Structure
Heralded as the new Pro Tools Sampler, Structure is the results of the A.I.R. division (Advanced Instrument Research), and they have produced a winner.

A basic Instrument is called Patch. A Patch can be made up of many Parts. A Part may be organized as "all the release triggers" or "a Part for every KeySwitch" - it doesn't matter.

A Part can be considered a module, of sorts. Structure makes it easy to add Effects modules, right alongside the Parts. And "effects there are aplenty" - lots of reverbs, compressors, chorous, and more.

Translator accurately converts sample by sample, nuance by nuance, any format into Structure format. It uses the Parts skillfully and tries to accurate replicate the grouping and the "structure" (ha ha) of the source format.

Translator also converts the effects of many source formats, such as Emu and Ensoniq Instruments. It'll add the proper effect alongside the Parts in the Patch, for total replication.

Since Structure uses external sample files, Chicken Systems has adapted the Reference Manager to fully support Structure files. So when you move your samples and Patches around, you can quickly relink them. Also, you can easily replace samples with the Replace References feature.

And, although Structure imports EXS and Kontakt files, Chicken Systems has done extensive research and improved on their implementation, so Translator conversions may sound better then the native conversions. Translator converts more types of Kontakt files to Structure, such as Kontakt 3 and Kontakt NKI monolith files.

Future versions of Translator will support more types of Effects, Structure Monolith files, and will support exporting and importing of Parts.

ShortCircuit
What if someone created a sampler, got it where it worked real well, and then decided to give it away?

That's what the folks at VemberAudio did. ShortCircuit is a very handy sample-plyback unit, featuring multiple filters, step LFO's, and a large modulation matrix. This isn't justyour standard simple sampler - it's feature rich and free!

Translator supports ShortCircuit fully, offering all source formats. Since ShortCircuit has 2 filters, not just one, it's handy to convert Ensoniq Instruments into it. Plus (and believe it or not since it's free) it has effects on it, which allows Translator's exclusive Effect Conversion Engine to write effects to ShortCircuit format.

DirectWave
Now under the aspises of FLStudio, the popular recording system software, DirectWave is a powerful yet simple sampler, with many features and strong support.

ALthough only WIndows (so far), DirectWave is a VST sampler and can run on any system that hosts VST. It offers mutliple filters, effects, and a slick quick interface.

Chicken Systems is very familiar with DirectWave - we were contracted to do the import formats that it naturally loads. Translator adds to that by offering all our source formats, plus the integration into our Reference Manager and Loop Manager. Translator not only can fruitfully multiply your DirectWave sound palette, it can manage your samples once they are in DirectWave format.

And don't forget, like all other formats, you can browse inside both DirectWave banks (.dwb) and DirectWave Programs (.dwp) while in Translator - plus you can audition the samples.

Ensoniq EPS/ASR-10/ASR-X
We love these units! And that's an understatement. For the first 10 years of Chicken Systems company life, we programmed and played and programmed these things to death. Our affiliate company, Rubber Chicken Software, is the leading information resource for these instruments.

Although we are knee-deep in support for the powerful and more popular soft samplers, we do not ever think that these beautiful hardware pieces, such as the Akai S-3000/5000, the Roland S-760, the Emulator 4 series, and of course we the Ensoniq samplers, are ever going away. So Translator continues to be the EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE when it comes to creating and converting sounds into Enosniq format.

Converting into Ensoniq has always been part of Translator, but it's only until recently that we linked it up to our ever growing Advanced Conversion Engine. Now you can convert all of our source formats into Ensoniq format, the EPS, EPS 16-Plus, the ASR-10, and the ASR-X series. Also remember that the Ensoniq TS series loads in ASR-10 sounds.

Being mindful that the Ensoniq don't hold that much memory, Translator has some special features to handle incoming source formats that exceed the maximum memory you set. In the Options-Special Features tab, you can set the Maximum Size the Ensoniq file will be; and Translator will also insure this will not exceed 16mb for the EPS/ASR-10, and 66mb for the ASR-X. If an incoming source format exceed this amount, Translator will chop the samples off that don't have loops, or will eliminate some sections of samples and extend certain ranges. Obviously there are limits to how well this works, but at the very least you can get these source files into your EPS/ASR.

Also pertaining to Ensoniq's, with version 2.9.112, Chicken Systems added floppy support, so Translator can read and write Ensoniq-formatted floppy disks on Windows XP adn Vista computers. Although it is recommended that enthusastic Ensoniq owners use hard drives and not floppies, at least this make things easier and not harder.

Translator supports converting keyswitch and controller switching into Patch Selects, as Ensoniq pioneered these things way before the software industry caught onto it.

Lastly, Translator supports incoming effects setting and integrates the appropriate Ensoniq effect for that setting.

Translator can greatly expand an Ensoniq owners sound palette.

ACID/AppleLoops/Recycle
Recycle changed the world with it's slicing program, no doubt about it. not far behind were Sonic Foundary's ACID program and APples conceptual "AppleLoops". The ability to play a rhtym track and have it speed up and slow down without any pitch change literally changed music production overnight. Nowadays, many pop tracks are entirely driven by a "loop" in the background.

And changing tempo was just the begining. Loop producers suddenly started making grooves that worked wll with these engines and formats.

Slice formats - the most popular being Recycle, ACID, and AppleLoops - are historically defined by their engines that natively play them back and generate the files. For example, if you own Recycle (the program), you import some recorded rhythm, and Recycle detects where the transients are. This allows the Recycle engine speed up and slow down the file without changing the pitch. The information is stored in a Recycle file when you save it. Recycle doesn't really think about whether some other engine is going to play it back, it just cares about itself.

ACID is similar - it's purpose is to be a engine that plays things back. The fiel that it's saves is ancillery. Even more ironic, AppleLoops are only created by the "AppleLoop Utility" which is hardly an engine anyone would use.

It was only a matter of time before all sorts of sound engines wanted to play back these types of files. Of course those engines had to figure out how they would play back the slices in a clean way, but the source formats gave them the source material - and the detected data in the form of Markers) - to use.

Since many of these engines read the major 3 slice formats now, the need for a program to convert between the 3 is to a huge deal. Still, Translator is the only sample conversion program to address the need to convert these slice file formats between each other. There are times when slice engines don't rad one format well, or better, then another. Plus, often users want things just in one format. Translator can help users make the transition of their slice library into just one format.

For example, a Garage Band user may want all his stuff in AppleLoop format, mainly because AppleLoops include a large metadata system, so AppleLoops can be mroe easily organized in databases. And that's important - typically a user has lots of loops.

But Translator goes way further then just converting the 3 Slice Formats between each other. It includes many other minor slice formats - such as Kontakt Beat Machine, Emulator X Twistaloops, Stylus RMX, Akai ChopShop (included intheir new MPC-5000), and BeatQuantizer from Zero-X. And, if that wasn't enough, you can convert any slice format into any other format, whether it's slice format or not.

For instance, let's say you want to convert a Recycle fille into a Yamaha Motif, or a Roland Fantom, or a SoundFont. Translator will give you the option of where you want to the entire recorded loop to go, what tempo you want it at, and also if you want the separated slices mapped out across the keyboard, and in what manner you want that to occur.

Translator opens the door to huge possibilities regarding Slice files!

Since Spectrasonics are experts in sound design firstly, their music products heavily depend on their source matieral, which is typically called their Core Library. Stylus RMX also includes a Recycle Convertor which allows import of Recycle files.

Since builds of Translator going back to Build 109, Translator can also translate ACID, AppleLoops, Kontakt Beat Machine, EMulatorX TwistaLoops, BeatCreator/Beat Quantizer and other source formats into native Stylus RMX format.

RMX has some ways of playing back slice files that are different then other slice players. It works more with the slices and their placement then time stretching. Because of that, it needs the transiant markers to be placed precisely and for the source material to be "transient-prounced" - so to say, to enable RMX to play back the grooves and edit them appropriately.

So even though it's nice to have Translator convert any type of slice file to RMX, you are still dependant on well-made material to get the most out of new RMX files you'll have.