Aw man what a beaut, nice one.
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…Been fiddling ardour with Drum Locker ('70s, Modern Drums, Druminator) this morning.
It took some time to figure out how/where exactly to install what etc - done, it works.
Well, generaly i like 'em, sounds ok, only if they had more round robins, then it’ll all be great.
For demos and such, i think these are awesome. I suspect the finished song with 'em would be a little to machine-like for my liking.
The other thing that’s not realy what i want is - online activation. I wanna be sure that if i do something now, i’ll able to pull it up in project any time later.
I already made one song using the Audio Assault Drum Locker plugin. Link below.
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I probably like the 70s drums the best, but not enough shells for my kit (part of my issue with AVL drums). I LOVE the sound of the Modern kit, as a standalone, but it sounds too “processed” (IMO) in context of my music. Druminator is the sweet spot for me. And I’m also not a fan of the online activation crap, but I’m a HUGE fan of the cross platform offerings…Windows, Mac, and Linux. For $5 a kit, I’ll overlook the online activation. JMO…
Sounds good Mika! Which plugin kit?
I used the Modern Drum kit in this track.
But you can always layer sounds and shape them with other plugins. You can add a lot more value to your sound by layering AVL kits with other drum sounds.
If I remember correctly, I used AVL Buskman’s Holiday percussion here as well.
I like the song very much. Is that some traditional song or something like that? There’s kind of a lullaby aspect to it…
Reminds me of distint ethnic infuences like something found in “Secret Of The Runes” album by Therion, or in Rammstein songs generaly.
Thanks a lot, really glad you like it! It’s actually not a traditional song, it’s an original composition by Isotooppi.
I totally get what you mean though, there’s a kind of lullaby-like atmosphere in it. There are also some subtle influences from old Finnish, Kalevala-inspired traditions in the background, at least in spirit.
I’ve always been drawn to atmospheric and slightly “ethnic” tones, so those elements probably come through a bit subconsciously.
Interesting that you mention Therion and Rammstein, I can definitely hear that connection in terms of mood and texture. Even without consciously copying anything, those kinds of influences tend to shape how the music comes together.
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Here’s something cool i stumbled upon. Looks worth checking out, especialy for those of us who don’t like online activation accounts etc. As i gethered, you pay the price, download your samples and load 'em in any drum software you prefer, organise your process any way you like (so it’s platform agnostic) - which is especialy cool cause i like using Hydrogen. There’s many velocity layers with many round robins, packs are couple hundred of megabytes in size (which looks about right if you ask me). Haven’t actually tried any of these packs yet, so i cannot wholeheartedly advertise this, but just from a glance i can tell this is something i’m already into. Compared to other drum vsts, prices look fair (if the stuff turns out to be good, i would consider these price low, actually).
https://www.drum-drops.com/
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Spot on, Ljuba 
There’s a whole load of good stuff available from DrumDrops and it’s quite easy to set up some drum stuff in Linux using those samples.
In the past, I fetched a load of their sample packs and created kits in Speedrum with fanned out output tracks for mixing etc. Quite easy and nifty, really.
These days, I’m enjoying using their multitrack drum loop sets for percussion. Completely different workflow with a lot less flexibility, obviously, but if you like that sort of thing then you end up with superbly recorded human acoustic drum tracks for your project.
Every now and then, DrumDrops do deals / offers so worth signing up to their newsletter for. Otherwise the prices aren’t unreasonable, I don’t think.
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I’ve found a simple workaround for this: I use sfz to re-tune the existing toms. For example, you can add this section to Black_Pearl_2023_repack.sfz
<group> lokey=64 hikey=95 pitch_keycenter=82 pan=-10 loop_mode=one_shot lochan=1 hichan=16
<region> lovel=1 hivel=26 sample=45-Pearl-12-Tom-1.wav
<region> lovel=27 hivel=52 sample=45-Pearl-12-Tom-2.wav
<region> lovel=53 hivel=77 sample=45-Pearl-12-Tom-3.wav
<region> lovel=78 hivel=102 sample=45-Pearl-12-Tom-4.wav
<region> lovel=103 hivel=127 sample=45-Pearl-12-Tom-5.wav
This takes one of the toms and smears it out over two and half octaves. Then you can pick three of them that you like and map them to an F♯-G♯-A♯ block to get a nice tom roll.
I’ve just pulled the trigger on Drum-Drops’s “Vintage Funk Kit” all samples pack:
These look very promising and are serious contender to what i mostly use in Windows (NI Studio Drummer - Session Kit). This is my type of drum sound (especialy when this kit is used in variant with Horst Link snare). Natural but with serious recording quality and not overly processed. There’s 24 velocity layers with 5 round-robins per articulation, so, there is not much annoying machine-gun effect spoiling the vibe. The bottom snare is, by default, mixed a little to high for my taste, but it’s easy to bring it down. The price was realy good for what it is (around 35$).
There’s sfz patch available, which i loaded into Sfizz, multi-output variant.
And there we face the first problem…how the hell do i 
set the Sfizz-UI multi-outs so that each mic have it’s own audio channel so i can procces them using plugins?..Or will i eventualy have to create my own patch with something like DrumGizmo (which aint’t a bad idea, considering DrumGizmo has humanize function built in, which Sfizz doesn’t have? I like creating drum parts in Hydrogen, but it seems kinda tedious to always have to link Ardour’s and Hydrogen’s playhead using Jack…
Did somebody here already face same issues before…any suggestions?
Your new best friend: https://sfzformat.com/
Learn how to manipulate an sfz file. it’s not hard.
Find an sfz instrument that does roughly what you want, and see how it’s configured. Adjust your own sfz file accordingly. Profit!
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Ah, so, there’s no way around editing .sfz’s text…
I gussed it, but i still hoped one could just link outputs somewhere using gui
If I understand your question correctly, you are looking for the fan-out option: you need a plugin that has multiple outputs (that would be sfizz-multi). When you insert the plugin, Ardour will pop up a dialog with the number of channels and if it should fan-out. If you choose e.g. “all” you get 16 outputs and 16 tracks, each connected to one output.
(ignore the giant titlebar)
This thread could also contain relevant information: MIDI Drum to separate tracks question ("fan out to" option doesn't appear for me) - #21 by seablade
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Thanks Piergi.
I get that, and i already did the things you suggested.
Problem is, after i open sfizz-multi and choose the fan-out option on startup and then load provided .sfz file for the instrument, every sound is still routed to the first stereo output pair. I tried searching for an option to route channels to other outputs in sfizz’s gui, but there isn’t one anywhere.
Most probably i have to modify outputs for sample groups in .sfz text file itself, cause .sfz file works as a set of instructions for sampler (sfizz-multi) on how to use the samples in provided library. I just tought there’s some button in sfizz-multi or something else that i don’t see - in other words, an shortcut - that would allow me to route the samples without the need to modify .sfz file.
My guess is, the creator of provided .sfz file used Sforzando as his sampler, single stereo option only, so he created original .sfz file with that routing in mind.
I’m sure I’ll get to the bottom of this when i catch some free time (i theoreticaly already know what to do), it’s just that everything’s time consuming, so i’m always interesed in a quick fix, if there is one .
Cheers!
Did some quick .sfz file editing a moment ago, and then loaded the edited file into sfizz-multi.
It works…I’m able to redirect the outputs this way.
It’ll take a while to edit it properly (it’s a huge file for this kit), but i can already see it functioning the way it supposed too.
Thanks again.
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You can also use the visual editor Polyphone to edit and export .sfz files. Not sure if it can do exactly what you need but certainly worth looking at.
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You’re talking about samples here - unless you’re talking about the “MPC” character.
Various musicians have said to me that the sample OFFSETS, and pad trigger configurations add certain “groove” to any beats. That is not a documented feature AFAIK - and regardless - it can be emulated with any “pad slicer” type of software / plugin
Try out my Rust port of the DrumGizmo plugin.
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