Issue With Chicken Systems Translator 6

[JiveBurner]

To all sincere creative musicians:

After purchasing Translator 6 with their temporary code for use, and then finding it's purported uses are actually disfunctional, I refused mail delivery of their authorization CD. This is what I told Chicken Systems and Samplerzone. Use caution. Do not pay for this kind of entrapment.

"Hello...

Contrary to your claim, Translator does not support as a source Bitheadz Unity 2. Besides my own files I have tried fresh banks/programs, with extensions, from the manufacturer's original discs. Selecting them results in a fatal crash 100% of the time. Moreover, using any source and choosing a Samplecell destination writes no program, but writes only the referenced samples, while choosing a Kurzweil destination is unpredictable and will too often fail. Using my licensed libraries from Native Instruments my attempts of conversion from Kontakt 4 to Kontakt 2 proved not possible, as it yields nothing written whatsoever, and conversion from Kontakt 3 to Kontakt 2 also results in nothing. Kontakt 5 is not at all supported. In 99% of all program selections no instrument view is supported. And on and on the list goes. In general I have found that whatever translations do succeed are at the expense of several attempts and subsequent crashes. Those of Unity, Samplecell and Kurzweil are operations that, according to claim, would have been implimented at your program's inception, being the most fundamental of conversions for that time period. That is a long enough time to go ignored without my participation involving a further extension of the wait.

Not having downloaded your demo which is "save disabled" and is thus no demonstration at all, I was explicit with emails in describing to you my needs, met with your acknowledgement. I also stated to you, within the first hour of install, with those above issues emailed to you, "If this program is not functional as claimed, you should cancel this order and revoke the temporary authorization." You then chose to send me the CD.

It is inexcusable to charge money for something misrepresented, and then to tell the buyer "to get in line", file bug reports (which would number in the dozens discovered in only two hours time), make calls and do remote sessions to help you live up to your claims.

You sent me half the order and overcharged for the shipping used. I was told I would also be sent a Mac OS9 disc, but I received by USPS First Class Mail only a disc (unopened, so I assume) for Mac OSX for which I paid $10.28 to ship USPS Priority Mail. I was then informed that I would not receive the OS9 disc until I did what you told me to do ( bug reports, call-ins etc) to fix your program. Fixing your program is not my responsibility. But stating the truth about what your program actually does IS your responsibility.

There is nothing more for me to say now other than that you can keep the program disc, as it does not belong to me. I do not want this program disc nor do I want it's license for use.

I have refused delivery of your package, so there is no question that the item is unused and unauthorized.

Based on Samplerzone's statement of refund policy and that my payment was actually made to Samplerzone, please issue a refund.

Thank you"

[kmonkey]

edit: doesn't matter i had bad day when i posted my nonsense.

[DrGonzo]

It's not a scam.

I've had my own share of problems with it but I've also had great success translating my own Kontakt files to my samplers. Old vintage samplers as the more modern Akai MPC Live. It's a wonky program with an arcane UI for sure. But scam it's not.

The OP sure have problems with it, and there are ways to deal with that legally. But registering on KvR just to post his issue (OPs only and first post)???

/C

[mgw38]

You are working under Mac OS9? Seriously?

Imho Chicken Systems seem to always have been upfront about the limitations of their software.

[JiveBurner]

To clarify, my understanding was that everything was functional under OSX (for a Mac Pro), that I would also receive an OS 9 disc with no great expectation on my part. That disc was not sent to me because I refused their insistence on submitting bug reports, etc. But in actuality I did not want either disc sent to me when I discovered the numerous issues within the first hour or so. Then I gave up, as mentioned in my original post.

OS 9 is not a part of this issue. Misrepresentation is the issue. The purpose of this topic is to warn.

[JiveBurner]

A Shameless Thief Offers A Chicken That Has No Meat

Originally and appropriately named Rubber Chicken Software. A tasteless, indigestible history repeats itself...

[Amsoily]

Woo Hoo.

Just purchased.

Pretty awesome to mount virtual drives and convert all at once.

Could not get it to work until my files were in the right folders.

Sucks when software doesn't work for everyone.


It works for me.

E-mu , Akai, Kontakt, wav.

Down the road.

Will get the upgrade to read Fairlight and Dream.

Just thought about this too, if it will translate FT2 then I will have a bunch of fun...damn .. don't see it@
http://www.chickensys.com/products2/tra ... rmats.html

But...I am in luck for .guru and all my fxpansion content. Woohoo.




I

[chickeneps]

To clarify... I refused their insistence on submitting bug reports, etc. ... I discovered the numerous issues within the first hour or so. Then I gave up, as mentioned in my original post.

So, you contacted them saying you had issues, then they asked you to submit a report (with files), and you refused? I hate to state the obvious - just because you contact them and say that you have issues doesn't mean the issues will magically be resolved. They need more information. Any software company would.

[chickeneps]

Anyone who has Translator and experiences issues, can call us at 320-235-9798 or email us at support AT chickensys.com, and we will respond within an hour and address the issue within that day. This has always been the case since 1999 when Translator was first released. If anyone on this forum claims otherwise, it's because they never contacted us or failed to follow through during the process.

If anyone disputes that, I invite them to call or email with the issue today, and it will be resolved today.

[wwwill]

Unsolicited testimonial.
I've purchased it and it can be buggy sometimes. It may depend on your system performing any file operations, considering it can read non-OS discs and drives.
But it works. My EM-U EXB and Battery 2 libraries live on in SFZ and Akai formats.

[chickeneps]

I've purchased it and it can be buggy sometimes. It may depend on your system performing any file operations, considering it can read non-OS discs and drives. But it works.

If Translator crashes, there can be many reasons the user may not be aware of - corrupted files, system problems, CD-ROM access. Those aren't "bugs" with Translator, it's the natural way of things. For CD's, we always recommend making images first, then translating from there.

That's why we always recommend contacting us. We always make ourselves available for diagnosis. Sometimes - rarely, it's a 20 year old program after all - it's the Translator code, but in that case we fix the problem within 24 hours and make a solution available to the client. And we've done that for 20+ years.

We like to say "we have zero-tolerence for bugs". Any report is welcome and will be responded to within the day.

Thanks for your post, Will.

[dayjob]

bought translator 6 a while back and a SCSI2SD for my emu e6400. had no trouble w/it. had excellent support from chicken systems when i had some issues formatting the SD card and getting the emu to see it correctly.

they responded on the weekend. saturday night around 9 or 10 pm. i sent them an email expecting to hear back the following monday and was quite surprised to hear back in 20 minutes or whatever it was. really excellent support that helped resolve my issues quickly.

i find the software works well for me.

[padillac]

Has Sampler Tools been released as a single unified interface yet? Or is it still a bundle of the three main products?

[wwwill]

I've purchased it and it can be buggy sometimes. It may depend on your system performing any file operations, considering it can read non-OS discs and drives. But it works.

We like to say "we have zero-tolerence for bugs". Any report is welcome and will be responded to within the day.

Thanks for your post, Will.

I don't feel proficient enough to differentiate between actual bugs and user error. I haven't had anything happen in predictable, reproducible ways. The software is new to me so I anticipate I'm fat-fingering a key, or something.

If I encounter something I think can helpfully report, I'll do so through proper channels. Nice to see responsiveness to existing and potential customers.

Just from memory...
I haven't been in front of it for some time, but i may have seen something when going from EXB or Battery 2 to M5/Falcon or Akai XPM. SFZ and Akai PGM went smoother. I'll test it out more.

And I'm this close to the upgrade to ST. I can finally get all the ambiguously-named WAVs mapped in multiple instruments properly.

[JiveBurner]

I contacted them prior to purchase to ascertain specific functionality. The list of issues I posted above had all been confirmed to be working features. On that basis only did I make the purchase which subsequently proved it to be deception.

What the company should say is, " We see that we made an error in our claims, and we apologize by offering you a full refund." But instead there are endless excuses driving a thoroughly self-centered, presumptuous requirement to be their beta user.

Fix your program first. Then offer it to others. In that order...