Hello to all,
I have been working on the following project
for over a year now, but just haven't had the
time or knowledge to really get it off the
ground. However I'm sure with the help of all of our expert members, it can be done.
I'm sure many of you, like myself, would like
to play an Oriental Midi file on our PCs and
hear an oriental drum kit, so the song will
actually sound like it should. So,I have been pursuing this idea of a UNIVERSAL ORIENTAL DRUM KIT that will use all 127 Midi note #s(sample slots), on a single Midi channel, in SF2(SoundFont)format.

I have divided this project into Four main
phases:

PHASE 1-
Obtain all available ORIENTAL DRUM KIT maps to be as complete as possible(in other words, all oriental kit maps from
every manufacturer-Yamaha,Roland,Korg,Ketron,
and GEM).
So far,I only have the maps for Roland G1000,E40or, and GEM CD1.
So, if anyone out there could please photocopy whatever drum maps you may have
and email them to me(vquestor@yahoo.com), that would be great. Please indicate which
sounds cut off which sounds(like which "tabla tek" cuts off which "tabla roll",etc.), and which sounds are looped.

PHASE 2-
Acquire the best .wav samples for each sound
(why not take the best of the best?).

PHASE 3-
(This is the hardest part, and one that I
am not qualified for.)
Assemble the .wav samples into a SF2 format
bank with the proper looping and cutoffs.
I believe Vienna is the most popular program to do this, but there is also an new program
called "Alive" by LiveUpdate.

PHASE 4-
Use an existing program? or make a
MIDI DRUM NOTE REMAPPER so that any brand's
oriental drum kit can be remapped to our
Universal Oriental Drum Kit, so the correct
sounds are played.

The final thing we would have to decide is what type of SOUNDFONT PLAYER to use.
If you has a Soundfont compatible soundcard,
then you are OK. If you do not have one, you can use a software soundfont player(like
LiveSynth) or software sampler that is soundfont compatible(like Kontakt).

I know this is a very big project, but if
anyone qualified is willing to help, we can
do it, and all of us can enjoy the benefits.

Once this project is completed(assuming it is), the next step would be to develop a complete "Universal Oriental SoundFont Bank" for ALL the oriental sounds(oud,ney,etc.).
That would be a more complex project, and
we would still have to find a soundfont
player that could ideally use 1/4 tone scales
with sysex, rather that pitch bend tricks(I
haven't found any yet that can do this).

Of course, all of this would be unnecessary
if Yamaha or Roland would put their oriental
sounds and drum kits, and 1/4 tone sysex
tuning ability on their "S-YXG50" and "VSC-"
respectively.




[This message has been edited by Vquestor (edited 04-01-2003).]

That's a great idea Vquestor. Creating a Oriental soundfont makes so much sense. If it comes together I'd be happy to make it available from Synth Zone so it is always online for people to obtain.

Great idea from the Great VIC

Hello
Maybe you will not believe me but today I had the same idea: It will be fantastic if we could have a standard oriental drum kit.

Great project!!

I can help.

Thank you all for your encouragement and support for this project.
If any of you know of web sites that have
oriental keyboard drum maps for each manufacturer, please post them.
I have found the ones for the Yamaha PSR A1000, but I still need someone to indicate
which sounds cut off which sounds, and which
sounds are looped.
Thanks.

Very good project.
I can help you. I know this problem. I create an Oriental drum kit for the KETRON SD1 from the Ketron X1 sampled kit. It's difficult, but after days of work, it play good...
I think, all major of oriental synts should meet together, to create the new standard...
as the MIDI came...

Hello man im glad to hear that some one finally want to make the same thing as i did.
I´ve already created a oriental kit for kontakt but i could help you if you want to create another, unfornitaly im not so familiar with soundfonts but there should not be a problem to do that.
If you want add me on msn and i could provide you with many samples from oriental keyboards, and remember that it´s not important that we follow some rules in the keymapping, it depends on us how we want to do it.
My msn is drdreas@doctor.com
PS: I´ve created some cool accordeon and nay sounds to the softsampler program kontakt.

Thank you very much for your help Drdreas.

I agree with you that the keymapping is not
critical at this point. We can even choose
an existing keymap and make it our defacto
standard.

Since the program "Vienna"(for making
Soundfonts) is free, would you mind taking
a look at it to see if you can use it?(of course,only if you have the time).

Soundfont format(sf2) will be the best format
for our "Universal Oriental Kit Bank" because
it is the most universal format(compatible
with most software samplers, and soundfont players).

Could you please tell me if Kontakt has the ability to do quarter tone scales on it?

I think it is fantastic that you have
already made an oriental kit, and
Accordeon and Ney sounds for Kontakt.
I would appreciate any samples you can
give me.
I will email you.
Thanks again.

Does anyone have any experience with
the LiveSynthPro DXi soundfont player?
I downloaded a demo to use in Cakewalk but it will only allows a soundfont no larger than 1MB. I want to see how it is for a full drumkit soundfont.