Hey guys,

As promised, I have been looking into editing SND files for the X1. Here's the latest ...

There's good news and bad news. The good news is that the SND file content is made up mostly, of PCM wave data (for those who are familiar with the terminology, this will make sense, for those who are not, I would be more than happy to explain in detail via email). Which means that for the most part, it is editable, with some hacking and re-coding (done by yours truley).

That bieng said, I have been successful at extraploating SND files into standard WAVE files. So for those of you who are interested, yes, I have all the X1 samples in WAV format. Of course, this would mean that you could only edit and import back into the X1 as MSP format.

Which brings me to the next of point, the bad news. Because I have no source to go by in determining the rest of the SND file contents, I would have NO WAY of bieng able to import a WAVE back into a SND file, with its loop points, key signature, etc .... So to sum it up, unless you give me a sample with the exact same loop point, size, and key signature as an existing sample on-board the X1 Oriental SNDs, you will not have correct sounding samples bieng played from the X1.

So for now, all I can do for you all is give you the X1 samples in raw WAV format. I *might* be able to do some minor editing and change of the on-board samples, but that is about it.

Maybe down the line, as I work more and more with this f....ed up file type, I can start understanding it some more. And maybe even more down the line, I would be able to write some software (Windows Based) that would allow you to make some SND file changes. But as of today, at least I can do a little bit for some of you!

Hope it helps !!!

-Aboud

Abboud
would you please email them to me, my email is eddydy@aol.com.

Let me ask you this thought, what did you use to extract the waves, in the past i tried couple of programs to do that but the result wasn't very succesefull, one of the program that i used was Cool edit, i kept getting all the multisamples in one long wave at a very high pitch, i tried other Hrtz settings, it was getting better but i gave up at the end.

In the other hand, this subject of creating SND files for the X1 was raised more than one time here especialy by me, Here take a look at this thread that i started over a year ago:

http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum42/HTML/000030.html

EDDY

Aboud I told you that you would be a vital part to our synthzone family. Good work my friend.

Eddy if what you are planning to do with those WAV files is what I am thinking then great . Call me this weekend if you can and lets talk.

Aboud, my final question...will we be able to select certain samples from "different SND kits" and combine them together into a final KIT?

[This message has been edited by Mosiqaar (edited 08-20-2002).]

Unbelievable,
Samer, OOOOOh man, you’re just reading my mind for the second time !! Remember the first time when we saw the first Vega picture with the Oriental scale?

Maged

Maged,

I don't know what it is tonight but ur the second guy who says this to me...I am reading their mind lol...I am getting to be psychic!!!

Remind of the Vega buttons thing please...I am not sure I remember, but I am sure it will be worth remembering

MAN AM I DREAAAAAMING!!!
Well Aboud you are the man!!
Send me those files please and i be happy,hope i can see you in the MSN,my adress there is "rundmc38@hotmail.com" i would be happy to chat with a great man like you buddy....
Thanks Aboud ,and very very Smart thing you came up with!!!
Please Aboud if you want to send me them send them to ziad.aslan@bredband.net

Thanks
/Ziad

Thank you *VERY* much for the compliments, Ziad, Samer, and Eddy !!!

I would love to get these sounds out to all of you via e-mail, but my e-mail does not support large attachments!!! So, I think the best way to send them out is by all of us getting on MSN, Yahoo, or AOL messanger. Then I can just do a direct file transfer.

Here's all my messanging information, most of the time, I am on either AOL or MSN.

AOL: HyperAG
MSN: aboudghazi@hotmail.com
Yahoo: aboudg

And now, here's some answers to some of your questions:

Eddy - I can get into all the complications and details of how the deed was done, but I can write pages about that! Let me just sum it up, to cure your curiosity.

I did not use any sound editor of any kind. There is NO sound editor available that can open a file type SND, or even emulate to open it as a WAV and get you the proper samples. Not possible, because all of the header information stored in the SND file's first 2K of bytes or so is specific only to that SND format. In addition, the sampling rate on every sample is dynamic (differs), and on a WAVE file, you typically have a fixed sample rate. That would explain your out-of-tune attempts.

But that doesn't mean, much like other software hackers would tell you, that it is impossible to obtain the samples. It's a matter of bieng able to recoginize the signature of a WAV file and writing an algorithm to extrapolate that within the SND file to match a typical WAV file. So to sum up, I ripped apart the SND files piece by piece and converted the algorithmic format type into that of a WAV.

If that sounded too compkex for most you, thats ok! There's not many people out there who know HEX editing and binary-data manipulation. I'll be glad to start up an "Intro to Hacking" classroom for all of you if there is enough interest!!! :-)

Samer: I talked to you on MSN yesterday, so I gave you the answer to your question. Just to post it here though, I *MIGHT* be able to replace some drum sounds on the exisiting 8MB drumset with some from another set (uh hmmm....), but that is going to be a little hard to test considering the fact that I sold my X1 a few days ago and I would not have a way of checking the SND format when I put it back together!!!

And I also believe that I might be able to do some lead sample replacments (strings, aoud, etc ...). Given the lack of an X1, it would be pretty much a hit or miss deal though.

Ziad: I have added you to my contacts list buddy! I am always willing to help, in any way I can!!! Meet me on AOL or MSN and I will send you whatever you like.

-Aboud

>>I'll be glad to start up an "Intro to Hacking" classroom for all of you if there is enough interest!!! :-)<<

Aboud
I'm most definetly interested in that kind of stuff, if you can direct me to where i can find information on that topic, in the internet or elswhere, i'd appreciate it.

Eddy

Well for the first of all,i have to thank Aboud,and everybody here in,what a good job guys,i mean everybody is helping each other in a way like we are brothers,and i like that...Thanks to all of you....

Aboud you have changed the history,man i need a lession in "hex and binary"

i have a question for you Aboud:
i mean when you load the 16SND files,you cant just load the first 5 or 6 you have to laod all of them,is there any way to break that "rule",if there is i would load the first 8SND to Flash card,and the other 8 to simm,in that way i have 8Mb empty for samples....

And thanks for Added me in the MSN,see you there,cause i have some questions for you Aboud!!

And Eddy,nice picture on you in that old mail,but you dont look Old,you look like a Star,and i missed that picture,say hello to the kids

Salamat
/Ziad

Sup guys ...

Ok, some more answers ...

Eddy: There's not many places (if any at all) where you can go to on the internet to look up specific information such as this (that I know of at least). The reason why I know much and am proficient in binary/hex manipulation is because that was my main course of study during my 5-year Systems Engineering degree. And since I just graduated 7 months ago, this stuff is still fresh in my mind. Otherwise, believe me, I would have shot myself lookin at that stuff also!

Since there seems to be a lot of interest in this type of topic, maybe we should set up a conference between all of us and I will lead a discussion and have a "Questions and Answers" chat in training you guys a bit on hex-binary manipulation, with specifics to sound of course.

Ziad: My man, your compliments are always so appreciated (like everyone else's !!!).

As far as your question goes, the way it works in SND files is sounds are loaded in BLOCKS, rather than BANKS. What that means is rather than load sound by sound, into each bank of the keyboard (like msot keyboards do), the X1 will take a whole bunch of sounds, group them together, and load them into a specific area of memory in the keyboard's RAM (starting at some address). Because of this, you MUST fill up all the addresses in memory (RAM) that the keyboard is expecting from the header information stored in the first SND file. And since I have not yet broken down that part of the SND format, I would NOT be able to do any splitting of any sounds for you! Now, I can easily wipe out any sounds you don't want, but that area in memory would still be used and inaccessable for other sounds.

In any case, I will be more than happy and wanting to chat with you as well! I should be online (AOL, MSN, and Yahoo) sometime after 7:00 today (EST). :-)

-AB