Bata drums program project - Need for advices

[DAAHOOD]

hi there,

i'm about to build a bata samples program based on a very good audio material recorded in studio a while ago

bata drums are made of 3 afro-cuban percussions as seen below and they are used in traditionnal cuban and yoruba music (santeria, orishas cult music...)



http://www.batadrums.com/

the audio material i own is huge and exhaustive (500mg) for a single instruments set but i'd like to make a true "real" soundbank that could be very usefull for many musicians (i know it's going to take time to build that stuff but it worth it)

all tracks (separated hits) have been classified and i'm about to slice them but i'm facing 3 issues:

1
I don't know what kind of division of MIDI velocity range is the most suitable for building a percussion-based program
should i assign samples in a linear way(on a 0>>127scale)
(0>14, 15>29, 30>44....127)
or more like a logarithm
(0>63, 64>97, 98>115, 116>119...127)
obviously many controllers, samplers and VSTs can filter and compress the midi velocity stream but i wish to know what's the best for standard.How would you assign ?

2
as seen on the picture, this instruments set shows that each side of the percussion is played by one hand (not like a 2-hand conga drum)and has two singular sound (left and right)
i'd like to know if it's better to assign stereo samples or merely mono samples according to the instrument architecture and spread these samples left-right.What would you do?

3
finally, i wish to know what is the best format to export, assuming that my audio material is 24bit, 48000Khz, aiff
as for converting, is there any programs that fit to my need?
(i know that there are big differences between audio editors-convertors and i've been told that r8brain was very good)what do you think?
as for the program format (sfz, fxb, sf2...) what would be the best? Is there a difference between all those formats?(ram, system and CPU ?)

i would really appreciate any suggestions, advices or anything that can help me in my task and also like to have comments about that bank( a bata-drumset program is kind of rare, isn't it?)

thank you all

[freeztar]

1. There is no standard. With any instrument, sampling is done on each note in as many velocity layers as needed for the particular instrument. For the Batas, I would suggest that you map a minimum of 3 velocity layers per drum, but really that depends on what you already have recorded. You might want to map rim hits as an additional velocity layer, or as a separate note.

2. Ideally, I would record the whole set with a room mic and then mic each drum head seperately, 4 mics, all in mono. I would then mix-in the room mic with each of the drum head mics to create a fuller sample. And if I were looking to download your samples, I would most certainly not want you to pre-pan them. Leave them mono.

3. That's up to you really. A safe bet is to leave them as 24bit/48khz. A popular method would be to export them as 16bit/44.1khz and map them in a text file using .sfz (sfed).

I would like some Bata samples if they are recorded well. If they are and you don't mind sharing your clips, then I will be happy to convert them and share them back.

[DAAHOOD]

You might want to map rim hits as an additional velocity layer, or as a separate note.

abslutely an also mute hits ans slap hits if i can

I would record the whole set with a room mic and then mic each drum head seperately, 4 mics, all in mono.

exactly, but 3 headmics only + 1 room mic have been used instead, but i think it's ok for mixing as you tell me
once samples have been mixed, should i master the sound?

That's up to you really. Shrug A safe bet is to leave them as 24bit/48khz. A popular method would be to export them as 16bit/44.1khz and map them in a text file using .sfz (sfed).

So i just let users convert as they like, ok
but does sfz support aiff?

thanks for you advices

[freeztar]

should i master the sound?

No, mastering needs to happen as a whole, with all the tracks combined in a song.

So i just let users convert as they like, ok
but does sfz support aiff?

thanks for you advices

Not sure about sfz and aiff, but it's easy enough to research.