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Universal Prog Converter.

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 11:42 pm
by Sharp
Hi all.
I want to share an idea with you all and to get some feedback to see what you think about this.

From past experience I find that if I copy the settings from the screen of one keyboard into another, the end result is pretty close. The problem with this method of porting sounds over to other keyboards is that you have to match up items on one keyboards screen with another successfully and the layout can be rather different. You can get lost along the way and miss something. In short it's a lot of going back and forth setting by setting to port a sound and there maybe be offsets needed.

So I'm strongly thinking about writing an program that allows you work with a visual display that looks exactly the same as your source keyboard. You copy the values on the screen of your source keyboard into the exact replica in the program and then at the press of a button you can convert that display into another keyboards screen.

For example, you could copy the settings from an M3 into the program and at the press of a button it would generate the exact screen shots you need to create this sound on your OASYS by showing you actual OASYS screen shots.

So, what do you think of the idea ?

Regards
Sharp

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 12:35 am
by zolhof
Great idea, are you thinking about Korg keyboards "only" or any brand?

Sounds like A LOT of work to accurately convert patches from any brand.. look at those almost infinite setting pages you have on Kurzweil´s keyboards lol

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 12:50 am
by Sharp
I was thinking about KORG keyboards only to be honest. There's a level of conformance across the entire range and past keyboards. For example, the M1 screen's would match up very easily to the OASYS and suitable alternatives to multisamples could be found.

Sharp

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 1:57 am
by mocando
Great. I'll be happy to beta test it.

Although it sounds a bit overkill with the screen approach. A simpler converter on which you load the patch, select the keyboard model (and make), select the output board model and do the internals to dissect the original patch and redo it on the other format would be more than enough for many people.

In my particular case I'd love to be able to convert tons and tons of patches available online for the triton series into M50/M3 format. And there should be another bunch of Yamaha and Roland patches that will be nice to convert it to Korg formats as well.

I mean, the screen approach should be awesome too. And if it serves for your particular purpose, I'm no one to challenge that. I was meaning in terms of being more "convenient" for the regular user.

I'd love to hear more about this project as you progress, Sharp.

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 8:11 pm
by rkarlberg
This sounds like a great idea. I spent some time converting patches for the Korg Virtual Analog PolySix and MS-20 to the Oasys. It took a long time but was really worth it.

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 10:48 pm
by Sharp
Guess there's not much interest in it though. 3 replies after almost 100 views it pretty bad.

Not to worry, maybe it's something for later.

Regards
Sharp

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:10 pm
by medusaland
Sharp wrote:Guess there's not much interest in it though. 3 replies after almost 100 views it pretty bad.

Not to worry, maybe it's something for later.

Regards
Sharp
Hi Sharp,

great idea :-) YES PLEASE!

Best, Kurt

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:29 am
by EJ2
Great idea, Sharp. Now, if you can advance this to handle Korg Combinations, that would be totally awesome.
Cheers,
Jim

Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:26 pm
by Bart S.
Yes, yes, yes!!! Great idea!!! :D

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:58 am
by tonybanks
IMHO it's a very good idea.
It would have been very useful when I had to "translate" all my sounds from the old Triton Extreme into Oasys.

Having experienced such event, I also have to tell that the sounds, although carefully replicated in terms of parameter settings (when applicable), needed sometime a certain amount of adjustments to match properly the original source.

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:59 pm
by Ray
Yes please 8)

Yeah!

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:39 pm
by freekroffel
\:D/ \:D/ \:D/

But please make that a Java applet so you can use it cross platform!

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:22 pm
by Arend Groot
It would be great, I have lots of red karma progs and it would be very nice to convert them to the big O :wink:

Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:25 am
by hermanmusic
Yes, I think this is a wonderful idea and would be willing to pay for such a program. I miss my Triton Extreme which was sold to help finance my Big O. I would like very much to be able to closely recreate some of those sounds. For years I have recreated programs from one Korg synth to another. For example, most 01W programs can be recreated on an 03R/W. The sysex is not compatible, but with the exception of the 01W's waveshaping capabilities, the waveforms are all there.

A great idea that I would love to see come to fruition.

Re: Universal Prog Converter.

Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:59 am
by danatkorg
Sharp wrote:From past experience I find that if I copy the settings from the screen of one keyboard into another, the end result is pretty close.
I'm all in favor of converting sounds between formats, when possible. That said, I doubt that this particular approach will work very well in the general case. It might get you roughly in the ballpark; for instance, a slow sweep might still be a slow sweep. With very simple sounds, the results might sometimes be close. But, synths can really be quite different under the hood, and everything from filter frequencies to envelope times and levels to LFO speeds will not match up simply by duplicating on-screen values.

Best regards,

Dan