TUTORIAL: Organising a sample library

[Abstrym]

I started by ordering all the easy to catagorise samples.

Then I listened to the 'other' samples and tried my best to catagorise them too.

What kinds of sounds are you having difficulty in catagorising? (Maybe we can help identify a heading for them)...

As for ripping sample packs apart, you could simply have one folder for all your sample packs.

I guess that's what I'm going to do, but then I'd have, for example, multiple snares in multiple folders, which isn't that great either. What I mean with difficult to categorize is, that in the Windows/Mac etc folder system one instance of a sample can only be in one folder. I think what I'd love is some sort of tag-system (one sample, but accessible through multiple folders). I hope you know what I mean, but yeah, just gotta find a decent folder-system and stop bitching about how OS's work
Thanks for the help, anyway.

[rook]

Great post!
I've been meaning to organize my samples for the better part of the past year, but I'm lazy.
The only time I have the motivation to organize my samples is often when I'm motivated to work on music too, and the latter usually takes precedent.

[chronicrecords]

seriously loving these tutorials hope they keep comin !!

[zitanb]

Bigup - great post - organising your samples, and the rest of your files saves a *lot* of time.

[Depone]

I accidentally started this thread, cause i couldn't find this original one -

http://www.dubstepforum.com/sample-orga ... 42355.html

Ok so i googled, and i also used the dsf search to no avail. I was trying to find a sample organization thread that ran back about a year ago. Cant find it so im gonna start another.
Here goes...

I believe a well organized and fluent sample library for drums and the like is gold. Its a little luxury in that can make music quicker and more productive.
The reason I have started this thread was to discuss how you are using your sample libaries.
Myself? I use an external firewire drive (a second internal would be cool too) to store all my logic projects, and in another part of that drive is my huge sample library (we all know the bigger the library... eigh eigh).

The reason i keep my samples on a seperate drive? It stops a 'bottlenecking' of data, If your streaming all your audio AND your operating system / music apps (daw etc...) from the same HD, it has to work very hard to keep up. This can even result in a corrupt or permanently damaged hard drive, and nobody wants that.

This technique is commonly called using a 'scratch disk', having a separate HD for the data, one for the operating system and applications, and isnt limited by audio applications. Most pro video and other media resources use this technique to keep the systems healthy and spankingly fast.

Right, just a tip. I recently purchased this application for OSX called Audiofinder (http://www.icedaudio.com/)
Its excellent!!! really cant praise it enough, the demo works for over ten times with no time limit, it allows you to move samples and folders in bulk with fast audio previews and folder organization.
Definately worth a look! For example, i now have all my purchased sample cd's on my 'scratch disk'. i then selected all my fav kicks, setup a destination folder and hit copy. i now have my own kick list from personal favs etc...
(btw im not getting paid to do this lol)

A screen -


I know there are probably free alternatives for PC users, but im on OSX.

So yeah shoot away questions, hints and tips!!!

[HAACK]

Juss what I was looking for

[talizman]

Is there any other program like Reaper? Since its not for free?
I would love to hear my samples simply by just clicking on them and not open them in like iTunes xD

/ Cheers

[futures_untold]

Is there any other program like Reaper? Since its not for free?
I would love to hear my samples simply by just clicking on them and not open them in like iTunes xD

/ Cheers

There are other sample librarian programs like Extreme Sample Converter and Translator, but both are payware.

However, the full version of Reaper can be downloaded for free from the developers website and used for an infinite length of time in 'evaluation' mode. The evaluation mode is exactly the same as the licenced version, except after thirty days, a nag screen pops up each time you start Reaper to remind you to pay for a licence. Reaper for Windows and Mac can be downloaded from http://www.reaper.fm/download.php.

You'll have your samples sorted in no time!

Pat

[Pedro Sánchez]

A screenie of mine, I use mediabay to batch tag all the samples, makes finding the right sound rapid but takes a while to tag your library, there are subfolders in each one of my main folders.

[futures_untold]

Looks good Pedro

Just to confirm, Mediabay is part of Cubase?

[press]

another great thread by futures_untold!

im one of the excessive samples guys (300gbs-ish), my solo tunes are 100% samples so i like to have enough that i dont keep digging in the same samples all the time, luckely after my last hd crash i started fresh and kept all my new samples organized from the get go. it made a world of difference from my old way thats for sure.

[Pedro Sánchez]

Looks good Pedro

Just to confirm, Mediabay is part of Cubase?

Yeh, 4 and above I think

[Ldizzy]

anyone came up with a decent organisation based on sample types???

like a ''clean sounds'' or ''heavy sounds'' folder???

personally i have my favourite sorted out like this :

One shot drums vs Breaks
One shots : kicks, snares etc + Machines (where i have samples from classic grooveboxes)
Breaks : Clean (4/8bar loops) + Odd time signatures, textures, uncut... (weird stuff) and theyre also named with the tempo number first as sampleswap has taught me to do..

and then i have that huge 50 gig folder named Nomansland... i hate myself.

[paravrais]

This thread has motivated me to sort mine out a little bit more, it's fairly organised but could be a lot better..gonna break down some sample packs methinks.

[silentk]

thats always my dilema, whether to keep sample packs whole, or pick and choose what i want out of them and organise it all separately :s

[Depone]

thats always my dilema, whether to keep sample packs whole, or pick and choose what i want out of them and organise it all separately :s

I do this. I have a separate library of sample packs and CD's, then i pick the bits into another catorgorised folder path

[futures_untold]

I broke mine sample packs down except for the drum machine specific ones. Personally I prefer to have everything of one type/catagory in one place..

[silentk]

thats always my dilema, whether to keep sample packs whole, or pick and choose what i want out of them and organise it all separately :s

I do this. I have a separate library of sample packs and CD's, then i pick the bits into another catorgorised folder path

Yeah i think this is a good way of doing it, provided you have the disc space

@ futures
i'm tempted to break them all down but the amount of hours that would take.......

[Wikum]

@ the logic users here. does anyone know how i can integrate my exs24 into using my sample library with minimum hassle? like is there a way i can make an alias of all my sample folders and turn them into exs24 instruments....or something?

i like using kontakt because of how i can just locate the sounds on my hd with kontakt's interface and it's generally just nice and simple. but exs24 is definitely less of a cpu hog...and most of the time i only want to use a sampler for simple things.

[Ldizzy]

i dont really use my files the way i used to use them back then... but here's a cool little app for the freaky neaty ones like me that like to have things squared up ...

http://www.mrrsoftware.com/MRRSoftware/NameChanger.html

its a freeware that allows u to batch rename files ... its mac only altho im sure there are pc alternatives.