Recently, I've been doing some music and audio stuff for fun, and because my friends and I are thinking about doing a Half Life mod. Right now, I'm trying to do some drum loops. Question: in this loop here (not mine, of course) - http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/audio/laswell3%2Fbeat%2031.wav, is the "bang boom bang" (not sure what it's called) style of drums a post-processing effect or just the drums themselves? Or is there no way to tell? And does anybody know how to get this effect? Thanks in advance. //destron

This loop has been constructed from individual components, which probably came from unrelated sources. Each component has its own effects (EQ, compression, reverb - probably applied more than once) and there are probably global effects applied to the loop as a whole to help give it some cohesion. There's even some melodic content in there on beats 1, 2.5 and 4.5. There are some other nice subtleties such as the kick (if you want to call it that, on 1, 2.5 and 3.5) is different the last time it plays and is not just the same sample (though maybe it is the same sample but just pitched down?).

A good way to learn how to make your own loops is to listen to something like that, then get your own samples and try and recreate the loop from scratch.