This article is about processing Sample Packs. For help processing Native Instruments/Maschine Expansions, click here.
Tips and help when processing drum sample packs.
Please read the full article below before messaging for support.
You can process just about any drum Sample Pack in Sample Pack mode! Kit Maker finds the .wav files inside the folders and processes those files into kits.
Note: Proprietary sound libraries such as Reason Refills, Kontakt files etc are encrypted (the .wav files are not accessible) and cannot be processed by Kit Maker.
Sample Pack Mode Basics
Drag and drop your drum sample pack folder into Kit Maker. For example “Lofi Drum Pack Vol 2”; do not drag the individual folders such as “Kicks”, “Snares” etc. When you import a drum pack, Kit Maker will automatically categorize the drum sounds using keywords in the names of the sub-folders.
Drum pack folders are typically categorized with subfolders titled “Kicks” or “Snares” or different categories of sounds.
Most drum sample packs categorize the drum sounds into folders as explained above. For sample packs that do NOT categorize the samples into different folders, Make sure you are updated to Kit Maker 2.3 or above, which will automatically sort drums by keywords found in Filenames (for example “Big Kick.wav”) if it cannot detect that there are organized category subfolders of drum sounds.
You can download the latest Kit Maker version here
Make Blank Sample Pack
If the automatic sorting methods mentioned above don’t work for your situation, you can also manually organize your drum sounds using the “Make Blank” button in Sample Pack mode, which will make a blank drum pack folder that has empty subfolders for the categories of “Kicks”, “Snares” etc that you can fill with any samples you want. Then rename the blank pack parent folder (ie “My Cool Drums”) and import it into Kit Maker.
Excluded Keywords
If the app seems to be ignoring certain folders and files, make sure to check if those folders arent part of the list of Excluded Keywords in the Keywords section of the Preferences. These help eliminate folders that most users do not want to process as drum one shot sounds (for example, “loops” which is an excluded keyword by default).
Customizing How Kits are Made
Checkout this article which has details and tips on how to highly customize how your kits are created! There is a lot of flexability once you understand the options.
Read the manual
For more details on how the app, and Sample Pack mode works, please view the Manual which has a lot of information.
Reset the Preferences
When having issues, try Resetting the Preferences. This is the red button in the preferences. Make sure to hit “Save” each time you are asked, including when you close the preferences window. If this solves your issue, add back your preferences one change at a time so you can see which change of your preferences may have caused the issue.
Troubleshooting Steps
If you feel like the app is not processing correctly, please download the following free drum pack that we have users try as a “test pack.” The Producer Spot website has a free drum sample pack here that we know works with Kit Maker (we have no affiliation to this company). This pack should work as expected. If the pack works, it may be an issue with the folder/files you are importing, rather than Kit Maker itself.
If the test drum pack does not work, and none of the other help items on our help page answer your problem, then please go ahead and message us.
Include this information in your message, otherwise I will likely ask for it in my reply:
1. Did the test pack work (after resetting the preferences)?
2. Include the main.log file (Menu > Help > Show Log Files)
3. What is the sample pack you are trying to process? If you want, you can also provide the pack in a link via Dropbox, Google Drive etc link and I will try it myself and see what the issue is (this is the most straight forward way for me to figure out what is happening). You can alternatively include screenshots of what is inside the sample pack.
4. Include the version of Kit Maker you are using. Remember that version 2.3 added better abilities to process kits, which may help your situation (get the latest versions here)
5. Include details about what exactly is going wrong —- messages like “It’s not working” are less helpful.
Message us using the help form here.