In this Pro Tools how-to, we’ll teach you simple ways to loop clips so you can flesh out productions and arrangements with ease.
What Is an Audio Loop?
A loop is a selection of repeating audio or MIDI. You’ve probably heard of drum or instrument loops that you can download from various resources like Splice. Producers and loop-makers design these clips to repeat perfectly when duplicated or looped in a DAW, with the length determined by the person using them.
How & When Are Loops Used?
Loops have been, and are, used all the time. It’s incredibly common to take a four-, eight-, or 16-bar section of music and repeat it as many times as desired to create a complete section of a song. A loop could be audio you’ve recorded yourself; it could be a prefabricated piece like those mentioned above; it could be a single instrument, or an entire band. The key takeaway is that it’s simply a repeated clip or selection of clips that makes arranging and producing that much faster.
How you use loops is entirely up to you. Particularly in modern electronic production, it’s common to repeat drum and instrumental loops to piece together tracks. To answer the “when” portion of the question — all the time!
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How to Loop in Pro Tools (Different Methods You Can Use)
Method #1: Using the Menu
The first way to access loop controls in Pro Tools is through the Clip menu in the toolbar. First, highlight the clip you want to repeat. Then navigate to the Clip menu, located in between Track and Event, and come down to Loop. A box will appear with several options, the most important of which is the number of loops you’d like to create.
- RELATED: Using Clip Groups in Pro Tools
You can manually punch in the number of loops, or alternatively tell Pro Tools the length, in bars/measures, you’d like it to repeat for. There’s also an option to loop the audio until the end of the session or the until the beginning of the next clip on the track. Finally, you can choose to enable crossfades, which is handy if you’re having issues with pops/clicks between repeats.
Alternatively, which you may find faster, is to right-click the intended clip and locate the Loop function from the dropdown menu. It will prompt the same dialogue box as from the Clips menu.
Method #2: Loop Tool
Pro Tools offers another handy means of looping clips via the Loop Trim tool. Access it by clicking and holding on the Standard Trim tool, located in between the Zoomer tool and the Selector tool at the top of the edit window. With the Loop Trim tool equipped, you can now drag out the end of your clip to loop it as many times as you’d like.
Method #3: Keyboard Shortcuts for Looping
- Use [Option] + [Command] + “L,” with a clip selected, to open the Loop settings box
- Use [Command] + “2” to cycle through Trim tools until the Loop Trim tool is equipped
- Use [Command] + “D” on a selected clip to manually duplicate it as many times as you’d like it repeated
How to Edit a Looped Clip
If you want to change the number of repeats or otherwise edit your looped audio, all you have to do is access the Loop settings box or use the Loop Trim tool to expand or compress the loop. As you can see, it’s the exact same method as the one used to initially create a loop; just duplicate the process to alter the length of your loops.
How to Unloop a Track in Pro Tools
The quickest way to Unloop a clip in Pro Tools is to right-click the clip and locate the Unloop option from the dropdown menu. You’ll receive a confirmation prompt, at which point you can click Remove to undo all repetitions of the clip. With the looped audio selected, you can perform the same function from the Clips menu > Unloop.
Final Thoughts: Looping Offers Infinite Opportunities to Experiment
Looping is a simple function that provides a means of exhausting creative possibilities in an efficient way. You can quickly and easily alter the length of a song section solely through Pro Tools’s looping tools. This lets you play around with the arrangement, find things that work, eliminate things that don’t work, and ultimately arrive at your final arrangement. You might also choose to loop a clip or clips indefinitely while you noodle around on your instrument, for example.
However you decide to use loops in Pro Tools is up to you, and it’s certainly worth playing around with if you produce music in this DAW.
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