Convert your EXS24 libraries to Apple Lossless and AAC
You can now convert your EXS24 libraries to Apple Lossless and AAC sample formats for use in Logic Studio 2 on Snow Leopard. The conversion process creates a new independent library with new instruments and samples and doesn’t touch or modify the original library. Supported destination sample formats are: CAF-AppleLossless , CAF-AAC, AIFF 16/24/FP, WAVE 16/24 and CAF 16/24/FP . As the converted libraries use instruments with the same exact names as the original ones, it’s very simple to switch between a compressed library and the original one for any reason, anytime, by just swapping the instruments folder.
For laptops
The CAF-AAC format is especially interesting for laptops as it can be used to move your massive high quality studio library to the standard internal laptop drive. Encoding bitrates go from 32 to 128kbps for channel, and the compression ratio is typically 1:8 to 1:16. A 500GB laptop drive stores about 8TB worth of AIFF/WAV sample data. A 256GB SSD laptop drive stores the equivalent of 4TB of AIFF/WAV sample data.
Even if the AAC format is lossy, the resulting audio quality is very high and for a series of factors there is typically no hearable difference between an AAC encoded and an original WAV/AIFF library, as determined by ABX double blind tests.
Typical audio material in samples is usually way less dynamic/complex than full mixes, and samples are usually only the first step in a long processing chain shaping the final sound (filters, modulations, effects, etc).
The Apple Lossless format can be used to compress your studio library from 1:2 to 1:3 with no degradation or change in audio quality. Single-drive machines as the iMac greatly benefit from compression as you can now move the hugest EXS24 library to the standard fast internal SATA drive instead of relying on slow external USB/Firewire drives.
Two real world examples
A demo instrument we autosampled from an analog syntehsizer takes 312MB with AIFF samples, 109MB with Apple Lossless samples, 38MB with AAC256k (128k per channel) samples and just 21MB with AAC128K (64k per channel) samples.
A big EXS24 orchestral library taking 113GB in WAV format, becomes 47GB with Apple Lossless, 14GB with AAC256k (128k per channel) and just 8GB with AAC128K (64k per channel).
Minimum supported requirements for this specific feature: Apple Intel based Mac computer running Mac OS X 10.6.3 and Logic 9.1.1
