Use For Quantum Leap Colossus, Kontakt4,B4II, etc.

[Bernie9]

I am an old keyboard player who bought a Receptor2 and libraries of sounds in hope of defeating the need of buying a new board as soon as something new hit the market. I am 77 and not a techie by any means. I have the Hammond SK1 and top arranger keyboards and Ketron SD40 module.

 

I have everything in my old Receptor and on disks, and can't help thinking I could use this library in the Receptor or another platform for use as a secondary sound source or something. Naively, I thought I could use the sounds OOB, not considering articulations etc.

 

I have come to a point after 50 years of gigging, that I can do other things with music than play arranger keyboards. Would you keep the files housed in Receptor or load some elsewhere?

Bernie

[MoodyBluesKeys]

I'm probably not the best to answer this, since I don't have any experience with Receptor; but a couple of things come to mind from posts over the last couple of years.

First, if I'm not mistaken, Receptor has gone out of business, so if something breaks, it may not be possible to fix.

Second, my understanding is that each of the libraries had to be custom massaged in order to run on Receptor, as compared with the more generic version of the library. Could be that some of the companies will allow the purchased license to be used for the more generic product (i.e. PC based or Mac based). Some of the companies probably don't have such a friendly license policy.

 

Note that I may be wrong on the above, since it has been some time since the threads about Receptor have been seen much here.

 

Personally, after using both a PC platform and Mac platform in the past, most of my secondary sound source (even primary in my smallest rig) is iPad based. I also have an SK1, and several Kurzweil boards, so I have more sounds available than I can find uses for.

 

[David Emm]

Listen to MoodyBluesKeys about the age and possible proprietary sounds involved in a dead company's instrument. Even if the sound files are transferable, your other gear doesn't seem designed to hold them. As my hardware faded, I sampled it into Logic's EXS24, so I have a useful barn full of almost everything one could need. If you are a home studio type now who doesn't gig, that's one way to come up to speed. Going all in-the-box has truly upped my game. Its time-consuming, but it also leads to a broad library over time.

 

Step 1: Do a search on Receptor file compatibility or lack of it. You might encounter a software convertor such as those which would read old Akai files.

 

Step 2: Review your gear. If none of it will handle Receptor files or even standard WAV files, you might need a more current instrument.

 

Step 3: Consider your Receptor library carefully and decide if it might not be time to upgrade to, say, a middle-range ROMpler-ish item like the new Yamaha MODX. Many to most of the sounds you like may be easily had in the presets, with only a small learning curve, not unlike the ones for the SK1 and Ketron. The display on it is generous and easy to parse.

 

Step 4: Most of us on here are greybeards ourselves, so we can respect being 77! My best advice: Don't be too concerned with the learning curve, but instead, make yourself happy. Synths today can be 3-to-a-zillion layers deep, but many are also easy to just *play* at the top level. Check out a music store if there's one nearby and get a feel for a few newer items.

 

If you've been playing this long, IMO, you're a good candidate to sell a piece or three of your old gear and put a ROMpler on top of your Hammond. There are many choices, but the new Yamaha is full of top-drawer sounds and will accept 1 gigabyte of WAV files of outside sources. Start there and do as we all do: Begin an internal cost-benefit analysis of your needs, the prices and the necessary housekeeping involved in making a Big Change. I had to turn a lot of floppy disks into WAVs and Mac files on flash drives, but now I'm sitting semi-pretty. I hope my ruminations will help you along a bit.