Now that I’ve (re)invested this time (I did something similar back with SD2 and then moving to SD3) I think that it *will* be faster next time – which for me means the next kit I make, out of the 8 SDX + SD3 content I have.

Here’s what one has to juggle:

1. Start with an SD3 kit, either a preset, or one you make.  Because of the odd way that SD3 maps additional Instruments (i.e., it reuses already-assigned notes, rather than picking empty ones!!!!) I HIGHLY RECOMMEND adding those additional instruments FIRST, if at all possible.  Of course, later, if you decide you want, say, a cowbell, tambourine, claps, sticks, whatever, because SD3 reuses assigned notes (even tho there are plenty unassigned notes available – grrrr) you may have to revisit the mapping then.  And it’s not like SD3 *tells* you that it’s remapped a note; you have to find it yourself.  Next time, I will try to start with a stock kit and then manually map the new instruments to something that doesn’t collide.  And that’s a PITA because you have to go find the ones that got stomped on and put them back to what they were before.
2. Create or modify a Cubase Drum Map (if you use Cubase, that is).  For me it’s critical to sort the instruments in some logical order, e.g., kick, snare, hat, cymbals, toms, extra, so when I’m editing in Cubase it’s easier to see what’s going on.  I’ve done these maps a few different ways – the one attached maps the entire SDX; I’ll whittle it down later to make it more compact.  I end up with a map with just the instruments I’m using.
3. Create a new preset on the DTX (copying a similar one, if you have one already) and map the instruments and articulations you want in the SD3 kit.  There’s a lot of variation in the SDXs re instruments and articulations, especially.  Rock Warehouse, for example, just has cymbal crashes, whereas Legacy of Rock has a few more articulations.

I would have attached files here, but xlsx files aren’t allowed.  So I put them on Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0y7exa0i7n59f61/AACxzjcKKpLgUqZsGaZigdNOa?dl=0  I used the MIDI map from the SDX kit and weeded out the “aliases” – I don’t need 5 ways to hit the same snare hit; it just clutters things.  Even still, there are a few things that appear in two places or more.  I initially picked one, but sometimes that one turned out to be one that SD3 remapped when adding other instruments.  (Have I said how frustrating that is?  There are 127 notes available, so no need to take a note that’s already mapped.)

Since the SD3 kit definitive, it’s easiest to start there, ala step #1.  I had to create this spreadsheet by hand, and this is why some sort of map export from SD3 would be very very welcome.  From there, I could easily write a Python script to generate the Cubase Drum Map (which is an XML file), as well as having the information I need to create the DTX preset, too.  And please, show *both* MIDI note and note number, as they each get used in different places. (Cubase Drum Maps and DTX both want MIDI note, e.g., C#3)

cheers,

— jdm