5 ways to use the loop function (how to make loops)

hey guys what's going on a DJ TLM the last Mohican II watching DJ TL MTV and in today's video I'm going to talk to you about using the loop function I'm gonna give you five examples of cases where you could use the loop function that you can find on the CD jmo CD players and of course in your DJ software if you're not familiar with the loop function or what a loop is it means that you select a certain part of a song and the loop function allows you to play that selected part and repeat it in a continuous loop so it will keep on playing just that part that you selected that's the loop I'm going to show you how you can make a loop in Serato Scratch Live but the technique to make a loop is the same in my DJ software as it is on the CDJ and other players and other DJ software little hip-hop history back in the days we used to make our own loops before we had the loop function and we did it by using turntables and taking two copies of the same song let me show you right now I have the same song loaded in both decks right here let me that's the beat right there and that's the same beat right there now in order for me to keep this beat going because it only lasts a couple of bars and then it changes on the song this is what we did now as you get here the beat just kept on playing and what I did is I played that part on one record when that part got to the end I play the same part from the other record while rewinding the one on the first and keep on playing it that way so you had your manual way to repeat a selected part and keep it playing for as long as you wanted it to now with modern technology you don't have to use this way I like to do this but we're talking about mixing now and if I'm going to do a mix I'm not going to have the same song on both decks so I won't be able to use the back spinning technique that I just did that's when the loop function comes in so let me show you how you can make a loop and I'll show you in Serato Scratch Live but like I said the technique works the same on the CDJ as it does in any DJ software it's all about setting a start point and an end point for the loop I'm going to take the same beat that I just used for my back spinning now what you're going to do is I want my loop to start right here so I'm going to go and that's what you can do in your software or on your CD J or the player you'll find an end button and in is where you want your loop to begin alright now I'm going to just take four counts and as you see it's selected in green so I can see where my loop portion is I want it to stop right there because that's where I wanted to start playing from the beginning again so right here I'm going to press out it jumps straight to beat to the beginning and when I play it now it'll continue to play for however long I want it to continue so that's one way to do within cerrado cerrado gives you a second option as well let me close the loop first it also has an auto loop and my songs are analyzed so the we're already knows the BPM and it can set the loop for me automatically so I just go to the beginning where I want my loop to begin and I wanted to begin here and over here I can select how long I want my loop to last four counts and you can go higher up to eight sixteen or even thirty two so I'm gonna take eight as you see now the loop is selected I never played one two three four five six seven eight it gives me a eight count loop so that's the way it will work on most equipment probably all equipment you have a start point that mostly is called in and the end point that's called the out so in and out you set your loop your beginning and where you want it to end and start repeating that's where your out point is once you have that set your loop is good to go the loop function can be a lifesaver and this first example of a situation where you could use or should use the loop function is very recognizable for beginning DJ's I used to practice at home and I would have one track playing and I would have the other track on my headphone I'm trying to get the tempo right adjusting the pitch and I'm having trouble to hear which record is in front or behind and that's what you do when you practice but sometimes I took too long and the record that was playing would end now when you're at home that's all good that's what practice is for but if you're in a situation where you're playing in front of people and that could be at a house party or a bar or a big venue you do not want the track that's playing to end before you mix in the next record so that would be like the deadly silence you do not want that to happen so imagine you're playing in the club you only have a minute left third seconds left on the track that's playing and your mix is not ready you don't have the tempo correct for whatever reason I mean you could just throw that track in but imagine if you really want to do the mix you want to blend in you'll take the last part of the song that's playing and in that last part you just pick a little piece set a loop and it will keep on playing and give you time to get the mix right let me show you right now if I start the track now it only has like 28 seconds left so I'm gonna set an auto loop I could do it manually by pressing in and out but if I want to be more safe I'm gonna use the auto loop because it will get it tight now this will keep on playing for however long I want it to continue and now I can get the other record right so as you see that's a perfect situation when the loop function is a lifesaver but you need to remember though although you can extend the song forever long you want it to don't let that loop play four minutes on because the crowd will get bored the second example is a situation where you want to extend part of the song to make it long enough to make a nice blend and I'll show you situation like that right now I have a beat here and that beat is gonna go into just a bass line couple more counts one two three in now I want to do my blend on that part I want to start this beat right there now I already a match the BPM so I'm not gonna need to do that right now but I'll show you what happens if I do that now without using the loop 1 2 3 the beat stop that's where that beat switches so that's not a nice blend because it's way too short I need those drums to last a lot longer until I have my blend the way I want it so what we're going to do we're gonna go back to the beginning I'm gonna put an 8 count loop on that that's ready now this is gonna give me plenty of time to do a blend here we go whatever I could have done that like 20 different ways but that's just to illustrate that when you have a loop set it gives you the freedom to make a blend like that lasts longer I could have kept it going on even longer or I could have switched earlier but what I did I had the 8 counts of beat I had him on loop and when it was time to switch I turned off the loop so this song continued to play and it went on to the next part of that song so that's definitely situation and it could be a million different scenarios with that but that allows you to do more with a song that you have because otherwise I would only have those four counts of beat and that's all you have now for the third example I can use the same loop that I just use for the blend and this is a situation where you're playing with MC or your am seeing yourself in your DJ set and you want to have a couple of bars to do whatever say something to the crowd hype them up or spit a rhyme whatever but you need a little instrumental part to do that now what you could do I just did a mix and when it was time to switch I turned the loop off but instead of turning the loop off I could also leave the loop on and keep the drums going for a little while and use that part for the emceeing so imagine I'm doing the blend I'll take that back to the beginning again take this back then because the loop is off I'll turn that back on now here we go again that's the blend and I'm gonna take it out right now but instead of turning this loop off you can keep it on and this is the time to grab that mic and be like what's going on everybody my name is DJ tell em whatever whatever let me see those hands up y'all ready to get the party started cuz we're gonna do the little bit like this whatever and then start the song so and in this case I was the one doing the MC but you could have MC right there and he could be saying something to the crowd and he can give you a cue like start the track or maybe you can already tell like alright let me throw it in right now but this also gave me the time for a little bit of emceeing or I could use that time do a little scratch solo before I start that track but it gives you a little instrumental part in the middle of a mix for em seeing or scratching or anything like that now the fourth example is a totally different situation and in this case it's not about extending a part of the song to make a certain mix happen or give your emcee some sometimes the rhyme whatever no in this case I have two songs with totally different BPM totally different tempos I have a track that's 84 and I have a track that's 120 BPM that's a world apart and you couldn't be able to do that with your pitch and if you could it would not sound good at all so we're going to use the loop function to make a transition I'm going to do this in two different ways one is in Cerato and I'm going to have to manually set the in and outpoint but I recommend that you don't try this on the fly so don't try this while the track is playing in the club if you're really a master at it already you might get it right but it's kind of difficult to get it right so in this case I had the idea so I'll prepare that at home and set the loop marker here I'll also show you a way to do it on the fly with an effect that's on the mixer let's do it with the turntables and cerrado first so we have our 84 BPM track right here and i'm gonna take a word hot that's the word we're gonna take as you see I already had a loop set I'm gonna do it again right now manually so I'm gonna hit in that's what I wanted to begin but in order to know where I wanted to end I want to hear the tempo of the faster track so I'm gonna play that track hold my headphone right here and I can hear the tempo and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have my finger on the out button and I'm gonna throw it in in time and I can hear it that's a little bit too long and I can adjust my loop now just a little bit make it a little bit shorter like that now this is probably not perfect yet but if you're practicing this at home and preparing do it till you get it right but I'm going to show you what happens if I use this right now so the song is playing at this tempo and now we're gonna get to that boat before the bow might be wondering what's going on my voice you hit him with the other track at the same tempo in no way was that a perfect blend but you get the idea so if you're going to do this and prepare this at home do it till you get it right and just in case your loop isn't perfect and in these cases it's not always that easy to get it perfect you can't adjust what life is did the tempo while the loop is playing because I heard that the loop was getting a little bit behind so I just increased the tempo on the loop track and until I got it just about right but that gives you a way to make a transition from like 84 BPM which is not that fast all the way up to 120 now there's another way to do this and this is a way that you can use to do it on the fly and that is by using effects on the mixer in this case I'm going to use the loop roll effect that's on the mixer and normally if you're going to use an effect you're going to use it in the tempo of the song that's playing so normally this tempo so that's how you would use it in this case you don't want it to be this tempo you want it to be that tempo so the song will be playing on your headphones you will grab that 120 BPM track and you're going to tap that tempo into his effects Bank so now the tempo for the effects for this song is at the tempo of that track so now I can do the same thing but on the fly so I just showed you two different ways to do the same thing and let's make a transition by using the loops so you can switch tempos the last example I want to show you is the case where you can use the loop function as just a little extra as an effect when you're doing a mix in no way is this necessary but it's just a little trick that you could use just to take out a certain track in this case we're going to take a loop and in cerrado and on the CDJ you can make that loop longer but you can also make it shorter and once you make it a real short portion you can't really hear the music anymore it changes into almost a tone and it sounds a little bit like this we're gonna take a loop and now we're gonna make that short there's a tonne you get the idea don't do this too many times because people will hate you I remember when the CDJs came out with the loop function and DJ has discovered this effect every DJ will be doing the same thing and just throw a bead on it and you know the first time you hear it it's cool the second time you're like okay I heard that and after a couple of times you're gonna hate the DJ but you can do this subtle in a blend and it can be a nice extra effect well this is actually the same tempo so guys that's the five examples that I have for you right now situations where you could use the loop function and I hope the video gave you a little bit more insight into the usefulness of the loop function I don't use it a lot but there's definitely times when it's handy to be able to extend a certain part of the song and I know there's a lot of people out there that use the CDJs or use DJ software and they're not taking advantage of the functions that are right there at their fingertips so there's a million different situations where you can use loops and if you have questions or if you want to share another example of how to use the loop function join the conversation leave a comment in the comment section I'm DJ TLM and you can catch me very very soon with more tips and tricks and tutorials and be sure to check out DJ TLM tv.com

Channel: DJ TLM TV

Views: 363,440

Keywords: djTLMtv, turntable, tips, tricks, tutorials, how, dj, tlm, mix, mixer, help, loop, loops, loop function, make loops, make a loop, serato, cdj, 5 ways, How-to (Media Genre), dj software, DJ TLM TV, DJ TLM, share the knowledge, #sharetheknowledge, how to mix, how to dj, for loop, hot loops, dj tutorial, how to transition, dj tutorials, tips and tricks, dj tips, dj tricks, 5 ways to use the loop function, how to make loops

Id: fcmQeAsO1r0

Length: 22min 11sec (1331 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 30 2013