SDSE: export drum VSTs to .wav, .dsnd and .dkit in 1-click

[Lustar]

SDSE is a software meant for 2Box users and e-drummers.


_{SDSE stands for Simple Drum Sounds Exporter or Super Drumkits from Sweden.}

• Download
• Quick Start Guide
• Documentation, FAQ

Background
I got the 2Box DrumIt Five module for the realism of the sounds and the fact that the module is fully open to receive new sounds. Of course the module can also be used to trigger VST sounds but personally the ease of setup and ease of use of the DrumIt Five as a standalone module is something I really enjoy. After many visits to this forum I started following the example set by Jman and others and started adding new .dsnd files. Importing sounds to the DrumIt Five was made easier thanks to the great program that is DSoundTool but all the small steps required to export sounds from a VST sound library (drag and dropping a MIDI item, learning the note for each instrument/articulation, renaming the .dnsd) can amount to a lot of time.

Wouldn't it be great if we had an export feature in Superior Drummer 2 that would convert a preset to a set of .dsnd files with matching .dkit? The goal of SDSE is to perform the same task.
I started working on SDSE this summer as a project for my own use but when it became a one-click solution I thought I would polish it and add features in hope that it makes it easier for fellow drummers to export their kits.

Many thanks to Jman for his feedback and extensive testing!


Purpose
Automatically export drum instruments or whole kits from a drum instrument VST to .wav and optionally to .dsnd and .dkit for the DrumIt Five module.
The process is fully automated for supported VSTs and basic functionality should work with other VSTs as long as they are set to use the same MIDI map.
It can also be used without REAPER or a VST to quickly build Hats from .wav sounds using DSoundTool.


Requirements

• Windows 8 32/64, 7 32/64, Vista 32/64 or XP SP2/SP3 (64-bit OS recommended to convert using DSoundTool)
• 1GB RAM minimum, 4GB or more recommended to export full kits
• a screen resolution of 800x600 minimum
• Vista/7/8: you can use any DPI setting as long as XP scaling is enabled. 96 (100%) and 120 (125%) DPI settings have XP scaling enabled by default

Various features require one or several of the following programs:

• REAPER 4+ 32/64 - www.REAPER.fm
• DSoundTool 1.12 - www.shortestpath.se

Supported VST instruments

• Addictive Drums 2, Addictive Drums - www.xlnaudio.com
• Alan Vista Royotoms - www.alanvista.com/royotoms
• Analogue Drums (Kontakt, also Kontakt Player with restrictions) - www.analoguedrums.com
• BFD3 - www.fxpansion.com
• BFD2 and BFD Eco - www.fxpansion.com
• Chocolate Audio The Black Album Drums 2.0.3 - www.chocolateaudio.com
• Drumasonic 2, Drumasonic Luxury - www.drumasonic.com
• DrumForge (Kick, Snare and Toms only) - drumforge.com
• DrumMic'a - en-us.sennheiser.com/drummica
• EZdrummer 2, EZdrummer and EZdrummer Lite - www.toontrack.com
• GetGood Drums Halpern Drums v2, Invasion, Modern & Massive Drums - getgooddrums.com
• MT Power Drum Kit 2 v2.0.2 - www.powerdrumkit.com
• Native Instruments Abbey Road Drummer series, Studio Drummer - www.native-instruments.com
• Ocean Way Drums Platinum/Gold with V-Drum mapping (one piece at a time)
• Perfect Drums (1.5.0 minimum) - theperfectdrums.com
• Steven Slate Drums 5, SSD5 Free, SSD4 Platinum, EX and Custom - www.stevenslatedrums.com
• Superior Drummer 3, Superior Drummer 2 - www.toontrack.com
• VSDS-X Simmons SDS-V Extended Drum Synthesizer - www.alyjameslab.com

Features

• one-click operation from VST to .wav and .dsnd + .dkit
• automatically generate a .dkit from the newly converted .dsnd
• automatically adjusts HiHat zones when building a .dsnd
• automatically rename the .wav and .dsnd files using the original instrument names (supported VST only)
• option to shrink filenames using user-defined search/replace
     required to be able to build .dkits properly and to identify parts on the small DrumIt Five screen.
• option to put width first in filenames
     14x6.5 instead of 6.5x14, to make it easier to find an instrument when browsing.
• option to add Library short names as filename suffix or prefix
     useful to identify which sounds belong to the same recording room.
• option to add custom suffix to the files when exporting kit variations
• option to delete the .wav files on success
• options to disable exporting Tom Rim, Crash Mute and Hats Bell
• option to normalize .wav files using SoX to avoid samples being cut short in DSoundTool
• option to sort the resulting .dsnd files in subfolders
• prompt to add missing MIDI mappings to Superior Drummer 2 configuration if needed.
     you may see this prompt if you use the Avatar or Music City libraries.
• set background colour
• play sound when complete

Other Features

• Edit your kit layout with DKit Manager
     Allows you to set different pad layouts, useful for people who split their toms to add more pads or use a custom setup.
     Edit your kit layout with DKit Manager.   The current Layout setting from Dkit Manager is used by SDSE to build a .dkit file that matches your own pad layout.

Evaluation version features

• built-in support for all instruments to be exported to .wav and .dsnd except for Hats and Cymbals
• Addictive Drums 2 kick and snares
• Addictive Drums Sonor Designer kit
• BFD3 BFD3 DW Mardi Gras kit
• BFD2 and BFD Eco Ludwig Vistalite and Black Oyster kits
• Drumasonic 2 and Drumasonic Luxury default kit
• Sennheiser DrumMic'a kit
• Steven Slate Drums 5 Lwg kit from the Deluxe 2 library
• Steven Slate Drums 4 DW kit (Deluxe Rock and Custom libraries)
• Abbey Road 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, Vintage and Modern default kits
• Studio Drummer default kit
• Superior Drummer 2 Avatar sound library
• EZdrummer 2 Modern kits
• EZdrummer or EZdrummer Lite core library (Pop/Rock EZX)
• EZdrummer Lite Cocktail EZX

Supported Sound Libraries

Addictive Drums 2, Addictive Drums

ADpak Addictive Drums (Studio Pop, Rock, Prog) Black Velvet Fairfax Vol. 1 Fairfax Vol. 2 Funk Indie Metal Modern Jazz Brushes Modern Jazz Sticks Modern Soul and R&B Reel Machines Retro (Retroplex, Blue Oyster, Black Oyster) Session Percussion United Heavy United Pop Vintage Dry

Kitpiece DW Collector's Bass Drum DW Solid Piccolo Snare DW Woofer DW Premier Gen-X Bass Drum Sonor Designer Snare Vistalite Bass Drum

BFD3, BFD2 and BFD Eco

Expansion Packs BFD3 BFD2, London Sessions, BFD Eco 8 Bit Kit Andy Johns Classic Drums Big Orchestral Marching Band (Marching Drums, Orchestral) Cocktail Decatom Deluxe Collection DrumDrops BFD Slingerland DrumDrops BFD Rogers Big R Dub Kit Dunnett Titanium Eldorado EpiK DrumS Bill Cobham EpiK DrumS Bob Siebenberg EpiK DrumS Rod Morgenstein EpiK DrumS Sixties DownBeat EpiK DrumS Seventies EJ EpiK DrumS Terry Bozzio EpiK DrumS Woody Woodmansey Evil Drums Heavy Horsepower Imperial Drums Japanese Taiko Percussion Jazz & Funk Jazz Noir JEX XDrum Jim Scott Rock Drums Vol. 1 & 2 Metal Snares Modern Drummer Snare Drum Selects Neil Peart Kit Nick Mason Kit Oblivion Percussion Rock Legends Gretsch Charlie Watts Sabian Digital Vault Signature Snares Vol. 1 Signature Snares Vol. 2 Sleishman Drums Sleishman Snares Sonic Reality Vinny Appice Sonic Reality Hugh Padgham Big Fill Kit Sonica Kabuki and Noh Percussion Sphere Stanton Moore Bosphorus Cymbals Swan Percussion The Black Album Drums Virtually Erskine (Peter Erskine) XFL Yamaha Jazz Maple Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute Yamaha Oak Custom Zildjian Digital Vault (Gen16 Z-Pack1, S-Pack1, S-Pack2)

Steven Slate Drums 5, Steven Slate Drums 4

Blackbird Chris Lord-Alge Classic Signature Classic Vol. 1 Classic Vol. 2 David Bendeth Deluxe Deluxe 2 Electronic Terry Date

Superior Drummer, EZdrummer

Superior Drummer 3, Superior Drummer 2 SDX Avatar Custom & Vintage Darkness Death Decades Evil Drums Indiependent Metal Foundry Metal Machinery Music City New York Vol. 2 New York Vol. 3 Orchestral Percussion I Orchestral Percussion II Progressive Foundry Rock Foundry Rock Warehouse Roots Sticks Roots Brushes, Rods & Mallets Superior Drummer 3 Core

EZdrummer 2, EZdrummer, Superior Drummer 3, Superior Drummer 2 EZX Alt-Rock Americana Big Rock Drums Claustrophobic Cocktail Custom Shop Dream Pop Drumkit From Hell Drums Of Destruction Electronic Funkmasters Hip-Hop! Indie Folk Jazz Latin Percussion Made of Metal Metal! Metal Machine Metalheads Modern/Vintage Nashville Number 1 Hits Pop! Pop/Rock Post-Rock Progressive Rock Reggae Rock! Rock Solid Seventies Rock Southern Soul The Blues The Classic Traditional Country Twisted Kit Vintage Rock

Kontakt 6

Native Instruments Abbey Road 50's Drummer Abbey Road 60's Drummer Abbey Road 70's Drummer Abbey Road 80's Drummer Abbey Road Modern Drummer Abbey Road Vintage Drummer Studio Drummer

Analogue Drums Big Mono 1.70 Big Mono Redux 1.72 BlackSmith 1.02 Bombastix 1.03 Boxer 1.02 BuckShot 1.70 DeadBeat 1.04 FatStacks 1.85 Gorilla 1.82 Grandioso 1.70 KingPin 1.80 MonoTown 1.50 Pizazz 1.01 Plastique 1.81 PopSticks 1.72 PopSticks SC 1.72 RockStock 1.72 RockStock SC 1.72 Royale 1.01 Smoker 1.00 SnareCity 1.72 SplitSticks 1.70

Chocolate Audio The Black Album Drums 2.0.3 Drumasonic Drumasonic 2 Drumasonic Luxury DrumForge DrumForge (Kick, Snare and Toms only) GetGood Drums Halpern Drums v2 Invasion Modern & Massive Drums Ocean Way Drums Platinum/Gold with V-Drum mapping (one piece at a time) Sennheiser DrumMic'a

DSoundTool Tips
To use DSoundTool the first thing to check is that you have a good version of Java installed.
In doubt uninstall all instances of Java first and install the latest JRE version you can find for your OS (64-bit for Windows 64-bit) here

Ideally your computer should have enough RAM to use REAPER and DSoundTool at the same time.
Use Windows 64-bit if you can, on Windows 32-bit Java can't really use more than 1400MB of RAM.
If you need to launch DSoundTool manually, do not click on dsoundtool.jar, instead always use a dsoundtool.bat file to start it with the correct settings.

You will find two .bat files in the SDSE folder that can be used to start DSoundTool on Windows 32-bit or 64-bit.
The previous solution to avoid the Java "out of memory" error was to raise the memory Java could use, but after many tests I would now recommend different settings.
This combination of settings appears to work very well at minimizing memory drain when producing several .dsnd one after another.

Windows 32-bit:
start javaw -Xincgc -Xmx1300m -jar dsoundtool.jar
if you get "out of memory" errors try increasing -Xmx to 1400m or a maximum of 1500m.

Windows 64-bit:
start javaw -Xincgc -Xmx2000m -jar dsoundtool.jar

[digitalDrummer]

Well done. I'm sure this will be a game changer for many VST fans.
Good luck with this.
Are you planning a Mac version?

[Jman]

SDSE ROCKS!  This is one incredible tool. I have spent countless hours building dsnds one at a time. This tool makes it a super simple and super fast process for doing an entire kit in minutes. Glad I was able to help with the beta testing. J

[fulrmr]

EXCELLENT! Somehow I knew this would be coming. Can't wait to give it a go. Thanks!

[nonoduweb]

Good one! Thanks for sharing this Luxar (and thanks to Jman). 

I will test this soon! 

It' sad to see that new products come from users and not from the creators. 

[Lustar]

Thanks for your comments

digitalDrummer: Unfortunately there won't be a Mac version. The good news is that Mac users can still use it by installing it on a Windows virtual machine. It's not as convenient but at least it should work.

[Murgen]

Thanks for your comments

digitalDrummer: Unfortunately there won't be a Mac version. The good news is that Mac users can still use it by installing it on a Windows virtual machine. It's not as convenient but at least it should work.

Pity, I work on an iMac. Got my 2box software on the Mac too. Got a PC too but hardly use it. However, I'm gonna dig into this. I have 25 GB free on my extended SD card for some extra kits. 

[RockStarGate]

Trying it out but keep getting message "dsoundtool nothing to convert"
I must be missing something....try again tomorrow.
I'm sure this is awesome, thanks for your hard work Lustar!
Will it be able to convert Metal Foundry as well?

[Lustar]

To export from SD2 to .wav then .dsnd in one click you can use the "All" button. That's what 2Box users will want to use most of the time.
Sometimes you may want to export to .wav and not create dsnd files even if DSoundTool is open so you would use the wav button.
The dsnd button is meant to build to dsnd from existing wav files. To build directly from .wav your files must be named using the zone names you can see in SDSE.ini.

With the evaluation version you can export all the instruments from Avatar except Hats and Cymbals.
With the full version you can export all instruments from most SDX or EZX including Avatar and Metal Foundry. I'll do my best to support more SDX and EZX if someone finds that his favourite library is not fully supported.

[tower of p]

That´s great, I´m really looking forward to testing this! (though I´m still waiting for my sd-extension-cable ordered weeks ago somewhere in like indonesia...so no free space left in my brain right now). Will have to dig out my old win-pc as well.

I think this is an awesome community, where people are so enthusiastic and create stuff like this!

[beppedrum]

Lustar write
"Automatically export Drum instruments or whole kits from a VST like Superior Drummer 2 to .wav and optionally to .dsnd and .dkit.
The process is fully automated for SD2 and basic functionality should work with other VSTs as long as they are set to use the same MIDI map. Please contact me if you would like another VST to be supported.
It can also be used without Reaper or a VST to quickly build Hats from .wav sounds using DSoundTool."

You can prepare a version for BFD2?
It 's very complicated? It takes a long time?
thanks for your great work

[Lustar]

beppedrum, it wouldn't be complicated but would still take time. I'd like to add support for it but I don't have BFD2 so I can't promise anything.

Edit:
SDSE v1.1.1 released
- fix for a special case that could happen when exporting from the Music City SDX
- compatibility with older versions of Reaper 4
You don't need to upgrade from v1.0 if you aren't using Music City or if your Reaper version is greater than 4.25.
If you wish to upgrade to any new version in the future you will simply have to extract the new version over your current installation and overwrite all files, the configuration won't be overwritten.

[RockStarGate]

AWESOME PROGRAM! I bought the full version last weekend, only $20, and it's simply amazing. FANTASTIC job Lustar! 5 STARS!
Anyone who's thinking about purchasing it should go for it. I converted every drum, cymbal and HiHat in Metal Foundry, Avatar and Custom & Vintage to .dsnds and even did a few full kit Sneep presets.
Lustar was extremely helpful getting everthing going for me, I had a few problems at first but he always responded to my emails FAST!
Reward Lustar for his hard work and BUY SDSE! 

[Jman]

AWESOME PROGRAM! I bought the full version last weekend, only $20, and it's simply amazing. FANTASTIC job Lustar! 5 STARS!
Anyone who's thinking about purchasing it should go for it. I converted every drum, cymbal and HiHat in Metal Foundry, Avatar and Custom & Vintage to .dsnds and even did a few full kit Sneep presets.
Lustar was extremely helpful getting everthing going for me, I had a few problems at first but he always responded to my emails FAST!
Reward Lustar for his hard work and BUY SDSE! 

Absolutely agree!  I've gone back and rebuilt some of my earliest .dsnds I had built when I first started doing them. Very Fast and Very Easy! Another plus Lustar built into SDSE ... it is optimized so it doesn't cut your samples off short during the build process. I've noticed a little bit of that tail chopping in some of my earlier .dsnds but not in the ones built with the current version of SDSE. J

[Murgen]

Help, got a  http://lustark.com/index.php?option=com_caddy&action=paysuccess and then load-error on the return page from Paypal to Lustark.