The files should be placed in folders on the SD card. Unless noted otherwise, audio playback
algorithms all support up to 100 folders of 100 sample files each. The folders themselves should be
at the top level of the card i.e. not inside any higher level folder.
The disting also supports 'playlist' files, which are simple text files that instruct the disting which
files/folders to look at and which ones to ignore, and also allow setting of options on a per-sample
file basis. Unless noted otherwise these files are optional.
The playlist filename is 'playlist.txt'. If a playlist is found in the root of the card, it will be taken as a
list of folders in which to look for WAV files. If a playlist is found inside a folder of WAV files, it
will be used to determine which files to use, the order in which to use them, and to set the per-file
options.
Note that it is explicitly allowed to have a playlist file which only contains global settings, but lists
no actual WAV files. In this case, the settings in the playlist will be used, and the folder scanned for
WAV files automatically.
If playlists are not used, folder and file names are sorted alphabetically.
Loop markers in audio files
The disting supports reading loop information embedded in the WAV file. If this information is not
present, or is disabled with the playlist option (see below), any mode that loops the sample simply
loops the whole file.
Loops are inferred either from markers (cue points in WAV format parlance) or regions, as follows:
1 marker point in file
Marker is assumed to be loop start; loop is from the marker to the
end of the sample.
2 marker points in file
Markers are used as loop start and end.
3 or more marker points in file First marker is ignored (assumed to be playback start point);
second and third markers used as loop points. Remaining markers
ignored.
1 or more regions in file
First region is used as the loop; other regions and markers
ignored.
This video illustrates the use of loop markers:
Supported MIDI files
Currently we support Format 0 files (single track). The division field of the header chunk must be in
"ticks per quarter note" format.
Happily this is the format that Ableton Live spits out if you do "Export MIDI Clip".
MIDI file naming & Playlists
All MIDI files need to be in a folder named 'MIDI'
. They can use any naming convention but the
extension '.mid' is usual.
A playlist file (see below) specifies what MIDI files the algorithm will use, how they will be
ordered, and what playback settings they will use. It is a simple text file, as described below, and is
3 Note that this changed in firmware 4.19 – previously the MIDI files went in the card root.
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