15. The system of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of library musical elements includes a percussive event generated by a plurality of instruments.
13. A system for retrieving a musical element from a library of musical elements, the system comprising: a rhythmic signature generator for generating a rhythmic signature of a query musical element comprising a plurality of query percussive events, the rhythmic signature comprising a time stamped series of durations of the plurality of query percussive events; a data storage library populated with a plurality of library musical elements, each of the library musical elements including a plurality of percussive events, including percussive events of different intensities and timbres, wherein the library includes a rhythmic signature for each of the library musical elements, each rhythmic signature comprising a series of time stamps and durations of the plurality of percussive events in its corresponding library musical element; a musical element matcher for comparing the rhythmic signature of the query musical element with the rhythmic signatures of musical elements in the library and for identifying one or more musical elements from the library having rhythmic signatures that are substantially similar to the rhythmic signature of the query musical element, wherein dynamic time warp analysis is used in the determination of substantial similarity between different rhythmic signatures; an interface permitting a user to provide the query musical element and select one or more of the library musical elements identified by the matcher; and a playback engine for playing the query musical element and the one or more selected musical elements from the library.