loop
loop
/luːp/
A repeating section of sound material, often a drum beat or a melodic phrase, that plays continuously without interruption.
A loop must be perfectly edited so that the end blends seamlessly back into the beginning without any audible click or rhythmic hiccup.
The story behind the word. In the early days of electronic music, composers literally cut a piece of magnetic recording tape, wrapped it around a physical cylinder or tape guide, and spliced the ends together so it would run through the playback head in a continuous circle.
Word relationships
- cycle: Cycle refers to any repeating pattern, but loop specifically implies a continuous, repeating audio segment.
Commonly confused with
- delay: Delay is an effect that creates fading echoes of a sound, whereas a loop repeats the exact audio segment at full volume indefinitely.
Word family
- looping (noun): The act of creating or performing with repeating audio segments.
Collocations
- infinite loop
- drum loop
- loop station
Idioms & expressions
- in the loop
- throw for a loop
Example sentences
- "He created a hypnotic four-bar loop from an old soul record to serve as the foundation of the beat." A description of a hip-hop production technique.
- "If you loop a vocal snippet, you can keep it playing over the next track to create an on-the-fly mashup." A DJ explaining live performance tricks.
Memory hook
A loop is like a hula hoop of sound, spinning around and around without an end. A loop goes round and round.
When not to use
Do not use when referring to a song that simply plays once and stops, or a sound that repeats with a fading delay effect.
Fun facts
- The Beatles were among the first mainstream pop bands to use tape loops, famously utilizing them on 'Tomorrow Never Knows' in 1966 to create surreal, ambient textures.
Explore more words
rhythm, closed-loop, seamless, continually, segue, continuous
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