Auditioning Individual Slices in Apple Loops Utility?

Could someone please explain to me how you audition individual slices in the Apple Loops Utility?

If by slice you mean the area between two transient markers, you can't just play one automatically, you'd have to move the playhead to one marker, and press stop when it reaches the next.

This is a crazy feature for a program of this kind to be missing don't you think?

Not really, the point of the Apple Loops utility is to tag a file and see how the file sounds like with transient markers in certain places, not to slice a file nor to listen to a single "slice" of the file. If you're interested in working with individual slices from a drum loop, you're looking at the wrong software. Why are you looking to listen to an individual "slice"?

Not really, the point of the Apple Loops utility is to tag a file and see how the file sounds like with transient markers in certain places, not to slice a file nor to listen to a single "slice" of the file. If you're interested in working with individual slices from a drum loop, you're looking at the wrong software. Why are you looking to listen to an individual "slice"?

 

I think its obvious why he would want to listen to the individual slices.., to hear if the markers are sitting at the right place for the transients of each drum sound/hit.. but as you say the apple loops utility is not designed to do what recycle has been doing for the last 8 years or so... its a real shame that..

I think its obvious why he would want to listen to the individual slices.., to hear if the markers are sitting at the right place for the transients of each drum sound/hit.

 

But the artifacts are usually happening just at the transient markers, so for that goal it's better to listen to a whole section of the loop... at least that's the way I do it.

For the records, it has become really easy to audition individual beats in Logic's own Sample Editor since version 9:

 

 

⌃⌘← Selection Start and End to Previous Transient

⌃⌘→ Selection Start and End to Next Transient

⌃⌥⌘← Selection Start and End to Previous Transient and Play

⌃⌥⌘→ Selection Start and End to Next Transient and Play

 

 

 

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There are many other transient-oriented key commands in L9 as well:

 

 

-------- Global Commands --------

⌥⌘→ Forward by Transient

⌥⌘← Rewind by Transient

 

-------- Arrange and Various Editors --------

← •Select Previous Region/Event, or Set Marquee End to Previous Transient

→ •Select Next Region/Event, or Set Marquee End to Next Transient

⇧← •Toggle Previous Region/Event, or Set Marquee Start to Previous Transient

⇧→ •Toggle Next Region/Event, or Set Marquee Start to Next Transient

 

-------- Arrange Window --------

⌃⌥⌘↓ Move Selection with First Transient to Nearest Beat

⌃⇧S Slice at Transient Markers

⌃← Trim Region Start to Previous Transient

⌃→ Trim Region Start to Next Transient

⌘← Trim Region End to Previous Transient

⌘→ Trim Region End to Next Transient

 

-------- Sample Edit Window --------

Go to Previous Transient

Go to Next Transient

⇧← Set Selection Start To Previous Transient

⇧→ Set Selection Start To Next Transients

← Set Selection End To Previous Transient

→ Set Selection End To Next Transient

 

Set Region Anchor to Previous Transient

Set Region Anchor to Next Transient

⌘T Toggle Transient Editing Mode

+ Increase Number of Transients

- Decrease Number of Transients

D Detect Transients of Audio File

I think its obvious why he would want to listen to the individual slices.., to hear if the markers are sitting at the right place for the transients of each drum sound/hit.. but as you say the apple loops utility is not designed to do what recycle has been doing for the last 8 years or so... its a real shame that..

 

my point exactly - the key feature of an Apple Loop is the ability to reproduce a loop at a variety of tempos. The positioning of transient markers is absolutely key to being able to successfully do this.

 

It seems crazy to me that you have to do this by sight rather than sound.

Auditioning individual slices is the easiest way I would have thought to accurately ascertain whether the sensitivity setting is correct much easier than having to attempt to do it visually at any rate.

Another related question.

 

If I use the sample editor to set the correct transient markers and then drop the loop in to the Loops Browser or open it in the Apple Loops utility will it then default to these transient markers that i have set manually in the sample editor?

I think its obvious why he would want to listen to the individual slices.., to hear if the markers are sitting at the right place for the transients of each drum sound/hit.. but as you say the apple loops utility is not designed to do what recycle has been doing for the last 8 years or so... its a real shame that..

If Apple Loops Utility existed for the same purpose as Recycle, ie to work with "slices", then you'd be correct. The Recycle type workflow is fully supported in the Sample Editor and the Flex slice modes. So it's really more about picking the right tool for the job. If you're concerned about preserving timing and quality. and need quantization without timbre shifting or granularization, then you don't want to be working with Apple Loops anyway. It's easy to be lulled into complacency by the ease of use of Apple Loops but, they have their place.