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  • A bit OT - CDXtract question - how do I separate dimensions?

    Translator automatically breaks multi-dimensional giga samples into separate Kontact programs, but CDXtract is lumping them all together - I get all dimensions playing at once when I press the key. How can I tell it to break a (say) 3 dimensional program into 3 .nki files?

    Help! It's driving me nuts...
    =)
    -thanks-
    -denny-

  • Denny,

    I suggest you ask Bernard Chavonnet (the author) directly - he's very helpful. If it can't be done, he may implement it in a future version.
    bernard@cdxtract.com

    Regards - Colin

  • done - wrote him an email.

    thanks again-
    -d-

  • Hi bluedane,

    What do you think about importing VSL into Kontakt format via CDXtract4.1? Thanks in advance.

  • it clearly has issues with multi-dimensional giga samples - I can show you direct evidence. Now, I expect that this is simply a matter of flipping a switch somewhere and it should work perfectly.

    However, I have sent three emails - one to tech support and 2 to bernard directly - and none of them have been answered. (I did get an incident report stating that my email had been received. A month ago.) I sent them over the past several weeks. Nor have there been any functionally helpful replies on this forum, northernsounds, or kvr-vst.

    So, currently, I'm feeling $150 lighter, abandoned, and no further along towards VSL being converted to Kontact.

    Garth at Translator has been very helpful. Translator probably translated ~80% of VSL and KH Solo Strings. He helped me out, called me back directly the same day I filed an issue on the translator board, and was generally extremely gracious and cool about the whole thing. I bought CDXtract because it seemed more focused and when I was hoping for a Translator release to fix the VSL inconsistencies, the Translator release fixed some obscure emu file format and not my Kontact issue. So, I was hoping that I was moving to a more directed/dedicated approach. However, there has been a distainct lack of dedication from CDXtract folks, at least with respect to supporting a registered customer.

    To date, my giga->Kontact oddessy has been an excercise in moderate success, semi-constant frustration, multiple programs that mostly do the right thing most of the time, and a lot of time spent hacking my system and not a lot of time spent writing music. I am thinking of scrapping Kontact altogether and moving to giga studio if only because the lost time multiplied by my per hour rate has more than totalled the cost of a dedicated giga system. It shouldn't work this way - the tools exist to make this work. But you still find yourself caught in the headlights of reality every time you try and get something done.

    You want some advice? Keep it simple. I have been too "clever" (read stupid) throughout this process - using giga samples with Kontact, running it all on one machine, etc. If you want to be a hacker, be clever. If you want to be a musician with a reasonable amount of uptime, don't try and play the system - do the generic thing that everyone is testing and building and running every day. Having a unique problem is only interesting in research - in practice it's a pain in the *** because the majority get their problems (if they have any) solved first and you come in second place.

    now that I've had my rant, do a search for King Idiot's posts regarding Kontact. A lot of people have had good luck with it - apparently not me, however.

    -denny-

  • Bluedane,

    Just noticed your reply at northernsound.

    Try this: Open the .nki instrument. Turn on Group Editor if it isn't on already. Turn off Edit All. Go through the sucessive groups and change the tracking from "Always" to "Start on Key" and select a note outside of the playable range of the instrument.

    Or this: Open the .nki instrument. Save under as many different names as there are groups. Then go in and delete all the unwanted groups in each instrument.

    Robin

  • "If you want to be a hacker, be clever. If you want to be a musician with a reasonable amount of uptime, don't try and play the system - do the generic thing that everyone is testing and building and running every day. Having a unique problem is only interesting in research...."

    Oh, the truth of it all. What Denny said, times ten.

    In the intensely variegated, multi-dimensional, format-specific world of orchestral sampling, you had better be perfectly sure why you are straying from the beaten technical path. Creatively, go wherever your heart and talent leads you. But technically, it's obscene how much time you can burn re-inventing the wheel.

    Everything I learned about sampling came from pushing the technical envelope and putting myself in no man's land. Well, hooray for me. The problem is, in retrospect, I needed to know about one third as much to continue in my composition. And the time spent learning the other two thirds is time I will never recover.

  • You might also try Kontakt's native giga import. It will crash with some giga files, but otherwise will produce more reliable results.

  • sorry for running off a bit yesterday.

    Cement - I will go try those things tonight - thanks for the tips.

    You know, I really do think that Kontact (or Halion, if you like) is one of the best samplers out there, for a lot of reasons (all the reasons I started down this road for in the forst place.) I've just been missing the goal by 3%, and that 3% is as good as 100% if you can't get to writing because you're tripping over technical issues. I hope that some of these issues get smoothed out because I think we're finally (almost) reaching the point where the composers can no longer blame their tools for lack of production (despite my strenuous efforts yesterday)- which is great because you're limited only by talent and imagination.

    Later guys, I'll let you know how it turns out. And thanks for the tips, cement, (and any more if you wish to share them.) I'll go do some Kontact hacking tonight...

    =)
    -denny-

  • Thanks bluedane, for sharing your experience.

    I'm still thinking about whether to purchase the pro edition or not, and part of the reason is because of this giga -> kontakt thing. I walked away from giga and I really don't think that I'll ever get back to that isolated island.

    Earlier in my friend's place we've tried importing his Sonic Implants Strings into kontakt format, and there were some serious problems, which I was, and still am, afraid that'd happen to VSL giga -> kontakt too.

    I have ordered the Solo Strings, where I put my bet. If the Solo Strings fits into Kontakt successfully, I might go one step further to the Opus 1, or the First Edition, and finally the Pro Edition.

    Or I'll just jump there if one day the Kontakt version of the Pro Edition is out......

  • Arys,

    I've nearly finished converting Opus 1 to Kontakt and I would definitely NOT recommend buying the Pro Edition with the idea of translating it into anything. It's just much too large to be worth it unless converting is your love and passion.