Audio Looper

Finding Musical Loop Points

Seamless loops are arithmetic, not luck. One bar of 4/4 lasts 240 divided by the BPM: at 128 BPM that is 1.875 seconds, at 174 BPM 1.379. Pick a start point on a downbeat, then make the region length an exact multiple of the bar length: 4 or 8 bars for grooves, 1 or 2 for tool loops. A loop cut this way lines its own seam up rhythmically, and the crossfade only has to hide the click, not a stumble. Run the source through the Song Key & BPM Finder first for the exact decimal BPM, and use the beats-to-time calculator for the bar math at any tempo.

Crossfade Settings by Material

• Drum grooves: 10 to 30 ms, just enough to remove the click without softening the first kick
• Basslines and melodic loops: 30 to 80 ms; longer fades start to double notes at the seam
• Pads, drones, atmospheres: 200 to 500 ms; the material has no transients to protect, so a long equal-power blend makes the loop truly invisible
• If the seam thumps: your endpoints sit on different parts of the bar; fix the region length before reaching for a longer fade

Frequently Asked Questions