If you want to extend a soundtrack, ambiance, or any audio and make the loop points un-noticeable,
this tutorial will show you some of the best ways you can make a seamless loop in your audio.
[How To Seamlessly Loop Audio, Music, and SFX.]
Hey everyone, Jake from Transverse Audio here.
So, there's a bunch of different ways you can be rendering your audio to make it loop seamlessly
and depending on what you have to work with,
there will be different ways to deal with the process.
The first, and I think the best way to go about looping audio is when you have access
to the MIDI information.
And bare with me, you don't want to just bounce the pattern as-is.
Simply take the beginning and copy it over to the end.
To determine how much you need to copy over, make a selection past the loop and pay attention
to where the release or decay time ends.
This way you can preserve the effects that still occur when it loops in your DAW.
That's because when it loops in a DAW, it's essentially just putting the beginning at the end,
allowing the tail to continue over to the beginning again.
Without doing it this way, it's as if you were to line up two different audio files,
which would cut off the tail and make it abruptly end.
Okay, so with the location of where the tail ends, you can cut off the rest of the loop
and render the two of them together as the same audio file.
And, rendering an audio file is known as bouncing something.
Once you've exported the audio, either drag it into a separate project
or use the same one.
If you do move it back into the same project, make sure to mute everything except for the rendered loop.
Now, make a cut where the loop ends and move it to the beginning.
After that, make the ending you just moved over fade out at the same time the main loop fades in.
This is known as crossfading.
To make it sound better, make the crossfade right before a transient like a drum
or just a note being played if there's no percussion.
Before you go and do that though, you may have to make the tail here, a unique pattern
as the volume automation may affect both parts of the loop.
This may be different depending on the DAW you use so try out both ways.
It may seem over-complicated but the reason you need to do this is because when it ends,
the beginning is now a perfect match of the waveform and we're just hiding the transition
with a crossfade here since it won't do that automatically when you line up two audio files.
There, probably the best way to get a seamless loop.
This next way to do it is good for situations when you have a stem (or rendered audio)
that includes a decay tail.
Similar to the previous method, make a cut where the loop ends then move the tail to the front.
Before you gradually fade it out, you may have to make the tail here a unique pattern
as the volume automation may affect both parts of the loop.
And that's the difference from the last method - you don't crossfade in this one.
Since the loop is made seamless due to the waveform being an exact continuation of the ending,
it is a good idea to make a really small fade in on the main loop
to prevent it from interfering with the tail.
Now, if we play it back it should sound seamless.
The third option to make a seamless loop is a situation you don't really want to be in.
It's not that bad but it will require some additional work.
If you have an audio file that abruptly ends without a decay tail, you'll need to create
your own by using the same or a very similar reverb to the one used in the original loop.
But, could also be a delay effect.
Make a copy of a section at the ending and apply a reverb to that.
Then, you just have to fade it in.
Fade out the original at a point where it sounds realistic and select the entire loop
with enough room after it to account for the reverb tail.
With the loop selected, render it as a new audio file and bring it back into the DAW
so it can be made seamless.
This step just comes down to following the previous method by making a cut where the tail starts,
then moving it to the beginning so the main loop can fade in
while the tail fades out.
[Soundtrack looping in background]
Now if you still want to seamlessly loop something but don't want the reverb tail at the beginning,
there is a way around it.
All you have to do is render two files, one without the tail at the beginning
to be used as the intro and one with the tail at the beginning to be used as an infinite loop afterward.
These would simply be sequenced in your DAW, game engine, or audio middle-ware such as
FMOD or Wwize.
When it comes down to looping less predictable and more complex sounds,
you also have to pay attention to things that stand out in the sound.
To make these types of sounds loop better, find a more consistent section that's neutral
and try to follow the rhythm and timing of the recording so any recurring sounds
are kept at the same intervals and keeps it natural.
Now, after making a cut where it's more ambient, make them unique or individual sounds
and either use a crossfade option if you have it
or just manually draw in the volume automation.
When you loop it, it will sound seamless since the beginning and the end
are where the cut was made.
[Ambiance looping in the background.]
Now that you have these methods to work with, you should have a good understanding
of how to loop pretty much anything.
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Let me know in the comments below what kind of videos you want to see next
and if you have any questions feel free to ask.
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