so every time i try to listen to short sounds (drum kit sounds, effects, etc.) in the explorer window, ACID automatically beatmatches them, and they end up all stuttery and completely unrecognizable. is there any way to turn off this auto-beatmatching for file previews, or do i have to drag all the sounds into the project and convert them to one-shots?

There's this... you could use a setting like .1 - .2 seconds cuz I doubt there's anything that short in your library so nothing will be stretched as a loop.