Chapter 9: Extras; A Word About The Included Cd-Rom; Sound Bridge - Alesis DM Pro Reference Manual

C 9:
HAPTER
E
XTRAS
A W A I CD-ROM
ORD BOUT THE NCLUDED
Included with the DM Pro is a CD-ROM containing various useful software
programs to use with your DM Pro and other Alesis MIDI products. These include
various Alesis and third-party programs, samples, sequences stored in the MIDI
Song File (SMF) format, plus demonstration software we thought you would find
™ ®
interesting. Most of these programs are provided in both Macintosh and IBM PC
formats.
S B ™
OUND RIDGE
Among the files contained on the CD-ROM is a software program called Sound
Bridge . Sound Bridge is a sound development utility which you can use to compile
™
custom samples from a variety of sources into the DM Pro Voice format, and then
download the compiled data to an Alesis PCMCIA Flash RAM Sound Card via MIDI
SysEx to a DM Pro Drum Module. Sound Bridge allows individuals and sound
developers to make their own Sound Cards, using whatever samples they want.
Sound Bridge makes this possible without having a PCMCIA card burner attached to
your computer. All you need is a DM Pro.
Sound Bridge creates a DM Pro Voice by allowing you to load in single sound files in
a variety of formats and sample playback rates. Sound Bridge will keep track of the
root notes, sample start points, loop points, and loop tunings of the sound file. Sound
Bridge can also create DM Pro Voices by loading Digidesign Sample Cell™ I or
Sample Cell™ II format Instrument files. Using this format, Sound Bridge is able
additionally to determine velocity group split points and keep track of tunings in the
various "key groups" of the instrument. When you call up such a "chromatic"
instrument as a Drum and alter its pitch with the Tune Function, the DM Pro will
automatically switch to the next key group (sample) at the appropriate time.
Sound Bridge does NOT require Sample Cell™ hardware. The Sample Cell
Instrument file, or sample file, may be loaded directly into Sound Bridge from any
disk (i.e. your QS CD-ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, etc.). For example, a user may
load data from a Sample Cell-compatible CD-ROM and then send this data to the
DM Pro's PCMCIA Card without using Sample Cell in between.
NOTE: If you are interested in creating and/or editing your own custom Sample
Cell Instruments, you will need Digidesign's Sample Cell™ hardware and software.
Sound Bridge also allows you to burn sequences to the SRAM or Flash RAM card
you place in the DM Pro's front-panel expansion slot. These are sent over as a part of
the Sound Bridge project, along with any samples and a Drumkit bank. For more
information on how to access the sequences once you've burned them to the card, see
the section called "Playing Back a Sequence from the Card Slot" on the next page.
The Sound Bridge folder on the CD-ROM contains the Sound Bridge application and
an electronic manual which will give you all the information you need to know to
run Sound Bridge.