GM Drumkit in Sampletank XL

[Steve Prince]

Hi there,
I know this topic has come up before but I was wondering if it is a simple matter to create a GM drum kit for Sampletank 2 XL. I know that all the sounds are contained within Sampletank but I wouldn't know where to start to create a GM kit within Sampletank, not to mention not having the time to do this. I have a few midi files that I'd like to develop using Sampletank which have GM drum tracks in them. I also use Band in a Box routinely to generate quick arrangements for my guitar students and I'd really like to process the resulting GM midi file through Sampletank which is my main 'sound module'.

I'm sure there is a demand for this and if any other Sampletank user has set up an instrument (or however you'd go about this) to handle the GM thing I'd really appreciate if you could steer me in the right direction to solve this problem.

Any advice is much appreciated.

My thanks in advance
Steve

[Squids]

There are really two main ways to do this. One is to use sounds that were mapped to GM in the first place. You can pick up, for example, Studio Drum Capsule (for real acoustic kits) and/or Eclectic Drum Capsule (for everything from produced kits to electronic kits and some acoustic kits- a mix of different diverse sounding kits). Both have GM mapped drum kits and they are quite good. Read more here: www.esoundz.com

The other way to do it with th existing kits inside ST2 if they are not already mapped to fit GM exactly is to use a remap in something like Cubase SX and other sequencer hosts that support such a thing. Otherwise, it is not an easy thing to do within SampleTank- reconstructing your own maps. It is more of a player of maps how they are made. That is why the first suggestion is probably the best.

[asseca]

Steve,

You might try the energyXT-forum, someone over there might have a solution to make a drum mapping inside energyXT

[Steve Prince]

Hey Squids,
I followed your advice and ordered the Sonic capsule drum 3 pack; great value man! One can never have too many drum sounds I always say.

God bless
Steve

[Squids]

Hey Squids,
I followed your advice and ordered the Sonic capsule drum 3 pack; great value man! One can never have too many drum sounds I always say.

God bless
Steve

I think you're going to love it Steve! This package is really great. In fact, I'd almost say that it is a little under-rated in terms of how it compares to other drum products on the market these days. The people that have it know it is a seriously powerful collection. But, it is still new (even Studio Drums Capsule has been updated with a lot of new patches and samples last month). This is a package that I highly recommend for anyone into drums. There is tremendous flexibility for full kits and individual drums that can be put together as "combi kits" in ST2 and other formats that allow that (Multis in Kontakt for example). This is both in GM and I-Map format (I-map for SDC anyway).

Eclectic Drums and Groove Capsule are just full of variety and are highly useful. You get slices and midi with the Groove Capsule as well. The whole Drum Capsule 3 pack is like a drum sound workstation itself. It even supports Battery as well. To anyone else reading this you should really give this package a look! Seriously. I know it is our product so of course I would say you should get it but... you SHOULD and I think you'll be happy with what you get. You do get quite a lot.

If anyone gets the three pack you should let us know what you think of it. I have a feeling that people don't know that the Studio Drum Capsule expands to a 2 gig drum library in ST2 or that you have such an amazing variety of sounds between all three. It is different than the sounds on Acoustic Drums so even if you have that already you would be adding some great additional drum sounds to your collection.

Am I turning up the hype knob enough? The reason I am doing it is because there is a very good chance that you'll like it if you are into drums. So, I don't feel bad about highly recommending it to anyone. I know that there really isn't anything like it out there.

Thanks Steve for giving me some motivation to bring this up. I hope you get a lot of use out of the collection.

Here's the link for anyone to check it out: http://www.esoundz.com/details/viewDeta ... rer=sounds

[Steve Prince]

Hi Squids,
I've sent you a private message regarding this topic.

Steve

[Caleb]

Actually Squids - to tell you the truth I find the information on the Groove capsule pretty sparse and not terribly helpful.

Could you spew out some specifics?

I always expect you to get excited about drumming products. After all you're the one who invented I-MAP - something useless to me but understandibly righteous for mad drum performers like yourself.

In any case, a groove capsule wasn't first on my wish list, but I've been thinking lately about ways to improve my groove arsenal so that I don't always have to build all my drum tracks from scratch. I'm not a natural drum programmer like yourself.

I'm already on my way to figuring this out (slowly) using some of the flexibility of EnergyXT. It means I can probably do this without spending any more money and still streamline my creation process.

However, I'm interested in reading a bit more about this product. I'm likely to get Studio Drums at some stage - but you never know....

Caleb

[Squids]

Groove Capsule is a disc PACKED with loops both in slices with the midi files as well as full wav loops in like BPM maps. You have a little of EVERYTHING when it comes to grooves. From ethnic Gabriel-like african percussion to latin percussion to funk, rock, hip hop, dance... it's like a groove workstation. You even have individual hat and shaker patterns you can lay over other beats. It's really cool. We compiled loops from real drummers along with electronic beats and some loops made with programming done by myself and some of the other drum fanatics at SR. It's a diverse collection but great for pulling out a wide variety of different inspiring beats. One good thing about the loops (IMO) is that they are ALL just drums and percussion and there are no bass lines or other pieces of music in the loops. This can be cool sometimes and you find this on most loop libraries but for me it also makes them less useful in a variety of different situations. You may have to stay in the same key or you may like the beat but without the horn stab etc. So, these are "naked" grooves that you can use and re-use in different musical context.

[Caleb]

Yep - doesn't really tell me how it's used.
But I did notice that you have some freebies to download from this thing so I'm going to check it out and see if I can "get" it.

Caleb

[Squids]

Yep - doesn't really tell me how it's used.
But I did notice that you have some freebies to download from this thing so I'm going to check it out and see if I can "get" it.

Caleb

How it is used? Well, you have two things. You have maps of beats organized by BPM. You can use them however you want. You can layer them in sync with each other or you can use just one individually. They are not exactly "construction kit maps" but there are some individual elements within the maps too (like hat and shaker patterns or lay-over percussion).

The slices you can use as playable hits individually although their mapping is according to a Rex-like splice of the hits from the beat. Similar to Rex and groove control you have the separate midi file that plays those slices as a beat and therefore you have control of the tempo in your sequencer like you would in any Rex player.