I’m good at making drum loops but I get stuck when arranging them. What’s a good approach?
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As with any music you’re creating, make sure you start with some decent samples and create a full-sounding loop with plenty of elements in that can facilitate lifts/drops or change the mood/atmosphere. So, as well as having standard kick, snare and hi-hat parts, make sure you also include some FX sounds and percussive elements. It really helps to have all the individual elements available on their own tracks too, not just for ease of arrangement but also for mixing/processing. Here’s an approach for quick arranging…
Record your kick, snare and hats either onto separate tracks or into one region. If into one region, copy that region to the next few available tracks and set up the same instrument/ sample set on each. Overdub FX and percussion onto separate tracks....
Pre-mix and process your sounds but keep all the processing running in real time for flexibility. Once your 4-bar loop is working well, loop it up for the length of the tune, then mute in and out parts and automate the FX (filter/ panning/volume etc)...
Once you have all the elements recorded, within the regions that have multiple instruments recorded/playing back together (it’s a better feel recording a whole kit together), mute out the unneeded parts so you end up with the kick in one region, snare...
Or make up loops, each with different parts muted, select/pack them into folders (Cmd F) and arrange the folders in any order you like. To arrange super-quickly, don’t listen initially and work on a visual basis, only referring to your DAW’s time/bar...