Converting software...... CDXtract vs Translator
2002-04-16 by Martin, Jeremy
Hey everyone. I'm finally about ready to purchase EXS24 and was just thinking about which converting software I should get. I plan to get a few sample cds (mostly just for world percussion sounds), and while a lot of the CDs I have been eyeing are available in EXS format, a few of them are AKAI or audio only. A couple of quick questions I hope you experienced sample-heads can answer for me: 1) When only AKAI or Audio formats are available for a given sample CD, getting the AKAI CD would probably be better, right? It's my current understanding that AKAI cds can hold data about loop points etc while a regular audio cd can't store any of this data, it would just have the raw sounds and no 'programming'? 2) Right now I'm leaning towards CDXtract since it's about half the price of Translator, and because I don't need any other obscure sample formats converted (e.g. Ensoniq EPS/ASR etc)... Just AKAI->EXS and maybe SF2->EXS (since I've heard a lot of times you can get SF2 sample cds at a fraction of the cost of AKAI/Audio sample cds, at least thats what a Sound On Sound article said). I was wondering if you all can let me know if there'd be any big difference between Translator and CDXtract for these relatively simple conversions? No special Roland filters to emulate, etc... Just regular AKAI -> EXS conversions. I know I've heard Bernard say anytime a user has a problem with a particular CD he'll update CDXtract, and I assume Garth has the same policy... Basically I'm just wondering if there's any reason to spend nearly twice as much on Translator given my (relatively simple) needs. P.S. I'm on a PC btw so compatibility or which person has their Mac version out first etc doesn't matter in this case. Thanks!! All the best, Jeremy