MachFive and sampler disks: ISO images or convert?

[jantoman]

Hi guys. I was wondering about the best way to keep sampler disk contents in our libraries...

As any MF1 former user, I remember that its weakest features were saving and converting; in fact we were forced to convert every sample disk just to play it, and it was quite annoying. MF2 has much more import and reading options, but I found that many sampler disks are quite unusable, due to a bad program conversion or sample read errors.
Akai Virtuoso Strings 2 is one of them: on Partition C, the first cello program shows a couple of samples that can't play at all, because their sample rate is 0... I've tested many Akai drum loop disks, and I found that KG pitch parameters are totally wrong... Then I tried a few EMU disks and most of the sample loops need to be fixed, or even switched on...
To fix such defects (when it's worth, of course), the only option is to convert programs and samples in MF format; there's no point in saving "bad" disks as ISO images, as the manual suggests.
The problem is that MF2 can just save one program at once, as far as I know. So it's time for a couple of questions: is there a more efficient tool than the old UVI-CDXtract to convert a whole disk ? And what's your favourite way: to convert sampler disks on ISO images or to translate them in MF2 format ?

[carrythebanner]

I think I would start with making ISO images of the disks. You can then load the presets right from the ISO image, and then if/when you encounter problems with the presets you can decided what to do.

- If the problem is _not_ in the audio files, you can correct the problem and just Save As a new preset file (say, on disk next to the ISO image) without needing to duplicate the audio files. When you load this new preset file, the ISO will be automatically mounted and the audio files will be referenced from within the image. (This has a side benefit: if the problem with the preset is just in MachFive's ability to read it properly, perhaps in a future MachFive update the problem will be fixed, and you'll be able to scrap your saved preset files and go back to loading directly from the ISO.)

- If the problem is with the audio files themselves (say, bad loop points), use Save Preset and Samples As to save the preset file and the related audio files out of the ISO to disk.

Unfortunately, MachFive v2 doesn't have a batch convert option, so if you know for a fact that you want to convert all of the presets in a disk image, there isn't any way (that I know of) to avoid loading and then saving every preset in the image.

[jantoman]

Unfortunately, MachFive v2 doesn't have a batch convert option, so if you know for a fact that you want to convert all of the presets in a disk image, there isn't any way (that I know of) to avoid loading and then saving every preset in the image.

You're right, but I found a little useful trick to convert an entire disk... I just dusted off UVI Xtract from MF1 Utilities, still available on MOTU website. It works, though the Save directory is slightly different than MF2 and you need to move around some folders after importing the sounds (as fas as I know: maybe I didn't learn to properly set the Save options yet...)

I keep the Akai volume presets together in one folder, along with a subfolder called "Samples". IMHO, it's the best way to avoid the annoying "Find missing samples..." window, though I know it's impossible to get rid of it for good