Hello all,
and thanks in advance toward anyone who would be so kind into helping me solve this issue Ive been having.
 
I own Sonar x2. I am using Session drummer.
I right click on an instrument to open up a sound file, specifically high hat. Load the high hat. Ok everything is good. Then when I hit play back I notice it only plays a closed high hat and not any open high hats. Even though the note in piano roll view display's the marker on a open high hat, It still plays a close hat. What am I not getting? Is there something im supposed to do to allow both (open hat and closed hat) to work simultaneously?
 
I apologize if this is a stupid question but I have searched forums and can not figure it out.
 
Thanks
Matthew

If you are loading samples directly into Session Drummer, the synth with only play one sample per instrument pad. Sfz files are needed to play multiple samples.

How do I go about doing this?

sfz files are text files. There are many examples of them supplied with Session Drummer. You could take an existing file, copy it and replace the sample file names with your own. All you need is a text editor like notepad or wordpad. The default location for the high hat sfz files is "c:\program files\cakewalk\session drummer 2\contents\kits\3 - hats" or "c:\program files\cakewalk\session drummer 3\contents\kits\3 - hats" depending on which version of Session Drummer you have. IIRC, only X2 Producer shipped with Session Drummer 3.

I did what you mentioned but only see (.Flac) files. I dont see any sfz files.
 
This all seems very confusing. Is there a way around this? Different ways or methods? Can I just upload a open hat on another track in session drummer. Could that work? Also can you have more then 12 instruments using session drummer?
 
If there is not another method, then maybe you can give me a step by step, if its not an inconvenience. Im lost.
 
Thanks.

If you see flac files, you are one level too deep. The sfz files should be one directory above the flac files.
 
Session Drummer is an sfz engine synth. If you want to use your own samples effectively, you will need to gain some familiarity with how the synth interacts with sfz files. There are resources on the web such as http://www.cakewalk.com/D...e/article.aspx?aid=108 but in this case, reading an existing sfz file may be the easiest way to learn.
 
If you need more pads than one instance of Session Drummer provides load more instances of the synth.
 
On the other hand maybe a different tool like TX16Wx would better suit your requirements.

Never been a fan of having to edit sfz files just to load my own samples but fortunately Sonar comes with a decent amount of sfz files and there are plenty of others available for those who have no desire to look at code.  On the bright side, if it is just a matter of swapping samples, altering the code is not very hard.  I would backup any sfz file I edited.

what is the real difference between flac and sfz. I guess the thought is surpassing me and I dont quite understand the main difference and why I cant use both. Is it that sfz files have some sort of text file code that allows multiple different sounds to be generated on one channel in session drummer. Example: open high hat, closed high hat, and peddle close on one channel at the same time. Opposed to flac files that will only have one sound on that channel. Example: just open hat, or just closed hat?
 
If this is so, then why are there so many flac files and fewer sfc files. What would be the reason of having flac anyways if people would want a combination of sounds on one channel.
 
Is it that sfc files sound better then flac?
 
All these questions, I am sorry, but I guess this is what you have to go threw when you are a newb! ha. I am learning a lot from all of you guys. Thank you very much for your support and patience.
 

No need for apology.  That is what this forum is for.  Don't think of sfz as a sound file in the same sense as you would a fla, wav, ogg, mp3, etc.  The sfz files in session drummer actually use the flac files you are trying to access. Flac files are high quality audio files that use a lossless compression method.  Sfz files within SD3 contain info tat points to the actual sound file sources, among other things. You cannot make a flac a multi-sample. There are few widely available, non-proprietary file formats that allow for multi-samples.  If you open up one of the sfz files using notepad it will give you a better idea what the sfz file is.  Here , for instance is what the sfz file for the high hats for the 808 kit:
 
// TR-808 Hi-Hats 1

// Closed Hi-Hat
<group> key=42 loop_mode=one_shot

<region> group=1 off_by=1 lovel=0 hivel=127 sample=RhythmMachines TR-808 Hats\ClosedHH.wav

// Closed & Open
<group> key=44 loop_mode=one_shot

<region> group=1 off_by=1 lovel=0 hivel=127 sample=RhythmMachines TR-808 Hats\BothHH_0.wav

// Open Hi-Hat
<group> key=46 loop_mode=one_shot

<region> group=1 off_by=1 lovel=0 hivel=127 sample=RhythmMachines TR-808 Hats\OpenHH_0.wav

// Closed Hi-Hat
<group> key=22 loop_mode=one_shot

<region> group=1 off_by=1 lovel=0 hivel=127 sample=RhythmMachines TR-808 Hats\ClosedHH.wav

// Open Hi-Hat
<group> key=26 loop_mode=one_shot

<region> group=1 off_by=1 lovel=0 hivel=127 sample=RhythmMachines TR-808 Hats\OpenHH_0.wav
 
 
 
This one is relatively straight forward. It defines all the files and their location this multi-sample consists of , the volume range, loop mode as well note range for each sample.  Although the sfz file is loaded on to only one slot in SD3, instructions map the respective sounds to the proper places on a keyboard.  The files you are attempting to open would be the files referenced within the sfz file instead of the sfz file itself.  A flac or wav will work in SD3 but it will only contain the one sound.

Of course, if you actually just want to make music rather than spreadsheets, I highly recommend Jamstix. I really don't know why I suffered for years faffing around with drum maps, loading samples and trying to play drums (poorly) from keyboard or pads and just feeling the whole creative urge drain away. Jamstix gives you a virtual drummer who will just play in a variety of styles, add fills and embellishments based on your playing dynamics and, frankly, saves so much time getting your ideas down that I can't imagine trying to do things with tools like Session Drummer any more. After all, once you have the backing track you can go back and fool around with it and stuff, but this gets you from A to B in minutes. It understands verses, choruses and bridges etc, so you can just type in VVCVV etc and your 'drummer' just gets on with it. Doesn't require any beer or pizza, either :).
Or, if electronic music is more your scene, I can't recommend Geist too highly. Unfortunately Fxpansion's regular price is too high, but it goes on sale regularly and for around a hundred bucks on sale, this is a proper tool for managing samples, sequences and patterns. Enormously powerful but very very well thought out. It's a shame Sonar has never really bundled any decent solutions for rhythm tracks - you have to fork out extra money - but between these two tools I can't imagine any need to ever fight with Session Drummer ever again, something I, for one, won't miss.