??
Some times , my sample library is a f*cking mess...
they are not organize... :shock:
i now there are a lot of ways to organize your sample directory...
like..
rythems > drumkits
breakzz
Keys > Pads
Synths
Voices > Male
Female
FX > ....
but some times , its a mess...
it must by find quikly and fast....
so...how do you organize...
Thanks,,,Mario 8)
Here's how I organize:
Instruemtns: E:\SAMPLES.XI\*.XI
Samples: E:\SAMPLES\*.WAV
And that's that :)
for the sake of simplicity, i organized my instruments into types and subtypes. and, if there are enough of each, split into subdirs of synth and real. ie:
guitars
>clean
>electric
>bass
keyboards
>piano
>>synth
>>real
>organ
>>synth
>>real
woodwinds
>flute
>clarinet
etc....
I think that the best way to organize the instruments depends heavily on how many do you have and of which kind. As a general rule, if I have more than 30 files or so in a directory, I think it is too crowdy and I must subdivide it somehow for the sake of clarity. But, of course, maybe you can manage well with more (or less) files.
I only classify by type (eg. bass, guitar, percussion... and then, if needed, subtypes, like electric, acoustic...); other classifications don't make sense to me.
I got this \Samples folder and inside it's like:
\Samples\CD1
\Samples\CD2
...
\Samples\CDn :wink:
inside each CD folder there are subfolders like \pads \drumsElectro \drumsDnb and etc.
I got about 4-5 CDs (not exactly a 80min CD , but still.. ). This helps a bit to find what you need easily than putting everything inside general folders...
Quote from: "rncekel"I think that the best way to organize the instruments depends heavily on how many do you have and of which kind. As a general rule, if I have more than 30 files or so in a directory, I think it is too crowdy and I must subdivide it somehow for the sake of clarity. But, of course, maybe you can manage well with more (or less) files.
I only classify by type (eg. bass, guitar, percussion... and then, if needed, subtypes, like electric, acoustic...); other classifications don't make sense to me.
I'd also like to add a simple sub rule to this method. The more clarity you can provide in the ordering of your samples, the quicker the access and less the headache and valuable time in searching you will generate.
Which all of course translates into more time composing your song.
I have an extensive catalog/database of samples, which I painstakingly converted to .iti some years ago. Everything is broken into Main directories, and then subbed accordingly. For instance, Guitar\Acoustic\Electric\Guitar and Bass\Leads and Chords\ etc.
It was a bitch to create with such a labor of detail, but it was well, well worth the effort. I spend in seconds getting to the right sample/instrument in what I used to spend in minutes trying to weed out that right sound. My production time is significantly reduced, and the beast is satisfied once again.
One thing I'm surprised noone mentioned is that you should name the actual sample filenames accurately. Thats why I only have 2 directories.
Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"One thing I'm surprised noone mentioned is that you should name the actual sample filenames accurately. Thats why I only have 2 directories.
I thought that would have gone without mention, it is sort of obvious. 1239872548097geieu.wav hardly says anything about the sound. Renaming is a must.
I know what you mean, my old collection was 001.wav, 002.wav. Could be a drum, could be me burping, who knows. So yeah it's important.
When I make samples, I always save them as: 96_s_mysound.wav
96 means that it was recorded at 96khz, s meaning its a stereo sample.
My current sample library is something like
cool snare drum.xi
cool snare drum2.xi
concert bass drum.xi
etc...
EDIT: I dont condone such misorginazation, but thats just how I work :)
Well, the name of the sample/instrument is really quite a problem. Specially with snares (one always end with a hundred snares, so it is really hard to find out the one is wanted), kicks and similars. And also the drum kits tend to get confusing, particularly because you may wanted to make several different kits who share some samples...
I can sympathise with that - I name my samples with a two-letter prefix for the type of instrument, then a word that describes the sound - for recognisable instruments and sounds this is fine, e.g. "In_Trumpet", "Ef_Scream", but my collection of drums have had to have increasingly comical names to make them different from each other.
Quote from: "Wong"but my collection of drums have had to have increasingly comical names to make them different from each other.
Like "bass drum go screw yourself.xi"? I do that all the time when i get a lot of similar samples
my samples are a mess and I use the search facility on Windows 2000 to do the organising for me.
As far as tidyness is concerned, i am patthetic
but creativity can come out of chaos.
so i must be very creative.....
Nicky
Quote from: "nickythenose"but creativity can come out of chaos. so i must be very creative.....
Yes NickyNose, but hark, even chaos has relativity and counterpoint. What you want is chaos on the
output,
not input. 8)
Or put this way; you don't put orange juice into a blender and get an orange. That is, unless you've taken Einstein's work to the next level... :idea:
I've have around 25 folders, including subfolders like for bassdrums:
Bassdrums
'-> 80es Kicks
'-> 909
'-> 808
'-> Sub&Deep
'-> Distortion
'-> Hard
Also the samples are not namend bassdrum1.wav but DMD-01-BassDrum1(poppy).wav - means it's from the sampe cd "dance mega drums", track 1... the first bd sounding "poppy"...
I'm deleting at the moment all samples which i don't need because i always mostly use the same samples for my tracks.
You can compose faster if you order your samples and only keep the really needed ones...
1.000 selected samples are enough for it....
Organization??? What is this you speak of? Naybe that's why I suck...hahaha .
Actually, whenever I download a pack of samples, I just make a new folder for 'em. But, sometimes I classify by type...By the way, without getting off-topic, anybody know where I can find some good leads?
seems that i am an exception (in style&sound too), as i work mainly with random choice and the effect of loading "something unknown" into my tracks (so my way of organizing probably will be useless, but anyway...)
my samples are simply put into folders that are describing their original source, but after using them i remove them direct into a folder named after the track (to avoid double use...)
in very old tracker time used to sort my *.sam, *.smp like "drums", "beeps", "strings", "xxx" (for fx, film-alike sounds, noizes)
after trying all files in the "drums" or the "claps" folder two-three times i regarded these categories as useless and never ever opened them again. meanwhile folders like "xxx", "soundfx", "effects" grew bigger and bigger as i was too lazy (and more occupied with tracking) to make subcategories...
well, kinda strange. didn't know that i am able to write more then 2 sentences about my handling of samples :D
My collection of samples are poorly organized. I've tried creating directories for different classes of samples, but I never took the time to populate them correctly.
An excerpt from ls ~/Music/Mods/samples:
QuoteBASSDRUM.wav hattt.wav
BASSE.wav hauskick1.wav
BASSdrumo.wav heavy drum.wav
Baze.wav hellout.wav
CANT TAKE IT BSD45.wav helloutrobo.wav
CRASH.wav hit.wav
DISTORT.wav horn.wav
DRMNBS4.WAV horn2.wav
ELGOOG.wav illegalinstruction.wav
FULLLO.WAV kickickcikcickickc.wav
FULLLOhighpass.wav light square hit.wav
HATT.wav loops.tar.bz2