Adding your own audio loops in Loop by Zaweba
Add your own audio files as loops in Loop by Zaweba and they appear under My loops, time-stretched to your song's tempo, beside the riffs you save.
The library that comes with Loop by Zaweba holds 210 loops, but sooner or later you will want something of your own in the mix: a guitar phrase you recorded, a drum break you made elsewhere, a sound from a field recording. File > Add an audio loop brings an audio file into the library, and from then on it sits under My loops, ready to drag onto the grid like any other loop.
Riffs you save from the riff editor appear in My loops too, so it becomes your personal shelf in the library.
How an added loop behaves
When you add an audio loop, Loop stores it as a .wav file plus a small .json file of details in the app's data folder. Your original file is left where it was.
Once it is in the song, an audio loop is time-stretched to the song's tempo, with its pitch kept. That means a loop recorded at one speed will still line up with the bars of a song at another. Audio loops that have a key are also pitch-shifted to the song's key, like the built-in loops.
Finding them again
My loops is one of the genres you can browse in the library, alongside house, hip-hop, drum and bass, rock, ambient, pop and lo-fi. The type filters and the search box work on it too. Click a loop to preview it in time with the song, at the song's tempo and in its key, before you drop it.
Good loops to add
Loops that are cut cleanly on the beat work best. If a file starts a little before the first beat or runs on after the last bar, it will drift against the grid each time it repeats. Trim it tightly in an audio editor first.
Loops that are a whole number of bars long also repeat smoothly. One, two or four bars are the common lengths, and they match the way Loop's own loops are laid out.
Bear in mind that time-stretching has limits. A loop stretched a long way from its natural speed can start to sound smeared or grainy. If you have a choice, add a version recorded near the tempos you usually work at.
Riffs you saved
The riff editor (Tools > Riff editor) lets you tap out a pattern on a step grid with any instrument. When you save a riff, it lands in My loops. These are note loops rather than audio, so they follow the song's tempo directly and move into its key exactly, with nothing to stretch.
Saving riffs is a good habit. A drum pattern you liked in one song can start the next one, and over time My loops becomes a library of your own style.
When to use the sampler instead
An added audio loop plays back as a phrase. If what you really want is to play a single sound across the keyboard, a vocal hit or a piano note, say, a sampler track is the better tool. Track > Add sampler track, drop the audio file on it, and play it from the piano roll or the keyboard.
About rights
The built-in loops in Loop by Zaweba are royalty-free for your own music. Loops you add are your responsibility: use your own recordings, or material you have the rights to use. Everything stays on your computer; there is no cloud and no account.
