Like making music in the computer?

[surfjunkie]

i know we're past the "is it spam?" question, but i think the recent SampleTank threads have been great. one of the best things about these mp forums is that when you ask a question about a piece of gear or a program, often you get an answer from someone who bought it, someone who sells it, [i]and[/i] someone who worked on it! how can this be bad? i tried the ST demo awhile back and had trouble with it, but since you guys have been talking about it, i tried it again. i got it going on cubase (with the free pianos and some free sounds from [i]computer music magazine[/i]. i had a few other vsti's going too, but the HQ piano didn't crash the cpu like i thought it would- and it sounds great. i'm going to try out Sonic Synth and look into some of the third-party stuff you guys have mentioned. i was planning to do a computer upgrade soon, but i may just stick with my 466 G3 for awhile. one question- there has been some talk about the akai converter, does that mean that any sound i can make into akai format can be put into ST? does anyone do this? thanks

[RABid]

[quote]Originally posted by wager47: [b] one question- there has been some talk about the akai converter, does that mean that any sound i can make into akai format can be put into ST? does anyone do this? thanks[/b][/quote]SampleTankLE does not have the Akai converter but the higher levels of the product does. I still use LE so I don't know by experience how well it works. In the Keyboard Mag review of SampleTank it talks a bit about the Akai Conversion Utility with SampleTank. According to the review it works no better or no worse than most other systems that pull in Akai samples. You can import but expect to do some work on it afterward. A lot of this is very dependant on what Akai features are used in the sample collection. Some are legendary for being difficult. Robert

[Squids]

[quote]Originally posted by wager47: [b]i know we're past the "is it spam?" question, but i think the recent SampleTank threads have been great. one of the best things about these mp forums is that when you ask a question about a piece of gear or a program, often you get an answer from someone who bought it, someone who sells it, [i]and[/i] someone who worked on it! how can this be bad? i tried the ST demo awhile back and had trouble with it, but since you guys have been talking about it, i tried it again. i got it going on cubase (with the free pianos and some free sounds from [i]computer music magazine[/i]. i had a few other vsti's going too, but the HQ piano didn't crash the cpu like i thought it would- and it sounds great. i'm going to try out Sonic Synth and look into some of the third-party stuff you guys have mentioned. i was planning to do a computer upgrade soon, but i may just stick with my 466 G3 for awhile. one question- there has been some talk about the akai converter, does that mean that any sound i can make into akai format can be put into ST? does anyone do this? thanks[/b][/quote]Now this is more like it. I thought that at least some people would feel this way. I think it's good not to judge too quickly with these things. If people are happy using certain products then it's great to keep an open mind and see if it's something that is right for you. Being against someone who works closely with the technology like I do is counter-productive. Either what I say is of interest to you or not. To some it is and I am glad I posted even though it was a rough start there... So, to answer your question. The Akai converter is a separate utility that comes with Sampletank L and XL (DJ version as well) but does not come with the third party sound modules such as Sonic Synth and the other ones. The good thing about either way you start off- getting something like Sonic Synth first which comes with Sampletank LE or getting Sampletank L or XL first and then adding something like Sonic Synth to it- they are all compatible and the sounds are accessible from the same plug-in interface which is nice. So, if the Akai converter is important to you then you'd need to get the L , DJ or XL version at some point to have that particular utility. What the Akai converter does is essentially do it's best job at translating Akai sample library data over to Sampletank format which at that point can be played back on every Sampletank module (including the DJ, L, XL and Sonic Synth's Sampletank LE....but not the FREE version I am afraid). I've used many Akai converters and this one is good in some ways but not as good as others for certain things. One of the good things about it is that it reads more parameters like filter modulation and such better than other Akai converters. But, for some mapping and velocity settings, something like the EXS24 has better conversion. However, it is a handy utility to have. But, since Sampletank is more than just a sample player because of it's internal processing and synthesis (both tweakable by the user and under the hood for sound developers to use) native sound libraries can give you more complex programming and take a lot of the hassle of converting from Akai away. Plug and play as they say.