So you’ve been browsing around splicemusic.com for a while now, and you’ve been mixing cool loops into songs. You want to try your hand at making your OWN loops now, but everyone you talk to says you need roughly two zillion dollars worth of equipment. Never fear!

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to have fancy-schmancy equipment to create cool loops (purists, please stop reading now). This tutorial will show you how you can create all the loops you’ll ever want using only your computer. It doesn’t even have to be a top-of-the-line computer, as long as it has Windows (which 99% of computers are running…don’t quote me on that) and some speakers! But before we start, let’s talk about some terms I’ll be using.

VST (or VSTi)

These are little programs that generate sounds and/or apply effects to sounds. A VST (Virtual Studio Technology) is an effect-applying program, while a VSTi (Virtual Studio Technology instrument)is a sound generating program. Almost all of the loops I’ve made is a result of generating sounds with VSTis and applying effects with VSTs. VST/is come in a .dll file though, not .exe. So in order to actually use these handy little programs, you have to load them into a…

SEQUENCER

This is where you can arrange sounds, record sounds, manipulate sounds, and pretty much do anything to sounds. It tells your VSTs what to do and when to do it. Sequencers are very versatile - all the sounds I’ve created have been run through a sequencer.

Here’s a list of the software we’ll be using in this tutorial:

Sequencer - Reaper
VSTi - String Theory
VST - KTGranulator

1 - Download and install REAPER

You don’t have to do anything special, just download it and install it to the default folder with the default settings. It’s technically shareware, but it’s not crippled in any way. So you don’t really have to pay for it, although the guilt might get to you after a while. It’s always a good idea to pay people for their software.

2 - Download String Theory and KTGranulator

To get to String theory, wait for their site to load (and enjoy the humorous loading messages), then click the VST link in the top-left corner. A link to String Theory will appear. Ignore the other ones for now.
For KTGranulator, click on the first link in the File section, the one that says Windows, VST, dll.

3 - Make a new folder called VstPlugins in your Program Files directory

For most people,it will be C:/Program Files/VstPlugins. That’s just a suggestion, you can actually make the folder anywhere you want.

4 - Extract all the files from those VSTs into the folder you just made

Both of the VSTs come in a .zip file, so make sure you extract the files into the folder using WinRar, WinZip, or the default program.

Extract all the files from String Theory, and exctract the folder from KTGranulator.

5 - Open Reaper

When you first open it, and example song might load.

Admire the handiwork, then open a new project by clicking the icon in the top left, or pressing Ctrl+N, or clicking File/New Project.

Everything’s blank! Now what?

6 - Tell Reaper to look for your VSTs

Open Preferences by pressing Ctrl+P. In the left window, click VST (in the Plugins section). See that button that says “Add”? Click it, and find the folder where you extracted your .dll files.

When that’s done, exit Preferences.

7 - Make a new track with String Theory in it

See that blank space on the left side? To make a new track just right-click it, a menu will pop up. Click “Insert Track” and be amazed as a new track is created (you could also press Ctrl+T to do the same thing).

It’s completely useless right now, until String Theory is loaded.
Click the grey button that says FX. Allow it to scan everything, then click the VSTi menu.

Look, there’s String Theory! Yay! Click that and click OK.

There it is. Isn’t it lovely? Let’s make some sounds with it.

8 - Make some notes

Close that window. Don’t worry, String Theory is still there! Make sure your track is selected, then go to Insert/New MIDI Item. If a new track appears, right click it and delete it. Select the String Theory Track and try again.

Alright, now we have a purple box on the right. Double click on it!

Look at the keyboard. Nice. Click the keys to hear String Theory in action! Yay! It sounds like a pluck. Right now, let’s make some notes. Double click on those squares to the right of the green line, and little purple boxes will appear. That means the sequencer will tell String Theory to play those notes when you press Play.

You can make those notes as long as you want, just drag them longer.

9 - Listen to your masterpiece

Exit that window. Look, there’s little lines on that purple box! Drag it to the far left side of the window, if it isn’t there already. Now hover your mouse over the right edge of the box, it should turn into a little arrow. Drag it to the right, until it’s 2 boxes long.

Now click the button at the bottom left corner of the screen that looks like a circular arrow. That means Reaper will loop constantly when you press play.

Now press play. Isn’t it lovely? It will loop continually until you press stop.

10 - Make different sounds

Keep it playing, and click that FX button again. See that drop-down menu beside the “load” button? Click it.

Those are different sounds String Theory can make. Experiment. Find a sound you like, there’s tons to choose from. Most VSTs and VSTis have preset sounds and effects like this.

11 - Add an effect

Remember KTGranulator? Time to open it up. Stop the song, and click the FX button of your String Theory track again. Click the “Add” button in the bottom left part of the window. Now click the VST menu and select KTGranulator.

Click ok, and there it is. Press play. Doesn’t sound different, eh? Click the drop-down menu again and select an effect.

NOW it sounds different!

12 - Make an MP3 file

Now that you’re done your masterpiece, you’ll want to make it into an mp3 file so you can listen to it while on the go. But there’s a problem - long story short, Reaper can’t render mp3 files unless you download another file. Don’t worry!

Download the file here.

It’s in .zip format, but do NOT extract everything. We only need the .dll file that says “lame_enc”.

Select that file and extract it to C:/Program Files/REAPER.

Now Reaper can make mp3s!

Back in Reaper, go to File/Render to get to the Render box. In the “Output format” drop-down menu, select “MP3(lame)” and click the Render button.

Congratulations! You’ve made your first loop. Now upload it to Splice so the whole world can remix you.
There are many, many free VSTs out there. Here are a few links with tons more downloadable stuff:

http://www.kvraudio.com
http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/

Happy mixing!
- Rig

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.