Well I've got the instrument details written out for the first 40 of the kits (minimum 1 of each type) and so far 12 of them have been entered into an Excel file. Once I've got that done, I'll be looking to find a way of automating them out into a text file that can be used as the basis of an interim .ins. Not sure at the moment whether I'll use Excel for that, or more likely Access. One thing I did discover last night is that the MIDI note numbering bears little if any relationship to the DR-880 pad sequence. That was buried half way through the manual though, not with all the other MIDI related stuff. Nice to hear someone else is interested though - adds a little more incentive to the mix.

Frostysnake

.This is something  I am greatly interested in as I myself have NO knowledge of how to write MIDI code.

I'm guessing mainly...

Things have come along a little now. I've mapped out the instruments for 40 of the kits (that's at least one of each type) and the bass tones associated with all 100 of them. It's still in Excel at the moment, but I've now got sufficient data to make it worthwhile trying to create an .ins file for Sonar, so that will be my next trick.

If anyone wants a copy of the .xls, it can be found at this post on my blog - More DR-880 data, this time with instruments

For anyone who is interested in a description of the MIDI implementation of the DR-880, I just came across a slightly obscure comment in the user manual which lead me to this on the Roland website - DR-880 "MIDI Implementation". Whilst possibly a little hardcore for most tastes, it may still prove of interest to some.

Using the spreadsheet from Chris of Arabia, hxpert32, some hacking, and a bit of Java code I whipped up, I have the full set of key names for all the kits for the DR-880. Thanks to Chris for his updated spreadsheet which helped me avoid typing the names of all the instruments!

If you're looking for the file, give this one a try. Please let me know if you run into issues - I've tested it with a variety of the kits, but I haven't tried and tested every kit name and instrument to be sure.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/u3n3gv - Complete DR-880 Instrument Def

For those interested in the process, here's how I approached it:

*** Warning - technical content follows ***

** Seriously - If you're not an engineer or hacker, there's nothing to see here. Please move along **

Since the DR-880 has the ability to "back  up" it's settings to DR8 files, I reasoned that the UKIT.DR8 file (user kits) would have everything I wanted as long as my device was set to factory defaults (user kits mirror preset kits). So, I did a backup and copied out the DR8 files. Then, I used the DR-880 menus to change the first two kits (USER 001 and USER 002). The changes I made were intended to tell me data lengths and byte positions in the file. I changed only the first two patches (Kick1 and Kick2), and saved in various states (only changing Kick2, Only changing Kick1, changing both, etc). After each change, I'd re-backup and snag the UKIT.DR8 file for comparison purposes (to see what changed).

Using Hxpert32 (shareware), I created files out of just the Studio 1 parts so I could easily compare my changes. I used debug (Windows) to get a text representation of the bytes, and created simple text files for comparison. That let me see the bytes that were different between all the files (original, Kick1 changed, kick2 changed, etc).

Analysis revealed that there are 888 bytes in each kit. Those 888 bytes have a 12-byte text name (space padded), 4 bytes of termination and padding, and then 12-byte records for each note. The notes start at MIDI 35 and go up to 97.

Trial and error showed that at the beginning of each record, the first two bytes are the instrument ID (from 0 to 439), in LSB,MSB form - use (LSB & 0xff) + ( 256 + MSB ) + 1 for the value. If the LSB and MSB are both zero, then it's a gap - a skipped MIDI note.

My little JAVA class simply reads in the entire file to a bytearray (not elegant, but it's less than 200k and I have 8gb in 64bit) and parses each kit.

Lastly, I worked my Master.ins file manually to get all the DR-880 bits in. I then (after the fact) created the instrument definition file. So, if there are mistakes in the file that I uploaded, it's because that file came after I got everything working in Sonar. The core tough parts are definitely working - if something is broken in the .ins file, it's probably that a piece is just in the wrong place. Like we say in software ... "it works on my box". :-D

No warranty, and no whining. If it works for you, fantastic. If you have positive feedback, it's welcomed. If you're a hateful piece of poo that gleefully stamps out all traces of life, hope, and happiness - please keep your comments to yourself. If you correct the .ins file in some way that makes it more portable, I'd love to provide credit and upload a fix for everyone. Send me an e-mail to mborchestrations AT gmail DOT com.

Tks again to Chris

Marc

Well I've had a quick look at that Marc and I'm mightily impressed at what you've achieved. I must admit, I got part way through and got somewhat baffled along the way with the structure of the ins files once I got past listing the instruments and note names. It's also fair to say that my Access coding is errmmm... rusty shall we say.

I am somewhat humbled to find that I've been mentioned in the ins itself, though I'm more than pleased the xls turned out to be of value to someone rather more technically adept than I proved to be.

Now that I can see how the file is supposed to come out, I will perhaps go and see if I can get my own code functioning again.

Hi, mdbatchelor
 
I tried importing your impressive instrument definition list into SP 8.5, and got the message "file does not contain any instrument definitions".  Is there something else I have to do?

I tried importing your impressive instrument definition list into SP 8.5, and got the message "file does not contain any instrument definitions".  Is there something else I have to do?

I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble. I was able to use the file in Sonar 7.x, but I don't believe I actually imported the file through the UI. I manually pasted the information into the master.ins - sorry - I was hacking around.

Can someone out there hack the last bit in there?

I have painstakingly entered in all of the instrument definitions for the DR-880 PRESET drum kits and basses. 
 
If someone can tell me how to convert that to a file and upload it here, I will do it.  Before you pitch a tent, know that there's two very slight problems with these definitions:
 
Problem 1.
Once I completed this instrument definition list, they worked perfectly for a few days.  I would select a drum kit and automatically the note names would change in the piano roll view.  For whatever reason, this automation stopped after just a few days.  Cakewalk support can't help, they have no idea what they're doing and it takes weeks for any response.  We're on our own.  Now when I change kits from the drop down menu on the midi drum channel it WILL trigger the DR-880 to change kits.  However, I now have to go to the piano roll view and then select "choose these note names" and find the name of the kit and select it in order for everything to be labeled properly in the piano roll view.  It's not a huge deal, but an annoyance nonetheless.
 
Problem 2.
I think this has more to do with the way the DR-880 is programmed and not with the instrument definitions.  Let's suppose you have 2 midi tracks, one for bass and one for drums.  Bass is midi channel 2 (as the DR-880 only recognizes bass on channel 2) and Drums midi channel 10.  When you change the drum kit, the bass automatically changes to that preset Drum/Bass combo.  There's no way to tell the DR-880 to use, for instance, Studio Kit 1 and FM Bass (two PRESET sounds/kits that aren't "linked" to each other) and it actually use those sounds simultaneously.  This is also a little annoying.  In order to use a preset kit and a preset bass sound that aren't tied to each other, I have to record the kit I want and the change to the "drum kit" that contains the bass sound I want and then record the bass. 
 
It's usable, it took me about 3 weeks of programming these definitions into Sonar.  They're all correct, though I have made a few tweaks to some of the names.  For instance,  on a kit there might be two of the same tom sounds and one might be tuned a little higher/lower than the other one.  They share the exact same sample name though.  In this case I did modify the name to high/low tom 2...or whatever.  I made sure adding a hi/low name didn't conflict with the other sample names within that particular kit.  If you can live with this, I can help you finally get your instrument names on the piano roll.  Just tell me how to get the file from my computer to here and they're yours.

I know little to nothing about online file sharing.  I tried uploading the Instrument Definitions for the BOSS DR-880 to this free website and copied the link.  I think I did it right.
 

 
Let me know if this works or doesn't.  I'm not experienced in these things.