AVL Drumkits updated to version 1.0

Glen MacArthur, maintainer of AVLinux, has just announced version 1.0 of his AVL Drumkit samples, which come in both Hydrogen and SFZ formats.

This update includes an improved kick drum for the Red Zep Kits and a 3rd Crash Cymbal (sampled from a Paiste 2002 22" crash) for all existing kits. All kits also now have a Maraca.

Verion 1.0 also sees the addition of an all new hand percussion kit. This kit includes a cajon, woodblock, claves, tambourine, maraca, handclaps and fingersnaps.

Midnam files are now available. This allows DAW's that support midnam files, such as Ardour, to show the names of drumkit pieces on their corresponding keys within the MIDI editor

To enable this from within Ardour, go to your MIDI track header and left click on 'Generic'. Navigate to 'AVL-Drumkits' and choose either 'AVL-Drumkits' for the traditional AVL drumkits, or 'AVL-Drumkits-Percussion' for the percussion kit. Next, select the draw tool (shortcut D) and create a region on your MIDI track by left clicking and dragging on the MIDI tracks timeline. Now when you move the draw tool cursor around the region, it will show the name of the instrument for each mapped key.

Tip: When using MIDI tracks for drum programming, it's useful to change the Note Mode from 'Sustained' to 'Percussive'. To do this, right click on your MIDI track header and navigate to Note Mode > Percussive.

For full details about this new release, check out the announcement over Linuxaudio.org

The drumkits can be found at Glen's bandshed.net website.