A veritable Flash music construction set, Drum Lab features a wide assortment of phat beats and other percussion sound samples and a unique interface with which to manipulate them.

In Basic mode, simply mousing over each of the various instruments will play the associated sound. DJ Stain, an animated character from the world of Paper Islands, operates each instrument as it plays.

Once familiar with the palette of sounds available, constructing loops is a breeze using the Drum Loops feature. Up to two sound samples can play at a time, and there are 16 steps per measure with which to lay down your beats and riffs. Simply click on an instrument and drag the numbered icon that pops-up into position. Once you have a pattern set, click the plus "+" icon to create another. You can create up to 10 unique drum loops.

After the drum loops are set, use the Sequencer to create a composition with your loops. Just drag each numbered drum loop into position, and then press Play. The sequencer can seamlessly string together up to 32 of your drum loops in any combination.

Dave Jones of Transience has done a really nice job of creating his Paper Islands site and populating it with interesting characters in a unique and original style. I especially like the animation of DJ Slain reading and flipping through the pages of a magazine at the game's start screen. And while the samples, drum loops and sequencer are all solid in their implementation, the timing within the Flash Player will yield somewhat imperfect results. Furthermore, there is no way to alter the tempo of your creations, or even save them once you've finished a masterpiece. Still, it's a fun toy to play with and to exercise the creative parts of the brain.

Play Drum Lab