Feedback and infos on free alternative drumkit

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pleglise
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2016 11:55 pm

Feedback and infos on free alternative drumkit

Post by pleglise » Sun Jun 19, 2016 12:17 am

Hi.

(Apologize for my english as it's not my natural langage)

First of all, I'd like to congratulate the guys who create Aerodrums...
I'm a musician (hobby) and I play and compose music on various instruments.
Never could afford to buy a good electronic drumkit and never succeed in having my neighbours accept a drumkit at home ;-)
So when I met Aerodrums last month, couldn't avoid to buy that. And I'm soooooo happy. I can now play drums at home !! Great !!

For those who, like me, always want more than the best, let me share the result of my search for alternative drumkits.
I found these 2 guys :
- Analogue Drums (https://www.analoguedrums.com/) are creating very good samples multi velocity. One of them is free : Big Mono (https://www.analoguedrums.com/details-bm.php). I downloaded and after a bit of work setting the directorys for aerodrums, I could create new elements and a new drumset ! Works like a charm ! Sounds really good ! I'm thinking of buying one or two of their kit as they are not really expensive.
- SM Mega Reaper Drumkit (infos here : http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=150924 and 2Gb download here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxI5SR ... ZleHc/view). Very high quality multi velocity drumkit. Once again, I had to organize the files in correct directories to be able to create these new elements in Aerodrums, but it's quite easy, even if it's a bit long to do (yeah more than 2900 samples !!! ). But it sounds very nice !!! And once again, it's free !!

Now I can mix and matche a hole bunch of very good elements with the original ones (Aerodrums ones) that are already really cool.

Thanks again guys !! I love you product !!!
(Expecting a IR mod, by the way, as I leave in a very sunny counrty ;-))

Chears.
PY
Last edited by pleglise on Mon Jun 20, 2016 1:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Richard
Posts: 1014
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Feedback and infos on free alternative drumkit

Post by Richard » Sun Jun 19, 2016 10:53 pm

Thanks for the feedback and the kind words. I also tried out the SM Mega Reaper Drumkit in Aerodrums and I can attest to it working nicely.

We shouldn't forget to mention the MIDI possibilities as well. There are lots of really nice VST drum kits out there. Admittedly, they're not usually free and there are a few steps involved in hooking them up to Aerodrums but hopefully we'll be able to add VST hosting directly in Aerodrums at some point which will make the experience much better.

iamtheharv
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2016 12:46 pm

Re: Feedback and infos on free alternative drumkit

Post by iamtheharv » Wed Aug 17, 2016 12:51 pm

I am in need of help setting the directories in Aerodrums for these drumkits, exactly how is this done? I am new to this. Many thanks in advance for your time and attention.

Richard
Posts: 1014
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Feedback and infos on free alternative drumkit

Post by Richard » Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:53 pm

Hi, the instructions are in the manual here: http://aerodrums.com/manual/#making-new-drums

I have only set up the SM MegaReaper kit myself so I'll comment on how to go about setting that up.
You will first need to re-organize the SM MegaReaper Drumkit samples into folders.

Let's consider the snare drum...
Create a folder called "snare" and within that create two folders called "l" and "r".
Then copy all the files with the form SNR_1965_V01_SR_MULTI_VEL[xxx]_RR02.wav to the "l" folder.
And copy all the files with the form SNR_1965_V01_SR_MULTI_VEL[xxx]_RR04.wav to the "r" folder.
Here we're using one set of snare samples for the left hand hits and another set for the right hand hits.

Now let's consider crash15 sample...
Create a folder called "crash15" and copy all the SMM_CRASH15_V01_VEL[xxx]_RR2.wav files to it.

And finally let's consider the kick drum...
Create a folder called "kick" and within it create folders called "a" and "b".
Copy all files SMM_KICK_K68_V01_VEL[xxx]_RR01.wav to the "a" folder.
And copy all files SMM_KICK_K68_V01_VEL[xxx]_RR02.wav to the "b" folder.

Do similar for other drums...in my most cases you will want to copy all the files to the folder you create if the corresponding SMM drum doesn't have more than variation (i.e. only files ending in "_RR01.wav"); if it has more than one variation (a set of files ending in "_RR01.wav", another set ending in "_RR02.wav", etc.) then copy one set to the "r" subfolder and another set to the "l" subfolder.

Once all the files have been organized you can create your new elements in Aerodrums that you can add to your drum kit. For each drum/cymbal you will need to click the "New" button at the bottom of the "Available elements" list on the Drum kits screen. You can then set the name/type and point Aerodrums to the root folder where all the .wav files for that element are stored. When you do this and press the "Ok" button, Aerodrums will create the new element.

I recommend starting with one drum (even with just a single .wav file in your folder) and verify that that works fine before following the instructions above to create a full SM MegaReaper drum kit. If you have more questions or run into any problems, let us know here. Good luck.

iamtheharv
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2016 12:46 pm

Re: Feedback and infos on free alternative drumkit

Post by iamtheharv » Thu Aug 18, 2016 12:41 pm

Thank you VERY MUCH for the helpful info. I began by just trying to add the kick and snare to an Aerodrums kit I had previously loaded. While I was able to get the Mega Reaper snare going by using your instruction, I didn't have the same results with the kick. It remains unresponsive but shows a kick in the graphic, I see the kick move when I move my foot but no sound. Checked volume and it was sufficient enough (80%) to expect a strong signal. Anything you can add to help is appreciated.

Congratulations to everyone at Aerodrums for a revolutionary product, I am extremely happy to be a player.

JRC
Posts: 28
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2016 12:05 am

Re: Feedback and infos on free alternative drumkit

Post by JRC » Sat Aug 20, 2016 7:46 pm

I myself use mainly commercial VST drum romplers (Superior Drummer. Addictive Drums, Steven Slate, Abbey Road etc.), but if free is requested I would also suggest a very good library for Kontakt:

https://www.native-instruments.com/foru ... ee.198219/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2TuymOIBBE

http://de-de.sennheiser.com/drummica

Richard
Posts: 1014
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Feedback and infos on free alternative drumkit

Post by Richard » Sun Aug 21, 2016 8:02 pm

I'm not sure what the issue with the kick could be.
Make sure you have either placed the kick samples in the root of the folder you created or else in subfolders named "a" and "b". Also make sure that you selected 'Kick' as the element type. Also check that the kick sensitivity (on the same screen where you set the kick volume) isn't set extremely low.

One thing you could try is copying some snare samples into the kick folder and trying to create a kick element like that. If this works then Aerodrums probably runs into a problem when trying to load the kick .wav files.
If it doesn't work, let me know and I will investigate further.

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