2box DrumIt ideas and research

Lustark DrumIt Manager 1.6.0

Some really cool and great tool when dealing with 2box settings and soundbanks. A must have…

Here is a couple of basic hints when moving old 2box settings to new 2box/Images.

Expanding DrumIt Five, Three and Five MKII with 64 GB memory (9/1/2021)

We recently had some major breakthrough on the unofficial 2box forum in the challenge to be able to use bigger SD Cards in 2box modules than 32GB. Just want to hint about this!

Our member Jojo34 found a extremely clever way to get a 64 GB SD cards to run properly. The background around the issue is that most SD Cards above 32GB are SDXC cards (Below is SDHC)and is formatted into to exFat standard. The 2box module requires Fat32 to be able to boot…

It is possible to format bigger cards than with Fat32…but this needed third part software’s to do it. (Can’t be done on a PC or Mac as default) But using a third part software and doing the FAT32 formatting on a a 64GB card – the results was always cluster errors when booting up the 2box or it just boots forever. So we had been given up on running bigger cards and 32GB.
But Jojo34 found a new way to do it – and fool how 2box OS handles the memory!

The process is the following: Using W10 based PC:

  • Clone you current card with using Win32 Disk Imager (Can be a 32GB card – this will probably work also with a 4GB card) – and save the image on you hardrive. (So you get a backup of your original card) – The original card will also be safe – we are not using it in the process below – so if anything goes wrong – you can just use your original card…as usual)
  • Insert a new 64GB SDXC card and write the created image to this card using Win32 Disk Imager.
  • It will now create an exact copy of your original 2box card. (with the same partition size as original card and in FAT32 format) – Verify that this card is booting in your 2box as usual.
  • Now, insert the 64GB SD card in your PC again – and launch use the application Minitool Partition Wizard and extend the partition to the full size the 64 GB. Please be cautious here – so you don’t pick your internal PC hardisk! Instead look for the SDXC card with 2 partitions, one with a 4 or 32 GB partition size and a big unused/unallocated partition. Extend the working partition to also include the unused part e.g. the complete 64GB SDXC card!
  • Ready! – You will now have a 64GB working 2box card! Verify that it is working in your 2box module with out hiccup’s or sound glitches before your load all of your beloved VST Sounds using SDSE from Lustark!

Ok – I know what you all might be thinking here – can I use even a bigger cards?
The answer is no – going over 60 GB partition size (a 64 GB card will give about 58GB partition size) will result in that the 2box module will not boot. But you can still use bigger SDXC cards as long as the total partition size don’t exceed 60GB. I have tried this with a 128GB card – works fine even if you are only using 50% of it.

Final
Based on the fairly advanced process to generate a working SDXC card – I think we can estimate that 2box never officially will be supporting 64GB on the DrumIts.
But we have a nice workaround – and it is actually quite hard to fill up all 60GB with dsnd files…!
Kudos to Jojo34 at the https://www.2box-forum.com/index.php?topic=4865.0#msg30880 forum!

References and links
Software – both are freeware

Tested with DrumIt Five, Three and Five MKII using OS 1.36.3, with or without SD extension cable. (I was running my tests on 50 cm length)

Tested cards so far:

  • ProGrade 64GB 250MB7s SDXc V60 2 10
  • SunDisk Extreme Pro 64GB 170MB/s sdxc V30 3 10
  • Sandisk Ultra 64GB 120MB/s…(SDXC card class 10)
  • Kingston CANVAS Select Plus 128 GB (100 MB/s 1 A1 class 10 SDXC Cards

Moving VST sounds to 2box?
Then you need the fantastic SDSE Tool from www.Lustark.com

More 2box stuff?
Roland and ATV Hi-hat and Ride conversions for 2box DrumIt Five, 2box snare samples, e-sticks, Approved 2Box 32GB SDSC cards, extention cables, card mods and knowledge!

www.zourman.com

The new DSound Manager is great from Lustark! (18/10-2020)

You can find the Dsound Manager as a part of the DKIT Manager from www.Lustark.com

One of the functions found in Dsound Manager is the ability to set the volume per zone on existing dsnd files! A fantastic function!