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

Started by Lustar, November 23, 2012, 10:52:32 PM

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Would you be interested in a Mac version of SDSE? (only vote if you are a Mac user)

Yes, a Mac version is a must for me
I would but I already use the Windows version on my Mac or notebook
No, free solutions like Boot Camp or VirtualBox are enough, keep the focus on supporting VSTs

mechanevil

Hey, new user and first post on these great forums   :drum2:

I haven't even bought my 2Box module yet, but I came across this exciting software and was wondering what are the advantages of using it over the software for creating dsnds provided by 2Box. Can I get comparable results, or is this a much better way to create dkits with minimal hassle? I have a copy of Superior Drummer 2 and the Metal Foundry that I was thinking of porting to the 2Box. I'm not particularly keen on doing the external SD card for the moment and was wondering about file sizes... Would I be able to squeeze an entire Superior Drummer kit on to the 4GB provided by the 2Box? How many such kits would I be able to do? Are the file sizes using SDSE smaller than if I created dsnds manually?

Sorry to flood you all with so many questions, didn't think it was appropriate to create a new thread for this.

Lustar

Hi and welcome,

Compared to exporting from a VST manually you'll save a lot of time and avoid many pitfals. Compared to the 2Box Editor the samples will be in the correct order. You could get very good results if you did the exact same steps as SDSE but you would spend a lot of time doing so (check mapping, normalize, split correctly, check duplicates) and wouldn't have both the samples in the correct order and the same velocity curve as the 2Box Editor and no Max Tune. The whole purpose of SDSE was to export kits with minimal hassle and it evolved over the last two years with solutions and improvements to all the known issues with exporting manually (lack of memory, double samples, velocity curve, original sample order, max tune).

You will need to free 400MB to fit a SD2 kit. You would need to remove some existing .dsnd to add more. You can use DKit Manager to select different kits you don't like from thr stock kits and get a preview of how much memory it would save deleting them and the .dsnd that are unique to them.

The file sizes will be smaller than if you created them manually because it checks for duplicate samples. You can choose to remove them (by default) or keep them. You can limit the amount of samples based on the instrument type. DSound Tuner also allows to reduce the maximum sample length of existing .dsnd which can be interesting to reduce the size of cymbals and hats.

This turned out to be a mini SDSE FAQ :D
You can find more answers in the SDSE FAQ and my DrumIt Five FAQ

mechanevil

Thank you, that sounds really cool and I'm sure your software will be handy when I get my module.

docadiddle2

Hello experts! I shall shortly have the necessary hardware to do the big sd card mod and will be purchasing the SDSE download. I don't yet own any drum VSTs but have found out that a friend of mine has got Superior Drummer. My question is, is it possible to 'acquire' the drum sound files from his program and use them? Assuming that isn't possible, do you have to buy the full VST application or can you just buy the sound files?

Thanks for any help guys.

Lustar

SDSE works with the full VSTs. You need the VST program to export the sound libraries it supports. So to export from a SDX like Music City with SDSE you'll need Superior Drummer 2. The advantage is that you get the same sound from the VST and all the flexibility from the VST settings. You can edit presets and export them. What is exported is what is set in the VST when you click Export in SDSE.

docadiddle2

Quote from: Lustar on October 31, 2014, 09:53:30 PM
SDSE works with the full VSTs. You need the VST program to export the sound libraries it supports. So to export from a SDX like Music City with SDSE you'll need Superior Drummer 2. The advantage is that you get the same sound from the VST and all the flexibility from the VST settings. You can edit presets and export them. What is exported is what is set in the VST when you click Export in SDSE.

Thanks Lustar. Now to decide which one to get. Is it fair to say that most of the VST options will give noticeable improvements over the standard 2Box acoustic sounds? Does anyone have a view on VSTs which are particularly good on hi hats?


Lustar

The 2Box sounds are good, what makes VSTs interesting is that you get a lot more choice and a lot of flexibility in how you can tweak the sound so you can find the exact sound you're looking for.

Hats are different for all VSTs (and even between different sound libraries of the same VST) so it depends on your preference. If you're looking for more articulations and samples for the hats BFD3 is one of the VSTs with the most samples per articulation and the longest samples for cymbals. If you are very particular about hats you may be interested in the acoustic conversion kits from Jman (better feel and keep all the possibilities from the module) or Gen16 hats.

There's a summary of the VSTs in the SDSE FAQ. It also has a list of VSTs with 3 zones for crash cymbals (mainly BFD3, Music City, Abbey Road).

docadiddle2

Thanks again Lustar. After reviewing the various options I think I'm probably going to go with EZ drummer as a starter. Could anyone who uses this tell me how much sd card capacity is needed for the full installation of the basic product for use with 2 Box?

Lustar

A kit from a VST like EZdrummer is under 0.5GB, a kit from a VST with more samples is under 1GB. With the 32GB mod you should be able to fit about 60 kits from EZdrummer or 30 from a VST with more samples like SD2 or BFD3.

hemiboy

I bought addictive drums 1 a while ago and never did anything with it . How much space does it take on an sd card. I will not be using the Lockett kits or a lot of the electronic stuff so I could store that on my computer to gain some room as well

Lustar

It depends if you'd like several presets or only the base kits. It would take about 1.5GB to store the 3 base kits from Addictive Drums so on a 32GB card there's enough space to keep all the original content and add a lot of different presets from Addictive Drums.

hemiboy

I have some superior, bfd 2 and such on on addition to my originsl factory kits already

ROB219

Been off this forum for quite a while. Just got another 2Box module. Sold my last one. Nice to see a quick editing program.... but what is not nice is to see NIL Mac support.

MAC = MUSIC. geez....

I have to now load my copy of SD2.0 onto an inferior machine just to make DSND files. Or I go back to the old method... ugh....

Anyone serious about E -Drumming and music production... uses a Mac.

Anyway... rant over. Good to be back... now to catch up on what I have missed.

Lustar

Welcome back,

The good news is that if your Mac is powerful enough (recent CPU and enough free RAM) it will have no problem running Windows in a virtual machine. It's easy to install, you don't need to know much about computers.

With more than 4GB of free RAM I would recommend Win 7 or 8.1 64-bit in VirtualBox. With less, XP SP3 Lite in VirtualBox or Boot Camp.

  • use Boot Camp (free), or install VirtualBox (free) or install Parallels.
  • install Windows XP SP2, Vista, 7 or 8 - can be free if you have an old license from a previous computer
  • install your drum VSTs in Windows (it should be possible to share the sound files

ANGR77

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I am impressed by SDSE batch tool...I just took a journey and tested it out using AD2 and a kit which I have created here. (The Kick and the Snare was exported like a charm in the eval version of the software.)

For the kick - the DSND file was created but for the snare...some java environment memory errors showed up because of the DSoundTool...(I think that can be solved - however I got the wave files!)

I can just guess how long this process would take if not uisng the SDSE tool! Nice work there!

Note: I was running the whole process in Windows 10 Beta.

Best Regards

ANGR77
Sonor Safari, Pearl Crystalbeat, Zourman Triggers, Roland & Triggera, 2box Cymbals & HH, RT-10, KT-10, BT-1, VH-11/12/13, ATV hh, KT-10, 14C/13R/15R, PCY-155, MD, 2Box 5 MK1&II & 3, DD4SE, Pearl ButtKicker Addictive Drums 2.1.14, all ADPaks moved to 2box, Zourman Conversion Gears www.zourman.com