Creating .dsnd Files with Superior Drummer

This page explains in detail how you can create dsnd files using Superior Drummer. Although there are many steps, if you have done it a few times you can create a dsnd file in just a few minutes.

Prerequisites

You need Superior Drummer 2.X and DSoundTool. No other tools are required.

Be sure that you have downloaded the latest version of Superior Drummer from the ToonTrack web site. Make sure that you have installed the latest version of EZplayer and Toontrack Solo; these tools are part of the Superior Drummer package.

Generate a midi file

In DSoundTool, generate a midi file that contains many notes at different volumes for the instrument you want to sample. This can be done by using menu option Tools/Generate midi.

Which midi note you choose is not important when using Superior Drummer.

The number of seconds between two samples should be high enough so that there is at least 1 second absolute silence between the samples you are going to record. For snare sounds, usually 5 seconds is enough, for crash sounds you might need 20 seconds.

Start Superior Drummer

Start Toontrack Solo and choose a project. Load the sounds/settings with the drum sounds that you want to convert to a dsnd file.

In the Construct view, click on Voice & Layer, and select Unlimited or Large as layer limit (unless you have not enough memory).

In the Construct view on the Humanize section, deselect Random; the other options can be selected.
In the Mixer view, PAN section, make sure that the panning of the sounds that you want to record is centered.

Start EZPlayer

In Toontrack Solo, choose menu View/EZplayer.
Open Windows Explorer, navigate to the directory where you saved the midi file that you generated with DSoundTool
In Windows Explorer, click on the midi file and drag it to Track 1 in EZplayer

Set up midi mapping

In the Mapping view of Superior Drummer, right-click on the instrument you want to record (for example a snare), and right-click on the "articulation" you want to record (for example Center).
Click on the Learn button
In EZplayer, click on "Play" and wait until the first midi note is played. You should hear the sound that you want to record.
After one note you can stop. Now Superior Drummer has assigned the midi note in the midi file to the correct sound.

A tip: you might want to set Velocity Control such that in-velocity 124 is mapped to 127 as shown in the picture above. In my experience this results in a little bit more dynamic dsnd sounds. You can experiment what sounds best.

Record and bounce

In Superior Drummer, activate the Bounce view, select 24 bits, "Bounce through Mixer" and click on the big R, which should become red.
In EZplayer click on Play, and wait until the complete midi file has played
When finished, click again on the big red R in the bounce dialog and click on "bounce", and select the directory to which the wave file is saved.
The wave file that contains the recorded samples is named "Out_1+2.wav"

Note that you should record at a high volume level. If samples are recorded at a too low level, DSoundTool might miss the lowest volume samples, or they might get truncated. You do not have to worry about clipping at too high volumes; the Superior Drummer bounce function will automatically take care that no clipping occurs.

Generate dsnd file

Using DSoundTool, you can generate a dsnd file from the resulting wave file as described in Generate .dsnd Files.

Legal Aspects

It is illegal to share dsnd files created using Superior Drummer to other users. In fact it is probably even not allowed to create such dsnd files at all, but Toontrack allows this as long as you use them only in your own 2box module.

At least that is my interpretation, in http://www.2box-forum.com/index.php/topic,970.0.html you can find more detailed information. But please ask Toontrack directly if you feel unsure.