Stuck in a loop

Indeed. I usually follow this process with an hour wasted on YouTube to find the next inspirational technique, rinse and repeat!

When I get stuck in a 16 bar loop, I normally take a track I’m feeling and I drag it into my project. I then listen to what they’re adding to the track at what point and then I base my track around that arrangement. I’m not copying of the track, but I’m just getting ideas on what to do next.

I also think adding a lot of transition effects to your track will really make it sound full, try taking stuff out of your 16 by loop and spreading out along the track with a lot of reverse, crashes and white noise and atmosphere.

I hope this helps. Let me know how you get on.🫡

Hi Joppa,

Yes mate, been there many times. I find the following helps;

1: Put a reference track in at the same key you want to work in. This will help you structure tunes beyond 8-16 bars.
2: Structure drums accordingly and get a good call and response with your bass going until your head nearly falls off with the groove from nodding.
3: Check you are on point with the frequencies according to eq against the reference track. I use span which is free and excellent!
4: Break your sessions down into different areas e.g. drums/bass/sub/mids/lead/sound design/sessions.

Just some ideas which I hope are helpful mate! Big ups, Matt

cool question and nice answers here crew…
One idea which works for nearly all creative mediums is to take your sketch, and then do 3 or 4 variations of it…
Don’t spend too long on each, keep things moving and intuitive.

– So do a different version: keep all the parts other than the beats and make the beats from scratch again in a different way.

– Do another version: this time keeping the beats but change up the bass and other parts.

– Then do another version: and do something radical like put loads of distortion and LFO pumping / delay / frequency shifting / rind mod on the master output and see if some kind of interesting sample can be made by totally mangling the whole thing as one. This sample could end up being the basis for the finished tune.

At the end of this process see what you have and if something can be amalgamated from the 3-4 different sketches.

How about collabs? A fresh perspective can help maintain motivation when things get stale.
Is there a thread on here for interested parties?

Hi Joppa,

I think many of us have this same problem, bored of the tune by the time we get to 16 bars. A key realisation I came to is if you have a wicked 16 bar loop, you’ve pretty much got a tune (depending on the genre you’re making). I try to move from the creative phase (writing new beats + b-line) and into arrangement quickly as I find the process gets enjoyable again.

I usually brand my original 16 bar loop ‘Section 1’. I make a note of what it contains and then I keep adding to it, layer upon layer until it is full (verging on cluttered). Random samples, drum elements, percussion loops, pads and stabs (created using bass midi as a starting point?), I throw the kitchen sink at it, these will not all get used in the final tune.

I then copy this out twice forming a ‘section 2’ and a ‘section 3’ (others may use more sections). Once done, I remove layers from each of the sections (I audition layer combinations by muting tracks while listening) and use the following as a rule of thumb-

‘Section 1’ = My original 16 bar idea (before I added to it)
‘Section 2’ = As section 1 but also hats / rides + amendment to the bass line (eg – additional Fm/distortion/creative eq or new offbeat stabs/responses)
‘Section 3’ = More subdued version of Section 1, filter off midbass, remove high energy hats, introduce some low percs – bringing energy level down in preparation for mid tune break down

As a starting point for my second drop I want to go in high energy which then lowers, section by section, until the tune ends. To achieve that I would try to use different combinations of all the layers created initially so something similar too (but not exactly) Section 2 > Section 1 > Section 3

Many thanks,

Mark

Hey Joppa,

I’ve lost track of the amount of times this has happened. To prevent it I separate my music sessions.

– Sound design
– Building breaks/perc tops etc
– Structure and vibe
– Mixdown

You’re probably getting “writers block” as you’ll start building a vibe of the track, get excited, then try to design the missing piece, get lost in synthesis, and forget what you were doing. Build the sounds first. By separating sound design and structure, its easier to get tracks down quickly. With sound design sessions you lose the pressure of “having” to get further than 32 bars. You just do whatever the fuck you want. Make crazy sounds, and throw weird fx chains on the sounds. Record, bounce, manipulate. Save for later!
Come back a day or two later and construct the track with your building blocks. Try to make a 32 bar drop/small intro. Walk away. Come back with fresh ears and build the track outwards from there.

P.s try to avoid using reverb/delay etc. If your track sounds good without those FX then it’ll sound sick once you use those. I normally build a vibe with the Drums and Bass. Then flatten everything and have another sound design with crazy FX, flatten, chop and fill in the spaces.

It makes the whole process a lot more fun.

TLDR: have fun with sound design, come back and build the track later

Anubis___ wrote:

Always wanted to collab. Would Genie HQ be able to set something up?

Perhaps we could do something here…
Brb 😀