PlayinMusic.com offers a series of royalty-free loops for a wide variety of genres and editing systems, including samples optimized for use with ACID. The series includes a hefty collection of drum loops, plus guitar, bass, and synth libraries, recorded in 16-bit and 24-bit versions.

The ACID loops are a source of pride. According to PlayinMusic.com's main page, some sample libraries claim to be ACID-friendly, but aren't truly optimized for use with ACID, and worse still, some sample libraries aren't properly recorded as samples. PlayinMusic.com claims to use "only those music loops that are very tastefully played and also very tight to the beat" to facilitate proper looping and song enhancement. There is a large "stable" of artists who have contributed work to the series, including two vocalists whose work ranges from R&B crooning to downright trippy vocalizations.

Bruce Charlestein runs the PlayinMusic site; he is also the drummer for the drum sample series. Gearwire's Joe Wallace asked Charelstein how he hopes his material is used, how he creates and records the loops, and got some basic advice than can help loop newbies in their work.

What are your feelings on the "state of drum sampling" and the use of such samples in music traditionally sample-free? One example in particular; the Cartoon Network Adult Swim program Metalocalypse. All the heavy metal music in the show is created using drum samples. Metal is one genre perceived to be free from drum sampling, but with loops and samplers as advanced as they are, that perception doesn't always jibe with reality, does it?

"I think that not only drum sampling but instrument sampling and phrase sampling (loops) will continue to explode, until they become a prominent way to produce music. The basic issue is practicality. As computers and programs become more proficient at manipulating and arranging the sounds the advantages of using sampled sounds will continue to increase."

"I think there will be a natural progression from drums to instruments. Drums are easier for programs to manipulate. It’s easier to come up with a great sounding finished track with drums than other instruments. The other instruments have the huge issue of transposing to contend with. When transposing audio samples becomes quicker and better sounding, like midi is today, then I think there will be a major shift in their usefulness."

Let's talk about how you technically recorded your drum samples for your royalty-free loop series. How did you do it? How do you compress or otherwise treat the samples once they're recorded to your satisfaction?

"My approach has been to record long tracks and then taking only the 'primo' phrases and editing them so that they sound good and loop properly. Once I discovered the practicality of working with loops and their increasing usefulness as time goes on, acid loops became my main focus."

"I don’t usually sample drum hits or make instrument multi samples. I just try to record and edit great phrases. I record the tracks as close as possible to the sound I want to achieve, including any compression or effects. I find that the musician will play differently with the effects or compression on, and the feel will be different if they’re left out. Sometimes I’ll add some compression or do some other modifications afterward, depending on what I’m trying to achieve. Then when a song is being composed the final adjustments can be made to suit the mix."

"The drum loops in the Drum Language series were all made using the KARMA software. It’s got the most variables to modify of any of the sequencing programs that I’ve come across. I feel like I haven’t even begun to tap the potential of that puppy. It’s one of my favorite toys."

This sound odd, but how do you see your loop material being used? Are these loops designed to enhance a song, help create one from scratch? Somewhere in the middle?

"My loops are intended to make composing songs easier, and at the same time have the songs come out better than would be practical otherwise. I can’t play guitar as well as [fellow artists in the Playin' Music Loops Series] Jeff Ballew or Greg Diaz, or bass as well as Dean Cortez, or Chet Smith, or sing like Cindee Noble or Ijah, not to mention all of the other loops in my personal library. Loops are an easy way of collaborating with lots of other talented musicians."

"Some of their best licks are on their discs, and having them readily available simplifies things in a lot of obvious ways. I started using loops myself as a way to put together a backing track for me to jam with. I mostly like to play lead. As time went on I discovered that I could do almost everything, including great leads, by using loops. Now when people ask me what instrument I play, I say 'computer'. That usually gets a few raised eyebrows. "

Any basic advice for newbie loop users?

"I think the main mistake most new loop users make is to repeat the same one over and over. It’s much more natural sounding to use several variations of the same theme, or to vary the theme with layers of other loops of the same instrument. For instance, you may have a basic drum loop that goes throughout most of the song. If you add some different percussion during the songs transitions it really makes the drum track more interesting. When the guitarist is playing the same chord sequence several times, try using a loop with a different variation of the strumming, or the 1st half of one loop and the last half of another instead of repeating the same sequence again and again."