Groove Tools and Techniques

The expression “getting into the groove” of a piece of music often refers to a feeling that's derived from the underlying foundation of music—rhythm. With the introduction and maturation of MIDI and digital audio, new and wondrous tools have made their way into the mainstream of music production. These tools that can help us to use technology to forge, fold, mutilate, and create compositions that make direct use of rhythm and other building blocks of music through the use of looping technology. Of course, the cyclic nature of loops can be repeat-repeat-repetitive in nature, but new toys and techniques for looping have injected the notion of flexibility, control, real-time processing, and mixing to new heights that can be used by an artist in wondrously expressive ways.