Sridhar Raghavan Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 I have gone through the topics here as well as the net. I will have to create several Drum Maps to work effectively with a range of VSTs/plugins. So far I have seen only processes for creating Drum Maps via UI - which is quite tedious and painful. I find it personally intriguing, as software is supposed to spare Humans of such tedium. I am not faulting Cakewalk at all for starting with the UI approach, but the product & community not moving at all beyond that for years is rather baffling. I have some basic questions: a) Is there any text based specification tool that can generate the Drum Map Files? b) If not, is there a file format description for the *.map files? Those files seem to be in some binary format. It is hard for me to see reasons for keeping that under covers. If (a) is NO, can Cakewalk team provide (b)? I am happy to volunteer and create a tool to create/manage Drum Maps and post it here for everyone to use. Cakewalk team can take it and evolve it as fit. It will make it lot more easier for using [drum VSTs in] Cakewalk. (In line with the stated goal of Cakewalk/CEO). I hate to say this, but that is what I would expect any Engineer or Computer Scientist to do. Define a text file format, so the full power of text processing is available for creating maps. Transform the specs and generate the destination file. This should be a straight forward task - especially here, knowing what the Drum Maps do. This tradition started almost the same time, if not before, the Computers came into vogue. Programming Languages, Specification Languages, Compilers are great manifestations of this, and have a long and mature history. regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scook Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 29 minutes ago, Sridhar Raghavan said: a) Is there any text based specification tool that can generate the Drum Map Files? Yes, but if all one wants is a way to label MIDI note values, consider instrument definitions. Note names from instrument definitions may be used to replace the keyboard in the label pane left of the notes pane in the PRV. Instrument definitions may be built using the tools in Cakewalk or with a text editor and imported into the master instrument definition file (master.ins in the user directory). There are examples of instrument definition files in this part of the forum. Some were specifically created for drum synths such as EZDrummer 2, Superior Drummer 3, SI Drum Kit and Addictive Drums 2. And the good news is, even if one prefers to use drum maps instead of instrument definitions, the first step to creating a simple drum map from a text file uses the instrument definition layout. So, create and share both on the forum. There is a 3rd party tool called ins2map (it is in the Cakewalk Sonar section under Tools) that takes a simple instrument definition file to create a drum map. Information about this utility is available on the old forum in this thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sridhar Raghavan Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 scook Thanks so much. This is fantastic. Inspired by your note, I posted a separate post for sharing the INS files of Korg PA600. I downloaded ins2map and looks like it was what I was looking for and would adequately serve my needs. Generating drum maps from [augmented if necessary] INS file is wonderful. Given this, I assume the format of Drum Map files are available some where here. I will read the other thread as well. regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scook Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 1 minute ago, Sridhar Raghavan said: Given this, I assume the format of Drum Map files are available some where here. The developer of ins2map partially reverse engineered the drum map format and AFAIK did not publish the source to ins2map or his findings about the file format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sridhar Raghavan Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 scook Can you point me to any sample/ valid file for use with ins2map, for a quick test and for use a model? regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scook Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 6 minutes ago, Sridhar Raghavan said: Inspired by your note, I posted a separate post for sharing the INS files of Korg PA600. Thanks, I moved the post to the instrument definition area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sridhar Raghavan Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 3 minutes ago, scook said: The developer of ins2map partially reverse engineered the drum map format and AFAIK did not publish the source to ins2map or his findings about the file format. Understandable. But happy that Cakewalk has endorsed it and has not broken his work. Hopefully not any time soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scook Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 Just now, Sridhar Raghavan said: scook Can you point me to any sample/ valid file for use with ins2map, for a quick test and for use a model? regards Look at the instrument definitions for the drum plug-ins I mentioned above in the instrument definition area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sridhar Raghavan Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 1 minute ago, scook said: Thanks, I moved the post to the instrument definition area. Great. Perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scook Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 8 minutes ago, Sridhar Raghavan said: happy that Cakewalk has endorsed it It was never endorsed by Cakewalk. The old Cakewalk forum had a section for user created software and content. There were a handful of users, including myself who contributed. Revamping drum maps has been on the Cakewalk to-do list for some time. The relatively recent addition of persistent note names in the label pane has significantly reduced my desire to work with drum maps. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sridhar Raghavan Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 scook Thanks for the pointer. I picked the .ins from here - will see if there are any augmentations. It was never endorsed by Cakewalk. The old Cakewalk forum had a section for user created software and content. There were a handful of users, including myself who contributed. Revamping drum maps has been on the Cakewalk to-do list for some time. So wonderful to have you and your colleagues here -- with invaluable knowledge and passion, and the heritage. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sridhar Raghavan Posted February 21, 2022 Author Share Posted February 21, 2022 scook et al. I am pasting the BOLs of Mridangam of Swar Plug. It is actually a Python code I generated by extracting information from a PDF file. It is not an *.ins file nor a drum map. Just contains all the information needed to generate them. Should be a simple text editing task and running the ins2map. I am posting this, just in case it comes handy to any one else, before I start the work on drum maps. If some one familiar with drum maps (develop, test) can go ahead and create the map - nothing like it. Appreciate your moving this to the right area in the forum - so it is visible to everyone. swpmridangam = { "kum":[36], # C3 , kum "gumsl":[37], # C#3 , sliding gum "toms":[38], # D3 , soft tom "tom":[39], # D#3 , tom "kum5":[40], # E3 , kum low "kum4":[41], # F3 , kum slightly high "kum3":[42], # F#3 , kum higher "kum2":[43], # G3 , kum high pitch "ka":[44], # G#3 , Ka "ke":[45], # A3 , Ke "deem1":[46], # A#3 , deem "deem2":[47], # B3 , syahi deem "deem3":[48], # C4 , syahi deem soft "ki":[49], # C#4 , ki "chap":[50], # D4 , chap "ta":[51], # D#4 , ta "ta2":[52], # E4 , ta variation "na":[53], # F4 , na "nam":[54], # F#4 , nam "kree1":[55], # G4 , kree "kreem":[56], # G#4 , kreem "kresf":[57], # A4 , kree soft "krem2":[58], # A#4 , kreem 2 "deem4":[59], # B4 , deem 4 "dom1":[60], # C5 , dom 1 "dom":[61], # C#5 , dom "domsf":[62], # D5 , dom soft "chapu":[63], # D#5 , chhapu "chpu2":[64], # E5 , Arra chhapu "krans":[65], # F5 , ke and deem "klam":[66], # F#5 , ke and deem 2 "seq1":[67], # G5 , tirekite tam "seq2":[68], # G#5 , tirekite tom } regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Nicholls Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 Hi @Sridhar Raghavan, this is not directly related to your request for tools to load Drum Maps from text files, but if you haven't already seen it, my article on drum maps in Cakewalk is here: https://prodigalsounds.com/blog/2021/05/04/drum-maps-in-cakewalk/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sridhar Raghavan Posted February 21, 2022 Author Share Posted February 21, 2022 Colin Thanks for the pointer and confirm that it is you. I read that a couple of days ago and found it very useful. Very well written. I was wondering whether it is you and now I know. regards 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grannis Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 I just tried to find ins2map, but the website no longer seems to be there. Anyone know where it might be? Or can someone share the utility? thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canopus Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 24 minutes ago, grannis said: I just tried to find ins2map, but the website no longer seems to be there. Anyone know where it might be? Or can someone share the utility? thanks! I think that @Starship Krupa in the thread below mentioned that he had a copy of it and can send it over if requested by PM. Or, even better, if he maybe can post a permanent link to the file in the Instrument Definition area. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grannis Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 5 minutes ago, Canopus said: I think that @Starship Krupa in the thread below mentioned that he had a copy of it and can send it over if requested by PM. Or, even better, if he maybe can post a permanent link to the file in the Instrument Definition area. Brilliant thanks... here's hoping that Mr Starship is reading this thread still. btw, I looked at using instrument definitions, but it appears (unless I'm misunderstanding something) that it won't help me if I'm only using soft synths. I have some midi drum tracks created by other people that I want to map over to Addictive Drums. I can create maps in Addictive drums automatically (I use excel!), so I was thinking that if I create one, I could create a corresponding CW instrument track at the same time I wouldn't have to use CW drum maps at all. Hopefully I'm missing something... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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