A good bussiness: project files converter

[marce]

Hi, just thinking about the problem with dx with cubase and the discussion about to be backward compatible, blah, blah, and thought that if some programmer man can make a proggie that can translate hosts project files from one to other, in batch, can be a good bussines.
Suppose you want migrate from Cubase to Sonar, so you open you "project files converter" and batch convert from .cub ? to .son ? Or you want migrate to reaper, so you convert from .wrk to .edl. Or vice-versa. Additionaly this software can make batch edits in the project files (like replace plugin "dbaudioware delay" by "karma delay" or so.
Dont know if this is something that copyright of that file formats allow, i believe yes, after all their are your projects, but who knows.
Well, just an idea, this night i dont nothing much better to do so thinking this things, even im not animated to make music.

[mistertoast]

It's a great idea but tough to make money off of.

Maybe a good open source project?

[Lagrange]

Interesting idea.. Sounds like an expensive endeavor though both on the coin and time side.. There might have to be a custom table array of simular plugins to open when jumping from one plane to another.. Other than getting certain right$ it is probably feasable.. I've actually been working on some conversions for FL studio/Adobe Audition/Cue List Tool and some others.

[marce]

Thinking about you said, it's true, you need someone really knowledge about most hosts out there, with lot of beta testers, time, and is probable that he will not get too much money from it.
Hey, you broke my dream to become millonaire
But, even that, i agree that can be a nice project kind of open source project that i guess will have lots of voluteers, me one of them.

[Odditory]

a) TOO many variables between differing DAW programs - the programmer of such a conversion app would be perpetually chasing his tail his dealing with ever-changing file formats and peculiarities of all or parts of the programs as new versions come out. You'd have better luck trying to cure cancer.

b) Very few home users would want to PAY for such functionality - they just import/export midi and audio data and deal with setting them back up in whatever program they've transferred them to; and pro/studio users that would have money to pay are probably already on a DAW that already easily transfers sessions between studios to begin with.

c) Third and MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, most companies that are selling commercial (non-opensource) software aren't going to give the programmer of a converter software access to the inner workings of their proprietary file formats. You'd sooner cure world hunger than wait for such an app; unless ofcourse the whole DAW industry suddenly decided to adopt one standard open source format - which ain't happenin'

[Mr. Tunes]

omf, aaf + midi export are the closest you can ever get to this dream i feel. either that or a new standard which will combine audio and midi regions with mixer settings and vstplugin rack setups

[kenn]

Complete project conversion (media + envelopes + track routing + fx + per-item effect + etc) will be difficult, but a basic transformation (of at least the media) should be possible in just about all cases. As pointed out you need to be able to decipher the project format. Some manufacturers might cooperate; you can probably reverse-engineer others. Developers of TRULY professional audio apps already know that project exchange is a key requirement of their users, so if they don't provide that capability themselves, they wouldn't likely oppose a 3rd party solution.

Rail Jon Rogut has written some project converters, mostly for SAW & Protools.