The NSA Drumkit is a collection of free, nicely recorded, one-shot (ie individual drum) waveforms of a drum kit. The kit contains a kick, hihat (open, closed, pedal, half-open), 6 toms, several snares (with a variety of articulations such as rimshot, side stick, drags, rolls, snares off), and numerous cymbals including ride, china, 2 splashes, and several crashes (with each cymbal having a variety of articulations such as bow, edge, and bell hits). Furthermore, there are stereo and mono versions of some drums.

There are lots of waveforms. But they aren't well-organized, are cryptically named, are there's no docs listing what sounds the various files contain. Also, there's no mapping files supplied. Plus the stereo waves are separated into individual left and right files. The result is that the collection is difficult to utilize.

I've organized the sounds into more logical folders, renamed files to be more descriptive, combined left/right files into stereo wave files, and created sfz mappings. This doc describes the result.

The file nsa.sfz contains a basic General MIDI mapping of a stereo kit, with the following note assignments:

 
MIDI    Drum Sound
Note #
 35   Kick 1
 36   Kick 2
 37   Side Stick
 38   Snare
 40   Snare Rimshot
 41   Low Floor Tom
 42   Closed Hi-Hat
 43   High Floor Tom
 44   Pedal Hi-Hat
 45   Low Tom
 46   Open Hi-Hat
 47   Low-Mid Tom
 48   Hi-Mid Tom
 49   Crash Cymbal 1
 50   High Tom
 51   Ride 1
 52   Chinese Cymbal
 53   Ride Bell
 54   Half-Open Hi-Hat
 55   Splash Cymbal
 57   Crash Cymbal 2

The following sub-folders contain mappings (sfz files) for individual drums.

Kick

The Kick folder contains the kick drum waveforms. There is only a mono version. The file Kick.sfz contains the following note assignments:

 
MIDI    Drum Sound
Note #
 35   Kick

Snare

The Snare folder contains various snare drums. Each snare's waveforms are in a separate folder. Some snares are stereo, and others mono. Each snare folder has at least one sfz file that contains the following note assignments:

 
MIDI    Drum Sound
Note #
 37   Side Stick
 38   Snare
 39   Snare Drag
 40   Snare Rimshot

Note: Stereo snares lack the drag.

Some snares have additional articulations. MonoHigh, Mono2, and Mono3 have a roll, mapped to note 54.

Mono1 has a stick tapping the rim, mapped to note 54.

Mono3 has articulations with the snares off. These are contained in SnareOff.sfz, with the following note assignments:

 
MIDI    Drum Sound
Note #
 61   Snare Off
 60   Snare Off Rimshot

Mono3 has articulations with the snare played by hand like bongos. These are contained in Bongos.sfz, with the following note assignments:

 
MIDI    Drum Sound
Note #
 62   Mute
 63   Open
 64   Slap

Tom

The Tom folder contains various toms. Each tom's waveforms are in a separate folder. There are stereo and mono versions of each.

Tom1, Tom2, and Tom3 have a rimshot articulation, mapped 2 octaves higher than the basic articulation.

Cymbal

The Cymbal folder contains various cymbals. Each cymbal's waveforms are in a separate folder. There are mono versions only.

Most cymbals have tip and edge articulations. Some have bell. Some have crash and choke.

HiHat

The HiHat folder contains the HiHat waveforms. There's a stereo and mono version. The mono has a pedal stomp articulation.

 
MIDI    Drum Sound
Note #
 42   Closed
 44   Pedal
 46   Open
 54   Half-Open
 56   Stomp