 23-inch rack...
, effect pedal, or other forms. Early examples of rack and pedal loopers are the Gibson
Gibson
Gibson may refer to:* Gibson Amphitheatre* Gibson Appliance* Gibson Girl* Gibson Guitar Corporation* Gibson * Gibson Generating Station-Places:In the United States:* Gibson, Arkansas* Gibson, Georgia* Gibson, Iowa* Gibson, Louisiana...
Echoplex
Echoplex
The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by some of the most notable guitar players of the era; original Echoplexes are highly sought after....
, DigiTech JamMan
JamMan
The JamMan is an audio looping device manufactured by Lexicon in the mid 1990s. The idea for the JamMan began with modifications Gary Hall had devised for the Lexicon PCM-42 that allowed him to play into a long, looping delay whose clock could be synchronized to an external source...
and the Electro-Harmonix
Electro-Harmonix
Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes high-end electronic audio processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
16 Second Delay.
In 2004 there were 20 live looping festivals in 12 countries in this burgeoning international movement. These include Loopstock established in 2002 in San Luis Obispo, California
San Luis Obispo, California
San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities...
, and the Y2K? series, established in 2000 in Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
. The Y2K4 International Live Looping Festival in October 2004 in San Francisco and Santa Cruz drew 50 loopers from 5 different countries over four days.
The musical loop is one of the most important features of video game music. It is also the guiding principle behind devices like the several Chinese Buddhist music boxes that loop chanting of mantras, which in turn was the inspiration of the Buddha machine, an ambient-music generating device. The Jan Linton
Jan Linton
Jan Linton is a singer, musician and producer from Warrington, England, who helped internationalize the music scene in Tokyo, Japan.-Biography:...
album "Buddha Machine Music" used these loops along with others created by manually scrolling through CDs on a CDJ
CDJ
CDJ is a term used to describe a line of CD players from Pioneer Electronics that allow analogue control of music from CDs, usually using an emulated vinyl control surface...
player.
A major advantage of looping that it can be used continually, and not have the quality degradation that is inherent when musician playing a musical part repeatedly (human error). Additionally there can be huge cost savings, on the production end.
See also
- Break (music)Break (music)In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....
, break beats are drum loops - PhasingPhasingIn the compositional technique phasing, the same part is played on two musical instruments, in steady but not identical tempo...
- Live loopingLive loopingLive looping is the recording and playback of looped audio samples in real-time, using either hardware or software. It is a process with numerous sonic directions, open to instrument textures, improvisation and composition techniques. Famous musicians who use this technique include Australian...
, the melodic layering of just-recorded musical loops (usually beatboxingBeatboxingBeatboxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, and the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments...
) as live performance.