The Drum Conversion Project

[Bob]

Hello fellow musicians!

Want drum parts that sound accurate? Don't know how? Well read on!

After Warden and I set up the Fat Lute, we got kinda lazy and have pretty much let it run with nothing more than the occasional editing of the songs lists. I'd like to do a lot more, but unfortunately the man with the know how is pretty AWOL. As such, I'm going to bring the next TFL project straight to the forums for testing etc. so I don't have to bug him til it's ready to ship on the site.

Since I started making ABCs, I've tried to add in drums parts. At first these were done by hand, which was ridiculous and tedious. I posted up a list of note conversions on here (long since deleted ) that worked for most basic drum parts. It was relatively simple and crude method that used the replace all function in notepad. It caused all sorts of problems the more complicated the ABC was, and sometimes you'd end up going through it line by line, which isn't that fun. Most people I know just totally ignore the drum parts, or leave it unchanged if it doesn't sound horrendous.

But I have this absolutely AMAZING friend, Craigins <3, who codes like a maestro. He's taken a couple of evenings to help me out by creating a program that will convert the untouched drum ABCs into something playable for you.

We've literally only just worked out any major kinks this evening, so it's in an early testing stage. I want to throw this out to people and get some feedback.


Since it works on drum ABCs transposed at 0, you can go redownload those awesome midis you made without drums and have them ready in a second.


Sound good?

Ok, here's how to get it!

http://www.velox-mortis.com/lotro/abc/NoteReplacer.exe

This gives you the program. If you want to look at the source code (geeks only) then download: http://www.velox-mortis.com/lotro/abc/NoteReplacer.zip

A few notes:

1. Sorry XP users, we've made this with Vista/Win7 in mind. It may work on XP, I don't know. You'll have to try it and let me know.

2. Make sure you have Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 installed. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=333325fd-ae52-4e35-b531-508d977d32a6&displaylang=en

3. Download the Note Replace.exe and save it desktop. It should load up straight away if you double click on it, but if it doesn't you need to give it permission. Right click > properties > hit the unblock button.

4. Follow the instructions at http://www.thefatlute.com/Tutorial.aspx to create your ABCs. This is designed to work alongside the LotRO Midi player.
Using any other program to convert midis to ABCs may not work.

3. Make sure that the drum part is transposed at 0. This is very important. The rest can be transposed however you like.

4. Open up the Note Replacer, hit file > open, and locate your drum part ABC.

5. The left hand column shows what notes are present in the ABC. These are white if there are no note conversions set. You want the whole thing to turn sky blue.

6. When the conversion is read, go to file > save, and save your ABC part in your lotro music folder. It will be ready to play!

The first time you use it, you will have to input the changes by hand or download the below config file.
Click each note in the left hand side, and either find the note you wish to replace with in the right hand column, or enter it manually in the "replace with" field. After doing this, hit the set button and it will save the note and your chosen conversion.
When you close the session, it will be saved, allowing you to use the same settings for subsequent ABC conversions.



I'll give you a template ABC to make sure you can preset all the main notes.
Save this the way you do with all ABCs, in a notepad. It doesn't matter if it's a .txt or a .abc, both should work. Open up this ABC in the Note Replacer. You'll see a full list of most of the common ABC notes on the left column. All you've got to do is set them to the suggestions below, save the ABC, close the program, and it'll save these preferences. You should then be ready to go with your favourite ABCs.

X: 1
T: Drum presets for Note Replacer
Z: Figgy - Elendilmir
L: 1/4
Q: 94
K: C

C, ^C, D, ^D, E, F, ^F, G, ^G, A, ^A, B, 
C ^C D ^D E F ^F G ^G A ^A B
C' ^C' D' ^D' E' F' ^F' G' ^G' A' ^A' B' 
c ^c d ^d e f ^f g ^g a ^a b c'

Original   Replace with
 C,        ^C
^C,        ^D    
 D,         E,
^D,        ^A,

 E,         D,
 F,        ^C    
^F,        ^C,    
 G,         D

^G,        ^C,
 A,        ^G
^A,         A
 B,         a    <<<<<

 C         g    <<<<<
^C         A
 D         b    <<<<<
^D         E

 E         G
 F         B
^F         F    
 G         A    

^G        ^D
 A         c    <<<<<
^A        ^A,
 B         c    <<<<<

 C'        ^c    <<<<<
^C'        ^g
 D'         E,
^D'        ^a    <<<<<

 E'         B,    
 F'         b    <<<<<
^F'         g    <<<<<
 G'        ^C,

^G'         B    
 A'        ^C,
^A'         F
 B'         A,    

c'         A,

 c        ^d    <<<<<
^c        ^g    <<<<<
 d         E,
^d        ^a    <<<<<
 e         B,
 f         b    <<<<<
^f         g    <<<<<
 g        ^C,
^g         B
 a        ^C,
^a         F
 b         A,

Alternatively you can download this file http://www.velox-mortis.com/lotro/abc/config.cfg and plop it on your desktop to get the above presets.

The way I converted these was to make up a drum midi file with all the above notes, then opened up lotro and tried to match what sounds were the most similar. It's not perfect. If you make any changes in the notes, please let me know as I'd love to improve it. Please note that not all the drum sounds are supported by LotRO, you get 3 octaves and there are many more sounds. I have given a closest approximation of the sounds. It means some notes are reused, and therefore the drum parts are likely to sound different to how they do in the actual song, but you certainly should be able to recognise it and play it with your fellows well.


So there you are!

If you have any questions or comments, please post below. Happy Drumming!


Update 1: downloadable config file added.
Update 2: 08/29/10 fixed an error in the config file. You will need to imput by hand for now. <<<<< shows updated notes, all others are the same. Downloadable link is broken.

[durinsbane]

Awesome Figgy!!!

I can't wait to try this out, of course it may be weeks before I can, and you will, I am sure, get lots of feedback from the rest of the music community before then.

Thanks in advance....

[Fionnuala]

Eh, my way may take more than a second. But I have plenty of control and the results are almost always spectacular.

[Bob]

Thanks durinsbane! It was all Craigins' hard work. I'm looking for any kind of feedback. Let me know if it works and you're happy with it, if you get errors, or if there's something it really needs to do, but it isn't doing. I might request a sticky for this, since it'll be an ongoing project and I hope people will be interested in it.

[Craigins]

FYI It was written in C#, Visual Studios 2008.

You should only need .Net 3.0, but 3.5 will make sure it works .

[Bob]

I know it's early days, but has anyone tried this out yet? Has it been successful? Instructions confusing? Doesn't work well enough? Notes are off? Even if you've used it and thought it worked fine, please let me know!

[durinsbane]

Sorry, RL hassles, and commitments are keeping me from doing anything music wise in game. Only thing I have done so far is install program. I haven't transposed anything yet, but did import the default config file. The program seems to work up to that point fine, and only reason I am letting you know this is cause I am still running XP, (what can I say, I still think this is the best windows version for gamers out there). so when I get some free time, maybe tomorrow, I will use the program more in depth, and let u know.

[Bob]

oooh good to know. If it opens and the config file works, I don't see why there'd be any problems doing complete conversions. I might switch my old harddrive in later and give it a go on my XP system.


btw you have a pm, DB.

Cheers!

[Laurefinde]

I tested this today on a drum file I transposed in a 6 part song (Red Wine). It changed the notes and it sounds good but only getting together with 5 others will tell me if it worked as planned.

I just tested another drum file from In The Mood and it changed it but again I won't have the ability to test with other musicians until next week when we get together to work on songs. I'll let you know how they worked out.

Here is a drum map created by Diamond, one of the members of the Eriador Music Society

[durinsbane]

Played around with this yesterday. Everything seems to work as planned. file I made sounded good, and it synced up perfectly with other parts. So I would say program works well with XP. again when I find a bit more time I will check it out further, and try to break it to see if there is any bugs that I can find...lol.

And again, thanks for going through all the work to make this program, very much appreciated.

[Laurefinde]

There are some assumptions on my part with the program so here are my questions.

After we have set up the initial config file and when converting a file to the correct drum sound should we select Sort By Note rather than Octave? Or am I reading this wrong? Would the Sort By Octave help when changing the C to another octave to eliminate the woodwind beetle, quack or hiss or does it have anything to do with that?

When having done all the note changes on a drum song file I assume we save the file under the file menu? Or does saving the file change the original configuration of the program after we set it up initially?

Pardon my questions if it seems obvious to you or others, my brain is full because I am old. ;D

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Laurefinde

There are some assumptions on my part with the program so here are my questions.

After we have set up the initial config file and when converting a file to the correct drum sound should we select Sort By Note rather than Octave? Or am I reading this wrong? Would the Sort By Octave help when changing the C to another octave to eliminate the woodwind beetle, quack or hiss or does it have anything to do with that?

When having done all the note changes on a drum song file I assume we save the file under the file menu? Or does saving the file change the original configuration of the program after we set it up initially?

Pardon my questions if it seems obvious to you or others, my brain is full because I am old. ;D

Sort by octave and note doesn't have any effect on the ABC it creates. It only changes the way the notes that are present in the ABC are displayed in the program, just so you can find any notes you'd like to change easier.

For example, the left box would go from:
C,
D,
C
D
c
d

to:

C,
C
c
D,
D
d

If you're never going to change the config file, it's fine to leave it as it is. If you're looking to go through it by hand and choose your own conversions, it simply gives you the choice of how you would like the notes displayed.

EDIT: And yes, The NR doesn't replace the original file. You get to choose what you save it as. it goes:

Open ABC in note replacer
Set notes manually if you're not using my config file. They should all by sky blue (config file should do this for you)
File > Save, saves it straight to an ABC so choose the name and your lotro music folder.
Done! Go play it!

The beauty is that when your config file is how you'd like it, the process is as easy as Open file > save file. DONE!

[Siegfriedpf]

Just gave it a shot on the drum track for a piece I'd previously transcribed sans drum--drums sounded good. I'll have GHMS give the song a play next week and let you know. I may also have it convert drums for a song where I did it by hand and see how that turns out.

[Laurefinde]

Initially I have experimented on one drum track with what I thought were two ways to convert the notes with the program.

The first one I went note by note, changing/replacing to the represented note in the config file.

The second way I just saved the file after opening it up in the program. It seems I don't have to go note by note at all, which is great! I was worried about changing one note to the correct one then finding it blended in with the next note that should have been changed before the first was changed. Not sure this is understandable. Anyway, I am glad I don't have to worry about that!

I have worked some more with the conversion and I am happy with the results. Thanks for creating this little program and releasing it to us musicians. It will be very helpful!

[Hoppa_Joel]

Very nice job!
this saves a lot of hassle of drum file editing.