KVR Audio

MarcN58T · Post by **MarcN58T** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 1:16 pm

This bugged me for a week. When I realised that there are more samples in the Gigastudio version of the Flamestudios sample libraries than in the SF2 format, I couldn't play the .gig libraries on my Mac. Attempts to do so resulted in a lot of problems.

Here's what I did so far:
1. The LinuxSampler plugins didn't open at all in Logic Pro. Plus it couldn't locate any single library whatsoever, even in standalone.
2. Attempts to find an alternate Gigasample player only have payware.
3. I tried converting using Logic's EXS24 sampler, but it crashes upon converting one or two segments in the whole sample. Every single time.
4. Attempts to find a sample converter only have payware. There are no free sample converters at all!

Worst of all, all those paywares (cdXtract, Awave Studio, Extreme Sample Converter, Chicken Systems Translator) are way over my budget, like more than $50.

Now if only I can get the FS .gig sample libraries converted to the EXS or SFZ format, but I don't have the cash for the converters.

And no, I don't have Kontakt either, despite someone saying on the forums that they converted the FS guitars to NKI format. Now if someone is willing to help me convert the FS .gig libraries into SFZ so I can use the samples. Please.

PTV · Post by **PTV** » Mon Jun 05, 2017 2:19 pm

You can use Awave Studio's demo to convert one instrument at a time, not very convenient but that's what you get for free:)

"Limitations of the Trial version:
30-day trial time limit.
After saving a file, you must restart before you can save again.
You can save waveforms and single instruments, but not 'collections'."

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:31 am

I did Kontakt instruments and if I remember and from checking a couple most seem to be in wave format not ncw, you could try downloading these. I think they were gig file conversions using Kontakt...
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/aiz61z ... amestudios

This free sfz converter can make some nice sfz instruments quite quickly though you will need to do some bulk renaming...
http://vis.versilstudios.net/sfzconverter.html

MarcN58T · Post by **MarcN58T** » Mon Jun 19, 2017 4:39 am

bigcat1969 wrote:I did Kontakt instruments and if I remember and from checking a couple most seem to be in wave format not ncw, you could try downloading these. I think they were gig file conversions using Kontakt...
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/aiz61z ... amestudios

Sorry for the 2 weeks late reply, my computer was under repair at that time, but does the converted .nki files work in the free Kontakt Player or should I get the full version? I know third party libraries can be loaded in Player, but only for a limited amount of time (15 minutes I think).

If not, I just try converting to SFZ. Anyway, the WAV files inside the folders is all I need to convert them to SFZ, right?

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Mon Jun 19, 2017 10:07 am

You would need the full version of Kontakt. Being Player compatible costs a lot of money sadly.
To the best of my knowledge all you would need to make the sfz instruments are the wave files.

MarcN58T · Post by **MarcN58T** » Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:50 pm

OK. I tried going around with a program called gig2sfz, but it failed to convert, only extracted the gig files into wav files no matter what I did (even compiling didn't work), so I'm back to square one.

gigdump was able to glean some information about how the samples are used so I might use them to set up the conversion.

Now I don't understand how the wav files in the Kontakt converted folders are being named so as to convert them without a hitch, so how do I rename the files to ensure it's readable by the folder to SFZ program?

Sorry for another 1 week late reply. I forgot to subscribe to this topic so I was unable to get your replies asap.

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 4:24 am

He explains it here. Basically you need name of note (A#1), velocity (med, v2) and round robin (RR1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLLd ... -DcGa264H0

MarcN58T · Post by **MarcN58T** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 5:20 am

OK, good enough. I'll extract the wav files from the original gig files for the original naming scheme and compare them with the Kontakt wav filenames and see what to do. I'll report the results soon.

MikeCallon · Post by **MikeCallon** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 6:26 am

I don't know what your budget is but Extreme Sample Converter is €40 and worth every cent. Try the demo

MarcN58T · Post by **MarcN58T** » Tue Jun 27, 2017 6:56 am

Unfortunately my budget is $0.

It's a one time conversion of Flamestudios giga instruments to SFZ which I will later publish, so I don't see the need to pay for anything.

MarcN58T · Post by **MarcN58T** » Sun Jul 09, 2017 12:14 pm

While I was able to convert to SFZ with some renaming of the wav files, the Folder-to-SFZ converter can only do basic things. I think the FS gig files have so many complex settings inside (like start loop and end loop timing, LFO, ASDR and etc.), the converted SFZ files with this program, except for the stripped down sf2 files, won't be that true to the original gig file.

I just used Polyphone to convert the sf2 files to SFZ in the meantime. I checked the wav files from the gig and compared them to the sfz; only things stripped was the extra reverb samples and other miscellaneous things, I suppose. They're still (almost) full ranged (in the Jaguar Pickup and Amp instrument, the slap and slide sample for MIDI note 88 is missing in the sf2 version), only a few presets are not possible with sf2.

Unless I buy Extreme Sample Converter, I concluded that it's difficult and laborious to convert the gig files with reverb and a few misc samples to SFZ. I'm going to use the Awave Studio trial to see if the gig files can be converted fully.

bigcat1969, did you directly convert the gig files to nki with Kontakt, or did you extract the wav files then made an nki instrument, just curious?

PTV · Post by **PTV** » Sun Jul 09, 2017 12:29 pm

Why not use Awave Studio's demo as I suggested in the second post?

MarcN58T · Post by **MarcN58T** » Sun Jul 09, 2017 12:50 pm

PTV wrote:Why not use Awave Studio's demo as I suggested in the second post?

I just edited my earlier post and installing the program as I speak.

I'll report back the results when a test is done.

UPDATE: S***, Awave Studio under CrossOver is too slow and crashes when handling a large gig file. Parallels did slightly better but it's consuming too much time. Maybe I might as well throw away S$69 for Extreme Sample Converter (it's cheaper than Awave Studio) and run it under Parallels. Too much for a one-time job.

MarcN58T · Post by **MarcN58T** » Mon Jul 10, 2017 2:08 am

OK, I tested the Flamestudios acoustic guitars converted with Awave Studio with sforzando in Logic Pro X. Compared with bigcat1969's FS Kontakt instruments as reference, the reverb tail heard when releasing the key is always at the maximum volume, like the website says and there's no way to adjust them. Perhaps SFZ couldn't support reverb tails and some like. I thought it was more versatile than sf2.

If I am wrong and it's still possible, maybe I send over the SFZ files and see if someone else can fix them.

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Mon Jul 10, 2017 2:43 am

It has been a long time. I think I just did a straight Gig to Kontakt conversion and left them as they lay.
I don't understand SFZ, so I'm afraid I'm no help in that regard.
Looking at the Kontakt instrument all I'm seeing is that there are 5 group start settings based on the modwheel and the Release on the ADSR is simply being increased from 300 ms to 10K ms. I'm fairly sure you can assign the modwheel to an envelope control in SFZ, so that might be your answer? Just assign CC1 to Release and set the parameters from 300 to 10K.

HELP! Need to convert Flamestudios instruments to SFZ or EXS format!