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I have not tried the gigasampler yet.
Wich is best?

there are tons of sample libraries available for giga and very few for mach 5

but

giga is pc only- and from what my friends tell me who use it, you can't just buy a gateway and fire it up. supposedly, as i've been told, you're best with one of those specially built music pc's like sweetwater sells.

anyway, i'm sure there's someone else who can get more specific about this.

I have both.
Giga has a heck of a lot of options that mach 5 doesn't yet that make it THE sampler particularly for orchestral stuff. For example key switching between sample layers on the same MIDI channel so you can switch between articulations on a violin patch for example. It also has some complex MIDI rules that will let you switch up bows and down bows in legato mode. It has a random mode so it will switch samples if you repeat the same key so you don't hear the same sample repeat, great for marcato, french horn repeat notes and drums. It's a beast.
Mach 5 has potential, it is getting the layering in version 2. I don't know about the MIDI rules stuff though. Operationally it reminds me of an Akai S1000. It's really easy to sample into and you can get a keyboard of stuff up fast. The giga is torture for this. Mach five is a bit rudimentary in the modulation department but I hear v.2 will be more comprehensive. Giga is on a PC and if you are a mac guy like me the PC is a royal pain to deal with. In summary Mach 5 is fast and simple, Giga is complex, comprehensive and a beast to program. I am using giga 2.5, I hear 3 is a lot easier to use.

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<small>[ May 12, 2005, 01:33 AM: Message edited by: terra ]</small>

Mach5 can import Giga files plus all the other sample formats out there (more or less). If you plan to have...an eclectic sample library, then M5 deserves serious consideration.

my •

Originally posted by flashgerkin:
Mach5 can import Giga files plus all the other sample formats out there (more or less). If you plan to have...an eclectic sample library, then M5 deserves serious consideration.

my •

theoretically yes, but i have had a hard time importing some libraries into m5. it is certainly much preferred to buy libraries that are guaranteed to work in your program. e.g., i recently imported sonic reality's world traveler which is in akai format. it was flawless except for 1 patch. other libraries were not so easy, the garritan strings in giga format being one-plus you can lose certain expression functions. some libraries just wouldn't import at all.

however, i really like m5 and hope that these libraries start to release their products in m5 format.

<small>[ May 14, 2005, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: jackorhythm ]</small>

I have the GigaSampler LE on a p3-800 machine. But the MIDI thing has gone south and I am at a crossroad.

Do I replace the motherboard? or get Mach5. The price is about the same.

You have to have a particular chipset to allow giga, and a lot of audio things work in the pc world.

Most everything that I have is in Akai format. I do have some that were converted to giga format but...

What do you all think?

i can only tell you that the world trveller disc i imported flawlessly was in akai format.