Back Stage Quickies: Loop Families

One refinement in GarageBand '08 is the use of context sensitive popUp menus in loops and regions. These offer access to Loop Families as well as the much rejoiced over Multi-Take feature. This article covers the former.

Many loops are similar, and are named with an incremental number following the name such as Acoustic Noodling 01, Acoustic Noodling 02, etc. These are considered a Loop Family. If you drop a loop into the timeline that is in a Loop Family you'll find a popUp menu in the top left corner of the region
Loop Family PopUp control

if you click on that popUp menu, you get a list of all the other loops in that family
Loop Family PopUp Menu

and by selecting any one of them, you change the original loop to the one you selected.

This in and of itself may not sound exciting, replacing a single loop over and over doesn't help you get a song created, but it's the way in which you make use of it that can save time and effort ... one less trip to the Loop Browser.

A simple example of this in action could go like this:

First we drop in a loop
Loop Region in track

next we option-Drag that loop to duplicate it
Ghosted region being dragged

Duplicated region in track

and then change the duplicated loop to another one from its family
Click Loop Family PopUp Control

Changed Loop Family Region

Of course you could have saved a step by simply dragging the second loop from the loops browser, but it depends on your style of work, I find it less work to Duplicate and and change the loop rather than moving my mouse all the way down to the loop browser and then back up again. Still, even if you don't agree, there is another example that should show the advantage. Suppose after listening to the project you realize that the new loop isn't quite what you wanted. You could mouse down to the loop browser (which may or may not be open at this point) and drag up another loop to replace it, or you could simply select another one from the popUp menu. Being able to quickly change your mind, or try out different flavours in a loop family quickly and easily can streamline both your workflow as well as your creativity.

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