# Who's still using giga? THIS guy, that's who.



## chillbot (Nov 23, 2016)

This has probably been answered but I see that no one has used this forum in a year. Anyone know what's the best and current way to convert giga samples to kontakt? And does it actually work?

(On a side note if anyone here is looking for a mind-numbingly boring gig I may have a project for you.)

(On another note if anyone is looking for a rock-solid Windows XP 2-rack-space giga unit with ADAT in/out I may have 1 or 2 for sale. You laugh but I've had a lot of interest in these.)

I have two (yes two) giga machines from vision daw, they are awesome. 4gb of ram, running Windows XP. The power supply died in one which I'm going to replace. I really want to consolidate down to one machine, I use them less and less as the years go by and the samples get better. But there are still a number of samples I use regularly that I don't want to give up. Plus I have a massive giga library of like 400gb that is great to have when you need something specific. I know 400gb is barely bigger than HZ piano but in giga years it's a shit load.

So should I give up on consolidating down to one machine and just convert everything? Otherwise I am thinking of replacing the hard drives along with the power supply to ensure I get another 5+ years out of it. Don't want it to die again... might be hard getting parts for a XP machine?

For the one or two of you that will actually read this forum, thanks in advance!


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## Piano & Strings (Nov 23, 2016)

I've PM'd you


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## dgburns (Nov 23, 2016)

I still have one rack server running V3. Gigapulse reverb has not moved over to newer formats, so libraries like Larry Seyer drums can't be converted over to Kontakt and play as expected. Anything that leverages that reverb won't get converted with Chicken Systems or Cdxtract. 

The conversion built into Kontakt is supposed to be licensed from Chicken systems, and seems to work well for me. Just not on stacked instruments or inserted convo reverb settings in gigapulse-those don't come across in the converts.

this seems to work ok-

http://www.soundlib.com/gplayer/


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## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 23, 2016)

Giga itself in old Windows machines, with Plogue Bidule into VE Pro over ethernet.

A kludge but it works for a single MIDI port.


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## wst3 (Nov 23, 2016)

I haven't used Giga since my last Giga computer died. I'm sure I could find a replacement motherboard, just not sure I want to go through that hassle... and then there is the adventure of connecting the machines. When I was using it a lot I had MIDIOverLAN to handle the MIDI, and I used ADAT optical for audio, but ADAT audio isn't really an option any more (at least not 32 channels worth) because my Dakota cards are PCI, not PCIe, and my main DAW doesn't support PCI.

And so on and so on...

BUT, there are three or four GS libraries I still want to use, so I'm frequently checking translators and players. GPlayer does a nice job with both the Scarbee and Seyer basses. Scarbee basses aren't a big deal any more since they were properly ported to Kontakt - they aren't exactly the same, but close enough. Seyer Acoustic Bass, on the other hand, is one I'd like back. The other big one is Garritan Orchestral Strings.

Except it's been a while (maybe 18 months or longer) since I could use GOS, so maybe that's in my imagination? Gplayer does not handle them well, nor does Translator, nor does CDxtract. Do I really need GOS anymore, can CS2 or CSS or Anthology or <fill in the blank> cover GOS? I don't know.

Nick's solution of Bidule to VEPro works, or it did work with VEPro 5, but it's touchy to get working, and almost as touchy to keep it working.

VEPro makes multiple machines easy, and I would like to expand my network to include a dedicated Kontakt machine (or two???), but keeping a GS machine on the network has become more and more of a "maybe not" proposition.

Nothing terribly helpful, I know, but at least you know you are not the last man standing.


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## JohnG (Nov 23, 2016)

chillbot said:


> what's the best and current way to convert giga samples to kontakt?



Hey chilb -- I use G-Player and it works pretty well. I tried porting some of my favourites over and it was a total failure, not to mention time consuming / boring / etc.

http://www.soundlib.com


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## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 23, 2016)

Bill wrote:



> Nick's solution of Bidule to VEPro works, or it did work with VEPro 5, but it's touchy to get working, and almost as touchy to keep it working.



And yet it's the perfect solution for the man who only does it once every few years.


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## chillbot (Nov 24, 2016)

JohnG said:


> Hey chilb -- I use G-Player and it works pretty well


Huh... so I can just load G-player into VEPro? Didn't know it was that simple.

I'm not super concerned about everything playing back or converting perfectly. I don't think there's any one library that I couldn't live without if it didn't work. It's more just the sheer quantity of the libraries I have that I don't want to lose. A lot of old drum loop libraries that are nice for variety. And a ton of ethnic stuff. Honestly I don't think I have that many G3-specific libraries if that's an issue.

I have 6 slaves right now (including the 2 giga) I think if I can run stuff in VEPro I can get that down to 3 or possibly even 2....


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## JohnG (Nov 24, 2016)

chillbot said:


> so I can just load G-player into VEPro? Didn't know it was that simple.



Yes -- it really is amazingly simple. I don't really know if absolutely everything plays back perfectly, but if I want some odd instrument and I know I have it in one of my old Giga libraries, it seems to resurrect the sound pretty well.


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## chimuelo (Dec 2, 2016)

There are embedded industrial motherboards with Conroe E8600s and 875 chipsets.
New old stock (NOS) from Trenton Design iirc.
My old P4 with Supermicro P4SCT+II gets used for pick up gigs.
Rhodes Wurli GigaPiano Vintaudio Upright QL Brass and Miraslav Strings....


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## chillbot (Jan 19, 2017)

A ton of people have asked me about selling my rackmount gigas in the past year.... I know you don't believe me but I swear it's true. Only now I can't remember who. I will be selling them in about 2 weeks, prefer local LA pickup. If anyone is still interested send me a PM so I can save one for you.


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## EC2 (Jan 26, 2017)

Logic´s built in EXS24 sampler can convert Giga samples into EXS´s proprietary format. From there you can export to any format you wish. If you have friend or colleague who runs Logic you could ask if they´d do you a favor and convert those for you.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 26, 2017)

Kontakt can do that too, but the conversions aren't perfect with either.

Chicken Systems does a better job: http://www.chickensys.com/index.html

The convolution positioning in the later Giga versions is another matter.

I haven't tried G-player, so no comments either way.


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## jonnybutter (Jan 26, 2017)

EC2 said:


> Logic´s built in EXS24 sampler can convert Giga samples into EXS´s proprietary format.



Not Gigastudio 3 files, unfortunately


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## brooklynjared (Feb 20, 2017)

Another recommendation for G-Player. The new version (on Mac) is wonky in VEP 6, but works well in other hosts. It just WORKS. Same old GIGA files, no conversion. It's cheap, and the company seems dedicated to keeping it going.


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## AlexRuger (Mar 23, 2017)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> Kontakt can do that too, but the conversions aren't perfect with either.
> 
> Chicken Systems does a better job: http://www.chickensys.com/index.html
> 
> ...



I'd suggest that people actually don't go the Chicken Systems route. That company is a goddamn mess.


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## Bluedive (Jun 16, 2017)

For all users of VSL gig libraries in Logic Pro X with EXS24 or G-player, there is script by 3r audio which ,they claim, works like VSL Performance Tools. I've been using Legatos script with proPerformance gig files and it does job well, with repetitions not so much luck so far.
http://www.3raudio.com/vsl.html


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## dgburns (Jun 16, 2017)

AlexRuger said:


> I'd suggest that people actually don't go the Chicken Systems route. That company is a goddamn mess.



LOL, come to think of it, I can't recall a single conversion I actually used. Garth, yeah, that's the dev's name isn't it?? , such an enthusiastic bloke too, bit of a shame.


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## chimuelo (Jun 22, 2017)

It was a mess years ago too.
Translator Pro is what I bought, I couldn't get it to work, and before I could ask for my money back the guy was telling me to take Computer Courses as he didnt have time to explain his terminology to me.
I bought it because you can select the conversion and it's a 2 step process.
So the ad said.
Oh well, 60 bucks was worth not hearing his whiny ass voice again..


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## chimuelo (Jun 22, 2017)

Larry Sayers Maple kit is still the best playing best sounding drum kit I ever bought.
I drag an ancient 2.56 Northwood P4 with 10k Cheetahs just to make some tracks with it.
I've spent 2k on Ocean, Kontakt, Superior and many others.
Can't come close to LSADs quality.
I think it's Gigastudios biggest strength.


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## Publius (Jul 28, 2017)

Great blast from the past--takes me to a previous life many years ago. I recall when giga was all the rage, and I kind of wondered what happened to it.


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## alextone (Feb 6, 2018)

For those of you, like me, who still have and want to use those wonderful old gig libs, linuxsampler works in windows as well as native linux. I've dumped trying to get the latest kontakt working in wine some time ago, and have gone back, with the enthusiasm of rediscovering old libs, who's quirks and delights i'm familiar with.

http://linuxsampler.org/

Alex.


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## Count_Fuzzball (May 4, 2018)

alextone said:


> For those of you, like me, who still have and want to use those wonderful old gig libs, linuxsampler works in windows as well as native linux. I've dumped trying to get the latest kontakt working in wine some time ago, and have gone back, with the enthusiasm of rediscovering old libs, who's quirks and delights i'm familiar with.
> 
> http://linuxsampler.org/
> 
> Alex.



Linuxsampler is great. With cdxtract and Translator, I've converted a bunch of soundfonts and sampled some windows vsts into giga format for use in a native Linux DAW setup powered by Linuxsampler's gig engine.

The KSP-like NKSP language for linuxsampler's gig and sfz engines is fantastic, and damn, does it extend the life of that old old format (managed to write an auto-alternation tool for GOS and implemented GOS' "masking samples" legato scripting too using NKSP. Neat stuff. Also want to write one of those scripts that uses neighbouring notes for the Dan Dean woodwinds gigastudio collection, amazing set of samples, though limited articulations.)...

Need to figure out how to do Linux <-> Windows audio/midi. With Linux as sequencer master and a windows box as the sampler/slave..

As an aside, are you AlexStone from the Linuxsampler/Open Octave Midi boards?


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## JohnG (May 4, 2018)

G-player works fine here. I haven't checked all my libraries to see how well it implements every last nuance, but I don't really need nuance from those old libraries, just an occasional sound that still works well (ethnic stuff primarily).

I like it because I don't have to translate anything. Just load it.


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## alextone (May 20, 2018)

Count_Fuzzball said:


> Linuxsampler is great. With cdxtract and Translator, I've converted a bunch of soundfonts and sampled some windows vsts into giga format for use in a native Linux DAW setup powered by Linuxsampler's gig engine.
> 
> The KSP-like NKSP language for linuxsampler's gig and sfz engines is fantastic, and damn, does it extend the life of that old old format (managed to write an auto-alternation tool for GOS and implemented GOS' "masking samples" legato scripting too using NKSP. Neat stuff. Also want to write one of those scripts that uses neighbouring notes for the Dan Dean woodwinds gigastudio collection, amazing set of samples, though limited articulations.)...
> 
> ...




No longer with OpenOctave for a long time, but yes, i am that Alex.

And another Dan Dean user here. He was really laid back about me buying gig format, which i thought was cool. Despite the fewer artics, the samples are excellent.

As for Linux <> Win, you could use jack2. There is a win version as well, and you can run jack2, one for each machine, "joining" them with netjack in a master/slave relationship. (And you can run as many slaves as you want.)

http://www.jackaudio.org/faq/netjack.html

https://github.com/jackaudio/jackaudio.github.com/wiki/WalkThrough_User_NetJack2


I managed to successfully port in both directions using netjack2 and using the instructions above. It took a little figuring out how many ports i could add "safely", so you'll likely have an enjoyable, if challenging afternoon testing the capabilities of your own machines.

And yes, i agree the nksp scripting is amazing. I'm still in very much the early days with it, but Christian continues to positively surprise with his vision for LS, and the subsequent benefit for us users.

Some might say that the gig format is dead and gone, but i'd argue it's very much alive, and kicking again with nksp, and recordings are, after all, still recordings. I am looking forward to getting my head around nksp and building out some nice scripts to further enhance my modest but still hard working gig collection.

I have the DD Woodwinds too, and the cool thing was he was perfectly ok with me buying an older format. Didn't try to upsell me into Kontakt or any silly nonsense like that. One of the best investments i ever made. The woodwinds are pristine imho, and versatile, even with few artics. And i can put them in any space, and shape them to fit. A proper sample lib. 

Alex.


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## JamieLang (Aug 7, 2018)

Use GPlayer. Seriously....ESX24 does better than Kontakt at conversions, but neither are remotely what I'd deem acceptable. Meanwhile, I don't know that anything I opened in GPlayer didn't play like it was intended. It's a no brainer if you want to use old libs. I, for one, have no need....so I didn't go beyond demo'ing it....but, it WORKED unlike the mainstream samplers' internal conversions.


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## Ashermusic (Aug 8, 2018)

I dunno. Steve Porcaro uses G Player and it has been very unstable, as it has been for Heitor Pereira.


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## wst3 (Aug 8, 2018)

Don't know if I would call it unstable (then again, I have only run the demo, perhaps it is?) but I do know that as of the last time I tried it had a real problem with Garritan Orchestral Strings


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## JamieLang (Aug 15, 2018)

On Mac it's unstable? #addItToTheList  I only ever used it on Windows...when Gigastudio stopped running (64bit Win7)...I wanted to be able to play the old samples. Kontakt can't do it. At all. Not ONE...single...library, played right. EXS24 did remarkably better, but still not the 100% I from GPlayer without even needing to convert anything.


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