Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of September.
The embedded clips below all show the same thumbnails, but I assure you they are each set to jump the right unique moment. Full video here.
Loop 1
A crunchy notadumble tone for the chord progression, a bass line that paces the drum kick in a nice way (I’ve been working on that). Listening back to it, the fuzzy lead tone on top is a bit shrill. But I like the distorted-plus-octaves released section in there. That part practically sounds like a song.
Loop 2
I really like the chord progression I noodled out that is the foundation of this loop. It uses a mix of single notes and some not standard chords and also not just a straight rhythm. I’ve found myself coming back to it after. The bass line isn’t fancy but was intentionally set in the loop to create some contrasting motion with different repeats. Using vibrato can be touchy with a lead tone because it can sound like you’re a bit out of tune (and technically, you are?), so I’m second guessing whether that was the right tonal choice here. I was going for a more laid back low fi vibe. Somewhat got there. This one sounds happy and relaxed to me.
Loop 3
This one so clearly was just me noodling out something weird on bass and then going “sure, yeah, hit record I guess.” Good to bring the tiny keyboard in though; I don’t do that enough. And then the jam on top is acoustic (pickup, not mic’d) with a fairly notably strong delay. It’s all, fine? Chill.
Loop 4
Swimmy phaser tone on that central riff. The bass is simple but emphasizes that double beat. And then for the lead I went a bit heavy on tone but was trying to lean into leaving lots of space.
Loop 5
This one is a repeat of sorts. I was listening back to some older loops and remembered this one I liked. So I decided to use the raw idea behind it again and see what happened. And what happened is one new idea on top of that led to so many more different ideas. There’s a pulse to this one that has me bobbing my head, started with the second guitar layer and then emphasized with the bass. I also like how the second bass layer (why not!) really adds something. And then for the lead section I laid something remarkably similar to the original but it ends up feeling very very different. Music is cool like that.
Loop 6
This one is so moody, and it’s not just the lighting. Such a non-assuming start with the tremolo open chords. I’m feeling better about locking it in on the bass, and this one gets there. It also represents the moment of me finally cracking a tone from the Dark Star that I liked (or more accurately, liked in a mix). I had also been playing a bit of slide (which I’m still not great at) before this and it really shows in the playing style.
Loop 7
So I messed up the original recording of this. Turns out I didn’t reselect the audio from the mixer and was getting it from the microphone (unhelpful due to having monitors off and headphones on). But I liked it so I went back and did a quick recreation the next day. The lead section here is over the original loop. I’m happy with how emotive the playing is.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of August. This was a crazy busy month so I’m really proud of the fact that I kept the practice going.
The embedded clips below all show the same thumbnails, but I assure you they are each set to jump the right unique moment. Full video here.
Loop 1
I have a trombone. I don’t particularly know how to play the trombone other than the basics. But it’s a fun instrument. And in this moment it felt like the right thing to bring out. Why is there a weird stain on my Hollow Knight shirt? No clue, but I can’t stop looking at it. Just like I couldn’t stop getting into a cycle of playing that melody over this loop.
Loop 2
I love playing with my pedalboard and an electric guitar. But… sometimes it’s great to set up a mic and keep it to acoustic instruments. First the nylon guitar that I learned on as a kid. Then the acoustic bass I got from a used shop in college. And then the bouzouki I got this past summer in Greece. It’s not often that I use the bouzouki for the final lead layer, but I think this jam slaps.
Loop 3
An example of where the interplay between the rhythm guitar and bass was essential to the jam having any character. I really liked how the slow bends sounded over this, combined with some delay so you get blend between the dissonant tones.
Loop 4
I was looking for something simple with simple slow movement. Thus a simple distorted line and then… nothing else? Yeah I guess no other layers. Various warbly tones played on top of that.
Loop 5
This may be the loop I had the most fun with in this set. Super simple crunchy guitar as the start, then some percussive organ from my tiny keyboard. The bass emphasizes the funkiest. After which I reached for the trumpet. In trying to put a couple different horn layers to harmonize, at some point I messed up the undo and committed something… not quite right. At that point, with 4+ other layers underneath it across various instruments… there’s no going back.
Loop 6
I recently got a Dark Star Stereo, and I’ve been trying to make it work for me. So far, if I’m honest… I might actually prefer the (less expensive) Afterneath. But I’m trying to figure this pedal out. This loop is an example of trying to lean into its dreamy overwhelming reverb. Most of the structure comes from the bass.
Loop 7
My loop pedal can do an A section / B section (e.g. verse/chorus), but I skip over it for most of my quick and dirty loops. The downside is that I don’t end up practicing transitions as much if I stick to one endless drone. This one… it’s fine.
Loop 8
I really like this one. Tremolo chord sequence, but then the bass gives it a lot more motion. And of course a bit of organ is always nice and lush. I could play over this one on loop for a very long time (and I’m pretty sure I did).
Loop 9
Time to cycle back to the acoustic. A bit of electric bass, but that’s all good (I have an acoustic bass, but my electric is new and I’m really bonding with it). Recording-wise I’m trying to get both the mic off the guitar and mix with the line in so I get a more full sound. Tricker to get right than it sounds.
Loop 10
Whether I start with the bass or the guitar changes the feel of the loop to me, but if I recall I did at least try the layers together before hitting record. But I think the section I sampled for the final play over didn’t quite capture the fun I was having with some long analog delay. A far cry from that The Edge style delay timing, but that’s what I was trying to play around with.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of July. Overall this month didn’t come as naturally as some. A lot of loops were a struggle, and I didn’t get as much time with the guitar as I’d like. But I soldiered through regardless, because… that’s what practice looks like.
The embedded clips below all show the same thumbnails, but I assure you they are each set to jump the right unique moment. Full video here.
Loop 1
Using the “bit crush” mode on my new Dark Star Stereo to get that low bitrate gargle that makes me think of Disasterpeace on the FEZ soundtrack. There are al of chiptune-like tracks that use that I like. I’m still trying to figure out how to harness it.
Loop 2
Leaning into starting with the bass and also vibing with the bass drum rhythm. For a rhythm layer on top… hyper reverb warble tones? Again playing with the Dark Star trying to have a bit crush follow the lead. I’m not sure it works.
Loop 3
This one didn’t come together until I plugged in that rhythm on the bass. Arguably I still didn’t know what to do with it, but it definitely had a beat to it.
Loop 4
Again, trying to make sure my bass rhythm locks in with the kick drum. I really like taking the two harmonizing bass lines together. That gave it the sense of self enough to then let the final guitar melody on top be… sweet? It sounds sweet to me.
Loop 5
An exercise in what happens when you have something “stationary” and then put chord motion on top of it. I think I had been listening to some Pumpkins recently, because this is really going for wailing and sentimental distorted guitars. My daughter actually came in while I was playing to give me a hug, which was super sweet, but then mid-hug she remembered I was recording and sheepishly exited very quickly. I cut that out of the recording, but that’s what I’m smiling about.
Loop 6
The core part reeks of “random noodling I would do when sitting down to a guitar”. There’s just a type of thing I’ll probably default to playing, and it’s pretty much always something like this. I do dig the large delay with the single note slides.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of June. So many new developments this month. A new bass! A new couch! Also some music was made.
Some time ago I filled the 100 memory slots of my Boss loop pedal, and lately I’ve been going through overwriting the old with new recordings but not changing the rhythm from whatever was there. So pretty much every one of these loops started as “here’s some preexisting rhythm, figure something out”.
The embedded clips below all show the same thumbnails, but I assure you they are each set to jump the right unique moment. Full video here.
Loop 1
I wanted to get something low-fi and mellow, and one way to get that is with some vibrato (like via my Julia) and then to EQ down to a narrow range. I used my Pitch Fork for a quick and dirty bass without having to swap instruments. And of course some tremolo (via the Monument). From there it’s slow jam town.
Loop 2
I love playing with my pedalboard and an electric guitar. But… sometimes it’s great to set up a mic and keep it to acoustic instruments. First the nylon guitar that I learned on as a kid. Then the acoustic bass I got from a used shop in college. And then the bouzouki I got this past summer in Greece. It’s not often that I use the bouzouki for the final lead layer, but I think this jam slaps.
Loop 3
This is my friend’s song “Dance with Me” that I wanted to practice a bit before she and I performed it later. I created both the verse and chorus in my loop pedal so I could particularly practice playing through the transitions. Since the original song doesn’t have any drums, I used the loop pedal without any rhythm track.
Loop 4
I wanted to do something with more of a distorted and fuzzy core, using the Wave Cannon. Wild response swing from the acoustic jams? I don’t use the Q-Tron often (because it’s a very particular flavor), but that’s what’s giving the wah-like envelope filter on the first half of the lead section.
Loop 5
This one started with me noodling something simple out on the keyboard, a locked chord with a descending root note sequence. Just some slow simple chords with tremolo on top of that. Behind me you’ll see the new couch we got for my music space; something wider than a chair so that I can play while in it, or someone can visit while I play.
Loop 6
The acoustic bass seen above in loop 2 has been my only bass guitar for over twenty years. As a birthday gift to myself this year I bought an electric bass guitar, a Squire Precision. So obviously this loop needed to start with the bassline. I put a strong chorus effect to the chords over top (via the Julia), an effect I generally don’t use much of but it felt right here. The best part of this loop is the slide down and pause that breaks up the flow.
Loop 7
Still getting into my new bass, so I had to start another loop with a bass focus. Bass harmonies! Since the bass was doing more work, the chords are minimal (but with an aggressive amount of tremolo). The halting rhythm of this one took me longer to figure out, meaning my daughter had to pop in and tell me it was late and to turn it down. So I didn’t get as much time to jam on this one as I often do. A good reminder to break out the headphones for late night.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of May. I actually had the pleasure of playing with a friend multiple times this month (that’s a video for another day) but that did mean fewer solo loops than usual. A couple of these loops were however based on chord progressions from her songs, part of practicing to play more together.
I’ve been making and recording loops like this for a year, and dropping them on YouTube for at least half of that. But that’s not a great format to give extra detail. So I’m going to try delving into that here on the lob to discuss my opinion on each loop, as well as the effects and thought process behind each. Do you think I should keep doing this? Give me feedback (as comments on the video or wherever you can find me) about which loops you liked the most (that’s why they’re numbered).
The embedded clips below all show the same thumbnails, but I assure you they are each set to jump the right unique moment. Full video here.
Loop 1
This one has a relaxed slow vibe that is what I’ve really been enjoying lately. It’s also got a longer repeat with the chord progression than most of my recent loops, giving more space to be dynamic with the lead. A slow jam with a bit of overdrive crunch and some delay… I can sit in that groove for a long time.
Loop 2
I don’t start enough jams on the bouzouki. This one started with a simple riff, and then from there I just wanted to keep everything acoustic. So add an acoustic bass and a little bit of reverby trumpet (not an instrument I’m strong with, but something I love in the mix). And the only place to go from there is to keep it acoustic and layer on a jam with my Taylor.
Loop 3
This chord progression is from my friend’s song. We intend to play this and other songs of hers at an upcoming small festival, so I thought I’d practice over the core structure. This isn’t really the right rhythm though (side effect of defaulting to using my rhythm looper pedal), but it provided enough to toy with. I went with a vibrato lead because the whole thing felt old timey.
Loop 4
I started with a bass line just by using the Pitch Fork to down-octave my guitar (a common option for when I just want to get moving quickly). Add some tremolo chords on that and… we’ve got another slow jam. These days these are my favorite place to sit.
Loop 5
Another example of workshopping something over a chord progression from a song I’m supposed to be practicing. I liked the downward motion of the simple faux-bass. Given that arrangement, a fuzzy guitar sounded appropriate. And if I’m not mistaken, this is my trying out the Wave Cannon to get some middle-of-the-road distorted tones.
Loop 6
I try to film the whole process of creating the loop so I can include the original samples for the edit. This was an example where I had got interrupted, had to step away after starting the loop, and come back and recreate it. Which gives me a lot more ability to be precise in planning for an end destination (instead of what I usually do which is just layer until I’m happy). The key part was the second layer here with the fixed “pedal tone” (not a single pedal note, but a stationary repeating section). It felt right to keep a clean tone on all those first bits, until the contrasting tremolo chord sequence came in. Just a bit of overdrive for the lead tone, with reverb coming from the Afterneath if I’m not mistaken.