I have Sonar X2 studio edition. I really don't like the sounds in SI Drummer. I have a bunch of other drums sounds i like, that are in .WAV and MP3 format. How can I get them into the drum machine so I can trigger them?
I tried going to Media in the browser and dragging it to the track, but obviously it didn't work cuz the stuff like hihats are way too short and show up as a super narrow line.

Evnabby : "How can I get them into the drum machine so I can trigger them?"

Not easily :-)

The program (.prog) file points to the various instruments.
This file is located in C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Studio Instruments\SI-Drum Kit\Programs

The prog file is uneditable, but readable with Notepad. In it you'll see pointers to various instrument definition files (.sfz).
These files are located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Cakewalk\Studio Instruments\SI-Drum Kit\Kits

The sfz file is editable with Notepad. In it, you'll see pointers to the WAV file samples.

Normally, you could either change a file path\name to another one or replace the wav file pointed to with another with the same name. However, these SI-Drums sfz files contain a couple of (undocumented ?) parameters that may or may not prevent any of this from happening :

encryption_scheme=1
encryption_key=f9124d38933b6a

I have no idea what these parameters do.

You can get the sfz specification off the cakewalk.com website, but it doesn't mention encryption.

To use mp3 files, you'd have to first convert them to wav files, but they probably won't sound good.

Oh my that's hard. Can you go into detail, or point me to a step by step video? I have no idea what to do

I think the point is you're not supposed to change the sounds :-)

It's just a simple drum machine with a few sounds.

The program is only worth 5$ or so, so you can't ask too much of it.

Maybe you should look at some better drum programs.

I can recommend EZ Drummer (ToonTrack) as a relatively cheap, expandable, and extremely usable option if you want better drums.

heres a videio on triggering that I made but it is with session drummer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZS61Wg-XY

as paul said, its a complicated process because si drums loads sfz's which use flac files.
my advice would be to upgrade to a better vsti drum synth.

sorry I know its not much help.

you can do quite a bit though using si drums as seen here in my basic midi video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k83UVo1OiKA

@Evnabby: Sorry if I’m mistaken, but it seems to me that your original post is saying you already have good, satisfactory drum samples and are simply wanting to know how to trigger them using the drum machine. Since you used “the,” I suppose this “drum machine” means SI-Drum Kit, but maybe you just want any drum machine (or sampler) to trigger those samples? Then, your question would be “Where can I get a good free drum sampler?”

exactly.

I recommend keeping your eyes posted on the web for deals on Steven Slate Drums they had a no brainer deal a while back for a couple kits inside their sampler for $20 and one of the computer music magazine back issues and or beat magazine issues has Geist lite on the disk which could work for you as well. BFD eco is on sales every once in a while. EZ Drummer might be on sale at audiodeluxe.com just looked and its $74.99 there. which is a decent discount. 


jamstix is another program worth looking at its on my wishlist.