Re: [LAU] Sample converters

Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Dominic Sacré <dominic.sacre@gmx.de>
wrote:
>> On Sunday 02 January 2011 19:36:51 rosea.grammostola wrote:
>>> On 01/02/2011 06:46 PM, Paul Davis wrote:
>>>> the previous email mentioned a program that is an example of a
>>>> sample file format converter. what the program mentioned above
>>>> does is something to handle loading of instrument plugins by
>>>> programs that don't support a particular plugin API (in this case,
>>>> VSTi). VSTi is not a sample file format like GIG or SFZ - its a
>>>> plugin API. the two are not in any possible sense equivalent to
>>>> each other.
>>> Thanks for clarification. Of course I suspected that it would be very
>>> hard to convert VST1, but I dropped it anyways... You never know
>>> what's possible these days ;)
>> Well, according to its manual, Extreme Sample Converter can "convert"
>> VSTi to GIG and other sample formats. But this works simply by recording
>> the plugin's audio output for a certain number of notes, velocities,
>> etc.
>> This kind of conversion works reasonably well for some instruments, but
>> many will suffer significantly from the limitations of sampled formats.
>> There's no way to change a synth's settings in a sampled instrument, and
>> a lot of detail and nuances of the original sound will be lost.
>>
>> That said, you can do basically the same thing on Linux using Synthclone
>> (http://code.google.com/p/synthclone/).
>>
>>
>> Dominic
>
> That's basically how all the Sampletekk sampled synth gig files worked
> in GigaStudio. I own about a dozen old synths sampled in this manner.
> True, I cannot program my 'Arp Soline' or my 'Mellotron', but the
> folks who recorded it recorded 30 or 40 different settings and I get
> the basic sounds without the electrical usage or space consumption.
>
> - Mark

With the Solina, Sampletekk sampled every single basic sound that's
possible on the instrument. The only things you lose control over are
the volume of the bass and the attack and release ("crescendo" and
"sustain length") settings, you're stuck with the ones programmed in.
Oh, and it's all sampled with the modulation turned on, but then they
don't sound great with it off.

As for Trons, the only controls really are the tone, which can be
mimicked with the included lowpass filter, and pitchbend. Sampling does
lose all the "performance controls" that Trons aren't supposed to have
but do ;-) like downward pitchbend the more notes you press, decreasing
tape speed the harder you press the keys (potentially useful for
vibrato), or the tendency for notes to never quite sound the same twice,
which is part of the charm.

The Sampletekk Prophet on the other hand, I really can't see the point
of (not that I own it or have listened to the demos), as you're only
ever going to capture a few tiny snapshots of what the original synth is
capable of, as Dominic said, and there are software emulations out there
that have the potential to come much closer to the sound whilst
retaining all of the programmability.

As for converting VSTi's, whilst what Paul says about it being an API is
true, it depends on the VSTi as there are many which are basically just
sample players with a few filter effects added on. There are a few
Mellotron ones which spring to mind. Hell, that's what the GForce
M-Tron, M-Tron Pro and Virtual String Machine (ARP Solina et al) are,
with huge great sample libraries attached.

Q
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Received on Mon Jan 3 00:15:05 2011