Working with Loops that Aren't 4 bars

[JTreeZY]

Hey i'm tryna make this dubstep track but the beat and synth loop i'm starting out with arnt 4 bars longits like 6 1/2 which might make things confusing later but the beat is bad assed like a hip hoppy hard rock stye if that makes any sence. Is this gunna make things really confusing down the road when i'm arranging it or anyone have expericce with off beats

[ehbes]

Time stretch ?

[the dub lemon]

Change the time signature, if it's 6 1/2 bars I'd think it would would better in something other than 4/4

[Genevieve]

Change the time signature, if it's 6 1/2 bars I'd think it would would better in something other than 4/4

Yep. Or slice the sample up and cut out bits to make it work in 4/4.

[Artie_Fufkin]

Copy-paste parts of it to make it 4 bars.

[JTreeZY]

It's too hard I give up

[ehbes]

Wow

[AxeD]

It's too hard I give up

Good on ya

[Hircine]

It's too hard I give up

I bet you can't wait for success.

[drake89]

i wouldn't feel too bummed. not everything's meant to be sampled. Out of the half dozen or so records that ive sampled and chopped up, i've only gotten a few loops and the best one was by accident! im going for lo-fi a la rjd2 or dj shadow, though. if it was just the timing throwing you off though, you could add like 1.5 bars of hi hat count in, or something to make it 8 bars...

[Artie_Fufkin]

Make the start of your selections for slicing the beat right before the transients of the drum hits at a zero crossing.
Here's an article that might help. http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/ ... ity-249803
Also you might want to look up how to beat slice on youtube/google/vimeo/etc.
Play around in audacity with loops and cutting them up so they sync right. I had trouble at first too, but as long as you use the transients to guide you, you'll get it. Just practice and don't give up.

[wub]

i wouldn't feel too bummed. not everything's meant to be sampled.

Everything can potentially be sampled...but not every sample is right for every project.

Change the time signature, if it's 6 1/2 bars I'd think it would would better in something other than 4/4

This, mainly. Either that or you keep the loop length (say, 3 bars) and have it wrap round over a period of time within the track equating to a number divisable by both 3 and 4 (assuming a 4 bar structure).

So;

3 bars repeated 12 times
vs
4 bars repeated 9 times

Or something in between.

Time stretch ?

Serious answer? Think about it as dots on a line of paper...the dots would still be out of time with the other dots if you stretched the bit of paper.

Hey i'm tryna make this dubstep track but the beat and synth loop i'm starting out with arnt 4 bars longits like 6 1/2 which might make things confusing later but the beat is bad assed like a hip hoppy hard rock stye if that makes any sence. Is this gunna make things really confusing down the road when i'm arranging it or anyone have expericce with off beats

One final thing you could try is editing the loop down into individual 1 beat hits, then building your own loop out of the parts you have, collage style

Actually, thinking about it I'd probably go for that tbh.

[dickman69]

maybe change the bpm lol

oh i guess then it wouldnt be dubstep

then it loses all meaning

[JTMMusicuk]

you could repeat the loop 5 times and on the last loop make it 5.5 instead of 6.5 which will make it into a 32 bar loop of 4/4 but noone would realise till its too late

[outbound]

All these numbers are starting to hurt my head.

Perhaps you could post a sample of the audio in question so we could give a suggestion based on the actual music itself rather than spouting more hypothetical answers to a loop we haven't heard?