Why is DropZone such a secret?

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mleghorn
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2008/01/21 17:26:07 (permalink)

Why is DropZone such a secret?

When I Google DropZone, I get just about nothing. Why is that?

For the past couple of months I've been exploring a myriad of softsynths, including many free ones, and the ones that came with my Sonar HS 6.2. To name a few: Dimension LE, Triangle II, Square I, DropZone, Session Drummer, Roland Groove Synth, TTS-1, and a bunch of freeware synths: Crystal, Rez, Texture, Dominator, Zebra CM, Synth1, Polyiblit, and more. I've played with demo versions of z3ta, Rapture, and Zebra II. I'm not a sound designer so I judge these synths based on the patches that come with them. (I'll make simple tweaks here and there.) Compared with these DropZone still sounds awesome. I am blown away by some of the sounds.

Here's an interesting story I'd like to share, regarding my experience with DropZone: My introduction to the world of DAW and SoftSynths started a few months ago when I bought Cakewalk's Music Creator 4 (I think for $40). That's when I first started playing with DropZone. I was awed. I got tired of some of the limitations of Music Creator (e.g. only 8 simultaneous synth instances -- not documented, but a very real limitation none the less) and got Sonar HS 6.2, which also came with DropZone. By accident, my Sonar was trying to use the DropZone that came with Music Creator, and crashed every time I tried to use DropZone. I found this out when I reinstalled the DZ that came with my Sonar. Problem solved! But... Where did all my DZ patches go? Instead of the several hundred patches that I had when running Music Creator, I now only had a dozen or so. Luckily I was able copy over all the patches (actually they're called programs) from my Music Creator CD to the appropriate folder, and voila! I got my patches back.

You Sonar HS 6.x owners, I recommend you get Music Creator 4 just for the DropZone patches. There are hundreds of them, and some are quite awesome.

Is is possible that DropZone is sort of a beta version of Rapture?





#1

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    :10:
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/01/25 11:43:30 (permalink)
    I have always been curious about dropzone. I wish cakewalk would just sell it as a stand alone, with a bunch of content to go with it.


    although...I dont think it plays in project 5?

      
    #2
    whitefalcon
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/01/25 14:18:47 (permalink)
    I have always been curious about dropzone. I wish cakewalk would just sell it as a stand alone, with a bunch of content to go with it.

    I had Music Creator a long time ago.
    Hmmm I could get it, sounds like it would be worth it for the Drop Zone sounds.
    We should be able to have them without doing this for Sonar 7 or at least have a purchast path outside of purchasing Music Creator
    #3
    mumpcake
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/01/25 18:59:04 (permalink)
    have always been curious about dropzone. I wish cakewalk would just sell it as a stand alone, with a bunch of content to go with it.


    although...I dont think it plays in project 5?


    It plays fine in P5.
    #4
    mumpcake
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/01/25 19:03:06 (permalink)
    You Sonar HS 6.x owners, I recommend you get Music Creator 4 just for the DropZone patches. There are hundreds of them, and some are quite awesome.

    Out of curiousity, what are the names of these patches? I think they might also be included with Kinetic 2.


    Is is possible that DropZone is sort of a beta version of Rapture?


    More like a very cut down version of Dimension.
    #5
    soundtweaker
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/01/30 22:59:12 (permalink)
    Is dropzone 64 bit?
    #6
    Elson
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/02/15 02:38:35 (permalink)
    How does DropZone work, exactly? What is the purpose of the Elements? It's just a sampler program, right?

    Elson R. Trinidad (El SONAR Trinidad) :) | Los Angeles, CA, USA
    http://www.elsongs.com | http://www.e-trinity.org
    #7
    mumpcake
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/02/15 11:44:10 (permalink)
    DropZone is a fairly basic sampler. Each of the two elements loads either an sfz file, a rex file, or an audio file (wav, aiff, ogg). Each element has LFOs and envelopes for amplitude, filter, and pitch. If you load in an audio file you can adjust loop points through the GUI.

    DropZone also is included in Kinetic. I don't know if the library is the same between the version included in Kinetic and that in Music Creator. However, much if not all of the library that comes with Kinetic's DropZone is included in the expansion packs for Dimension Pro.
    #8
    Elson
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/02/15 14:17:10 (permalink)
    The manual says for more info on Drop Zone, refer to the synth's "Online Help."

    WHERE IS THE ONLINE HELP?!?!

    Elson R. Trinidad (El SONAR Trinidad) :) | Los Angeles, CA, USA
    http://www.elsongs.com | http://www.e-trinity.org
    #9
    b rock
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/02/15 17:24:12 (permalink)
    WHERE IS THE ONLINE HELP?!?!
    Click on the DROP ZONE logo to get at the 'splash' screen. Then press F1.
    #10
    ashsmith
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    RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2008/02/18 05:31:15 (permalink)
    Great little thing. If only you could automate the loop points.
    #11
    NON_73
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    Re: RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2012/06/08 04:13:17 (permalink)
    I want a wav player that is very easy to use for importing files and find it very unfortunate that the DropZone has not been in x64 version.

    Does anyone know if there's going to be an x64 version DropZone for Sonar X1??
    #12
    dubdisciple
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    Re: RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2012/06/08 14:28:23 (permalink)
    dropzone installed when i installed X1 64-bit
    #13
    Beepster
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    Re: RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2012/06/09 00:55:22 (permalink)
    I'm pretty sure I own this DropZone thingy. I have no idea what it does.
    #14
    dubdisciple
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    Re: RE: Why is DropZone such a secret? 2012/06/11 15:31:38 (permalink)
    beepster.  dropzone is a very basic sample player.  if you have ever used SFZ, it is like two of them strapped together wit ha nicer interface.  or you could think of it like an even lighter version of Dimension le.
    #15
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