Meaningful Arbitrary Collisions of Events: Getting Started With Acid Loops

Posted by Ed Driscoll on December 18, 2003 10:20 PM (See all posts by Ed Driscoll)
Filed under: Music

On Wednesday, April 6, 1966, the Beatles walked into Abbey Road's Studio Three at 8:00 PM and began work on a tune they initially dubbed "Mark I", or, as we know it today (after the Ringo-ism that inspired the title), "Tomorrow Never Knows". It was their first recording for Revolver, and it firmly established their role as the rock equivalent of Chuck Yeager-cum-Superman: able to detect sonic barriers, and smash right through them in a single bound.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" was also the first pop song to make use of tape loops, which were once strictly the province of the avant garde. Tape loops are basically short snippets of sound, frequently designed to repeat infinitely (hence the word "loop").

In popular music, Brian Eno was perhaps the most visible user of tape loops in the 1970s. He eventually taught his techniques to guitarist Robert Fripp. As I wrote back in August:

In the mid-1970s, Brian Eno had introduced Fripp to the concept of tape looping, a forerunner to today's electronic sampling. Fripp uses loops in two ways on this album: first, as part of his famous "Frippertronics" technique of layering guitar parts, which gives his Gibson Les Paul Custom an almost synthesizer-like tone...Throughout the album, Fripp also uses tape loops of "music concrete": found sounds, and snippets of dialogue to overlay on top of his playing,

Eventually, when rap and hip-hop took advantage of the sampling technology of the 1980s, loops (typically stored electronically, rather than on magnetic tape) began to play more and more of a role in commercial music. Even hard rockers like Jimmy Page and Robert Plant used loops of percussion on their 1994 "Unledded" MTV special.

The Electric Computer Acid Test

In the mid-1990s, Sonic Foundry's Acid Program brought loops to home recordists: Sonic Foundry developed a technology that allowed conventional Microsoft Windows Audio files (or .WAV files) to have their tempos and pitches controlled. So a loop of a drummer playing a one or two bar pattern could be adjusted to play at any tempo, or a loop of a soloist playing a flute or keyboard could be adjusted to play at any tempo-and in any key.

The popularity of Acid coincided with the rapid growth of techno music, to the point where many people think of Acid, loops, and techno as synonymous. And there's no doubt, Acid loops can be a great first step towards creating techno music (unfortunately, Sonic Foundry wasn't able to capitalize on the growth of techno and PC-based home recording, and were purchased earlier this year by Sony). There are lots of CD-ROMs available from Sony of techno-oriented bass, drum and synthesizer loops, which can be mixed, mashed, and combined in all sorts of ways to make techno tunes galore.

It's also possible to use them with live instruments and vocals. I created this tune using a variety of Acid loops, as well as electric guitars run through Roger Linn's AdrenaLinn box, and an acoustic guitar, which I simply miked and recorded into my PC. This tune also shows another benefit of Acid loops: they can be imported into many programs, not just those produced by Sony. In this case, I used Cakewalk's Sonar, which comes with a plug-in called Cyclone, perfect for slicing, dicing and manipulating pre-recorded loops into entirely new ones.

Beyond Techno

But loops can be used for far more than synth-driven techno. Sony produces loops containing all sorts of sounds, including exotic instruments from around the world, and ambient background washes. There are also plenty of sound effects loops. Their loops are sold both as single CDs, and in multiple CD sets.

The multiple CD sets typically contain a variety of loops built around some sort of theme, and their Producer's Pack kit is no exception. As you can hear by browsing the samples on the Sony Web site, this five CD kit contains a variety of percussion, washes, sound effects, drones, and other strange sounds, that can be assembled and reassembled in endless combinations (especially once you start editing them and combining them with instruments you play yourself) to add color and texture to existing recordings.

These loops can also be a great jumping off point for creating background music for TV and film productions. This track, which utilized several loops in the Producer's Pack set, was inspired by the nightmarish background score that accompanied the scene in Apocalypse Now, where Martin Sheen and his patrol boat pass under "Rainbow Bridge", at about the halfway point of the film. The electric guitar on this track is simply me wailing on my Fender B-Bender Telecaster; the rest of the sounds are loops.

Loops can also be used to introduce exotic, non-Western instruments and voices into a track. This track was created using the loops contained in Sony's World Pack, another five-CD set that loops of instruments from Asia, the Middle East, and lots of percussion from around the world, including a complete CD of Latin percussion. (The only instruments on the track not contained on the track were the strings, which were samples in Reason that I played via my Roland guitar synth.)

Getting Started

Of course, most of the individual CDs in the multi-pack sets are available separately. For anyone interested in getting started with home recording, Acid Loops are a great launching point. Think of them like a collage: just keep pasting material until an interesting pattern emerges. And then go to town with your producing and mixing your collage.

Back in the early days of Blogcritics, Eric Olsen wrote:

The parallels between music-creation software and blogging are unmistakable: both enable "ordinary people" to enter into areas of creativity and, equally important, distribution, that were only previously available to select professionals: those who were allowed to pass through the portals of either the press or the record labels by the guardians at the gates.

By enabling a large number of people to engage in these activities, both technologies are democratizing their respective fields and battering the barriers between "creator" and "consumer" in both directions.

If you're worried about where to begin, just keep in mind something Brian Eno said over twenty years ago: "almost any arbitrary collision of events listened to enough times comes to seem very meaningful." And you can make some pretty spectacular event collisions on--err--with Acid!

Click here for more fine Blogcritics.org reading, or scroll down to see comments on this story and add one of your own. Support Blogcritics.org by shopping at Amazon.com from this page.

ACID Power! David E. Franks Muska & Lipman Pub 01 November, 2001 $22.25 at Amazon.com

Screenblast ACID 4.0 Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment 27 August, 2003 $63.99 at Amazon.com

Burning Down the House: Ripping, Recording, Remixing, and More! Eliot Van Buskirk McGraw-Hill Osborne Media 15 June, 2003 $17.49 at Amazon.com

Computer Music : The Complete Guide For Mac And Pc - Includes Cd-Rom Future Publishing Ltd $134.87 at Amazon.com

Home Recording For Musicians For Dummies® Jeff Strong For Dummies April, 2002 $15.39 at Amazon.com

Sonar 3 Power Scott R. Garrigus, Scott R. Garrigus Premier Press November, 2003 $20.99 at Amazon.com

Revolver [UK] The Beatles Capitol 25 October, 1990 $13.49 at Amazon.com

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Posted by Ed Driscoll on December 18, 2003 10:20 PM (See all posts by Ed Driscoll)
Filed under: Music