hollow sun collection for Fantom S/X

[jsepeta]

Back when the library was all free, I downloaded the entire Hollow Sun collection. NI never used it much but I've been keeping it around. I see that the developer (who posted maybe 20% of the sounds he made but 80% got as free submissions from site visitors) has now packaged the collection as a VSTi/AU instrument called Nostalgia and is bringing the sounds to the Alesis Fusion. So I got the idea in my head to bring the collection to the Fantom using Chicken Systems' Translator.

Some of the sounds gave me errors when attempting to convert. But there are certainly some usable ones here.
I tested the Mellotron choir today and for 4mb of samples, it turned out all right.

I'd like to get this figured out soon, and am reaching out for some help. Not sure how these could be distributed because of the lack of originator information (who did the original sampling) but I'm willing to share them with the Clansmen if we can clean things up a bit and make it a whole lot more user-friendly.

What's the best way to work with these samples? Save a *.SVD file for each sound like Translator did? or is there some way to make the collection load up at startup and only have a single SVD to load into the user memory? It appears that the Translator software (I'm running the latest full version for XP) has put things into a different folder hierarchy than the fantom would prefer, so there's some cleanup necessary to get this thing running.

Please contact me if you'd like to get a copy of the collection on DVD. So far I see that it's taking up 2.4gb but as the original collection was somewhere between 600-700mb I'm not why translating it made it 2-3x bigger.

---
Desperate times call for desperate measures.

[JazzXR]

mmhh I'm interested! Where can I listen to some samples?

---------------------------------------
::Rix::

[jsepeta]

I should post a couple in the next couple of weeks -- busy trying to figure out the SVD format. Opened up an SVD file in notepad and can't read it. was hoping that maybe i could copy and paste between multiple SVD's to generate a file that would load 100+ sampled instruments into a single file. startup times on your synth would take longer BUT you'd have some kickass vintage sounds in the card slot.

just received 6 additional card readers today and am awaiting delivery of some 1gb compact flashes. the collection will be available via compact flash and DVD since it's so large. but first I have to figure out how to do the combining, because for me it's a pain in the wazoo to load a single sample into the card section at a time. how come all the SVD files have to be named Fans.SVD to be read?

oh, and since I also happen to own a large collection of synths myself, this is just the starting point. once i've gotten the hollow sun experience out of the way, i plan to put together additional sample collections. this is a project i've been planning and recording for many years. why samples and not patches? because i can then offer similar collections for other platforms (triton, motif, kurzweil).

---
helping unwed pregnant mothers get their start
http://lo-res.com/gear/instruments.htm

[JazzXR]

ok...I'm waiting for you.
Good work.

(may I help you in any way?)

---------------------------------------
::Rix::

[jsepeta]

just dug into the folders and got a rude shock. the translator program should have created a roland subfolder and then 4 subfolders to hold svd, samples, and other stuff. however, most sounds have additional unnecessary folders and a samples folder OUTSIDE the root roland folder, and will likely ned manual intercession to fix. ALSO all the samples are labelled Sample001.WAV thru Sample022.WAV, meaning if I were to place them all in the same samples folder, samples with the same name as others (every level down) will end up erasing/deleting/destroying the previous ones with the same name. and renaming the samples means breaking the tie to the FANS.SVD file. and so that means to rename all the sample files (from sample001.wav to moog_bass1.wav, etc.) and build new svd files will take a herculean effort.

in other news i tried opening an SVD file to learn about it's structure, and it's not something which i understand. here's hoping chicken systems' new tool for building sample sets becomes available soon. or maybe roland can release a sample-building kit for pc & mac. don't see it happening but it would be nice.

---
helping unwed pregnant mothers get their start
http://lo-res.com/gear/instruments.htm

[jsepeta]

i'm thinking that the best case scenario now is to break down the collection by instrument. I contacted chicken systems, and they still had their summer namm voice message in place. so without some kind of software tool to help, it looks like it's going to take some time to rename all the sample files and load them into a fantom format. too bad roland doesn't have some kind of virtual fantom tool for building svds that would give me a graphical interface for assigning samples to root notes and keyranges and velocities. at least if I break this project into 50 components it will be easier to swallow or to hand off bits and pieces to others. also, since I have access to a number of vintage synths, it will give me an opportunity to add to the collection, maybe even improve upon it.

JazzXR, if I sent you a couple of dvd's of the samples so far, would you be willing to test them out? it's too much content to post on the web but i'd be willing to make some disks at least until this project is in better shape.

---
helping unwed pregnant mothers get their start
http://lo-res.com/gear/instruments.htm

[JazzXR]

Hi man...
write me at pulvijazz@yahoo.it

PS:I'm Italian and my english is not very good...be patient

---------------------------------------
::Rix::

[jsepeta]

buon giorno! there, that's about the extent of the Italian I remember from college.

---
helping unwed pregnant mothers get their start
http://lo-res.com/gear/instruments.htm

[JazzXR]

good start
write me to talk about the project..

---------------------------------------
::Rix::

[stevie]

Just my 2p, but before anyone wastes so much time, I had NO success at all using chicken sys to translate anything into fantom format. If you have any success let us know how you get on.

Without any translation, the fantom is isolated from a sample import point of view - it can't read any other formats.

Steve

[JazzXR]

Hi Stevie.
I use the "Fantom Convertor". I converted the "Symphony of voices" collection, the "Choirs Angels", "Choirs Daemons", "keith Emerson Synth/Hammond" collection, and others in AKAI format....it works.

---------------------------------------
::Rix::

[jsepeta]

I've recently run into some issues that I've reported back to Chicken Systems. I have owned the full version of Translator for years, so am using this and not the cut-down Fantom-only version.

1) Emu sample sets that have the characters
*
or
/
in the name refuse to convert to Fantom format

2) Dan Dean Bass 2 - Emu format
converts the standard EIII samples fine
but the EOS format samples get copied over without building a Fans.SVD file, so they're not ready to be played

**

I've converted about 20gb of akai samples, and am now working on a bunch of Emu cds and will hopefully do the Kurzweil discs by week's end. Problem on the Kurz side is if they have any VAST programming, they won't be usable at all in the Fantom. But would love to bring over my 64mb Steinway, 60mb Fazzioli, and 54mb Seiler grands. Still don't have a good Yamaha grand either...

---
helping unwed pregnant mothers get their start
http://lo-res.com/gear/instruments.htm

[kayvon]

Nice one jsepeta, it's good to see the people in the Fantom community willing to do things like this.

I've only just recently started looking into using instrument samples since i've bought my Fantom XR. Looks like I should think about getting that 512 upgrade!

Maybe in the future I can give back by doing some sampling of Tassman. Ok it may seem like no point as you're missing out on the strength of PM but it'd be cool just to get some fresh sounds into the Fantom.

Some Kurzweil sounds would be cool, even without VAST maybe we could go some way to re-programming sounds if we had the raw samples?

Pete.


______________________
Fantom XR + SRX-12

[jsepeta]

yeah, some of the sample cd's i had in a completely different storage space. just discovered that the akai-format prosonus 128mb steinway doesn't have samples below E3 -- that was a bad ebay purchase. and have not been able to convert the 1gb 96k / 24-bit demo steinway from music tech magazine to 44.1k / 24-bit with proper pitch without getting goofy artifacts. i'm about halfway done converting my emu / nicebytes synthline collection (30+ discs) which includes some Kurzweil samples -- not the ones I'd pick but it was low-hanging fruit.

---
helping unwed pregnant mothers get their start
http://lo-res.com/gear/instruments.htm

[jsepeta]

I must give a shout out to the kind wizards who develop Chicken Systems Translator. They just emailed me within 12 hours of my issue (translations not working due to unsupported characters) and they said they'd have a new build ready by week's end that addresses the issue.

I've now got some 70 sample discs translated for the Fantom. Most worked ok but a handful would not translate all the samples. Have to dig deeper on this.

---
helping unwed pregnant mothers get their start
http://lo-res.com/gear/instruments.htm