Each audio loop in the Loop Bank Interface has a label as shown in the image to the right. The currently selected audio loop will always be highlighted with a golden outline around the audio loop label's border. The audio loop label consists of the loop number, an edit box which can be used to contain a description of the loop and three different button controls: "Play", "Edit" and "Props". The "Play" button will playback the selected loop's audio. The "Edit" button will load the audio loop into the Audio Editor Interface. Only audio loops that have not yet been added to a track can be edited. If you attempt to edit a loop that has already been added to a track you will receive an error message. The final button on the audio loop label is the "Props" button. Clicking this button will launch the audio loop properties dialog box which is explained in detail later in this section.

New audio loops can easily be created by importing an audio loop from an audio file. By selecting "Import Audio File to Loop Bank" from the "File" pulldown menu option (visual aid item #1) the "Open File" dialog box will appear. From there you can easily select the audio file you wish to import. Both Wave and MP3 file formats are supported by the Acoustic Labs Multitrack Plus. After selecting the file the new audio loop will be added after the last audio loop listed in the Loop Bank Interface. Note that the maximum length of an audio loop is 30 seconds. If the audio you wish to import is longer than 30 seconds try importing it directly into a track in the Track View Interface. This is described in depth in Section 4: Getting Started with the Acoustic Labs Multitrack Plus.

An alternative way of creating an audio loop is by importing an audio file or recording new audio in the Audio Editor Interface. From there you will be able to fully edit the existing audio and then create a new audio loop from the loaded audio. This is explained in detail in Section 7: Editing Operations of the Audio Editor Interface.

Any audio loop can easily be exported from the Loop Bank Interface by selecting the "Export Selected Loop as Audio File" from the "File" pulldown menu (visual aid item #1). This will open the "Save File" dialog box which will allow you to export the currently selected audio loop as a Wave or MP3 file. This is a very useful option when you want to use the same audio loops between different projects. Simply export any audio loop from one project and then import the audio file into the Loop Bank Interface of a different project.

By clicking the "Props" button on the audio loop label (visual aid item #8) or by selecting "Edit Selected Loop's Properties" from the "Edit" pulldown menu option (visual aid item #1) the audio loop properties dialog box will appear as shown in the image to the right.

The audio loop properties dialog box includes the loop number, description, the number of measures, the tempo of the audio loop, the length and the file that contains the audio loop. Only two of the audio loop properties can be modified: the description and the number of measures. The number of measures is the musical measures that the loop spans. This is dependent on the current project's time signature as set in "Project Properties" options in the "Settings" pulldown menu (visual aid item #1). If the current project's time signature is 4/4 the loop will contain four beats per measure. If it is set to 3/4 the loop will contain three beats per measure.

When importing or creating the audio loop the Acoustic Labs Multitrack Plus automatically attempts to find the appropriate number of measures for the loop by performing calculations that will make the audio loop as close as possible to a tempo of 120 beats per minute. This tempo is chosen because it is closest to the average tempo of a project.

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used to perform the stated action: