[LAU] sf2 to h2kit?

[Gabriel M. Beddingfield]

On Saturday, February 19, 2011 12:59:37 pm allcoms wrote:
> I'm wondering if a straight sf2 to h2kit would actually
> be possible now. I've not been able to find any docs on
> the h2kit format but through browsing the hydrogen
> forums I'm now concerned that h2kits are limited to 32
> instruments/samples/notes? On top of this the minimum
> note number I seem to be able to trigger under composite
> is MIDI note 36 (C2) so it would be a bit confusing if I
> have to transpose notes in the conversion. So - Gabriel
> or any of the hydrogen devs - would it be possible to
> convert a piano sf2 (for example) to a h2kit without
> sacrificing a number of octaves?

SF2 is a general purpose format for creating multi-sampled 
instruments.

H2's drumkits are a specialized and much more limited format 
for creating simple playback triggers with 1 Note == 1 Drum.

...so, converting SF2 to H2 is not a straightforward 
conversion... and would require some clever logic and 
assumptions about what the SF2 "is" and how they "should be" 
in H2.

The drumkits in H2 are specified in an undocumented-but-
easy-to-grok XML file.  (E.g. see 
/usr/share/hydrogen/data/drumkits/GMkit/drumkit.xml)  You 
put all the audio data in WAV and FLAC files, and then use 
the drumkit.xml to declare how they fit into the kit.

Probably the most advanced feature of H2's drumkit format is 
called "layered samples" (or "layers" for short).  It allows 
the sampler to pick a different sample file based on the 
incoming note velocity.  I only bring this up because that 
part will be harder to grok when reading the XML files.

HTH,
Gabriel