In the Media Browser, I am attempting to preview Session Drummer samples (.flac files). At first, none of them were playing, then I changed the preview bus and outputs, which got SOME of them working. Now, within the same list of samples, half of them preview and half do not. Oddly enough, if I drag a sample that does not preview onto the session drummer drum image, the sample workss just fine, it only won't preview in the browser. But some will. 'sup with dat?
 
Also, I don't understand how to put different samples on different notes of the same instrument. On the snare, for example, I will drag "Snare Note 40" onto the drum image, which will play a regular snare, and then I will add "SideStick Note 37", and that completely replaces the first sample, no matter which note I hit on the keyboard. It appears as if I'm supposed to get four Midi notes for different sanre hits (37-40) but then whenever I drag a sound onto the image, all four Midi notes play the sound I just dragged onto it. Er??

Don't know about the preview problem, all the samples I tested worked fine.
 
Dragging samples onto instruments in Session Drummer results in one sample per pad. To play more than one sample per pad, the samples must be loaded using sfz files. The menus allow instrument selection for preview when samples are loaded using sfz files.

I suspect your preview problem may be related to trying to preview sfz files, but that is purely guess.  Scook is right about the rest.  You simply cannot create multi-sampled drums in SD3 via drag and drop or even the load sample feature.  You will have to edit the SFZ file.  That may sound a bit daunting but if you simply want to switch out a sample or two, it is a relatively painless (but inconvenient) process of opening an exiisting sfz file and editing the line of code to reflect the sample you wish to replace.  I suggest making a copy of original sfz file to work from ion case youy make a mistake

jkoseattle
In the Media Browser, I am attempting to preview Session Drummer samples (.flac files).

What version of Sonar are you running ?  My X2 browser will hang on a .flac sample so I converted all flacs to wavs.
 
It looks like this is no longer an issue in X3.
 
 

Is looping turned on (via the Browser drop-down menu) for sample preview? If so, try turning it off.

 

Anderton
Is looping turned on (via the Browser drop-down menu) for sample preview? If so, try turning it off.

We have a winner! Turning off looping fixed the problem. Thank you!!!
 
As for the sfz file thing, I'm not too daunted by the process. I've never heard of sfz files, but from the comments here it sounds like they are simply some sort of text file with the names of samples listed in them? Is this a hack, or is it documented somewhere? Seems odd to be so convoluted for something that seems pretty basic.

The sfz engine is the basis of DimPro, Rapture, the Studio Instruments and Session Drummer. Several other vendors have adopted the use of sfz files. Here is a Cakewalk knowledge base article about sfz http://www.cakewalk.com/DevXchange/article.aspx?aid=108
 
All the samples supplied with Session Drummer have sfz files predefined. The sfz files are located in the directory above the samples. A collection of the sfz files define a Session Drummer kit. A kit and MIDI loops are saved as Session Drummer programs. All of this is documented in the Session Drummer documentation. To access the Session Drummer documentation with the Session Drummer UI in focus, press the F1 key

jkoseattle
 
As for the sfz file thing, I'm not too daunted by the process. I've never heard of sfz files, but from the comments here it sounds like they are simply some sort of text file with the names of samples listed in them? Is this a hack, or is it documented somewhere? Seems odd to be so convoluted for something that seems pretty basic.

You might find this article I wrote about creating instruments with SFZ files helpful.

Anderton

jkoseattle
 
As for the sfz file thing, I'm not too daunted by the process. I've never heard of sfz files, but from the comments here it sounds like they are simply some sort of text file with the names of samples listed in them? Is this a hack, or is it documented somewhere? Seems odd to be so convoluted for something that seems pretty basic.

You might find this article I wrote about creating instruments with SFZ files helpful.

this one is on my favorites bar right now.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr08/articles/sonartech_0408.htm
I read it a lot, im still trying to figureout how to make my own SFZ files because I think they are (even though maybe a bit dates) very powerful, no not a hack, a great way to create your own custom library.
 
the link I posted is by Craig Anderton himself, and even though its a bit older its a great article.
im am very fondle of Craigs articles, they go in to depth enough but not so much as your trying to figure out E - 3 = square.
 
love the power of SFZ files. the boundaries are endless.