First user contributed sound: clave!

[Louis]

Hi,

Since a few days I am the happy owner of a 2box. Out of curiosity I tried to understand the format of .dsnd files, and this turned out to be not so difficult, except for a few details that I still don't understand.

As a proof of concept I sampled a clave, and tried if I could download it to the 2box. It worked ! You can download it from http://www.shortestpath.se/2box/Clave.zip

NOTE: The contents of the Clave.zip file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Sweden License, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/se/deed.en_US It implies that any usage of this file totally at your own risk.

Note that the quality of the clave sound is not good. I don't have a good mike and, more importantly, somehow my computer generates noise that influences the recording.

I also did an experiment to copy a VST snare, because being able to use VST sounds in the 2box was my main goal (even though the sounds that are already in the 2box are really good!). It worked, but more experimenting is needed to get good volumes for the different layers.

Happy drumming,

/Louis

[nonoduweb]

Hi

You're right, the dsnd file format doesn't seem to be difficult to understand, I looked in the files too and I'm sure I can make some good things too.
But perhaps you should be careful before publishing your files: damage on users' modules or copyright protection...   

[Orange]

Hi Luois,

which program did you use, to assemble the dsnd-file ?

[Louis]

To nonoduweb: yes, that's right, all usage of the provided file is completely at your own risk; I thought that was self-evident but maybe that is not.

About copyright I do not understand how there could be problems. I recorded all the sounds myself, so I would think that I own the copyright to the clave sample. Or could it be forbidden to distribute any file in that has the same format as a .dsnd file? That would sound absurd to me; how can you have a copyright on all files that have some general format   But then again the legal world seems sometimes just like that: absurd. Is there anyone who know more about such stuff?

To orange: I wrote a program myself that does the job.

/Louis

[nonoduweb]

Hi

you have made a good job with your file, the header seems to be good.

About copyright, in France, there are some laws about that, so you can't debug a program. Concerning the file formats, I don't know; you're probably right.

[Manfred]

Hi,

understandig the format of the *.dsnd files should be a large leap on the way to use sounds taken out from Superior Drummer, BFD and so on. It seems that the *.dsnd files are a concatenation of several wav-sounds or something like this. Maybe the following could be a way to create these sounds right now without the "editor":

- write a small midi-file with a single hit on a snare for example.
- play that file with Superior Drummer, EZ Drummer, BFD or whatever
- store the audio-output in a file
- if it does not work, connect digital out an input of your sound card and record it
- repeat these steps with different settings for velocity in the midi file

After that you just have to create a single *.dsnd file out of the recorded files.

@nonoduweb and Louis:

Do you think this could work?

Greets, Manfred

[Louis]

Hi Manfred
That is exactly how i did it, create a midi file with snare hits,
Import it in protools, connect bfd and bounce to a wave file.

Then my program converts the wave file to a dsnd file.

[nonoduweb]

Hi

I think you can create your wave files as you want, even with your own snare drum, a microphone and cubase vst.
I don't have my own program, just an hexadecimal editor, and at this time I was just able to create a single sample file.

[fuzziebea]

Hi Louis,

great job. IĀ“ve recorded some single samples from my ddrum 4 in wav. Can your program convert them into a dsnd-file? If itĀ“s possible, we should do it, so we all can use these sounds with drumit 5.

fuzziebea

[Louis]

Hi fuzziebea,

Yes, I think it should be possible to convert those sounds.

[UC]

Hey Louis

Good work hacking the files  I think nonoduweb made a good point about using the sounds at user's own risk - maybe you can edit your post with a disclaimer just in case - you don't want people suing you over a broken brain, or worse still, incurring the wrath of 2box! 

(I'm going to try the clave sounds tonight if I can get time though)

[Louis]

Hi UC,

I agree with you. I found out that the Creative Commons license neatly solves the issue with liability as well as it clearly regulates how you can use the file. The text has been updated.

Thanks nonoduweb for the warning!

[nonoduweb]

...Thanks nonoduweb for the warning!

You're welcome. 

[NeilC]

This is really interesting! Years ago I sampled my Bro's drums to build my first soundfont and they served my very well for a long time, i'd be interested in trying to record my own acoustic kit for import into the brain. We be good to sample the Chad Smith snare and my cymbals... Just need some time...

However, what are the legal implications for, as Manfred described earlier, using sounds from Toontrack or FXPansion to import into the module? I mean we have bought the software which gives us the right to use the sounds in recordings - is this still the same case for putting it into the brain?

[UC]

Just got the official word back from FXPansion about using BFD sounds...

...We were talking at one point about building a dedicated \"mixdown\" mode in to BFD2 allowing people to product custom rendered kits for 2box (and Yamaha DTXtreme 4) brains, however that feature was shelved for now.

You can legally import BFD (1+2+expansions) samples from your own BFD2 in to your own 2box brain - however you cannot legally distribute them, even to others that own BFD2  and a 2box brain. If you or somebody else does make some 2box kits from BFD2 samples, would be good if you can send them to us - we can then redistribute them to other 2box + BFD2 owners on request.

I'll see what Toontrack have to say as well, it's good to know.