Software Sampler That Imports Everything? Options

[timcasey]

Hi everyone - first post here!

I recently bought Kontakt 2, which was supposed to be able to work with every known sample format. My EMU crapped out and it's too costly to replace.

I was going to get MOTU's MachFive until I found out it uses a hardware dongle. I've had those fail before at the most inopportune time.

The impression I'm getting from the Kontakt forum (you have to buy the damn thing before you can view the forum) is that it CAN'T successfully import AKAI samples (wtf - too esoteric?); neither can it import anything from a mixed-mode CD-ROM (in other words, a CD that contains, say, AKAI files and WAV files). Unfortunately most CD-ROMs nowadays are mixed mode. What a piece of crap.

So now I'm looking at my 100+ sample CD-ROMs and wondering if there's ANY way that I'll ever be able to use them again? I was going to try to pick up a used AKAI sampler, but they're so damn big and bulky. Carrying less stuff to gigs was the reason software synths were looking so good to me.

Any suggestions as to other software samplers?