How can I avoid my tracks sounding like collections of loops?

Most modern DAWs are perfectly suited to creating loop-based music. Entire workflows have been designed for the benefit of those who like to throw together short sections made up of multiple parts, and that, in a nutshell, is how many electronic music producers work. The danger is that you’ll end up with tracks that sound very obviously sequenced, and lacking in the spontaneity that typifies a human performance. So, what’s the solution?

The crucial ingredient is variation. Even if the heart of your song comprises just a couple of main sections, you need to make the listener feel like it’s more than that. There are various ways of achieving this; one much-used trick is to drop parts in and out at different points in the track, though you need to be careful to ensure that this doesn’t end up sounding like a mechanical process, too. Transitions between sections are also crucial – don’t just jump from one to the next, as the join will be all too obvious to hear.

Perhaps the best way to avoid sounding too ‘loopy’, though, is to… well, avoid using too many identical loops. Don’t rely on the original MIDI you recorded to run throughout the track – play parts again and in slightly different ways. If you really

want to throw off the shackles, you could actually try performing a part ‘live’ for the entirety of a track. OK, you might make a few mistakes, and the resulting recording will probably be less than perfect, but it might help you to inject some much-needed feel into your music.