SampleSwap.org Launches With 4.6GB Of Free Sample Downloads

After seven years of steady growth in the underground electronic music scene, SampleSwap.org has officially launched a public website featuring 4.6GB of free, professional-quality loops and audio samples.

Owner and sample librarian Canton Becker says, "After all these years of hosting my sample collection as a secret hobby on peer-to-peer networks and university computers, it's exciting to take SampleSwap to the next level."

This 4.6GB collection of handpicked 16-bit 44khz professional-quality samples now resides on a dedicated server with ultra-high speed Internet access. An innovative "basket" based sound browser allows members to quickly audition and download 20 to 100 MB of samples as well-organized ZIP-compressed archives instead of individual sound files.

"The other exciting thing is that we're still doing this for free. We haven't had to put any advertisements on the site to cover our costs because, for the first time ever, we're allowing our members to make donations. To thank some of these folks, we've been mailing them DVD-ROMs of the entire sample collection," says Becker.