Help me find danceable Garageband drum loops that work with rock music

January 2, 2012 8:13 AM

What songs have beats that just demand you hit the dance floor? Which of those beats would translate well to minimal rock/funk/dancepunk music? Where can I find those sorts of loops for Garageband or Logic Pro?

My songwriting taste has always been a bit darker, but I also want people to have fun at my band's shows. For the past few years I've been into stuff like Tom Tom Club, Liquid Liquid, PiL, ESG, James Chance and Talking Heads. They incorporate funkier and sometimes tribal rhythms that I'd like to explore as I'm recording ideas at home. I don't have space to record drums at my house so I'd like to find pre-recorded loops that would be helpful with the writing process. Any feedback would be great.

posted by critzer to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

Response by poster: I should add: straight up disco beats probably wouldn't work, and I don't think the rest of the band would go for that either. Same with standard techno.
posted by critzer at 8:14 AM on January 2, 2012

Capoeira do Brasil
posted by phrontist at 8:24 AM on January 2, 2012

Best answer: Many Moons, by Janelle Monae

Fuck. Just about ANYTHING by Janelle Monae.
posted by jph at 10:30 AM on January 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

I find that music by artists who are highly trained dancers seems to be above-average at hitting that mark.

But of the most epic dancefloor music (that consequently become nightclub cliches), the cha-cha beats seem to keep rising to the top. From Michael Jackson's Billy Jean to Lady Gaga's Poker Face.
posted by -harlequin- at 11:04 AM on January 2, 2012

bedroom producers blog features more (free) sample sets and loops than you will ever be able to use.
posted by vanar sena at 11:07 AM on January 2, 2012

Look up "Vengeance Loops" on the pirate bay. (or just buy them, they're pretty cheap).

There's about 80 thousand drum loops between the sets, and a big chunk of house and trance producers use them constantly.

Look up 'sample banks' in general, there are hundreds of them covering every conceivable genre.
posted by empath at 12:03 PM on January 2, 2012

(Oh, and the sample banks aren't just 'techno loops'. A lot of them (even the vengeance ones) are just tribal drums or hi hat patterns, with no kicks. Most techno producers wouldn't use a kick loop, they need to make their own kick and bassline..
posted by empath at 12:04 PM on January 2, 2012

Best answer: If you want classic drum samples used in hip-hop records, look up 'ultimate beats and breaks' on bittorrent (you can't buy that one any more). The full set has all the james brown samples, etc that hip-hop was built on.
posted by empath at 12:05 PM on January 2, 2012

Check out Bill Laswell's Acid loops.
posted by mintcake! at 2:49 PM on January 2, 2012

The talk of the town these days is Azealia Banks' "212" (Lyrics very NSFW). Also, Major Lazer, "Pon de Floor" (NSFW; you've been warned). You'll probably recognize the beat from the new Beyoncé track. She did it through proper legal channels, though, and paid Diplo for the beat.
posted by outlandishmarxist at 7:09 PM on January 2, 2012

The beat from 212 is taken from this track:

Lazy Jay - Float My Boat.

I actually have BOTH of those songs on a mix cd I made 2+ years ago.
posted by empath at 7:31 PM on January 2, 2012

i find sample banks to be of limited use, sometimes there's a cool break or two buried among the dross but even those are only so great (ymmv obviously) on the other hand there are a zillion cool beats already out there, many of which might fit perfectly as a backbeat for some edgier music. rap artists in general, and underground mixtape rappers and r&b singers in particular, jack beats all the time. why shouldn't you?

here's a random selection of a few of my more favorite weird beats.

cali swag district - teach me how to dougie has an almost clean break at the intro to the song, the "ey" would probably just make it a cooler/weirder loop but you could always edit it out.
universal mind control - common is catchy, funky, a bit minimal, and has a clean break at the end
big boi - you ain't no dj has a nice, long, funky as hell and fairly weird break at the intro
teqkilla (remix) - mia ft nicki minaj has a crazy beat - there's some semi clean breaks towards the end but you might want to look for an instrumental
dorrough - old school nikes (instrumental) might work, though it's more big rap anthem than dancefloor

i'm sure you could come up with a list of some of your own favorite rap/r&b tunes, old or new, and start searching for the instrumentals.

but for serious crowdpleasing, you might seriously consider finding an instrumental version of an incredibly popular floor-filling hit of the moment and doing your band's own unique thing on top of loops/elements of it - i could totally see this working with an ironic, live, pil/james chance-ish rework/utter destruction of today's big hit, whatever it is. + you could change it up and do a new one each show - i find fans almost always love a cover or two in the bands style, and enjoy anticipating which one you might do at your next show

also, cosign on "ultimate beats and breaks" too, especially if the 90's are cool again wherever you're based.
posted by messiahwannabe at 9:37 PM on January 2, 2012

i find sample banks to be of limited use, sometimes there's a cool break or two buried among the dross but even those are only so great

Yeah, I tend to cut my loops up a lot when I get them from sample banks. The key is knowing what you want to use them for, really..
posted by empath at 11:07 PM on January 2, 2012