Spectrasonics has announced the release of the New Orleans Strut mini drum loop collection to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The library features 50 ALL NEW live grooves from seven world-class drummers. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the US$25 library will go to Habitat for Humanity's relief effort in rebuilding homes for the victims in New Orleans and Mississippi.

Producer Eric Persing explains the motivation of the project, "Hurricane Katrina devastated the homeland of America's true original music – this region has given us the Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Funk and Rock & Roll that have influenced the world for generations. By offering this collection of authentic grooves at an affordable price, our hope is to inspire other musicians creatively and especially to benefit the disaster victims by donating the project to re-building homes in the area."

New Orleans Strut Drum collection includes 50 ALL NEW grooves by:

• Abe Laboriel Jr. (Paul McCartney, Seal, Sting)
• Alex Acuña (Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, Whitney Houston)
• Billy Ward (B.B. King, Robbie Robertson, Joan Osborne)
• Gregg Bissonette (Santana, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai)
• John Ferraro (Steve Morse, Aaron Neville, Albert Lee)
• Bob Wilson (George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Boz Scaggs)
• Eric Boseman (Liquid Grooves, Backbeat, Justo Almario)

The featured grooves are all inspired by the heart and soul of Louisiana and Mississippi music - including authentic Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Zydeco and Neville Brothers-style Funk and Second Line feels. The drummers were recorded by Grammy-winning engineers at legendary Los Angeles studios like Capital Hollywood, Royaltone, O'Henry, The Enterprise, Music Grinder and Bill Schnee's.

Drum kit loops, Brush loops and unique percussion instrument loops (Oil Cans, Refrigerator Lids, Spoons, etc.) are included. All of these performances have never been released before on any other collection.

The New Orleans Strut library is available in several formats – including Groove Control activated S.A.G.E. format for Spectrasonics' Stylus RMX, Apple Loops format for GarageBand/Logic users and also as standard audio loops in AIFF/WAV formats.

This special New Orleans benefit collection is only US$25 and is available exclusively via Internet download through Spectrasonics website. Because of its large size (approximately 100mb per format), a broadband Internet connection is required.