DC ddrum soundfont here!

[Snills]

Hi all.... I'm a V-Drum user and wanted to check out some of the highly acclaimed ddrum fonts, so I started building a soundfont from the available D. Chamber samples (I liked the Toms). Here is the soundfont and an MP3 demo to check out. I didn't use all of the samples when building this font as I wanted to get some feedback before spending too much time on it.

This was my first soundfont. I still have some fine tuning to do on the Hi-Hat and Cymbals and am anxious to hear what you all say about the feel of the kit.

If you like it, I'll do more ddrum fonts ..Any requests? Please post replies in the Vdrum (technical) discussion forum.

Bill
http://members.home.net/wblack03/Bills%20Place.htm

[Snills]

Continued from previous post....

MPCman,
The snare samples were kinda thin to begin with. Let me know if your hearing something else.

Redbrick,
Now that I have a templet, I could probably do 1-2 full ddrum fonts in a days time..if I wanted to, that is.

Regarding quality ...The ddrum samples are 6-7 large samples per drum. As for natural drum sounds, I just don't hear this kind of quality from my TD10exp. After playing these samples for a while, most of the TD10exp samples sounded weak in my opinion.

It would be great if Roland put larger samples\more velocity zones on an expansion card. Can they?

Bill

[Snills]

Putnvr
Hey, Can you download the midi file at my site and play it through your ddrum4 with the Dennis Chambers samples loaded and record it to MP3 and send it to me?

I'd like to compare...
I would think that some of your ddrum 3 buddies would be interested in this stuff.

Bill

[Pleiadian]

How can I convert the .sfpack file format to .sbk or .sf2?

My soundcard, a sb live platinum, will only accept these two file formats...

Rob

[Snills]

You can get the decompression utility here...free
http://www.megota.com/sfpack/

[Electrode]

Snills, I love your soundfont!

I think I no longer need to buy a ddrum4!! Woohoo!!

Good use of the hi-hat and cymbal edge sounds. Overall, I'd like to see more of these soundfonts please!!

Oh, and just a little tip. On the note E2, where you would normally put the rim shot sound (well, you did with the DC soundfont anyway...), could you make it a little more V-drum friendly, and put the cross-stick sound on E2 instead of the rim shot sound? I hardly use rim shots, but use cross-sticks a lot.

Is this a possibility?

Also, how did you convert the ddrum samples into WAV files to put them into the SoundFont making program? I would really like to know...

[Snills]

Cool,
Good to here some feedback, I'm actually getting a little interest over at ddrum.com as well. I really think people can get some use out of this stuff. Even the ddrum4 users can benifit from loading these kits into your PC's memory. For those who don't know:

With a Sound Blaster Live soundcard (~$40 at www.pricewatch.com ) you can:

1. Allow quick (3sec) loading\swapping of hundreds of huge kits stored on your hard drive.

2. Apply realtime effects to your kits. APS drivers give you the following effects (Reverb, chorus, Compression, pitch shift, flanger, autowah, distortion, compression, 4 shelf EQ's, 4 parametric EQ's), not to mention the use of DX\VST effects. Standard SBLive drivers give you 2 effects at a time. APS drivers give you more.

3. Edit your samples and soundfonts on the fly. No latency...etc

and the Vienna soundfont editor (free) has all sorts of cool stuff to play with. I haven't even played with the "modulator" features yet.


Anyway Electrode,
Do you want, NO rim shot at all and all cross stick? ..or do you want the Typical "cross stick sound" with soft hits and "rim shot" with harder hits?

Regarding how I make these, it's time consuming but it works:
1. I first open Sound Forge, and start a recording in mono\48KHz.
2. Start playing samples in the ddrum utility. Then when it's done, I clip off ALL of the beginning silence-very importantant to minimize latency.
3. Open a "new stereo 48KHz project" in Soundforge and copy\paste the full mono track with all samples to the Left or right channel (HiHats on left etc).
4. I then add approx 4-10 milliseconds of silence to the beginning of the origional track and paste it to the opposite channel in the stereo track.
5. This leaves you with a seudo-stereo recording of the ddrum samples.(ddrum samples are panned mono samples-I like panned stereo samples).
6. Then you cut each of the stereo samples from the new clip and save them as (Kick1, kick2....kick7)
7. Open Vienna and import the samples, then creat your kit
8. Pan your drums by adjusting the "dominant L\R sample, ie Left channel for HiHats etc.)

I've gotten the process down to where I can create 1 full kit font in about 6-8 hours. I've almost finished the Kenny A. soundfont.

I'll let you know when it's done
Bill

[Electrode]

With regards to the cross-stick thing, I don't mind whether it's just the sample on E2, or the velocity cross-fade (cross-stick/rim shot) thing.

I have a SB Live Platinum soundcard, and know how to use Vienna, so I'll edit the velocity cross-fade thing if it's not to my liking.

So it's all good anyway, whichever path you take.

[Traps]

Originally posted by Electrode:


I think I no longer need to buy a ddrum4!! Woohoo!!

Does this mean that these soundfonts can be used with the Vdrums?
If so, what if any, additional equipment is needed?

Thanks,
Traps

[animal]

Can someone here sort all this out?
I am behind on all the new software out and the stuff you can do now. I have been using cakewalk since 2.0. I know midi. But what is:

VST, APS, ASIO, blah, blah, blah.

I have a sb live with apslive drivers installed. I have the dc soundfont, sfpack, vienna, cubase vst, sound forge 4.5, and logic audio platinum 4.7

So what exactly can I do with this crap? I want nitty gritty, hardcore technical details.

[Snills]

A Quick FAQ on this stuff:

***************
1. Yes! You can play the ddrum soundfonts I'm building using your vdrums (or any midi instrument for that matter), if you have a computer with a Creative Labs Soundblaster Live soundcard or some other Soundfont compatible hardware or software...(Samplers or soft-synths).

*****************
2. You do NOT need to use APS drivers to load\create or play the soundfonts. Normal SoundBlaster Live drivers are fine.

***************
3. APS drivers are mainly useful for those of us who use ASIO compatible sequencers, or just like playing with lots of DSP sound effects.

**************
4. Creative labs created the Soundblaster Live soundcard www.sblive.com . It was primarily aimed toward the computer gaming market(surround sound in games), but the card also appealed to musicians with it's soundfont (sampling) technology and on board DSP effects. The SBLive card sells for as low as $40 on www.pricewatch.com .

****************
5. EMU (who is now owned by Creative Labs)created the Audio Production Studio - APS soundcard http://www.emu.com/products/aps/aps.html . This soundcard uses the same processor as the SBLive but utilizes higher quality components and *software drivers* . It was aimed at the Home studio musician and sells for approx.. $700 .

**************
6. A few years ago, some "tweakers" figured out how to use the APS drivers on the SBLive soundcard, giving the card: Incredible DSP effects routing cabilities, ASIO support, and Soundfont 2.1 support.

**************
7. Go to my SBLive hardware tweaking page http://alive.singnet.com.sg/musician...ring/index.htm If you want to get an overload of info on how you can tweak the SBLive to get some of features that the true APS has. More inputs\outputs etc. You need electronics experience to do some of the stuff.
NOTE: Some of the information is slightly outdated because of software tweaks that have been created in the last year.

*************
8. For a simple "APS driver installation" package for your SBLive, go to: http://people.freenet.de/apslive/

*************
9. Question: Can I Use more that one input at a time? i.e. record more than one input to separate tracks?

Long Answer:
******************************
Yes! You can certainly do this with APS drivers and ASIO software (i.e. Cubase, NOT Cakewalk). You have 2 recording channels on a standard SBLive card. If you have a SBLive platinum you can have 2 more channels via the Live Drive's line IN 2 (you need to install Cross Studio Mixer, version 2 http://crosstudio0.tripod.com/SBliveTTT/#setup ). You can also connect a second SBLive card in your system and connect it to the APS card's SPDIF digital IN port for more simultaneous IN's. And if your really NUTS like me , you can build an Analog-to-digital converter for a total of 6 recordable inputs.

You can record them as multiple stereo tracks or mono tracks (or combinations of both). For example, I can record these 6 audio channels simultaneously to seperate tracks in Cubase VST.

* Analog IN 1&2(Stereo output of Electronic drumset)
* Analog IN 3&4 (Guitar and Vocals plugged into home made ADC. NOTE: You can also use your "LIVE DRIVE's - LINE IN 2" inputs - This requires Cross studio mixer version 2 http://crosstudio0.tripod.com/SBlive...a/csetup.exe?1
* Digital IN 2 (Stereo SPDIF digital connection from 2nd SBLive that is running LiveWare 3 drivers).

Anyway, to set it all up.....

IN APS MIXER (APSLive Ver 1.84):
1. Select Record mode = "Windows MME"
2. Setup your Analog Input strips.

IN CUBASE:
1. Activate "Multi Record" in the options menu.
2. In the VST Inputs window, set all 5 VST Inputs to "Active". Then in the
VST Master Mixer, set your 5 ASIO buses to "Active"
3. Create all your stereo or mono Audio tracks each with it's own
channel(s).
4. Select different "Inputs" for each of the Audio tracks that correspond to your different APS Audio Inputs.
5. "Record enable" the audio tracks your recording ..(click in the "R"
column in the arrange window).

Hit Record and see if it works......If it doesn't work you may need upgrade\adjust your Cross Studios mixer utility. mine is Version 2.

NOTE: When your done, turn off "Multi Record" in Cubase. It seems to disable
midi output while it's checked.

End of question #9

****************************************
10. Question: Can I use the realtime dsp effects in combination with Cakewalk 9? I would like to record without effects and use Cakewalk to add a realtime effect to a seperate track at runtime.

Answer:
Sorry Cakewalk doesn't support ASIO (Audio streaming In\Out). You need Cubase or Logic. Try the Cubase demo to get a feel for it.(keep in mind your looking at a steep learning curve on this software).

Here is why I switched from Cakewalk to Cubase 5 using APS drivers. You can:
* Apply multiple hardware and software DSP effects to your dry audio tracks. In realtime.
*you can record the effects as you play.
*You can hear the effects as you play.
*Record effects and mixer automation.
*Get low latency (8 millisecond) on your software syths.
*Use some incredible built in REALTIME effects\EQ\compression\clipping tools.
*Realtime mixer adjustments
*Tweak soundfonts withing Cubase, ie pitch, filters and effects.

******************
11. Soundfonts:
Decent quality soundfonts can be found for free all over the net. you can also buy high quality SF's as well. Try looking here for some nice freebies. http://www.hammersound.net/
Keep in mind, the APS can only load 32 megs worth of SF's at a time. There is a memory meter in the APS's Soundfont loader. I typically record my midi tracks (with soundfont instruments) to an audio track if the soundfonts are that big, then load up a different big SF if need be. The SBLive drivers actually allow you to *load* more than 32 meg at a time, but you can only *use\play* 32 Megs at a time anyway. This is one advantage to having 2 SBLives in your computer(one running APS drivers). This gives you 32MB on the APS and 32MB on the SBLive...not to mention the Gaming and Music features that each software driver has to offer.

****************
12. Volume level:
When using the APS drivers on your SBLive (APSLive drivers, as they call them), you may need to maximize your volume level by making adjustments in the "Cros Mixer" application that came with the drivers (not to be confused with the APS mixer. I use the latest Cros Studio mixer found here: http://crosstudio0.tripod.com/SBliveTTT/

Open the mixer app and Maximize, "Line out" and "PCM In" . I turn everything else down.

******************
End of FAQ for now:

Please feel free to ask more questions, APS\SBLive is all a bit of a hobby for me.
Bill

[This message has been edited by Snills (edited August 11, 2001).]

[purplehaze]

Bill,
when I'm trying to unpack your DC4 sf-pack with SFPack I get the following message:
"This is no valid SFPack file"

What I'm I doing wrong?

Grtz, Michel

[purplehaze]

Sorry,
ignore my question.
The prob was that although I got the "download completed" message
the soundfontfile wasn't complete.

But never mind.

btw: the mp3 sounds great!

Grtz, M

[Pleiadian]

Bill,

Thanks for the info on the SBLive! I have searched the sites you mention, but can not find the answer to some questions I have...

With a tweaked SBLive Platinum can I:

- Use more that one input at a time? i.e. record more than one input to separate tracks?

- Can I use the realtime dsp effects in combination with Cakewalk 9? I would like to record without effects and use Cakewalk to add a realtime effect to a seperate track at runtime.

I really like the SBLive, but -man- someone needs to talk to their software department. They'll develop a whole s***load of completely useless programs, complete with skins and stuff. But they do not supply a normal set of basic drivers. The "static caching" thing drives me crazy!

And the fact that sometimes, without warning, the driver renames the card from "SBLive! [DC00]" to "SBLive! [1E00]" leaving my sound applications thinking that I have a new soundcard.

Sorry... I'm ranting...

Rob

[Snills]

Pleiadian
I've added your questions to the FAQ, above.
See question 9 and 10.

Bill