Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
What is Loopy Pro? — Loopy Pro is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive live looper, sampler, clip launcher and DAW for iPhone and iPad. At its core, it allows you to record and layer sounds in real-time to create complex musical arrangements. But it doesn’t stop there—Loopy Pro offers advanced tools to customize your workflow, build dynamic performance setups, and create a seamless connection between instruments, effects, and external gear.
Use it for live looping, sequencing, arranging, mixing, and much more. Whether you're a live performer, a producer, or just experimenting with sound, Loopy Pro helps you take control of your creative process.
Download on the App StoreLoopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.
Selling Beats Question(s)/Advice Needed
Hi all. Okay, so it's no secret that I've gotten into beatmaking in various HipHop genres thanks to getting into Lofi about two and a half months ago. I have tried Google to find answers to this specific question but to not much avail. What I'm trying to find out is...
"When I go to sell beats on a site like BeatStars, should I keep the beat as an 4-bar/8-bar loop (depending on BPM), or should I structure it out before rendering? If I should structure it out, what is the best 'songform' to use?"
I know how to structure a beat at this point, but I usually come up with the flow "at random" rather than any set pace, sort of "improvised" if you will. I know how to name a beat in order to get it some attention in the marketplace. I also know to have the beat ready as a wav, an mp3, and as stems so I have everything ready for the client.
I'm just trying to figure out what I should upload to someplace like BeatStars. 
Thank you so much for any and all advice you may have for me. And if you have any advice beyond my question or guidance, it's more than welcome. And if we veer a little off-topic in this thread, that's also a-ok as I like the banter.
Cheers, and thanks in advance.
Comments
Bumping.
Edit: Well, I guess nobody cares to help me. The indifference is deafening.
Edit 2: Can anyone help at all?!
i can make up some stuff
You could hang out on the blezz beats discord (The Black Hole) and ask there... https://discord.gg/PZKa3z9M
Also, I assume you have been listening to Producer Grind...
I am a part of that server, but there are so many channels it's tough to know which one to ask in. And being relatively new there, they may rip into me for asking a novice question like what I asked.
That's actually happened to me on the Dubstep Forum back in 2010 when I asked a "novice question" and I got called everything from a troll to idiot to more unsavory things. 😣 I don't need that toxicity in my life.
That's why I prefer to ask here where folks are far friendlier.
That's where I learned how to name a beat to grab attention and what formats are required and necessary.
I'll check these two out. Cheers.
Hmm, I haven't interacted much on the black hole discord but found the folks to be quite nice when I did. The discord just moves a bit too fast for me. Blezz sets the tone well and he is a nice guy though.
But yah Producer Grind is great for getting a window into that world. It took a bit for me to bend my ear but now I am all up in dah fuckin wit dis, gnome sane?
Structure the beats out. I think you’ll have less interest in 4-8 bar loops. For inspiration on structure, just listen to some of the top producers on BeatStars and follow their formula.
Mate, from what I can see you're generally liked and respected around here. 👍
9 hours of radio silence on a weekend (a lot of it nighttime in various time zones) may not necessarily mean nobody cares. It may simply mean that it's a lazy 9 hours on a weekend. 🙂 It can also mean most people genuinely don't have relevant advice for you and don't want to spam your thread with empty sorry's, etc.
I also don't have any experience in this area, but I do hope you'll get good tips and good luck with your endeavour!
Yeah, that server definitely moves swift, lol.
LOL! I definitely need to spend more time on Producer Grind for sure.
That means a lot to me mate. Very much so. 🫶
That makes sense.
At least our good mate @AudioGus is on the case. I also asked my rapper friend Malleous what he looks for in a beat. I am sorry for being impatient. Part of it's ADHD, but most of it's like "I wanna start making 1K (pennies lol) per week". 😂
Thank you again mate.
Again, that means a lot. Even if it's just a "get off your arse and go for it" pep talk, it pumps me up.
That's really amazing advice.
Thank you so much mate. 
I doubt much has changed in the past 25 years. Just make CDs and sell them out of the trunk of your car.
Good advice, but i think when it comes to hip hop beats, there is not much structure in the songs. Or at least its super basic. Dilla or the The Alchemist for example have so many beats where its just 4-8 bar loop and maximum a little change for the hook. I think its much more about the sounds you use and the vibe you create with it.
If only I had a laptop and a drive to burn CDs with, lol. But it seems BeatStars is the way to go for now regarding selling beats. It requires a lot of "footwork" (so to speak), hustling, etc. That's where a website will come in handy where I can advertise my beats and EPs and such, and I can go further from there. I'll be working on my own website tomorrow.
That's what I was thinking to, but after listening to many of the beats on BeatStars, there does seem to be a lot of variety every 4-8 bars. In Western Classical Music terms, this would be one of those "theme and variations" situations, if that makes any sense. I can definitely listen to the current top-selling beats, make notes about song structures, etc.
Also, my brain had came up with a brilliant idea - I contacted my rapper friend Malleous to see what he looks for when he searches for beats to rap over, and he gave me many insights that I can apply to my own processes. He said that yes, a beat should be structured, to make sure to use a producer's tag every 8-12 bars, etc. So I'll be researching Producers Grind and other Hiphop beatmakers' channels on Youtube to see how they structure their beats, take notes, etc.
I've been known to be a quick learner, and this thread has been absolutely helpful so far.
As always been the case with music. That’s why I yet to make more than $100 in my life time with it yet. I’m too complacent. Nobody has come knocking on my door yet, telling me, You have what it takes, kid. We’ll provide you with everything you need.
Good luck! You’ll do well I’m sure.
Yes, it depends what kind of beats you listen to. The producers that i mentioned (and some of the best imo). Have only very little variety in most of their songs. Its mainly about digging for sounds and personal taste. Don´t overthink, especially when it comes to hip hop... But i mainly listen to older Hip Hop music. In the new stuff might be more variety, but i dont like it most of the time...
Yeah, I had that happen throughout my life, where people are like "you have what it takes, we'll provide you with what you need". I've been lucky that way. But, I'm not about to rest on my laurels. F that. I'm going to put in the hard work with this new path in my career, even if it only means pocket change to start with.
Thank you so much mate.
That means the world to me. Cheers. 🍻
I prefer the older Hip Hop music myself, but I'm experimenting in all genres and subgenres of Hip Hop and just playing around and enjoying myself.
I may accidentally pop out a few gems then to upload to BeatStars, lol.
Me too, i experiment in all types of genres, but Hip Hop is my old love. Wish you best luck, sounds like a great idea. You are talented
It’s been a few years, but when I was doing a lot of mix downs for people and they would send me the raw beat the purchased usually it was only very lightly structured. 8-16 bars of the main beat, 8-16 bars of a lighter breakdown version, they maybe a slightly different version of the main beat for 8-16 bars. That was the producers can slice up and use which sections they want I their music in whatever order they prefer.
Not all of them followed this, but it seems most were some variation of having a couple different sections in one file.
You're a mastering engineer, right Tarekith? I'm curious to what extent you think apps like Grand Finale, Trinity etc can rival what an actual human engineer can do. Of course it's going to depend a lot on the quality of the audio that's put in, but still interested in your opinion 🙏
Yes, I’ve been a mastering engineer for about 20 years now full time. I don’t really think those apps rival what an engineer can do, they’re just tools and it’s still up to the person using them to decide what does and what doesn’t need to be done with them. Obviously someone who does that daily in a properly treated room with a relatively flat monitoring set up will likely get the job done quicker and more consistently. But that’s not saying that these apps are inferior.
I will say that “in general” my experience has been that when people use these all in one mastering apps they tend to overdo the processing more than the song really needs. These apps have a lot of different processing modules, and people tend to think they need to use all of them since they see them there. Same with multiband processing, people tend to use all the bands when often just 2 (or frankly usually just 1) are all they really need.
There’s so many amazing mastering tools out there these days, I think people just need to slow down and think WHAT they are doing when they use them and does the song sound like it NEEDS whatever processing they are applying. Overdoing it just leads to flat and mushy sounding masters. I think that’s the real downside of mastering packages, usually just some EQ and limiting can get the job done far better than tons of compression, distortion, multiband exciting, etc, etc, etc. Those are great tools to have on hand when the need arises, but people don’t ALWAYS need to use those. Especially if you’re mastering your own music and can just go back and make little tweaks to the mixdown instead.
YMMV
Thank you so much mate.
I'm just currently stuck on what web host to use, lol. I'll probably start up a new thread about that.
That's a pretty great way to structure out a beat and really great insights.
Thank you mate.
I'll have to keep that in mind.
From my limited experience, don’t sell beats. Rappers are broke and will just rip your beats lol
Great answer, sounds bang on the money. Thanks for taking the time!
I used to fall into the "use everything" category and churn out shite masters, lol. This was during the loudness wars/pre-LuFS loudness standards. Before November of last year, I used to get my music up to -8 LuFS since that was the standard for EDM. It just sounds so flat and lifeless. Been mastering to -14 LuFS ever since.
I still use MagicDeathEyeStereo to glue things together between -2 and -3 dB, as well as setting its highpass switch to 20Hz to shave off any inaudible lowend. Then I use Barricade and Youlean's Loudness Meter to ensure the final result doesn't exceed -14LuFS (my target loudness is roughly -14.5 LuFS). I sometimes use RX950 to give it that AD/DA crunch when I want a Lofi effect, but I no longer use Barkfilter Tripleband as it really pumps up the mids and highs too much.
The "all in one" mastering tools seem awesome, but it's so easy for me to fall into the "use everything" category when a compressor, a limiter, and sometimes RX950 are all that's needed.