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E-mu Drumulator Sound ROM Creation Tools
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These tools were released so that new Drumulator kits could be authored for 
personal use. As such, they are given freely and with the spirit of generosity 
and enthusiasm for vintage audio. 

Please do not exploit them for personal gain.

For up-to-date information and future versions, please visit:
http://zine.r-massive.com/emu-drumulator-sound-rom-creator

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ROM Creation & Encoding Tool
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Place the replacement sounds into the "drum_hits" folder, making sure to keep 
the same naming convention as the WAVs already in the folder:

clave.wav
cowbell.wav 
claps.wav
openhat.wav
cl_hat.wav
cymbal.wav
kick.wav
snare.wav
rimshot.wav
hi_tom.wav
mid_tom.wav
low_tom.wav

The creator tool will accept various types of WAV files, including typical 
16-bit 44.1kHz.

WAVs of any length can be suppied and will be accepted, *HOWEVER* the 
Drumulator sound ROM area is of fixed length. While the Drumulator has the 
ability to change the lengths of individual drum sounds within certain bounds, 
their lengths are still dependant upon the values stored within the program 
ROM and each sound will be conformed to fit the chosen encoding template.

As such, it is best to choose samples which are the same or close to the 
original lengths of the template sounds. New samples which are shorter than 
the originals tend to work better than samples which are longer, but 
acceptable results can be achieved regardless, depending on the material.

Again -- it is best to choose replacement samples with similar properties as 
the sounds they are replacing, especially length!

FACTORY SOUND TEMPLATE:

clave                       | 0.089s
cowbell                     | 0.124s
claps                       | 0.169s
open hi-hat                 | 0.114s
closed hi-hat               | 0.393s
ride/cymbal                 | 0.742s
bass drum (kick)            | 0.070s
snare                       | 0.146s
rimshot                     | 0.106s
high tom                    | 0.273s
mid tom                     | 0.326s
low tom                     | 0.415s

Once the proper sounds have been placed into the "drum_hits" folder, simply 
double-click on the "E-mu Drumulator ROM Encoder (standard)" batch file to 
generate five new Drumulator compatible ROMs: Sound ROMS A, B, C, and D, as 
well as a matching program ROM.

The standard format encoding tool will produce ROMs which are compatible with 
the factory OS ROM, so only the sound ROMs need be replaced if the E-mu stock 
operating system is already being used. If third party (DIGIDRUM) sound ROMs 
are already installed, or if any other encoding template is selected then 
it is required to also substitute the generated OS program ROM along with the 
newly encoded custom sound ROMs.

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ROM Decoding Tool
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Click the decoder which corresponds to the desired set of Drumulator ROMs.
Each set of ROMs requires a specific decoder, so more decoders will be added 
as more third party ROM sets are obtained.

The standard format decoder will work with both the factory ROMs as well as 
any ROM set created by using the standard format encoder tool.

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Additional Notes
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The Drumulator method of mu-law companding is great for reducing the noise 
that would otherwise be present due to its 8-bit sound ROMs. However, the 
ROM encoding and decoding process is consequently lossy, and therefore it is 
not advisable to use the output of the decoder as source material to generate 
new sound ROMs.

While this can certainly be done, it is best to use lossless, first-generation 
16-bit (or higher) material to create new sound ROMs, if at all possible.

It *is* possible to losslessly recycle material from other ROMs, however that 
feature is not yet implemented in the current version of these creation tools.