Currently, the MSRP of Translator is $149.95. It is dual-platform - both Mac and Windows version are included. There are also Special Editions, which restrict destinations to only one format, available for $79.95.

You can purchase at our retail arm SamplerZone.com, or at most any music store. Sometimes SampleZone.com has sales periodically.

Return to Index→

With the Full Version, the whole ball of wax is included - you get all available translation capability in one program.

There are different editions of Translator that are sold for for specific samplers (click here for more information). For example, the EXS24 Edition translates anything only to EXS24 format. It does not translate Roland to Akai, for example. The Roland Edition converts EVERYTHING to anything Roland (S-7x, Fantom, MV-8000, etc.).

Return to Index→

Yes, we call it Translator™ 6 Free. It primarily exists to show you the program and shows you how easy it is to use, and what it feels like. You can use it to move files around and to format proprietary disks.

Go the the Download Translator Free page to download it.

Return to Index→

Translator is a physical product and MUST be shipped to you.

However, so you can use the program immediately, we offer a temporary build that you can download after you order from SamplerZone.com, to use for the time being. That temproary build expires by the time the CD arrives.

Updates are available for immediate download from our Web Site, using our easy-to-use updating method from the program itself.

Return to Index→

Return to Index→

Yes, we support proprietary sampler floppy disks using the Omniflop Windows Replacement Floppy Driver. (You must download and install this yourself; don't worry, it's easy.) Any Ensoniq, Roland, Akai, Emu, Kurzweil, or Fairlight/Synclavier floppy should show up under Proprietary Drives, showing the title "Floppy A".

You can read a file off the disk, write a file onto the disk, read the whole disk as a Virtual Drive, write a Virtual Drive onto a floppy, plus format any floppy to any disk format.

Return to Index→

Go to the Supported Formats page, look for the SOURCE and DESTINATION sampler formats you are interested in, and see what is supported so far. This page is updated to reflect the current translations available is the onmly authoritative source for current information on supported formats.

Return to Index→

Obviously all/most translations will be to a certain extent "lossy." The point is to get as close as possible to achieve coherency, just like language translation does. All samplers share basically the same attributes, with supersets of the basic OSC-FILTER-AMP-ENVELOPE-LFO scheme. Translator is extensively documented on the abilities and limitations of it's translations.

Return to Index→

Translator can potentially translate better, faster, and more accurately.

For example, the Ensoniq ASR-X imports Ensoniq EPS/ASR sounds, but there are certain critical translation problems, the effects DSP information is not translated, and it has to be done one-by-one.

In addition, the ASR-X can translate Akai and Roland formats, but only the wavedata and the keymap arrangement on the keyboard.

This is also the case with many other manufacturers translations - they want to expand the reach of their product, but have not had the resources to truly get the job done right. Translator improves on this situation for your benefit.

Return to Index→

Call or e-mail us and give us SPECIFIC information on the problem - best of all, send us the actual source file in question - you may do this without prior permission.

• Report the incident at our Bug Report Page - this is all you need to do.
• OR, you can e-mail us it regardless of size (beware: your outgoing server probably restricts e-mails sizes).
• OR, FTP it to our site (do not include spaces in the file name you are sending).
• For more info on sending files, see the Sending Files area of the documentation.

Return to Index→

If you are installing any Chicken Systems product from CD on Sieerra/El Capitan/Yosemite, you may get an error in the installer, saying Installations cannot proceed; not all requirements were met. Here's the fix, it's an Apple/Javascript bug related to the installer (which is Apple-provided).

• Copy the installer off the CD and on your Desktop (or wherever).
• Ctl/Right-click and select "Open Package Contents"
• A finder window opens with the "Contents" folder showing, enter into it
• Duplicate the "distribution.dist" file for backup
• Open "distribution.dist" with TextEdit
• Edit the "10.4.0" string to have it say "10.04.0"
• Save the document.
• Run the installer from that location; it should work.

The problem is that the installers on the CD"s have a filter (that we elected to put into it) so any installation attempt on any OSX before 10.4 Tiger will fail. The problem is that the script compares the string "10.10" >= "10.4.0" and for some reason it thinks it is less than "10.4.0". (We don"t know why they are doing string comparisons for equality in the first place.)

We"ve reported the bug to Apple and we"ll see how fast they fix it. In the meantime, this workaround works fine.

We"ve removed the OS check on all updaters to avoid the problem, as we aren"t really expecting anyone to try installing any of our products on OS's 10.3 or below anymore. But the installers off the CD are beyond our control, so until Apple fixes this, the above workaround is necessary.

If you want to look at the bug, it is 18795656 "Installer created with Packagemaker with OS check fails in Yosemite" under RADAR.

Return to Index→

Chicken Systems products (such as Translator or the Ensoniq Tools products) support proprietary floppies. However - ONLY on Windows, and ONLY with a internal floppy drive (one that works off a floppy controller, NOT a USB floppy drive). Both restrictions are firmware limitations that our products have no way of circumventing.

Proprietary floppy disk formats are highly unique in that the actual physical area that is marked off on the disk is a different cylindrical pattern than the standard 9-sector DOS format. Often they require 10-sectors, and the sector width on the disk is thinner. To read these floppies, the read/write head of the floppy must be instructed to move, park, and set in different ways. This requires access to the floppy controller, which is a chip containing firmware that be programmed to do so.

The standard floppy controller in PC"s has been standardized over the years, early on, so that it has a set of protocols that allow messing with the physical behavior of the head to read/write these floppies.

Now, to explain the problems:

Mac's don"t love floppies
Mac's with internal floppy drives (old Mac"s!) can"t read those type of floppies as their proprietary controller does not allow physical changes thorough software; or if it does, Apple never documented any API or methods how this is done.

USB Floppy Drives don"t love proprietary floppies
USB floppy drives do not work the actual controller is within the USB drive/casing. It is not a standard floppy controller as far as we know; at the very least there is no API through USB that allows access to this firmware to allow changes. We"re sure this is POSSIBLE if some manufacturer (usually in China or Korea) was good enough to innovate this, but the floppy drive market is for mass-production and the less compatibility, the better.

Summary
Summarizing, all these floppy controllers (USB and Apples) are hard-set to read and write the standard 9-sector DOS floppy format, and can"t be modified via software to read and write the 10-sector Ensoniq/Akai/Roland/other ones. Windows with a internal floppy controller (on the motherboard or a card slot) work because those floppy controllers have a standard method of controlling the physical mechanism of floppy drive itself. We use the old DOS commands (Win98/ME or earlier) or a replacement floppy driver called OmniFlop (for XP and above) to accomplish this task.

Return to Index→

The Kronos has a real nice feature - an internal Sold State Drive (SSD) that holds everything that the Kronos plays (pretty much). The Kronos can also STREAM from sample files from the drive - cool!

However, that also stipulates that transferring files created from Chicken Systems software (Translator, Korg Creator, etc.) needs to be done with some care.

OUR STUFF STREAMS
First, by default the Kronos conversion on Translator sets it for streaming; that is Virtual Memory. That means you have to copy all the files to the SSD drive first, then load it. Those files can't load from a jump drive.

MAKE SURE YOU UNMOUNT JUMP DRIVES
Also be aware that if you are using jump drives, that you eject/unmount them first before you detach them from your computer. This can mess up files that are on the drive. You do this on the Mac by opening a Finder window and click the EJECT button next to the drive. On Windows, right-click on the drive and click EJECT. A balloon window will show at the bottom to tell you that it's ejected.

If your computer protests, make sure any programs that might be using the files on the drive are shut down or are not using the file(s).

WHAT THE KMP/KSF KSC IS WHEN STREAMING
In the case of streaming/Virtual Memory, please remember that the KSC that truly loads the folder of KMP/KSF is the one with the SAME NAME as the folder, not the one with the same name as the PCG. The version will load off a jump drive; but even so, you'll want to move this to the SSD drive anyway.

USE FTP TO TRANSFER FILES TO THE KRONOS
We advise not using jump drives but use a NetworkCat5->USB adapter and transfer files via FTP form your computer directly to the SSD drive. These are easy to get (Amazon, eBay) for between $10-$20. Then use a FTP application to connect with your Kronos and transfer files that way. See your Kronos manual for more information.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO STREAM
If you don't want to stream, you can set Translator to simply create the memory-version, go to Format Preferences-Korg and you can set it that way. Then you get one PCG, one KSC, and the folder that holds the KMP and KSF files.

Return to Index→

ReFills - No, no, no. The name "Refill" has a special magic. Get this "ReFill", use that "ReFill". This is a great "ReFill".

There is a big problem with ReFill's, though. You can't use them in any other playback engine other then Reason. They are a encrypted format that can't be converted with programs such as Translator.

Here's the rub: anything that is in a ReFill didn't used to be in a Refill. At some point they were .sxt files and WAVE/AIFF files. They ARE usable in other engines besides Reason, since they aren't encrypted and can be converted using Translator.

In fact, a folder holding all the .sxt and WAVE/AIFF files that are contained in a ReFill is the exact functional duplicate of a Refill. If you want the "big file" convenience of a Refill, just zip the folder up!

ReFill's do not offer the ReFill creator any copy protection; if anyone wanted to pirate a Refill, they just post it their website and everyone can download away.

So ReFills benefit only one entity: Propellerhead Software. ReFills are a format that advertises Propellerhead's products, and result in less flexibility to the user. If you want to use the contents of a ReFill on another engine, you can't.

If you really want to use a ReFill on another engine, we advise talking to to the refill creator and ask if they could send you the Refill contents within a .zip file instead. It doesn't hurt them any, and you know they have the original SXT/WAV/AIFF files. We know of some instances where the manufacturer did accommodate their user. (However, we have not heard of Propellerhead themselves doing it, because they know it would benefit other platforms, although in our minds that still isn't a good enough Reason (pardon the pun)).

Also, worthy of note: you can autosample any ReFill if you really want to grab it's contents. See the video here.

So... In the future, anytime you are tempted to get a ReFill, see if the library is presented in a open format like Giga, EXS, Kontakt (not player), SFZ, or similar. Then you can use it that format and translate it too. If they don't, ask the provider if they would simply give you the contents in a .zip file, NOT in ReFill format. Maybe they will.

The same thing that affects ReFills affects Recycle files. Like ReFills, and due to Propellerhead's protectiveness and short-sightedness, no one can write Recycle files except Recycle itself. The exception is Recycle 1 files, which can be written, but that is mono only. We in fact advise people to avoid Recycle format entirely, as it's not necessary, unless you are exclusively committed to Reason or Record. All other programs (DAW, other) read other loop formats like ACID and AppleLoops (which are NOT encrypted like Recycle), so we advise using ACID, AppleLoops, and others, and avoid Recycle until Propellerheads stops being so protective.

All Chicken Systems products support converting into ACID, AppleLoops, Stylus RMX, and Kontakt Beat Machine format.

Return to Index→