Short music loops are used by many music producers and film editors today in their media projects. Set in a specific tempo and key, music loops are of a single instrument such as a guitar and edited into 1 to 16 measure bits. Alternately, entire orchestrations or rock tracks can be cut into loops. The following advice will assist you in making loops that can be used by yourself or others in media productions.

1. First, determine what sort of loop you want to create before you record or program it into your DAW, better known as a digital audio workstation. You will either create a background loop such as piano chords or a melody such as a guitar riff.

2. Second, either record or program the loop material. Use a virtual instrument to record a performance in MIDI or record with a microphone.

3. Thirdly, you may have to use eq to get rid of any offending frequencies that ruin the beauty of the loop you’re creating. An awesome flute phrase, for example, could be ruined by a terrible sounding air conditioner hum. However, if you use eq to get rid of the low frequencies you can keep the flute minus the noise.

4. Fourthly, after using your chosen eq and reverb line bounce down a rough sample of the loop played three times in succession. Next, bounce down the middle part piece of the three part rough mix to create your final single loop which has the reverb throughout from start to finish and loops perfectly

5. Bounce down a finished stereo loop at a 48k sample rate at 24 bits. 48k is highly valued as its ready for use in video editing and 24bit will ensure a high quality thus making the loop more attractive to potential licensees.

Follow these tips to build a profitable library of music loops for use in video and multimedia production.