[Fmpro] going loopy

[Fletcher Beasley]

I agree with Chris, to a degree. I wouldn't call combining a bunch of loops
in Garageband "composition" and frankly, it grates at me when I hear people
refer to themselves as composers when that is all they use to create their
music. However, I do think it is legitimate to use loops in a composition. I
generally don't like to use loops that contain harmonic or melodic material.
I often use drum loops, particularly when I need the sound of a live drummer
and don't have the budget to hire a player. No amount of MIDI programming
will sound as good a player on a kit. But I don't feel that makes the
drummer who played the loop a co-composer. When I want a percussive loop
that sounds electronic I usually program it. But sometimes I don't because I
don't have the time due to a looming deadline or because I already something
that sounds like what I want. I don't feel this compromises my musical
integrity. Ultimately I think that is something one has to look inside one's
self to determine.


On 6/1/07 11:29 AM, "Chris Alpiar" <chris at alpiar.com> wrote:

> Well there is lots of grey area on this but its very different then using
> pre fabricated loops. You are talking about synthesis and sound creation,
> not the making music with those sounds. Alone the coolest synth sound you
> ever created is not music, just noise, except to you at 4am with your
> headphones on hehe. (no offense intended!) But its when you use that cool
> synth sound, or the horns you play or the guitar, or the beer bottle you
> blow in, or the slinky sample you trigger with a drum machine, or whatever
> in the universe you can think up. Sun Ra Arkestra travels with a 30 foot
> wide drum made from a tree that was felled in a lightning storm outside
> their communal house. Where ever you get your sound from whether you created
> it with you and god alone (god, mother nature, the universal source, w/e you
> are comfy with) or you used a sound that someone else created (adolf sax who
> made your saxophone conceptually, or some geek at Roland that came up with
> preset 92) its still up to you to make music with it, it is your tool. A
> loop that is 4 bars long that you schlep it into a sequencer and loop it
> over and over to me is firstly a cop-out, a way to be so lazy with your art,
> and 2nd it was sounds like you have in your toolbox but that somebody ELSE
> used to make a mini composition, so its not yours.
> 
> Obviously it is not illegal to do such (Pete) but to me it is some kind of
> legal musical object plagiarism that weakens your art and speaks miles of
> your ethic. Is there noone on this list that agrees with me? Have we all
> been corrupted by the instant gratification of the low hanging pre-fab loop
> fruits?