Garritan Discusses the Future of Giga
For those who haven’t heard, Garritan acquired all the rights to Tascam’s recently discontinued GigaStudio technology, ensuring a future for the Giga sampling platform. I had an opportunity to ask owner Gary Garritan about what Giga fans and users can expect going forward.
What’s the future of GigaStudio 4?
GigaStudio is a great sampling platform and authoring environment, and we are exploring different options. Tascam discontinued GigaStudio 4 development last year, and it would be highly impractical to execute an immediate revival. With most of the original Giga development team gone, GS4 development obviously cannot continue from where it left off with Teac.
One avenue we are exploring is a dedicated hardware GigaSystem, like what Apple does where the software and hardware are perfectly compatible and things work optimally. Some hardware companies have approached us about this possibility. Also, we may consider opening up Giga and develop some sort of public or compiled freeware version someday, but that remains to be seen. Nothing is decided at this point, and we may opt for another avenue altogether. There are undoubtedly more possibilities, and we are inviting input from Giga users to help chart a course. We have a Giga Technology forum at northernsounds.com where people can be involved in the process and send us their thoughts and ideas as to the direction of the Giga technologies.
Will users see anything in the next year?
We sure hope so. We are busy analyzing the code and consulting with experts and the user base. We will develop the Giga technologies and take them to the next level. We should definitely see some things within the next year. Of course, if we can revive some of the Giga products and if it makes sense, we will do it. One such product is GigaPulse, which could possibly be developed sooner than other offerings, and in a form similar to its Tascam counterpart. The GigaPulse technology has enormous merit, and we may take steps to develop our large library of impulses for it.
Do you expect to combine the Giga and Garritan Aria formats, and if so, what form do you expect that combination to take?
Yes, we expect to combine the formats and combine valuable aspects of both platforms. Aria is based on SFZ, which is an open source format and very capable. The Giga format has a large installed base, and many Giga users have a great deal invested in Giga libraries. It is our hope that those who invested in Giga libraries will be able to continue to use them in our future products. Owning the Giga format puts us in the ideal position to provide native solutions for Giga files and to proliferate the format.
As far as what form the combination will take, it is too early to tell. Most likely some things will be visible on the surface to users, and other things will be under the hood and not so obvious.
Has Garritan hired Tascam’s programmers as well as acquired their intellectual property?
We acquired all the technology assets from Tascam, but unfortunately most of the original Giga programmers are working for other companies. Former programmers have expressed a willingness to help guide our programmers.
Anything else you’d like to volunteer?
GigaSampler revolutionized the music industry when it was introduced over ten years ago, and it has quite a legacy. It is exciting to have the opportunity to see the technology continue and benefit musicians for years to come.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I am very pleased and excited that Garritan will continue with Giga where Tascam left off. I love Gigastudio when it’s working and hope that Garritan will fix some of the quirky problems with it and make it more stable.
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