IK Multimedia’s Uno Drum is a great little drum machine and has a wide range of kits available for from IK Multimedia but it lacks a simple way of loading your own samples into it. Thanks to a clever developer on github who worked out how to unpack the Uno Drum libraries there is now a way of loading custom sounds into the device. Before you start, I would get familiar with the Uno Drum sounds sets available from IK Multimedia so you are used to the idea of swapping sound sets.
The developer has posted sample files to his github site but there were a few things I needed to do for the upload to work correctly. So, in this guide (and video at the bottom of the page) I walk through the steps you need to load samples into the Uno Drum.

Step 1 – Download the tools

The first step is to download the kit from github and then unzip the contents to a folder on your PC.

Next you need to install the tool for converting the audio files called Sox. Get that from http://sox.sourceforge.net/

Go through the installer and leave all the settings as default.

Step 2 – Get your samples together

Next you need to organize your samples. I recorded the drum sounds from my old Roland TR-505 and then saved each sound as a wave file. So I have a wav file for each drum sound.

I also downloaded some Linn drum samples which I put into their own folder.

Then you need a copy of one of the Uno drum DFU files (the file that contains the sounds). The best way was to install all the Uno Drum sound packs from IK Multimedia. Once you have these you can select one of the sample files. Eg

Place the file in the directly containing the sound packager tool (where you unzipped the download file in step 1) and rename it to Uno_Drum_lib_Anthology8.dfu

Step 3 – modify the batch file

To get it to work for me I took the do_it.bat file from the sound_pack_demo folder and saved it to the main folder, I then renamed it to TR505.cmd so I could start editing it for TR-505 sounds.

Next, I had to edit the batch file.

In the file I had to change the path of the SOX tool as my install was 14-4-2 and not 14.4.2 so I changed:

set sox=”C:\Program Files (x86)\sox-14.4.2\sox.exe”

to:

set sox=”C:\Program Files (x86)\sox-14-4-2\sox.exe”

Next, I changed the paths of each line to match the samples on my system. So, I swapped out the drumsample file path for the path to my samples

eg:

%sox% DrumSamples.org-DS1000\Bongos\bongo5.wav %ss% unpacked\sample-01-1.wav fade 0 0.17 0.01

To

%sox% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\Samples\linndrum\linndrum\tom.wav %ss% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\uno-drum-utils-v0.2.0-prebuilt\unpacked\sample-01-1.wav fade 0 0.17 0.01

When you look at the file you can see each pad on the Uno Drum has up to five sounds, for example the cowbell section has five lines so you can have five different samples on each pad which can be selected on the Uno Drum.

Eg

REM Tom2

%sox% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\Samples\linndrum\linndrum\tomh.wav %ss% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\uno-drum-utils-v0.2.0-prebuilt\unpacked\sample-02-1.wav

%sox% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\Samples\linndrum\linndrum\congah.wav %ss% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\uno-drum-utils-v0.2.0-prebuilt\unpacked\sample-02-2.wav

%sox% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\Samples\linndrum\linndrum\tomllh.wav %ss% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\uno-drum-utils-v0.2.0-prebuilt\unpacked\sample-02-3.wav

%sox% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\Samples\Tr505\CongaC.wav %ss% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\uno-drum-utils-v0.2.0-prebuilt\unpacked\sample-02-4.wav

%sox% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\Samples\Tr505\TomM.wav %ss% C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\uno-drum-utils-v0.2.0-prebuilt\unpacked\sample-02-5.wav fade 0 0.18 0.01

So go through the file and allocate your sounds to each sample.

I also changed the end two lines to include the full path to the decoder:

Eg

C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\uno-drum-utils-v0.2.0-prebuilt\build\exe.win-amd64-3.6\decode_sound_packs.exe –pack unpacked -o TR505.dfu Uno_Drum_lib_Anthology8.dfu

C:\Users\isdix\OneDrive\Documents\uno-drum-utils-v0.2.0-prebuilt\build\exe.win-amd64-3.6\decode_sound_packs.exe -s TR505.dfu

Notice on the last part I changed the name to be the name of my sound pack.

Step 4 – Transfer to the Uno Drum

To get your sounds to the Uno Drum we can use the tranfer tool that comes with the sound packs.  Go to the folder when the Uno drum sound packs are installed eg:

C:\Users\dixoni\OneDrive\Documents\IK Multimedia\IK Product Manager\UNO Drum\UNO_Drum_Anthology_Libraries_WIN\UNO Drum Anthology Libraries WIN\UNO Drum Anthology 8 Sound Content Installer 1.0.0 WIN

Copy DFU file you created in step 3 to this folder, rename the file Uno_Drum_lib.dfu to Uno_Drum_lib.dfu.org (in case you want it back) and then rename your own file to Uno_Drum_lib.dfu

Then run the Uno Drum Sound Content Installer.exe which will enable you to copy the file to your Uno Drum.

Your Uno should then have your fresh new kit.

It seems a complicated process but once you have gotten it working it’s easy to create new sound sets and then make your own custom kits.

Here is my video guide on how to load your own samples into the Uno Drum

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