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Batch Convert Wav loops to work in Logic


Matthew Anthony

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I have been up and down and left and right trying to figure out how to get my wav loops purchased on a CD, to work properly in logic.

 

the cd has 300 of them. i want to convert them to apple loops, but when i drag them in, logic doesn't recognize them. i convert to aiff by saving out in apple loops browser, it automatically changes the tempo of half of them from 128 to 256. rendering them useless. I then tried converting them in Iced Audio's Audio finder, but logic refuses to recognize them when i drag them into the loops browser window.

 

this is very frustrating.

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apple says that apple loops browser allows you to convert any audio file into an apple loop but when i convert the wav files into aiff's and drag the folder into logic, there is absolutely no metadata. the bpm is gone and when you play the loop it doesn't match up with the song.....

 

 

i'll be working on this all night. [phone number deleted by admin - please do not ask for personal phone or email help on our forums]

 

matt

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converted from wav to aiff in apple loops utility. dragged them into logic... but when i click on them they don't loop ... they play once.... thats it... even though i had looping selected when converting. also the bpm is all screwed up again... now a bunch of them are at 64 bpm and others at 128. what the heck is going on... i wish this was just a bit more simple.

 

i don't even like using loops but this is really aggravating me !

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converted from wav to aiff in apple loops utility. dragged them into logic... but when i click on them they don't loop ... they play once.... thats it... even though i had looping selected when converting. also the bpm is all screwed up again... now a bunch of them are at 64 bpm and others at 128. what the heck is going on... i wish this was just a bit more simple.

 

i don't even like using loops but this is really aggravating me !

 

could it be because your sample rates are different?..

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All the sample rates of my wav loops (when looking at them within loops browser before converting to aiff) are 44.1khz

 

ok thats fine but what about in logics preferences itself?, is it set to play at the same sample rate at 16bit 44.1..???.. it should be by default unless you have changed it somewhere along the way?... bound to be something simple just very frustrating!.. wish i could be a bit more help.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is pretty ironic, i had been looking all over for a batch converter to convert a whole cd of wav loops into apple loops format too, and then i looked at your uploaded screenshot here and it's the exact same CD i'm trying to convert ( DEADMAU5 XFER) Did u ever figure this out? let me know if anyone else has a suggestion, all the file's are 16 bit 44.1k wav's at 128bpm. A batch REX file converter would be cool as an alternative too.

 

All the sample rates of my wav loops (when looking at them within loops browser before converting to aiff) are 44.1khz
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OK, try this. In Logic 8, File-New-Produce-Empty Project.

 

This is a 44.1k project. From the Bin, Audio File-Add Audio File, pick one of your wave loops. Drag it to a track, bar 1, beat 1.

 

When I do this with a wav loop from a CD, it follows tempo perfectly. Unless there's some reason you feel you need to convert them to aif/Apple Loops, and there could well be some reasons, I'd suggest you work with them as is. If the above doesn't work then I don't think those wav files were formatted as loops to begin with. I think it will though.

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Thanks for your response,

 

i would like to add the loops to the loops browser... all 300 of them. not only 1 or two, to the arrangement.... i want to shuffle through them while my song is playing to decide which would work best.

 

i would like them to behave like any other..... how could they "not" be formatted as loops?

 

thus far, ive learned these wav's need to be aiffs or apple loops, if you read the thread, you'll notice im having strange issues with aiffs.

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i would like them to behave like any other..... how could they "not" be formatted as loops?

 

That's what we need to find out. If you do the simple test project I described, then we'll know and may be able to help you further.

 

When you load the wav file into the new project, does it show up like the one in my pic? Note the Follow Tempo property in the inspector. In the bin's info column and on the region you should see the loop icon.

loop.jpg.a341d8ebda0a24422547063c8db8436b.jpg

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thus far, ive learned these wav's need to be aiffs or apple loops

If you read the last post by Fader8 again, you'll see that neither condition is necessary. If those files are wav loops, they should behave as loops in Logic without any need for conversion.

 

They do.... if you do it 1 file at a time, but not as a batch conversion, and i don't want to process 350 loops manually 1 loop at a time but it seems like none of the transients get added, so it's pointless, they all come out at 128bpm so are not apple loops, (the tempo doesn't adjust according to your song tempo), they are just like a reg. wav or aiff, & i've tried both formats but it's like the check mark for looping is only put on the first loop, so as soon as you select all loops then the transients window turns blank. I think we both would be happy with the exact same settings for all of these loops to be honest, they are all 1 bar loops and all at 128bpm so setting all of the transients at 1/32 notes would do the trick.

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Fader8,

The follow Tempo box doesn't even appear at all when the whole folder is batch converted, but if i do the same files individually a box appears with a checkmark in it and that individual file will act like an apple loop, the batch converting process doesn't seem to work.

 

i would like them to behave like any other..... how could they "not" be formatted as loops?

 

That's what we need to find out. If you do the simple test project I described, then we'll know and may be able to help you further.

 

When you load the wav file into the new project, does it show up like the one in my pic? Note the Follow Tempo property in the inspector. In the bin's info column and on the region you should see the loop icon.

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A Whole sample cd of regular wav files need to be converted to apple loops format so we can play the loops in logic at whatever tempo we desire. If we try to convert the entire cd ( batch convert, under the tagging menu in apple loops utility) the files do not end up as apple loops, they will only loop at the original tempo of 128bpm, now if we take one of those wav files and import that into the apple loops utility, and do the conversion, then that 1 loop seems to have been changed into an apple loop correctly and can be played at any tempo you choose and will loop correctly. Please tell me you understand this.

 

Again, what conversion? There should be nothing to convert.
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The follow Tempo box doesn't even appear at all when the whole folder is batch converted, but if i do the same files individually a box appears with a checkmark in it and that individual file will act like an apple loop, the batch converting process doesn't seem to work.

 

OK, I just converted 10 files in a batch "save all" and it worked fine. They all follow tempo, etc.

 

First, I have version 2.01 of Apple Loops Utility. Just want to be sure we're on the same page. What I had to do was bring the wav files in, highlight them all in the assets drawer, then toggle something in the Tags pane, like Scale Type. This gets the dots to show next to the file in the assets pane and enables the save all button. At the prompt I chose Edit AIF. Files were saved, I loaded them into Logic and they work fine as apple loops.

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If we try to convert the entire cd ( batch convert, under the tagging menu in apple loops utility) the files do not end up as apple loops, they will only loop at the original tempo of 128bpm, now if we take one of those wav files and import that into the apple loops utility, and do the conversion, then that 1 loop seems to have been changed into an apple loop correctly and can be played at any tempo you choose and will loop correctly. Please tell me you understand this.

 

I don't think the Batch Tagging is what you want to do. Simply Save All after you've togled some parameter in the tag pane.

 

But we still don't know if either of you have tried my suggestion and loaded one of the wav files directly into Logic to see if they are good loops to begin with. If they are, it should look exactly like my pic I posted previously.

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If we try to convert the entire cd ( batch convert, under the tagging menu in apple loops utility) the files do not end up as apple loops, they will only loop at the original tempo of 128bpm, now if we take one of those wav files and import that into the apple loops utility, and do the conversion, then that 1 loop seems to have been changed into an apple loop correctly and can be played at any tempo you choose and will loop correctly. Please tell me you understand this.

 

I don't think the Batch Tagging is what you want to do. Simply Save All after you've togled some parameter in the tag pane.

 

But we still don't know if either of you have tried my suggestion and loaded one of the wav files directly into Logic to see if they are good loops to begin with. If they are, it should look exactly like my pic I posted previously.

 

I just did exactly what you did apart from you did 10 files and i did 330 ( maybe it can't handle that many)? And it still didn't work.

See my pic's.... Green file is an apple loop, purple file is the original .wav file, blue files are the ones i tried to batch convert using your method. Notice how they don't fit correctly between the locators? The song is at 134bpm and the files are at 128bpm, the apple loop is a breakbeat not 4x4 so it looks off but sits perfect at any tempo.Notice there is no 'follow tempo' tab on the original purple wav or the newly converted blue apple loops.

976913555_Picture3.png.531fba568b1c63b2dd83437871477669.png

956723506_Picture4.png.aa61d6bafb4dc720c4a71a9906c70f28.png

1610818290_Picture3.png.a275627f4ee19caf8d08b6eac6385323.png

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OK brownie, I see the problem now. Those are not loop wav files, (acid format) so they do not contain the number of beats or tempo information. That's why it works for me and not you. This is exactly what I wanted to determine before.

 

To use these as Apple Loops, you'll have to tell the Apple Loops Utility what they are. This shouldn't be hard as you say they are all 128 bpm and 1 bar. Here you'll need the batch tagging feature for changing tags on more than one file. Yes, I'd say 330 files at once is adventurous. Try fifty at a time.

 

It's odd that any developer/producer would release a wav loop CD and not have the files acidized already. That's not encouraging.

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FYI - taken right from the original website (googled)

 

Deadmau5 Xfer sample CD: This CD-ROM Features 555 Megabytes of WAV sample content:

 

So.... the 'loops' are not in a loop format. ie Acid, Rex, Appleloop, et al. They are just .wav files that you can use as you will. These loop formats are a selling feature, as the time & skill to create these loop formats properly can be a real life-saver (or a big PITA if not there, as you are noticing).

 

Normal (not Acidized) .wav files contain no metadata. It is this metadata that gives the key, bpm, and slice info of these different loop formats.

 

Although each .wav file will 'loop', as in play continously, the creator (Deadmau5) has not put in the extra work to make them into a specific loop format. This work is left up to you: Timestretch, Slice in Recycle, Convert into an Appleloop, load into Phatmatic, RMX, Dr.Rex or any sampler, Manually cut up and rearrange as audio pieces - or all of the above.

 

Make some Noize!

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Thanks for the info arafel, i've given up. I did actually spend a whole week once 'Recycling' a sample cd, think it was BT's Breaks from the NuSkool, something i will never go through again! One question though.... Do you think the sample CD makers are actually sitting down for a whole week slicing and dicing each file manually like this? or do they have some 'secret' batch converting tool we don't know about? hmm.

 

FYI - taken right from the original website (googled)

 

Deadmau5 Xfer sample CD: This CD-ROM Features 555 Megabytes of WAV sample content:

 

So.... the 'loops' are not in a loop format. ie Acid, Rex, Appleloop, et al. They are just .wav files that you can use as you will. These loop formats are a selling feature, as the time & skill to create these loop formats properly can be a real life-saver (or a big PITA if not there, as you are noticing).

 

Normal (not Acidized) .wav files contain no metadata. It is this metadata that gives the key, bpm, and slice info of these different loop formats.

 

Although each .wav file will 'loop', as in play continously, the creator (Deadmau5) has not put in the extra work to make them into a specific loop format. This work is left up to you: Timestretch, Slice in Recycle, Convert into an Appleloop, load into Phatmatic, RMX, Dr.Rex or any sampler, Manually cut up and rearrange as audio pieces - or all of the above.

 

Make some Noize!

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  • 1 year later...
When batch converting the files in Apple Loops Utility just add all the WAVs and then make sure to change the File Type to 'Looping'. Hit save all and the resulting Apple Loops should follow the tempo. Another option you could look at is Flex Time in Logic...
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everything is working now

 

That's great news. Thanks for updating the thread and letting us know. I'm glad to hear that your problem has been solved.

 

In case anyone else wants to see how this procedure works, I've created a folder with a few small files that can be used for that purpose. If you drag them into Arrange, they look like this:

 

http://content.screencast.com/users/logic.45rpm/folders/Jing/media/e4fef372-80c2-4056-812d-d1d65c4e1f97/00000041.png

 

There are two groups of files, A and B. Notice that the A files do not fit the grid, and they have a regular stereo icon. Follow Tempo and Transposition are not available for these files. They are plain, ordinary wavs. They contain no tempo information (e.g., they have not been Acidized). The B files are Apple Loops. They fit the grid, and they have a distinctive looping icon. (Factory Apple Loops have a different icon, because they are compressed. A visual guide to these icons, or glyphs, is here.) Follow Tempo and Transposition are available for these files.

 

I converted the A files into the B files using the same procedure that Matt used to convert the 336 loops in his Deadmau5 Xfer collection. You can do the same thing on your own machine. Trash the B files, and apply the procedure to the A files. You will have recreated the B files.

 

What's important to notice about the six A files is that they vary with regard to number of beats, tempo, file size, duration, and bit depth. Nevertheless, in every instance Apple Loops Utility is able to properly calculate tempo and number of beats. It's able to do this simply by examining the duration of the file, and also making certain clever assumptions about the file. Those assumptions are clever because they are usually correct. For example, they are correct for 100% of the 336 loops that Matt converted.

 

More details about how this works are explained in the thread that Matt referenced.

 

Hit save all and the resulting Apple Loops should follow the tempo.

 

The key word in that sentence is "should." The steps you described should be enough to get the correct result, but they're not. You can demonstrate this with the folder of A files that I provided. If you apply your exact procedure to that folder, the result will be new files that don't behave like Apple Loops (e.g., they don't follow tempo). Why? Because ALU has a bug that interferes with proper batch-saving under certain conditions. Part of what I did is find a simple way to defeat that bug.

 

The correct procedure is simple, but it's not quite as simple as what you said. If it was that simple, this thread probably would have been a lot shorter (both in terms of number of comments and in terms of elapsed time).

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