[vipaudioaccess] Re: NI Kontakt and Loading RX2, Gigastudio files

  • From: "Steve S" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <vipaudioaccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2015 11:09:08 -0000

Nice Chris, thanks for letting us know, best steve. 

-----Original Message-----
From: vipaudioaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:vipaudioaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris
Sent: 12 March 2015 16:21
To: vipaudioaccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vipaudioaccess] Re: NI Kontakt and Loading RX2, Gigastudio files

Hi Steve and all,

Whilst investigating my sample conversion issue, I've stumbled across this 
quite nice sample converter program  'Extreme Sample Converter' -it's not free 
unfortunately currently selling for 59.00 euros, there is however a fully 
functional demo that inserts white noise bursts until unlocked.

I managed to convert a test Gigastudio file quite easily, into Kontakt format, 
it seems pretty accessible, it also functions as a media browser by playing 
sample files as you browse through them something that will come in handy when 
searching for obscurely named files like 'track 1.mp3'. .

I've pasted below a review from the SOS website in case it's of interest to 
anyone...

Best,

Chris

Extreme Sample Converter

Sample Conversion Utility [Windows]

Published in SOS June 2010

Reviews : Software: Utilities
From sports to computer programming, it seems that there's an extreme version 
of everything these days. So what is extreme sample conversion, and how is it 
better than the ordinary kind?
Martin Walker
Extreme Sample Converter makes it easy to browse through folders full of 
presets, examine their sample contents, audition them in real time using the 
virtual keyboard (at bottom left) or your MIDI keyboard, and convert them to 
other sample formats.
Extreme Sample Converter makes it easy to browse through folders full of 
presets, examine their sample contents, audition them in real time using the 
virtual keyboard (at bottom left) or your MIDI keyboard, and convert them to 
other sample formats.
I
f you're about to make the switch from a hardware to a software sampler, or to 
a new software sampler, it's important to make sure that you can carry on using 
your existing sample libraries. Many software samplers will import other 
formats, but they may not support the particular format you need, or do a 
less‑than‑thorough job of conversion, leaving you with sounds that simply don't 
'feel' right, even if all the samples end up in the right place.
When this happens, it's time to reach for a more comprehensive utility — like 
Wlodzimierz Grabowski's Extreme Sample Converter. As its name suggests, this 
stand‑alone application offers a wide range of import/export options, as well 
as promising more thorough conversions, but it's also capable of a lot more.
Browse Beater
As a sample browser and looper, ExSC rivals some fully featured stereo audio 
editors.
As a sample browser and looper, ExSC rivals some fully featured stereo audio 
editors.
When I started reviewing Extreme Sample Converter, I expected to be mainly 
using it for format conversions, but within a few days found myself relying on 
it for audio file browsing and auditioning, at which it excels. Many audio 
editors and sequencers make it a tedious process to listen to multiple audio 
files one at a time, but with ExSC it's an absolute breeze. With Explorer‑style 
navigation in the left‑hand pane to track down the files you're after, you just 
choose a Source Format from the drop‑down menu at the top of the application, 
whereupon all files of this type appear in the window alongside. Clicking on a 
file in an audio or sample format automatically plays back that sound, as well 
as displaying the sample data in the right‑hand Graphics panel, complete with 
any looping information.
Better still, if you choose one of the preset/instrument Source Formats from 
the wide range on offer, you can not only play back any of the individual 
samples within it, but also audition the entire preset across the MIDI keyboard 
range, either with your mouse and the velocity‑sensitive virtual MIDI keyboard, 
or polyphonically, using an attached MIDI keyboard controller.
All the sample key and velocity mappings appear in the Preset window, making 
ExSC a wonderful way to learn how designers have assembled their creations from 
a bunch of samples. Only 'protected' formats such as Kontakt's monolithic files 
(where an instrument preset and all the samples it uses are combined into a 
single file) fail to open, giving an 'unknown file' error. 
This may prevent you examining some commercial libraries, but otherwise I found 
the range of ExSC formats very comprehensive.
Those with hardware samplers can also audition sounds from proprietary formats 
such as CD‑ROMs, Zip and magneto‑optical drives, as well as virtual disks  hard 
drive files that contain raw data copied from such formats). I had no problems 
reading Akai and Emu CD‑ROMs, nor virtual disk copies taken from old Syquest 
270MB cartridges used many years ago with my Akai hardware sampler. You can 
also create your own virtual disks and copy them onto Zip or MO media.
The various sample formats are also displayed with different icons, making it 
easy to see at a glance whether you're dealing with mono or stereo files in 
16‑bit, 24‑bit or 32‑bit depth. This might sound trivial, but I quickly spotted 
some 32‑bit samples that I'd been working on and forgotten to convert to 16‑bit 
in their final versions, thus halving their file size. 
Overall, I quickly learned more about the sample libraries in my collection 
with ExSC than I had with any previous audio editor.
Going Loopy
The source (left) and destination (right) sample formats supported by Extreme 
Sample Converter.
The source (left) and destination (right) sample formats supported by Extreme 
Sample Converter.
While browsing your sample groups in preparation for converting them to another 
format, you may have a few unwelcome surprises. Not all sample library 
developers are as talented as others when it comes to finding glitch‑free loop 
points, and you might hear more obvious clicks and tonal jumps once sounds are 
stripped of the various DSP effects offered in soft‑sampler formats such as 
Gigastudio and Kontakt.
ExSC once again comes to the rescue, courtesy of its built‑in loop editor. 
Clicking on the loop button in the Sample window splits it into two, 
horizontally, adding a lower, loop‑editor sub‑panel where you can examine the 
loop point more closely. To help with this, there's a wider‑than‑usual range of 
zoom settings, an effective auto‑loop function to save you time, and an elegant 
crossfade‑looping function that can help you mask any remaining 
discontinuities. Every looping editor seems to have its own strengths and 
weaknesses, but I found this one surprisingly good, yet easy to use.
Loop points can be stereo linked or different for each channel (although the 
latter option isn't supported in many sampler formats), and there's also a 
useful subset of audio editing commands such as fade in and out (handy if you 
discover any clicks at the beginning or end of your samples), and various trim 
and crop options to remove extraneous silence and so on. If your sounds still 
need more work, you can export them to your choice of audio editor, subject 
them to as many arcane processes as you like, return them to ExSC and save the 
final sample data to your destination format.
Conversion Module
Extreme Sample Converter
The conversion module is ExSC's core feature. In essence, all you need to do is 
select a Source format, then the desired Destination format, and click on the 
Convert button. Multiple selections are supported, so you can convert a lot of 
instruments in one hit, and the drop‑down Settings menu incorporates plenty of 
conversion options covering the import, export and sample‑export categories.
In general, you'll probably find most of these already have the most 
appropriate settings, but apart from various options specific to certain 
source/destination formats, you can, for instance, decide whether the samples 
belonging to your new instrument files should be stored in the same folder, a 
subfolder, or together in a separate Samples folder. This is boring stuff, but 
a few clicks here can really keep your libraries organised.
No sample-format conversion can ever be 100 percent perfect, since each sampler 
engine offers a different set of features, and thus some settings from the 
source may have to be discarded if the destination has no idea what to do with 
them. For instance, Kontakt scripts will have to be abandoned when samples are 
converted to other formats.
This is where conversion can become frustrating, so I spent quite a few hours 
trying out conversions between Giga, Kontakt and SFZ formats in particular. All 
the samples appeared in their destination formats with mapping intact, and I 
experienced very few problems with my conversions. 
There was the odd anomaly, such as a few Akai 44.1kHz audio files appearing 
inside ExSC with a claimed 44Hz sample rate, but a couple of clicks in my 
external sample editor cured this.
As with all converters, I experienced alterations in velocity response (with 
notes of maximum MIDI velocity, the levels were always identical for each 
destination format, but quieter notes played at differing levels), but all my 
conversions nevertheless played well. I have heard of musicians occasionally 
noticing strange envelope changes, such as string attack/decay envelopes being 
converted into organ or piano shapes, or altered sample loop points, but I 
didn't suffer from anything like this.
Those who do find their conversions sound different from the source format have 
another option inside ExSC, and that's the Patch Editor, in which you can 
modify envelopes, filters, LFOs and so on before the conversion process. 
This is, in essence, a spreadsheet containing various parameter 'boxes' you can 
edit, and is no substitute for hearing the final result being played from your 
new sampler. However, it's a useful tool, especially once you've gained enough 
practical experience to know what tweaks are likely to be required, and could 
well overcome the occasional problems that other utilities sometimes have.
Final Thoughts
Some library developers map samples across key and velocity splits, apply a 
little filtering and enveloping to taste, and then use few, if any, of the more 
specialised features of each format. This, of course, makes it easier for them 
to convert their products to run across multiple formats, and if your libraries 
are like this you may find that the import options in your sampler can cope 
reasonably well with such conversions.
However, that's not always the case, and when things get more complex, ExSC is 
a valuable companion that should help musicians move more smoothly from one 
sampler to another. It's also the only converter I know of that includes 
hardware and VSTi converters and a decent loop‑point editor, and it's cheaper 
than the competition, which makes it an absolute bargain.
Overall, I was very impressed with what it has to offer. If your current 
sampler doesn't do justice to libraries in other formats, check out the current 
ExSC import/export options on the web site and then download the demo to see if 
it can do better. You may be very pleasantly surprised, and then, like me, get 
hooked on its other features and find that it has become an indispensable tool! 
 .
Alternatives
Since this is a PC‑only utility, there are two obvious alternatives to 
consider. Soundlib's $139 CDxtract 4 (www.soundlib.com) is good, but hasn't 
been updated for some time: for instance, it currently reads Kontakt sample 
libraries only up to version 3, and crashes if you attempt to load a Kontakt
4 file. Its author has written a more powerful conversion engine that's been 
used inside Halion, Mach Five, Live and Stylus RMX, but the new features won't 
apparently appear in the stand‑alone version until version 5, which makes it 
hard to recommend at the moment.
Chicken Systems' $150 Translator Professional (www.chickensys.com) has been 
under continuous development for quite a few years now, supports even more 
conversion formats than ExSC if you need them (including Kontakt's monolithic 
files), and is sometimes more thorough in its conversions, but can be confusing 
at times. However, it's available in various Special Editions with a single 
destination format for about half the price, and a more limited free version is 
also available for you to try.
For automated capture of MIDI synths with advanced loop functions, PC users 
could also take a look at Soundlib's Mac/PC Samplit and Skylife's SampleRobot, 
while Mac owners can try AutoSampler, ExsManager and Keymap from Redmatica 
(www.redmatica.com).
Hardware & VSTi Converters
Despite a garish interface, the integral hardware/software converter options 
are an impressive addition to the package, which other developers might sell as 
a separate product.
Despite a garish interface, the integral hardware/software converter options 
are an impressive addition to the package, which other developers might sell as 
a separate product.
VSTi Converter, VSTi Converter Real‑Time, and Hardware Converter are three 
extra ExSC facilities that let you capture the sounds of software and hardware 
synths and convert them to any destination sampler format. You simply define 
how many key regions and velocity splits you want (up to 128 of each are 
available) and then start sampling, whereupon a sequence of MIDI notes and 
velocities is automatically played while the audio output is captured.
Llike the export function of a sequencer, the standard VSTi Converter operates 
at the full speed of your processor, so your new preset appears with all its 
samples ready mapped in the ExSC preset window within a few seconds. The VSTi 
Real‑Time version is included to allow the experimenter to modify soft‑synth 
controls during the capture process, for the personal performance element. The 
hardware version, likewise, captures your external synth/keyboard sounds in 
real time, and also provides manual stop/start options so you can capture 
sounds with a microphone without MIDI triggering.
You might think these converters are simply designed to clone commercial 
synths, but they actually provide a handy way to assemble new creations, since 
each one also features a 16‑slot Virtual FX Rack that accepts VST and DX 
plug‑ins, so you can assemble effect chains to treat your synth patches while 
they are being captured. These options are a great resource, and greatly extend 
the usefulness of ExSC.
Published in SOS June 2010
In this article:
Browse Beater
Going Loopy
Conversion Module
Final Thoughts
Alternatives
Hardware & VSTi Converters
Extreme Sample Converter 75 Euros
pros
Competent conversion across a wide range of formats.
Excellent sample browser and loop editor.
Very handy Hardware and VSTi converters.
Excellent value for money.
cons
No Mac version yet available.
summary
With a versatile set of import and export options, Extreme Sample Converter 
does what it says on the tin, plus a lot more, for a bargain price.
information
75 Euros.
www.extranslator.com
Test Spec
Extreme Sample Converter v3.6.0.1591.
PC with Intel Conroe E6600 2.4GHz dual‑core processor and 2GB RAM, running 
Windows XP SP3.


-----Original Message-----
From: Steve S
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 1:21 PM
To: vipaudioaccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vipaudioaccess] Re: NI Kontakt and Loading RX2, Gigastudio files

Yep, good luck Chris. The celtic library is great, especially those wind bag 
things lol...I'm gonna compose my own version of brave Heart for sure!
Steve.

-----Original Message-----
From: vipaudioaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vipaudioaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris
Sent: 12 March 2015 09:24
To: vipaudioaccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vipaudioaccess] Re: NI Kontakt and Loading RX2, Gigastudio files

Thanks Steve and Jean-Phillip,

That's spooky Steve, as it's the Zero G 'Celtic' library I'm considering as 
it's on offer for $29.00!

Ok, I'll drop them a line and see what can be done - thanks as always for your 
help,

Best,

Chris


-----Original Message-----
From: Steve S
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 10:54 PM
To: vipaudioaccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vipaudioaccess] Re: NI Kontakt and Loading RX2, Gigastudio files

Hi Chris. I did this not that long ago with a Zero G library called something 
like "Celtic", trouble is I can't remember how I did it! If you're interested, 
I'd drop them a line, as they are always very accommodating and they will give 
you the steps to do it.  I was very happy with the result after conversion. 
Good luck and if I remember how I did it,I'll be sure to let you know, best 
steve.

-----Original Message-----
From: vipaudioaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vipaudioaccess-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris
Sent: 11 March 2015 18:10
To: vipaudioaccess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vipaudioaccess] NI Kontakt and Loading RX2, Gigastudio files

Hi All,

I was looking at a couple of titles on the Zero G website, and was intrigued to 
learn that you are apparently able to load RX2, REX files and also Gigastudio 
samples into NI Kontakt.

However looking at the usual load menu there doesn't appear to be a 'all files 
format' option in the file types available, so I'm intrigued as to how you do 
this, can anyone help?

Kind regards,

Chris

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