> Step by step

Building a track with Loopmasters samples

1 Let’s put this issue’s free 1GB Loopmasters sample pack to the test by creating a melodic, dubstep/trapinspired half-time track. We’re using Ableton Live 9.6 for our tutorial – download a demo from ableton.com, or follow along using any DAW and sampler combination. Start in a fresh project set to 140bpm. 2 The pack contains plenty of well-produced drum loops – but instead of using a loop in its entirety, we’ll ‘sample’ its characterful kick. Drag Atmospheric Chill » Loops » Drum Loop 05.wav onto a blank MIDI track to load it into a Simpler, before programming the simple C3 pattern shown above in a bar-long MIDI clip (or load 2. Kick Pattern.mid). 3 Next, a clap: load Surefire Trap » Loops » No Sub Drum Loop 10.wav into a Simpler on a new MIDI track, program a C3 note on beat 3 of the bar, then drag Simpler’s orange start point marker to the beginning of the loop’s third drum hit to trigger the loop’s clap. Send this channel to Live’s default Return A by -9dB to add spacious reverb; then limit with D16 Frontier set to -27dB Threshold and -14dB Output. 4 Chilled Trap Step » Loops » Am Smooth Rhodes.wav is a relaxing chord progression that will form the melodic basis of our track – but instead of dropping the audio loop straight into the project, we’ll extract the audio chords to MIDI notes and use them to trigger a different synth sound. To do this in Live, right-click the loop and select Convert Harmony to New MIDI Track. 5 Once a MIDI clip has been created, head inside to correct, add, remove and customise notes – our tweaked progression is 5. Chords.mid. Turn this MIDI track down to -7dB, load u-he Bazille CM » Joe Rossitter » Stereo Pad, then set Envelope 1’s Attack and Release to 0.00 for a tight chord sound. Load Satson CM and set High-pass to 9 o’clock to remove sub frequencies from the synth chords. 6 Let’s get the synths ducking around the kick: load a Compressor on the Bazille CM channel, turn on Sidechain, select the kick channel in the Audio From menu, then set a -35dB Threshold, inf:1 Ratio and 0.00ms Attack and 74ms Release. Next, to reign in dynamics, load the Vice One compressor before the sidechain compressor in the chain and apply -30dB Threshold, 8:1 Ratio and set Makeup Gain to 6. 7 Load DJ Sappo Rolling Jungle & DnB » Hits » C Tribal Bass.wav into a new Simpler; set Start to 8.6%, Voices to 1, Attack 2.7ms and Release at 145ms to isolate a suitable section of bass at a consistent pitch. Use 7.Bass Riff.mid to trigger it, then turn the channel down to -6dB. We’ll add harmonics with 6X-500 CM before applying heavy sidechaining to make room for the track’s kick. 8 For a rhythmic background hat loop, load DJ Sappo Rolling Jungle & DnB » Loops » Crashy 2.wav on a new audio track turned down to -27dB. Select the clip’s Repitch algorithm to pitch the loop down, then load Wolfram CM’s Pattern » Chopper preset to rhythmically gate the loop into 16th-notes. Apply heavy sidechain compression triggered by the kick and clap signals to fit the loop in. 9 Now we’ll add a simple synth lead line to ride over the chords: duplicate the Bazille CM channel, replace the track’s MIDI clip with 9. Lead Line.mid, then head into Bazille CM’s preset browser and select the 03 Leads » HS Enhanced Flute preset. For a final layer of harmonic thickness, we’ll distort the original Rhodes loop from step 4 and blend it into the mix – check out the video to see our exact settings.