In our third installment of answers to questions on the post, “Why should I consider using loops in my worship service?” I tackle the following:
Is there anything that you feel you lose when using loops?
There are certainly some things that have been lost since I started using loops. Though not all of what I’ve lost is negative, some are quite positive changes. Here are some of the things that come to mind when I think of things lost when making the change to using loops.
1. Time
Programming loops takes time…a lot of time. I was naively optimistic about how much time it would take me to get from 0 loops to a full set of loops. If I’m composing a loop fresh, a totally new arrangement, one song can take me a good 10 hours of work. Depending on how quickly an idea forms and I’m able to create the sounds that are in my head it could take a lot more. For a song that I’m simply recreating something I like or a mix of new ideas on top of recreating something, it may take me 4-5 hours. Even now there are a lot of loops I have posted that I have new ideas for and that I plan to rework and re-release.
I try to work on a new song every week. This is in addition to any practice time with the band, songwriting, arranging sets, etc… It’s a huge time commitment and I’d caution everyone to weigh the commitment appropriately.
2. Comfort
There’s a certain comfort level when playing only live instruments. Everyone is just following the worship leader and there’s really not too much room for error, just watch the signals and it’s easy right? When playing with loops there is a big increase in room for error and not just in frequency of error but in magnitude. With loops, you can have absolute train wrecks if you get off time, forget the arrangement, not to mention software failures.
Even when we’re playing songs correctly, inside I sometimes panic and have inner monologues while singing that go something like, “wait is this the second or third repeat? Oh no I’m I totally lost right now? this is going to be a nightmare!” It was a lot worse when we first started, I was so nervous. Now the band is much more comfortable, we have all the arrangements well memorized and haven’t had many train wrecks(I can only think of 1), but the risk is just a lot higher when using loops.
3. Flexibility
There’s no question about it, you will lose flexibility. Everything takes planning, everything requires thought and work. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing and in almost every way this has raised the level of excellence in my music and in the worship in general at my church. But there are the times where you’re playing a new song and something is hitting in the congregation you didn’t foresee and you wish you would have done another repeat in your arrangement. Now you can adjust the next time, but had you not been on a loop you probably would have signaled the band for another go around the block.
I don’t pretend there’s no cost to using loops, but for me and my band, the benefits have far outweighed the cost. As you get more comfortable programming and using loops the cost lessens and the benefits grow. Projects that used to take you 10 hours start to take 5 hours, you get more comfortable on stage and stop panicking internally and as you plan more you see the structure raises the level in the band.
Soon I’ll be starting a more technical series on how to get started with loops and how to use some of these techniques. Thanks so much for your questions and feedback.
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Hey again,
So, I agree with the first point completely and the community of people sharing loops, especially while I’m learning how to make them (it takes me way longer than 10 hours per) has been a huge blessing.
The second point, I think is a temporary issue. Definitely some adjusting required, but it’s getting better. And I had an idea while reading your post. What it, in addition to the regular song arrangement, there was a separate scene with just the basic rhythm part of the loop…that you could use if you got in trouble. I’m going to try this. I think it could work and really reduce the nervousness.
Re the third point. I don’t feel like this at all. In fact, from the beginning we’ve set up our loops in scenes for all parts of the song–expressly so we could jump to any part and repeat it. Using Live this is really easy. A scene for count-in, one for intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, extro, etc. It’s easier for me to build songs this way, too.
Troy,
Thanks for your feedback. As far as the third point goes yes that is certainly possible and handy to build them the way you say. In my case, with the complexity of the arrangement instrumentally it’s not always as feasible to hop around parts. For tags and simple repeats it makes a lot more sense for me (e.g. With Everything). Admittedly I haven’t pursued this direction very intently because as I said, I don’t really desire that amount of flexibility anyway. I like having a set arrangement and getting the band super tight.
I really appreciate your thoughts and insight. Hope we can converse further.
Thanks
Yeah, I guess it would depend a lot on what you have in your loops. We’re trying to learn everything in sections, expressly so we can do an extra lap through any one section as the Spirit moves. Plus, the loops we use are mostly rhythm at this point. So that makes it easier.
I've enjoyed your loop posts–I would have bookmarked you for that alone (but I also enjoy the heart of other things you share). I'm a worship pastor and have thoroughly learned about loops before getting into it. There are a number of approaches, 3 or 4 basic ones that I have seen. Anyway, the one that draws me most is having a human who plays the "instrument" of Ableton, in a DJ style role. For me as a musician, I just find that approach much more attractive, and it's always nice to have another musicians to respond to. If you went that way, it would eliminate any train wrecks, plus maybe put you more at ease (the nagging thoughts thing), plus give you more spontaneity if you ever wanted it. If the band comes out of sync or something goes awry, the Ableton player just pulls it out of the mix temporarily. Easy. You can tap tempo to get back in sync, or just wait until the right moment when the musicians can hear it easily. Personally, I don't think using Ableton as a fancy playback device is the best we can do. Yeah, I plan to use it for click in rehearsals or for rhythm loops. I just don't think we should settle for that. I understand you or I don't have many or any people who know how to play the instrument. Perhaps it's an unusual historical moment. But maybe training and "lessons" is the key. Oh and by the way, maybe the APC 40 is the equivalent of "valves" or a "mouthpiece" for this new instrument. I bet a whole bunch of new valves and mouthpieces will be coming down the pike in the next 10 years. In this area musicians in the secular scenes can be quite inspiring (and way beyond us).