Hello. This is something I figured out a little while back (thanks to the help of the fine forum folks here) that makes Windows7 (and probably 8) show file extensions of "Known Files". This may help people be able to identify possible drag and drop audio samples for Drum Replacer a little easier. I am going to present this in such a way that someone who has absolutely NO experience dealing with file formats/extensions can understand it because when I was an ultra n00b it used to drive me nuts when I could not understand the underlying premise of a helpful tip. Most of you already know most of this crap but the final point may help you work with/load files into Drum Replacer and other stuff easier.
 
Let me explain...
 
By default Win7 automatically removes "Known Extensions" from file names when poking around your files in Windows Explorer. This essentially means that many times when you are perusing files on your computer it will not show the "extension" of the file name which identifies what type of file it is. For example a Wave file has the extension:
 
.wav
 
So a wave file would be called...
 
somesound.wav
 
The .wav part tells you that it is a "Wave" file and can be used in/read by specific programs and/or for specific tasks. Specifically a Wave file is a high quality audio file and are used quite often in Sonar's Clips Pane (if you record something or Bounce/Freeze a synth the result is usually a wave file). The new Drum Replacer accepts some other files as well but it takes wave files so anything with the extension .wav can be loaded into the Drum Replacer replacement window. I will just use the .wav extension throughout this post for simplicity because of that.
 
Being able to see a file extension is obviously very useful but for some reason Microsoft decided all those nerdy extensions were icky to look at so by default set up the operating system to exclude the extensions on "Known Files". Waves are very common because, well they are high quality audio files and played by pretty much all media players so they fall under this category.
 
Most computer users don't need to worry about this stuff because they just click and play the file or load up playlists in their media players and they'll just play any of the acceptable file formats automatically. We however as audio freaks need to know the difference because there are MANY different types of audio files that some of our programs and doodads may or may not be able to use.
 
The Drum Replacer is a good example. I'm not sure the full list of files it is able to use but it sounds like it is going to be expanded anyway so just look at the documentation or maybe this thread will garner an official list of useable files.
 
So the point is, and the reason I thought this might be useful to post, is that we are getting a lot of threads wondering what will and will not work in the Drum Replacer's replacement window (the little window where you can drop samples into to replace drum hits using the DR).
 
If you know exactly what types of files can be used then, in theory, you can just look through your computer for appropriate files to use. We get LOTS of sample banks with Sonar and our various addon sample packs and you may have other samples you recieved with third party purchases. Some of these can be used in DR and some cannot.
 
Without the extensions being display in Windows Explorer though you would have to view the Properties of each file instead of being to see it directly beside the file name.
 
To fix this in Win7 (and the procedure is likely similar in Win8 but I don't use it) do this:
 
1) Click the Windows "Start" button
 
2) Click Control Panel
 
3) In the Control Panel look for and Click on Folder Options
 
4) In the popup window click the View tab (at the top of the window)
 
5) Under the "Advanced settings" menu look for "Hide Extensions of Known File Types" and UNCHECK it (it is checked by default which will hide the extensions which is NOT what you want so if it is already unchecked leave it unchecked)
 
Now when you browse your system files you will see the file extensions. This means you can make an instant determintations as to whether you can load a specific file into programs like Drum Replacer. Other sampler type synths have specific files that can be loaded into them too so check their documentation to see what types of files they accept.
 
So that's how you can make looking for possible Drum Replacer (or other sample based instruments) sound candidates a little easier.
 
BTW is all else fails and the sound you WANT to use in DR or other samplers is not available in the file format you want you can load the a synth that CAN play that file, insert some notes in the PRV or StepSequncer that will trigger the files audibly then Freeze or Bounce the synth. This will create a wave file that you can then copy in whole or in part and then int turn use the wave as a copy to insert into DR or other sample based synths (credit for that workflow goes to forum user maximumpower and Bakerman Bill Jackson).
 
Maybe that'll help some of you dudes and dudettes.
 
Cheers.

I think at this point people should post possible folders people can look in on their systems to find suitable and immediately useable samples for Drum Replacer.
 
I have found various subfolders under entries that have waves and sfz files for drums and instruments. I have packs from Platinum Samples that contains waves. Lots of sfz files around. Tons of dimpro stuff. Whatever... anywhere sounds are stored for your synths is a good place to look. You would be surprised what you may have lurking in the corners of you hard drives.
 
Other things like AD2 seem to have all their samples hidden somehow. I don't really understand the tech behind that but it's an example of how it all depends on how exposed the source sounds are.
 
I guess I should try to find out exactly what files work with DR but I think I may just go into musical la la land for a bit.
 
wheeee!

I am guessing the AD2's samples are embedded in their .xpak files.
 
Perhaps the simplest way to getting a DR sample out of AD2 is to use the stand-alone app, find the kit and tone you want, and then play a single strike of the type desired, for example, the Kick drum on C1.
 
Notice the "Audio Recorder" tag in the bottom lower left corner of the window frame. When you play a MIDI note, that sound will be copied to a .WAV file (the folded paper icon the shows up to the right of the red record light) that you can drag to the desktop to create a .WAV file of the corresponding sound.
 
I tried dragging the .WAV icon directly into an app (Windoze Media Player). That didn't work. I needed the intermediate step of creating the file first.
 
I also tried this with AD2's Beats (whole song MIDI). The Audio Recorder only grabbed the first 10 seconds or so, not the entire song. Don't know if there's a setting in AD2 for that or not, but it works great for single samples.

TheMaartian
I am guessing the AD2's samples are embedded in their .xpak files.
 
Perhaps the simplest way to getting a DR sample out of AD2 is to use the stand-alone app, find the kit and tone you want, and then play a single strike of the type desired, for example, the Kick drum on C1.
 
Notice the "Audio Recorder" tag in the bottom lower left corner of the window frame. When you play a MIDI note, that sound will be copied to a .WAV file (the folded paper icon the shows up to the right of the red record light) that you can drag to the desktop to create a .WAV file of the corresponding sound.
 
I tried dragging the .WAV icon directly into an app (Windoze Media Player). That didn't work. I needed the intermediate step of creating the file first.
 
I also tried this with AD2's Beats (whole song MIDI). The Audio Recorder only grabbed the first 10 seconds or so, not the entire song. Don't know if there's a setting in AD2 for that or not, but it works great for single samples.

Holy crap! I was having a hard time figuring out WTH you were talking about so tried it out. This is extremely cool and useful and totally solves all these "How do I drag an AD2 sound into DR". I'll post step by step in next post.

.

Okay... so Maartian was talking about creating and yanking a wave out of AD2.
 
Do this to create wave samples of AD2 sounds...
 
1) Open AD2 standalone. Look at the bottom left corner of the GUI. There is a little blurb labelled "Audio Recorder" with an arrow pointing to the right. Remember where it is.
 
2) Choose the sound/kit piece you want to use on the Kit page
 
3) Click on the kit piece
 
4) Look in the bottom left corner of the AD2 GUI beside that Audio Recorder thing. You will see a little tab appear labelled "WAV"
 
5) Drag that to your desktop
 
You have just created a useable .wav sample from AD2
 
So essentially you could create your own sample packs for use in DR or any sampler based on how you set up the specific hits.
You could then create sfz files or whatever with those waves for multi layered velocity sample banks.
 
That is fookin' CRAZY!
 
Nice one Maartian. Positively brilliant.
 

My pleasure.

Related: http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3230962

Ok, before I ask this, I'm not trying to be a smarta$$, I'm just trying to understand. Can someone explain the allure of pulling sounds out of AD2 and using them in DR?
 
I just drag the DR track to a midi track and send the midi track to AD2. It triggers the AD2 sound and you can also play around with different sounds and adjust the sounds in AD2, which seems more flexible to me.
 
Maybe I'm missing something I could do better by bringing the sound into DR, I just can't think of what it would be.
 
gabo

gbowling
Ok, before I ask this, I'm not trying to be a smarta$$, I'm just trying to understand. Can someone explain the allure of pulling sounds out of AD2 and using them in DR?
 
I just drag the DR track to a midi track and send the midi track to AD2. It triggers the AD2 sound and you can also play around with different sounds and adjust the sounds in AD2, which seems more flexible to me.
 
Maybe I'm missing something I could do better by bringing the sound into DR, I just can't think of what it would be.
 
gabo

Totally reasonable query. Mostly it's useful because people ahve been asking about this a lot so that's a cool way to make it happen but...
 
1) This way you don't need to load AD as a synth
 
2) You don't have to do the MIDI conversion
 
3) You can use/create individual samples you've constructed in AD2 (like you can use the FX stuff to create a custom sample and maybe you just want the kick or whatever)
 
4) You can actually drag the wav into OTHER samplers like DimPro for further mangling
 
5) Probably a million other things I'm too stupid to conceive of at the moment
 
IDK... I'm easily impressed and amused I guess but I thought it was really cool.
 
:-)