AVL Drumkits 1.0 - Changes and Updates

[GMaq]

Hi,

Just wanted pass along an update to the AVL Drumkits which are now at 1.0.

Updates:

-Red Zep Kits get an improved Kick drum.
-All Kits gain a large 3rd Crash Cymbal on Key 60 (sampled from a Paiste 2002 22" crash). This cymbal has a very distinctive dark tone and is a nice contrast to the other crashes.
-All Kits gain a Maraca on Key 64 for percussion (sampled from actual maracas not an egg shaker).
-All new hand percussion kit. This is for use with acoustic instruments and includes Cajon, Woodblock, Claves, Tambourine, Maraca, Handclaps and Fingersnaps. NOTE! This is not percussion in the Afro-Cuban sense at all..
-Midnam files are now provided for use with Ardour/Mixbus and any other DAWs which support loading of midnam files.
-Updates are reflected in a Keymap PDF File.

Format Changes:

-Removed Soundfont2 versions, I don't think all of the SFZ formatting was being incorporated into the Soundfonts correctly and the SFZ's sound discernibly better, also I have limited time!
-Removed sf2/sfz Debian packages, I'm not convinced installing any Sound libraries system-wide is really that useful, they seem to be better suited to user's home folders or other drives with full user permissions.

Find them here: http://www.bandshed.net/wordpress/avldrumkits/

Glen

[GMaq]

Hi,

It was brought to my attention that the new H2 kits were not loading in older versions of Hydrogen, they were built in a GIT version of Hydrogen 0.9.7 and this is the cause: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=14718

I have rebuilt the kits on Hydrogen 0.9.6 and also compacted the kit names to better fit in the Hydrogen panel and uploaded them.

Also a big thanks to libremusicproduction.com for their guide to using the Midnam files with the SFZ kits seen here: http://libremusicproduction.com/news/20 ... version-10

[glowrak guy]

Your hand percussion kit will be fun. It's nice to have a wide range of beats and fills
that can save the world from even more death metal
A little nuance goes a long way. Thanks for sharing, and have a great 2016!

[GMaq]

Hi,

Thanks for the comments and best of 2016 to y'all as well!

[funkmuscle]

-Midnam files are now provided for use with Ardour/Mixbus and any other DAWs which support loading of midnam files.

Hey Glen, some sweet sounding kits as usual man.. A question here, what is this midman files and how do one use it? I followed how to see it in Ardour but where do we go from there?

[GMaq]

Hi funk,

Essentially in this case the midnams simply change the generic key and note names in Ardour's MIDI editor to the name of the Drum kit pieces when you have Ardour in the mode to draw the MIDI notes on the canvas. For example, you go to draw in a Kick drum note on C2, without the midnam it says 'C2' as you hover the pencil cursor over that note, with the midnam it says 'KickDrum'.

There is a README in the midnam zip, you just need to copy the 'patchfiles' folder into /home/<USERNAME>/.config/ardour4 or mixbus3 depending on which DAW (or both) you use, next launch they should appear in the 'Generic' dropdown MIDI headers on an Ardour MIDI track.

[funkmuscle]

Hi funk,

Essentially in this case the midnams simply change the generic key and note names in Ardour's MIDI editor to the name of the Drum kit pieces when you have Ardour in the mode to draw the MIDI notes on the canvas. For example, you go to draw in a Kick drum note on C2, without the midnam it says 'C2' as you hover the pencil cursor over that note, with the midnam it says 'KickDrum'.

There is a README in the midnam zip, you just need to copy the 'patchfiles' folder into /home/<USERNAME>/.config/ardour4 or mixbus3 depending on which DAW (or both) you use, next launch they should appear in the 'Generic' dropdown MIDI headers on an Ardour MIDI track.

thanx Glen.. Yeah I did get all that from the README and switched it over from Generic. Just in Ardour had no way of loading the kit. Couldn't bring up Linuxsampler, Fluidsynth, etc', once I switched it from Generic.

[GMaq]

Hi,

Unless I'm misunderstanding you need to have a SFZ supporting plugin loaded on your MIDI track in Ardour in order to load the kits, the easiest is falktx's Carla VST or LV2. Carla has to know where to find the SFZ files so you need to run Carla standalone first and in the Settings-->Configure Carla-->Paths select 'SFZ' from the dropdown box and point Carla to the extracted folder you have the AVL Drumkits in and then refresh Carla's plugin search so when you open Carla on the MIDI track in Ardour and look for the Drumkit it will appear in the plugin list.

Hope that gets you started

[funkmuscle]

got it now!

thanx

[Arthurx]

Hi Glen,

I tried the Pearl 5 kit with linuxsampler. it sounds super good.
A real enjoyment to play.
Greetings Arthur

[GMaq]

I need to ask, what exactly were the issues with the sf2 version?
Since linuxsampler license is a PITA to deal with (for MOD), the sf2 version might be usable instead..

Hi,

When I released the 1.0 version of the drumkits I tested them as both SFZ and SF2 with whatever the (then) release of Carla was available, at that time the SFZ versions sounded better (ie louder and crisper) than the Soundfont2 versions in Carla, I never did determine the reason, it could be as simple as the default gain of both formats is different when loaded into Carla's linuxsampler implementation.

Fast forward to now, I did some testing within Ardour 5.3.0 with their bundled Fluidsynth plugin with some AVL Drumkits converted to Soundfont2 and they sounded more like I would expect (certainly better than any other Soundfont2 drumkits I've encountered) so I am reconsidering releasing them as Soundfonts and thought they may be good candidates for both your Fluidsynth LV2 project as well as an optional drumkit for the MOD if you think it's worth it.

[GMaq]

Hi falkTX

That's great news! Thanks!

I did a bit of digging and found an example license by Nils Gey created with sampled instruments in mind. Would you consider this a "good CC license"?

http://nilsgey.de/Blog/18_License_Examp ... _Libraries

If you think this is a sufficient license, let me know and I'll get to work..

[Lyberta]

I suggest CC-BY or CC-BY-SA.

[ssj71]

I'm no lawyer either, but I did like the additional freedoms that Nils' license explicitly provided. I'd go with that, personally.

[GMaq]

I'm no lawyer either, but I did like the additional freedoms that Nils' license explicitly provided. I'd go with that, personally.

I agree

I'll go with it... now to just find time to get the SF2's done properly, so far the license is the easy part.