Roland ->Giga Comparison

Below is a chart comparing the Roland S-7x»Giga translations of CDXtract and Translator. These evaluations were done using over 100 professional Roland CD-ROM's converted into Giga. We have tried to avoid giving our opinions; these are the facts as evaluated. We believe it's clear that Translator is the superior product.

Topic - > Program CDXtract Translator
Roland Deemphasis Supported Supported; with the authentic Roland code algorithm as well as 3 variant and one user-controlled algorithm
Sound Auditioning Supported Supported
Interface Heirarchy-based; cannot see all Objects (Volumes, Performances, Patches, Partials, or Samples) in one view; sometimes has difficulty finding "orphans" (objects that aren't contained in a higher level object) Object-based - you can find the object you need in a quicker, more natural fashion
Parameters Supported Supports most common parameters Areas where Translator analyzes parameters better
  • Highpass Filter: CDX generally sets this too high, too thin of sound
  • Envelopes: Translator deals with complex 4-stage envelopes to Giga ADSR better
  • Mod Wheel SMT's: Not supported in CDXtract
Stereo or Mono Regions
(Giga only supports a region with all stereo samples or all mono samples; it cannot combine the two)		 Possible to accidentally put a stereo and mono sample in the same region, creating an illegal file; can crash or act erratically
Doubles samples in order to accomodate Giga's expotential restriction (velocities or dimensions can only be in 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 amounts)		 Onboard intelligence either splits a stereo file in a region that should be mono, or "stereo-izes" a mono sound that needs to fit in a stereo region
Creates silent samples to accomodate expotential requirement; much easier on the system and clearer on a organizational level
Stereo loops with different loop points for each side Supports manual combining or separating; not automatic Automatically chooses whether samples should be combined or separated; this can be overridden manually as well
Roland Performances Treats just like a collection of patches; no Performance-specific information is considered or created Replicates the exact setup of the Roland Performance; combines Roland Patches if necessary, writes a Giga Performance if necessary
"ALT"ernating loops (Roland back-forth loops) Not supported; treats just like a forward loop Imports the data so that the ALTernating loop is duplicated exactly using a forward loop on Giga
Roland "KeyFollow" (Pitch tracking turned off) Incorrectly translates if there are coarse tuning adjustments made within the Partial or the Patch Correctly tunes in all cases
Converting entire CD's Supported, but much replicated data is written, sometimes as much as 300% Supports a special grouping option which writes multiple Roland Patches or Performances with shared samples into the same .gig file, thus eliminating the majority of duplicated material
Giga 2.2+ new Parameters Not supported Supports Attack-Time Velocity
Additional features Costs less, in case of "Giga Edition" Optional auto-truncating of sounds
Optional fade-in/fade-out of sounds to eliminate unwanted clicks
Support - fixes, optimizations available within 24 hours
Many more available formats to translate from; for example - Ensoniq, Kurzweil, SampleCell Mac, Emu ESi v3, Roland S-50, .wav/AIFF (special mapping modes)