August 2004 - Doggiebox - lists.zygoat.ca

Playing around the beat...
by Aaron Saunders 17 Aug '04

17 Aug '04

Hi Ben and list, I tried the Doggiebox demo a few times last year but I finally bought a licence with the new release. The addition of the playlist was great and makes the package much more versatile. I am a bass player and I now use DBox every time I practise to keep me tight. I have a suggestion. I play a bit of swing jazz etc. and wonder have you looked at putting in a beat location type of slider. Where you could adjust the feel of the drum to be on the beat or to lag or push around the beat. I don't know how other drum sequencers simulate this effect that you get when playing swing with a real drummer but this could give the patterns some more groove. Thanks Ben. Aaron Brisbane, Australia P.S. I think I may have noticed a bug. The pattern icons on the screen do not update when the drum kit is changed. The mouse must be moved over or the pattern or playlist settings changed so that the display updates.

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1C3: Recipes and faster kits
by Ben Kennedy 17 Aug '04

17 Aug '04

Folks, A new build is up at <http://www.doggiebox.com/distribution/Doggiebox- 1C3.zip> for your boxing pleasure! Following are the release notes as included in the archive. Please read them through, then play around with drum kits with the new build and let me know if you run into any anomalies or performance issues. As you will see, I have tried to devise a neat solution to the "recipe" idea that has been bandied about on this list for some time. Provided that this works as well as planned, it should provide an almost- transparent way to create and distribute "recipe"-based drum kits while requiring virtually no new learning curve for the end user. Let me know how it goes, and hopefully we can finally get some distributable ns_kit and GarageBand dbkits moving around! -ben ------------------------------ Notes for 1C3 (11 May 2004): This build contains some major improvements to the underlying mechanics of drum kit system, facilitating faster load times for songs as well as support for linked (as opposed to embedded) sound files. The .dbkit file format has changed in this version and now uses a "bundle" (enclosed subdirectory) format. On systems running a pre-1C3 version, new drum kits may appear in the Finder as a folder containing several files. If the included "GB Rock Drums.dbkit" appears to be a folder (instead of a file with the usual dbkit icon), make sure you delete any older copies of Doggiebox. You may also have to logout and re-login. Waveform data for each drum sound is now stored individually in the drum kit and each is loaded on demand as required, as opposed to all waveforms for the entire kit loading at once as before. This should result in better memory management, as well as faster response when opening drum kits and song files (particularly noticable with large drum kits). To upgrade existing kits to the new format, simply open them up in the drum kit editor and re-save them. In addition to deferred loading, the new kit format now also facilitates linking to external sound files as opposed to saving them within the drum kit file. This way, it is now possible to create kits based on audio repositories from other sources (such as GarageBand and ns_kit) and exchange them with others without having to duplicate and transport all of the audio data. If you attempt to use a drum kit containing linked sounds which you did not assemble, it is likely that Doggiebox will not initially know where to find the audio files. In such a case, the user will be automatically prompted to choose a folder in which to search for the sounds. Doggiebox will perform a recursive search and attempt to locate sound files matching the originally linked filenames, and remember them from then on. CHANGES TO THE DRUM KIT EDITOR: The drum list has a new column, labeled "Sound". Clicking in this column will activate a pop-up menu allowing you to specify whether to Embed or Link the waveform data for each drum sound. By default Doggiebox will Embed (as in previous versions), but you can also choose to Link, in which case the audio data for that drum will not be saved in the drum kit file. Above the drum list is a button labeled "Fix Links", which will manually invoke the link resolution process by prompting you to choose a folder to scan for sound files. Doggiebox will then attempt to locate sound files for any broken links. Before being prompted to choose a folder, an explanatory alert will be displayed. Clicking the "Set Prompt..." button allows you to customize the message that's shown. (It is advisable to provide some helpful text, depending on the nature of the drum kit, to point the user in the right direction. For example, "please choose the folder containing the files you downloaded from nskit.com"). The link-fixing process will be invoked automatically if you open a song file that uses a kit containing broken links. OTHER CHANGES IN THIS BUILD: No changes to MIDI since 1C2. Effort in this cycle was focused on the drum kit system only. Next build will contain MIDI improvements. (Is anybody actually testing MIDI? I have received zero feedback since 1C2.) The master tempo slider in the song editor has been adjusted so that there should no longer be ambiguity about the middle setting really being 100%. Also, minor cosmetic changes to the push/pull tempo buttons. GENERAL TESTING NOTES: The included "GB Rock Drums.dbkit" is an initial (incomplete) effort at creating a dbkit for the Rock Drums kit supplied with Apple's GarageBand, using icons from the Reverend Rat's set. If you have GarageBand installed on your system, please attempt using this kit and report any problems you have making it work. If anyone would like to pick up the ball and complete this kit, I would encourage it -- please mention so on the mailing list so we can avoid duplication of effort. I would like to eventually have all of the GarageBand kits available for when Doggiebox 1.2 is ready for release. Same with ns_kit 7, too! This build has been tested under 10.3.{3,4}, but not 10.2. As usual, please report any and all feedback either to Ben or to the mailing list. Enjoy! ------------------------------ Again, it's snaggable at <http://www.doggiebox.com/distribution/ Doggiebox-1C3.zip> -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca

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Re: DB beta MIDI implementation
by Ben Kennedy 16 Aug '04

16 Aug '04

On 06 8 2004 at 3:41 pm -0400, Sooz and Ken Boldt wrote: >Doggiebox doesn't seem to respond to any of this - it doesn't start or >stop and it's tempo never changes regardless of how I stomp the pedal. >Can you tell me if DB should be responding to any of this? Or is that >not what its MIDI implementation is supposed to allow? Hey Ken, First, please pardon my delay in getting back to you on this... I've still been catching up on my post-vacation e-mail backlog. Thanks very much for your message; you are precisely the type of user I've been hoping to hear from regarding MIDI stuff (aside from Carl I really haven't had too much MIDI-related feedback so far). At the moment, DB does not listen for any incoming MIDI play-related messages (the only thing it pays attention to are note messages, which change the currently selected drum for editing). However, for the next build, I will add the obviously missing support for MIDI start and stop. Incoming MIDI clock presents an interesting issue. I think it would be undesirable to destructively change the song based on incoming tempo (e.g. altering the marked tempo in the current bar), however, it strikes me that DB could adjust the tempo slider (i.e. relative master tempo) based on the ratio of incoming (tapped) tempo vs. current bar's tempo, if you see what I mean. In practice that is probably what you want to achieve anyhow. Whaddya think? -ben -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca

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My band's doggiefied demos
by Phil Moore 16 Aug '04

16 Aug '04

Hi everyone, I've read the list for quite a while now, though I have never actually posted. My band has been putting together some demos lately, using doggiebox for drums since for the next month and a half I'm not living anywhere with space for a real drum set up. Now that the list is showing some signs of life again I thought that if I posted some mp3s I might get some good feedback. The songs are posted here: http://www.spudnikpop.com/demos/dbox.html If anyone has any tips or opinions about the doggieboxing, the recording, or anything else about the songs, I'd love to hear it! I think that I used the nskit_1dbkit for all the tracks. I've seen references to what seem to be newer conversions of the nskit to dbkits, is there anyplace where those are available for download? Thanks! Phil

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Fwd: [Doggiebox] Still barking?
by Carl Edlund Anderson 15 Aug '04

15 Aug '04

Begin forwarded message: > From: Musicbox <musicbox(a)pi.be> > Date: 13 August 2004 21:50:08 BST > To: Carl Edlund Anderson <cea(a)carlaz.com> > Subject: Re: [Doggiebox] Still barking? > > > On 13 Aug 2004, at 18:52, Carl Edlund Anderson wrote: > >> Ben Kennedy wrote: >>> I was on vacation for a couple of weeks, but I am swinging back into >>> action now. The doggie is indeed barking and hopefully the cadence >>> thereof will slowly increase to its former fervour over the coming >>> weeks. :) >> >> Through strange synchronicity, the MP3 jukebox in my place o'work >> randomly played Ben's DB-powered cover of "Go with the Flow" just >> before this message arrived. (I had stuck the MP3 on there a while >> back in order to give it a listen.) > > In my iTunes 'jukebox' playlist 'Reach You' is ranking high... When > do you 'tape' something new, ben? > > Mathieu > www.thirdson.tk > > -- Carl Edlund Anderson http://www.carlaz.com/

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Still barking?
by Carl Edlund Anderson 13 Aug '04

13 Aug '04

Hey all, is this list alive? It's been a long time since I've heard a peep out of anyone .... Cheers, Carl -- Carl Edlund Anderson http://www.carlaz.com/

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Re: [Doggiebox] drum sound editing trick
by mcarlyle＠charter.net 11 Aug '04

11 Aug '04

Good idea. Another one might be to reverse a long-decaying cymbal to create a crescendo effect. You'd have to nip off the end (formerly the beginning) and fade it out a bit, but it should work. > > From: Dan Costello <stellaswindow(a)earthlink.net> > Date: 2004/08/10 Tue PM 12:33:35 EDT > To: doggiebox(a)lists.zygoat.ca > Subject: [Doggiebox] drum sound editing trick > > Hey all-- > > Thought this might be of interest to those of you looking to add > variety to your existing DB kits. > > I just discovered that I can take a cymbal sound into an editor, nip > off just the front few microseconds of it, and get a sound like a > softer hit on that cymbal. It's not perfect, because the initial attack > of the stick tip actually hitting the metal is lost. But it sounds > surprisingly good, especially in the mix of a well-built DBsong, and > it's sure a lot easier than trying to RECORD half a dozen different > attacks on each cymbal. > > Cheers, > Dan > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Zygoat Doggiebox discussion list - <http://www.doggiebox.com> > To unsubscribe, view archives or change your options: > <http://lists.zygoat.ca/mailman/listinfo/doggiebox> >

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drum sound editing trick
by Dan Costello 10 Aug '04

10 Aug '04

Hey all-- Thought this might be of interest to those of you looking to add variety to your existing DB kits. I just discovered that I can take a cymbal sound into an editor, nip off just the front few microseconds of it, and get a sound like a softer hit on that cymbal. It's not perfect, because the initial attack of the stick tip actually hitting the metal is lost. But it sounds surprisingly good, especially in the mix of a well-built DBsong, and it's sure a lot easier than trying to RECORD half a dozen different attacks on each cymbal. Cheers, Dan

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