Choosing the best drum loops boils down to listening to a large number of drum loops and selecting the ones that appeal to you. A musician can simplify this process by examining the properties of the drum loops, such as sound quality, music style, and beats per minute (BPM). Loops can be analog (made from recorded audio) or digitally simulated (made from simulated drum sounds). Drum loops can often be altered in software programs to make them fit better into a piece. Making your own drum loops may be the best way to get the sound you want out of a musical composition if all else fails.
FruityLoops®, Reason®:, and Garageband® are just a few of the programs that use drum loops. The type of instruments in the loop, the original tempo of the loop, and the type of music that the loops were made to sound like are all used to categorize these loops. It is not always necessary to select a drum loop that is appropriate for the genre of music you are creating. In fact, using a drum loop that isn’t in the same genre as the rest of the song can produce a more eclectic and creative sound than using drum loops from the same genre.
In most drum loops, the drum tools used to make the beat are what define the genre of music. For rock or jazz, loops with natural sounding drum sets are frequently used. Jazz beats are distinguished by the sound of a drummer’s brush on a drum’s head. Electronic, computerized-sounding drum loops are popular in dance and pop music, while glitch and dubstep music favors loops with electric drums that sound broken or malfunctioning.
Though a drum loop can usually be adjusted to fit a piece’s tempo, getting a beat with a similar tempo to the piece you’re writing can have several advantages. It usually sounds better when the tempo is the same and the loop requires less adjustment. It can sound more natural with less distortion than a time-altered loop because it does not need to be sped up or slowed down to fit the piece. Not every artist chooses loops with the same tempo as the piece they’re working on. Some musicians use loops with vastly different tempos to take advantage of the distortion and timbre change that comes with heavily speeding up or slowing down a drum loop to create a new sound.