How to change drum sounds without repositioning drums

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Richard
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 1:45 am

How to change drum sounds without repositioning drums

Post by Richard » Fri Jul 02, 2021 11:57 am

Occasionally we're asked if there is a way to clone a drum kit in Aerodrums and change its sounds, without having to place all the pieces again.

Given that we have just released two new sample packs for Aerodrums, having a way to do this is quite useful (e.g. you may want to keep your kit as is but swap out the snare and ride cymbals for new versions).

In a future software update we will add a convenient way to do this to the Aerodrums UI but in the meantime a (slightly awkward) workaround is available. Forum user, Wolfgang, kindly posted this solution back in 2018 but it is worth covering the steps again:

1. In Aerodrums, select the drum kit you want to use as a base, click Clone, name it, click Ok and then quit Aerodrums.

2. [On Windows] Navigate to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Aerodrums\conf\drumkits" (or equivalent if you installed Aerodrums to a different folder), locate the drum kit file you just created and open it in a text editor such as Notepad
[On Mac] In Finder, locate the Aerodrums app in your Applications folder, right click (or Ctrl+click) it and select "Open Package Content", navigate to the folder Contents → Resources → conf → drumkits, locate the drum kit file you created and open it with a text editor such as TextEdit.

3. At the top of the file you will see a group of lines that reference Aerodrums elements, e.g.:
Drum0.element = 12in bop snare
The "12in bop snare" part can be replaced with the name of another element that you wish to use instead of it, for example:
Drum0.element = 10in piccolo snare
The element name here should match one of the names from the "Available elements list" in the drum kit editor screen in Aerodrums. It will also match the names (without extension) of the .ele files located in the "data\elements" subfolder where you installed Aerodrums. Or, you may also wish to inspect other drum kit files to see what elements they reference.

4. After editing element names, save the file and restart Aerodrums.

Please let us know if you need further explanation or have any issue with the above steps. Thanks!

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