Okay, so this is gonna be kind of a weird question so please bear with me. Let’s say you think of some cool riff you want to use, but it’s 3 bars instead of the traditional 4. Is it going to sound weird if you have your song in like 3, 6, 12 bar loops and mix it in with songs that are 4, 8 and 16, or will it go by relatively unnoticed?
it will definitely sound odd… and impossible to mix in correctly seeing as all dance music has the same formula.
its not impossible but does depend on the loop its self, If the loop works well with a added sustained pitched note at the end or at the start you could add the extra bar and make it to a four bar loop or make a bass fill to make the gab between the loops more interesting.
Percussion loops can work well on 3 bar loops as the can add progression to a track but synth riffs are harder to work with 
[quote]Jon_fisher (31/12/2010)[hr]
Percussion loops can work well on 3 bar loops as the can add progression to a track but synth riffs are harder to work with :)[/quote]
+1
Perc loops shouldn’t sound that odd but it really comes down to the actual percussion itself, try things out, if it sounds good, it is good.
IIRC Yesterday by the Beatles goes in 7 bar phrases, which is really un-noticeable until you listen out for it.
So weird things can be done. Plus run the 3 bar loop 4 times and you are at least back in the multiples of 4 again…
if it sounds good it sounds good. Check out trespass 06 by booka shade that uses a 1.5 bar synth loop… blinding tune there are no rules.
[quote]vibes (31/12/2010)[hr]if it sounds good it sounds good. Check out trespass 06 by booka shade that uses a 1.5 bar synth loop… blinding tune there are no rules.[/quote]
of course there are rules but we are not supposed to talk about them 
Minimal percussion works well in 3 bar loops as well
So the rule really is if sounds right its right
I don’t know the details but I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that James Holden used to lay out his tracks in some pretty weird ways to make them hard for djs to mix.
I make any length loops… If they’re sounding good to a point - Loop that out to 8/16/32 bars. Merge / consolidate into one big lump.
Stick a Sidechain on anything thats messing with the kick.
Delete / move any notes that hit on snare or synths / noises.
Hmm, thanks for all the input, very interesting stuff.
Trespass 06 is a great song by the way, yeah the synth line is pretty dodgy but they managed to make it fit, so I guess just about anything is possible.