How do you guys organize your sample library..??

HarD-TeX · January 15, 2006, 23:33:36

??

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

Squirrel Havoc · January 16, 2006, 00:13:13

Here's how I organize:

Instruemtns: E:\SAMPLES.XI\*.XI
Samples: E:\SAMPLES\*.WAV

And that's that

Snu · January 16, 2006, 01:12:14

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....

rncekel · January 16, 2006, 08:40:32

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.

Pro-XeX · January 16, 2006, 08:53:37

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...

Matt Hartman · January 16, 2006, 19:54:17

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.

Squirrel Havoc · January 16, 2006, 20:00:34

One thing I'm surprised noone mentioned is that you should name the actual sample filenames accurately. Thats why I only have 2 directories.

Matt Hartman · January 16, 2006, 22:18:29

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.

Squirrel Havoc · January 16, 2006, 23:26:08

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.

LPChip · January 17, 2006, 04:57:39

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.

Squirrel Havoc · January 17, 2006, 05:59:39

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

rncekel · January 17, 2006, 06:44:05

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...

DavidN · January 17, 2006, 23:07:26

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.

Squirrel Havoc · January 17, 2006, 23:35:31

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

nickythenose · January 25, 2006, 17:13:06

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