please help me create my own midi sounds

[Zed10R]

OK - I have this brilliant idea to sample each drum and cymbal from an actual drum kit with a condenser and dynamic mic used in unison. I want to take those sound samples and create a sound library where each drum can be triggered in a midi sequence just like any other midi instrument, except the sounds were created my me. How do I do that? Can I pick an existing drum sound library out of Sonar's presets and replace the sounds, use the exact same pathways, then save it as my own??

[minofifa]

what version of sonar do you have? if it came with vsampler, you are set. bsically just record all of your recordings (samples) and map them to your midi keyboard in vsampler. i don't know if you can do it without a sampler. there are also many other vsti samplers available (sampletank etc).

[Zed10R]

I've got the lowly 2.1XL. I'm not very midi educated either. All I know is that it already has a few acoustic drum sets sampled in it already, so I thought I could just swap the existing wav files for different ones and keep everything else the same. Possible? not? Is there a better way??

[Hubbawho]

I'm not big on midi, but that's because I was under the impression that you couldn't do what you're asking to do with midi. Instead I do the same exact idea (sampling pieces from a real drum set) and upload them into an audio sequencer like Fruilty Loops or something. Correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't that what you should be doing instead of working with midi? They seem more powerful and flexible with real audio.

[beezelbubba]

Here's a free vst that I believe will do what you want.
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/25.html

[minofifa]

wow, nice find beez,
that is exactly what you want to use.

[minofifa]

Originally Posted by Hubbawho

I'm not big on midi, but that's because I was under the impression that you couldn't do what you're asking to do with midi. Instead I do the same exact idea (sampling pieces from a real drum set) and upload them into an audio sequencer like Fruilty Loops or something. Correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't that what you should be doing instead of working with midi? They seem more powerful and flexible with real audio.

i'm definately not the authority on midi but i think you are half right. you have a set of samples which are real audio as you say (and yes they do sound way better in my opinion as well). but these samples are controlled with midi (the events such as velocity / note on/ note off etc) in a midi sequencer. a midi controller can be used to trigger each sample with a set of midi instructions. at lleast that is how i understand and use it.

you can have fake (synth) drum sounds striggered by midi. some soundcards have these sounds build into their hardware (creative sound blaster and whatnot) and use GM soundfonts. some like these sounds but they sound super cheesy to me.

[fraserhutch]

Originally Posted by Hubbawho

I'm not big on midi, but that's because I was under the impression that you couldn't do what you're asking to do with midi. Instead I do the same exact idea (sampling pieces from a real drum set) and upload them into an audio sequencer like Fruilty Loops or something. Correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't that what you should be doing instead of working with midi? They seem more powerful and flexible with real audio.

Actually, this is *exactly* the sort of thing that midi excels at. We've been doing it for years. What seems to be confusion is Zed10R is specifying a process that involves midi, but is not completely midi.

If I understand him correctly, what he is really looking to do is 2 things:
1) create a sample mapping in a rompler of some sort. This is what you call the audio part, but really, it is just standard sytnth drum programming.
2) use midi to activate those samples.

In #1, this is the same thing that drum and synth workstation programmers do when the create sample maps. Sample maps are nothing more than a mapping of samples to midi note values. You will need some sort of rompler, like the Vstation mentioned above.

For #2, once the (drum) map is generated, you can now play it just like any other midi sound source such as Kontact, a soft or hard synth, whatever.
this can be done either via a midi controller (keyboard, electronic drum kit, whatever), or via a midi sequence as you mentioned.

Hope this helps......

[Zed10R]

Beezle.....you ROCK!!! thanks!

fraserhutch.....you got it. Exactly. Thank you for the added details. I have never done this before, so the more details on how to achieve this, the better.

Thank you all for your input.

[MadAudio]

Just to clarify a little - MIDI does not actually contain sounds. It is a communications protocol for electronic instruments.

[Zed10R]

yeah - I am aware of that. Midi songs contain nothing but trigger info. No audio data is there at all. It's like an electronic version of the old self play pianos that used the paper rolls with holes in them that tell the piano what note to play. On the comnputer, all you are working with is the roll of paper and you are putting the holes in it.