Which sampler reads AKAI discs best?

[Megakazbek]

Thanks everyone for answers. Tried Extreme Sample Converter demo and it seems to do the job just fine.

Kontakt of course.

As I said in my first post, I tried Kontakt 2 and had lots of conversion errors.

sampletank 2 does it perfectly

I tried Sampletank 2.5, but the conversion was VERY slow, there were even more conversion errors than in Kontakt, and also it seems Sampletank cannot share samples between programs, so my 500MB CD was converted into a monstrous 3GB folder. Quite far from "perfect", I'd say.

[vespers75]

Thanks everyone for answers. Tried Extreme Sample Converter demo and it seems to do the job just fine.

Kontakt of course.

As I said in my fist post, I tried Kontakt 2 and had lots of conversion errors.

sampletank 2 does it perfectly

I tried Sampletank 2.5, but the conversion was VERY slow, there were even more conversion errors than in Kontakt, and also it seems Sampletank cannot share samples between programs, so my 500MB CD was converted into a monstrous 3GB folder. Quite far from "perfect", I'd say.

Converting a patch takes several seconds at best on my system, and I've NEVER had any conversion problems unless the patch had VS.

[dreaddd]

after several rips now, more and more convinced sooner or later ill jump on the ESC bandwagon, the Wusik conversion either is a nice addon for me ...
Peace

[Bubbamusic]

Hello: VSampler reads and plays Akai CD-roms directly. I don't convert or translate them and I have an old, large library of Akai cd-roms. It also reads the old E-Mu, Giga, Soundfonts, Kontakt, Battery, Halon and etc.
The only way to go.

Peace: bubba

[Megakazbek]

Hello: VSampler reads and plays Akai CD-roms directly. I don't convert or translate them and I have an old, large library of Akai cd-roms. It also reads the old E-Mu, Giga, Soundfonts, Kontakt, Battery, Halon and etc.
The only way to go.

As I said in my first post, I tried VSampler and it wasn't reading AKAI discs well, there were problems with envelope times almost on every program (but those are easily fixable in VSampler interface), and also lots of sample looping errors (which are not so easy to fix).

[Bubbamusic]

Sorry, I must have missed that in your first post. You are correct about the ADSR problem. Virtually all samplers have that problem with S1000 and 3000 programs. I set mine up with the attack all the way down and the release almost all the way down and the programs sound just like they did in my old Akai sampler. As for looping problems, I haven't had any. Some loops are recorded to retrigger and some are not. VSampler does both with no problem. If you are talking about samples that are looped for more length, the same thing holds. If recorded properly, no problem. Good luck.

Peace: bubba

[chickeneps]

As I said in my first post, I tried Kontakt 2 and had lots of conversion errors.

When you say "conversion errors", what do you mean by that? Kontakt doesn't post any errors if that's what you mean.

I was involved in testing the Akai->Kontakt conversions (and I wrote the code) and I would be very surprised if there was any issue with it - it should work perfect. In my testing list, over 30 Akai CD's were tested through, and passed with flying colors.

One thing I should point out; this thread makes it seem like converting from Akai is a difficult thing. It isn't.

Some samplers don't do a good job at it; see the mention about Sampeltank duplicating a lot of samples. It does because it has to, because the way SampleTank is set up - it doesn't share samples. Giga works in the same bad fashion, although there's things they could do about it but don't.

You decision on a sampler shouldn't be dependant on how it converts Akai though. That's somewhat minimal. You can get a third-party converison program that fills this in adequately.

[chickeneps]

I've sold my AKAI S3000 sampler some time ago, but still have some sample CDs for it. There are a few sounds on them that I like very much, so I'm looking for a softsampler which can read these CDs properly. I tried VSampler and Kontakt 2, and they both read AKAI CDs with numerous errors - incorrect loop points, wrong envelope times, etc.

Why not simply correct the mistakes and be done with it? Tweaking envelopes and +1 or -1 loop points seems easy.

[chickeneps]

not a sampler, but you can try
http://www.chickensys.com/downloads/translator_free.php

This is the worst translator of the bunch IMO. Try [others] first.

Well, all respect to anyones opinion.

Translator has successfully converted Akai S-1000/3000 sounds for eight years running, longer than anyone. Right now, we've finalized that part of Translator because it is so good at it. It's so good, there's nothing left to tweak, and we aren't working on it anymore because it's "perfect".

We know the format so well that we are the only convertor to convert back into Akai format and have the Akai read it. Doing that really refined our conversion past the capacity of anyone elses - ESC, Awave, or CDx, none of which convert into Akai at all.

If anyone has any problem, which isn't likely, they can pick up the phone and call a programmer, speak to him face to face, and he'll look at things over the phone with you. No wait for answers or a new version.

As this thread reveals, some have perfect results, some don't. So it all depends on the situation, I guess. But ChickenSys backs this dicontinuity with direct support so you'll never get stuck if something does go wrong.

As I said earlier, Akai is easy to convert if you know the gotchas, which aren't significant in the first place.

Sorry to toot the horn - BBBBRRRRAAAWWWW, but 'tis the season. =)

[chickeneps]

Kontakt of course.

Yeah, right. Good luck.

I've tried so many times with Kontakt 2, but I've never succeeded converting any akai-files into Kontakt. Always some problem, "can't read the disc" or "missing samples", etc. Tried today again with Kontakt 3 - same problem.

As I mentioned, works fine here, with everything as a matter of fact.

"Can't read the disc" may relate to your CD-ROM Drive may not work with proprietary CD's well. That's rare but not unheard of.

I suggest making an Image of the CD first, then convert off of that. That will likely solve your Can't read disc" errors, and in turn probably solve your "missing samples" problem too.

If not, please email me at garth@chickensys.com and I can get it working for you.

[chickeneps]

Sorry, I must have missed that in your first post. You are correct about the ADSR problem. Virtually all samplers have that problem with S1000 and 3000 programs.

Here's some inside info: most of them get it wrong because the curves are so out of whack.

What I mean is this: Akai envelope segments are measured in units, from 0-99. I don't have my chart in front of me, but from 0-70 covers 0-1 seconds, and the last 20 units do everythign from 1 sec to 20 secs.

The cheap conversion routines some samplers use mkae a linear transform between this curve and it's native format, and most other formats make the curve much much less radical. That's where and why the errors occur.

As far as the loop points go, that's because of the well-publicized Akai loop point window issue.

If you read the loop points on an Akai, that ISN'T where the the Akai is actually looping. On the cheap conversions, the sampler reads the loop points as they are, adn of course gets them wrong part of the time.

The S-1000 averages the loop end (as I remember) to the nearest 64th sample, the S-3000 to the nearest 16th sample, and the S-5000 to the nearest 8th sample.

But it would surprise me that any new implementation of an Akai conversion would miss this. I'm sure the third party convertors, such as my companys Translator, nail this.

[HunterKiller]

Kontakt of course.

Yeah, right. Good luck.

I've tried so many times with Kontakt 2, but I've never succeeded converting any akai-files into Kontakt. Always some problem, "can't read the disc" or "missing samples", etc. Tried today again with Kontakt 3 - same problem.

Kontakt of course.

As I said in my first post, I tried Kontakt 2 and had lots of conversion errors.

Sorry to hear that, too bad for you guys, but I never ever had any errors or any problems converting AKAI in Kontakt.

Though Extreme Sample Converter is my second choice when dealing with some giga files.

[Bubbamusic]

I must back up the Chicken Systems gentleman. It is a great program. I use VSampler with Akai cd-roms because it is the quickest way that I know to audition sounds (one click instead of two). Once in a while, I will convert a program to Akai- if one can imagine that. Chicken Sys. does an unbelievable job draging and dropping programs to an Akai image file. Roland to Akai is especially sweet. Translator is a very handy piece of software. It handles a whole lot of different sampling programs in exsquisite detail.

Peace: bubba