Drum Loops from Bandlab have warped tempos, how do I fix it?

[Arthur H]

Hello everyone.  So I have a project at 120BPM.  I drag and drop a drum loop from the App into an audio track in my project.  I go to the inspector and activate looping.  I then notice that the loop shrinks just a tiny bit and when I play it out over and over again, slowly but surely the drum loop gets worse and worse with the tempo.  The loop itself does not match my tempo.  When I click "stretch to fit" in the drum loop, it automatically unchecks the looping box.  I can't seem to get a drum loop to both loop and exactly match my tempo.  Any help please?

[User 905133]

Maybe this will help:

 

 

[Arthur H]

No, sir, that didn't help.  Went into loop construction, resaved the drum loop (which I downloaded from BandLabs) and it sounds great on one single iteration, but the moment I drag the loop out for a second iteration, it is off.  So I figured, forget the loop, I'll just copy the one iteration several times since it sounds good on one iteration.  But now I can't even paste it properly because it doesn't snap directly to the first beat of the measure and its not intuitive how to do this. 

I can't get the loops to work to match tempo, I can't even paste a drum loop sample directly at the start of a measure without having to fine-tune its placement.  This is not going well for my relationship with this software.  I'm a pretty well versed person, I am very good with adobe creative products so I'm not a newbie to this.  I'm just really aching for something in this software to be intuitive.  

And I'm not on a free ride, I bought Sonar Platinum  years ago right before the company sale so I did pay for this software, just so you know I'm not a freeloader

Edited May 13, 2021 by Arthur H

[chris.r]

Arthur, you definitely need to watch some @Xel Ohh youtube tutorials on this... try searching for "loops cakewalk" or "beats cakewalk"

[Arthur H]

7 minutes ago, chris.r said:

Arthur, you definitely need to watch some @Xel Ohh youtube tutorials on this... try searching for "loops cakewalk" or "beats cakewalk"

thanks, I found the videos, I'll spend some time this evening, hope I can figure it out! 

[Arthur H]

Hi, I'm still having trouble getting a drum loop to synch.  I opened it in Loop Construction and I can see that there is a tiny gap of silence before the start of the first beat, and I think this might be causing the whole thing to be off-kilter.  WHenever the drum loop repeats, it is off tempo because the first beat is slightly late.  Here is a screenshot: (this is all the loops I have tried so far from bandlabs)

  

Other than slicing the wave file, resaving, then reloading, is there an easier way to do this?  I tried putting my own purple flag (marker) at where the first moment should start, but the drum loop is still off tempo on repeat.  

[Larry Jones]

I can verify that the loop you're trying to use is not the right length. I tried the one I think you're using, and it doesn't loop smoothly no matter how I slice it. Maybe someone smarter than I knows how to use these Bandlab drum loops, but it looks like they're just not correctly made -- or at least this one isn't. Sorry, Arthur. For what it's worth the loops in SI-Drums work, if you can find something there you like. I've been using third-party drums for so long I didn't know loops could be so bad.

[Arthur H]

Hi Larry, thanks so much for giving this a try and helping me.  I have tried dozens of loops in the bandlabs app and they are all the same issue.  I will listen to the ones in the SI-Drums.    Do you by chance also have a recommendation on maybe a nice software package with some good drum loops?

I feel so much better knowing I'm not going crazy over here, I kept assuming I was doing something wrong.  Why would Bandlabs have so many drum loops in the APP that aren't right for their own product?

Edited May 19, 2021 by Arthur H

[michheld]

Hey Arthur, please try to

1. drag & drop the loop into cakewalk.

2. Zoom in and cut the clip on the left to the proper starting point

3. Right-click on the clip and choose "Apply trimming" - this is where the magic happens 😉

4. Open the clip in loop editor

Feeling better this way?

Edited May 19, 2021 by michheld
spellchecker

[chris.r]

👆yep, I was thinking the same, either trimming tool or bounce to clip👆

I'd like to try it myself, can anyone point me to where I can find that loop, please

for me sometimes it was enough to just slip edit a loop and then turn it to the groove clip

[Noel Borthwick]

I think it has to do with conversion from M4A when importing. Microsoft is adding some padding to the start of the loop.
I solved a similar issue with MP3 recently but M4A is a bit more opaque since we rely on the OS to handle the import.
We'll look into it and see what can be done.

[Larry Jones]

16 hours ago, michheld said:

Hey Arthur, please try to

1. drag & drop the loop into cakewalk.

2. Zoom in and cut the clip on the left to the proper starting point

3. Right-click on the clip and choose "Apply trimming" - this is where the magic happens 😉

4. Open the clip in loop editor

Feeling better this way?

Of course this will work, but when something is presented as a "loop," I expect it to be ready to, you know, loop.

[Larry Jones]

18 hours ago, Arthur H said:

Hi Larry, thanks so much for giving this a try and helping me.  I have tried dozens of loops in the bandlabs app and they are all the same issue.  I will listen to the ones in the SI-Drums.    Do you by chance also have a recommendation on maybe a nice software package with some good drum loops?

I feel so much better knowing I'm not going crazy over here, I kept assuming I was doing something wrong.  Why would Bandlabs have so many drum loops in the APP that aren't right for their own product?

Two things: I replied to your question above, and you seem to have replied to me, but my own reply doesn't appear to be there, so WTF? [EDIT: My post seems to have returned. It wasn't there when I first looked. 🙃]

The other thing is recommendations. I have only used Session Drummer (which I don't think you can buy these days) and Addictive Drums. I like 'em, especially AD, but there are so many options out there you should probably look on a more drum-oriented forum, or else post a separate request on this forum.

And of course you can always edit the Bandlab drum loops so they work. They sound pretty good and they're free, so why not?

Good luck!

Edited May 20, 2021 by Larry Jones

[Larry Jones]

12 hours ago, chris.r said:

👆yep, I was thinking the same, either trimming tool or bounce to clip👆

I'd like to try it myself, can anyone point me to where I can find that loop, please

for me sometimes it was enough to just slip edit a loop and then turn it to the groove clip

The loops can be found in the Bandlab Assistant. Sounds|Loops|Packs|Steve Jackson Drums. You'll find it. You have to do some precision editing to make them work as loops. Good luck!