I'm not really a complete idiot, only a partial one. I've been experimenting more and more with my ProTools set up with a recently purchased book called ProTools for Musicians and Songwriters by Gina Fant-Saez. It's colorful and has lots of pictures, so I felt less intimidated by a program that can seem very intimidating. It's very well written and only once so far in the book (and I'm about halfway through) did something not match up on my screen with what she wrote and illustrated. Everything else has been spot on.
I wish I had purchased this book earlier and straight from Amazon, but I made an impulse buy at my local Barnes and Noble. Be wise and use Amazon...at least for purchasing specialty books that are expensive.
Enough of my mistakes in purchasing, buying this book was definitely NOT a mistake. This book is sort of like taking a class. It works step-by-step through the process of using ProTools LE 7 and M-Powered 7, giving equal airtime to Mac and Windows controls and nuances. Even though the author is obviously MAC biased, she never bashes the Windows version and does a great job of simply explaining the program.
One of the activities in the book was to make your own drum loop from scratch using samples. You can even download those samples to try on your own computer! Here's her website: www.protoolsformusicians.com
The advantage of using drum loops to record with rather than a click track is that you are working with an actual groove. It brings out different ideas and makes you play differently than if you just strummed along to a click track. As far as songwriting goes, it's a great way to take your song in a different direction.
By the way, I can't hype this website enough:
Looperman.com
Free drum and percussion loops (and tons of other things). It tends to lean more toward the techno crowd, but I've found it extremely useful in creating music on the fly without having to worry about creating a drum track.
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