I wondered if anyone had any tips on productive ways to file/find their samples? I’m thinking about tools like audio finder, and using set structures such as \kicks, \snare etc.
The problem I usually have is getting a new sample CD and then spending a while moving the files around to fit my way of working.
Just wondered if anyone had any tips or what they found does/doesn’t work when you have a lot of samples in your library, I’ve got a bit addicted to collecting samples each month when CM and MusicTech come out
the way that Renoise shows your folders is really good, and it shows big folder names wich is very good, also you can left open folders with the samples you are using
i have my samples folders like this:
Drums - Hip-hop bla bla
Drums - Tama Hits
…
World - Asian Sounds
it works ok
you have to spend some time organizing the folders but in the end that will prove to be very useful
the only problem i have is when i have a package that includes bass, drums, guitar… then or i’ll name it
Pack - Sony Popsounds
or separated
Bass - Sony Popsounds
…
Drums - Sony Popsounds
…
Guitar - Sony Popsounds
but i have to tell you that usually i ignore the Pack folders because i don’t remember what’s inside them and the best thing is to look and quicly find it, like “i need a snare” and go to the drums section
but 4 total srs. a file system which supports meta data well would be awesome for structuring samples. just make up a number of attributes and fill in whatever that is appicable to the specific sample.
Haha, I was about to post something similar. Don’t be shy, mate… get your location on the profile. It’d be nice to know of other Renoise users in the area.
(Unless you’re not actually from the north east, and you’re only using the name because of your fascination with our folklore… which would be a bit… odd, hahah)
It looks simple because that’s all I pay any attention to.
I kinda wish it actually looked like that. If I ran tree, find or something tree-like on it, it would look way stupid.
It’s really 125g’s of a big mess, and I hardly ever use any of it.
most times I just go into my XRNS folder where I’ve either already used the sample and I locate it by memory or used renoise to sample something, or look through songs until I find something I can use for what I look to do.
other than D:\music\ i just throw everything into that directory since i cant be arsed to organize stuff.
cons of this “system” like choice said its an ungodly mess.
pros, after a while you learn what each folder “sounds like” and you know exactly where to go to find what youre after, but you’ll still get happy accidents from time to time. I even keep recording sessions and project files in there so if i wanted to nick something from one project its piss easy.
just figure out how your brain likes to work,… organized chaos seems to work for me, but your mileage might vary.
@dblue, it’s the latter mate, when I was a kid I had this book with the story of the LamptonWorm in it, it stuck since then as my nickname!
Here’s something I found useful once, I renamed a load of samples automatically to have random numbers on the end, so I had \kick-library-1\kick-2131, kick-1243, kick-1112 etc, I’ve not idea why but I found that very productive as I had to ‘hear’ the sound I wanted and wasn’t influenced by the name of ‘grime-kick’ etc.
Weird. Anyway, that was just an experiment!
At the moment I’ve started to use libraries to group things together, as I actually like to take a library+renoise+wavosaur to a memory stick for music on the go so I’ve intentionally restricted myself to max of 2G per library.
I tend to try and only use 2 folder levels however, “library name\folder name”
Generally I’m finding that having smaller sets to play with is more productive, but to keep it fresh I make new libraries/sets each month to soak up anything cool from free sample CD’s, so I’ve always got a ‘latest’ set of samples, plus an archive/library for reference/inspiration.
-amen break collection (self explanatory)
-bass (bass waveforms, hits, etc.)
-drumhitsmein (my drums that I’ve built)
-effects (exactly what it says on the tin)
-gabber
-horns
-laughs
-Masoch V2 (the samples that Leigon released. I look to them for inspiration)
-oniichan (girls saying “Oniichan” in various ways (over a hundred, in fact)
-real (real life effects, like water, paper bags, pills, etc.)
-strings
-swaves (simple waveforms, like chipSaw, chipSine, etc.)
-synthpads (synths and pads)
-voxchor (choir vocals)
-voxkii (my vocal… things)
-voxfem (female vocals)
-voxradio (radio vocals, like from NASA missions and pilots)
And then, each folder has its own subfolders. For example, in drumhitsmein, I have folders for metallic hits, soft hits, distorted/compressed amen hits, the original amen hits, reverbed amen hits, etc. All the amen permutations are just to cut down on processing time, since they’re all basically stemming from the same loop.
I limit my library of samples (308 mb, lol) since I keep everything on a 2 gig flash drive, but space normally isn’t an issue for some folks, and they show that by the size of their collections.
and even if many of them i will never use… i’m always looking for more
or making my own, i make a lot of samples from my record collection or from mp3 i download
but i remember when i only had a diskete with sounds for my Amiga 500, i don’t think i had any problems with samples back then, i never thought “i could have more samples”, the ones i had were enough and i made a lot of songs with the same samples over and over
the more you have the more you want, no doubt about that
all the samples i’ve purchased or downloaded i just sort by source and type.
i tend to make most of the samples i use though, and as that usually ends up being fairly abstract, i just sort them by date and project, unless something is very obviously like a snare or hihat or a pad. i used to try to name them all, but after a while it’s just easier to browse by ear. i know most of my samples well enough anyway, since i use them all the time
Glad to know it isn’t just me constantly either collecting, sorting or deleting samples I also used to have a stack of Amiga disks and never gave ordering them a 2nd thought, I guess for me being limited is actually more productive, but these days having a nice sample bank to fall back on is ok…but I tend to spend ages listening to the samples and not actually writing a tune. I like the cut down idea, and I also try to keep size down of ‘latest sample library’ for the USB stick.
I’ve found sample packs hit and miss also, I like the idea of them, in that I like a bit of DnB so I can get a pack from an artist I like, but as long as it is mainly individual hits and notes that I can make a tune myself I’m happy, I rarely/never used the pre-played melodies, I hate the idea of that, having once used eJay, yuck not for me these days. I’m happy with breaks and programming drums but the tune I need to key myself
What I ended up with last night is a library based archive that I can throw stuff into as it comes in (I review it first, I don’t just copy the whole \samples CD from Computer Music each month, I weed out stuff I know I won’t use) and I’m keeping a ‘latest’ folder with the cream of the crop, and leaving purchased CD’s in the structure they come with.
Anyway, the internet and all the millions of plugins and waves out there are great, but man it is killing my productivity compared to my Amiga and FT2 days need some self control. I tend to go back to the ‘core’ type of sounds/loops if I’m honest with myself, so I should just stop worrying about it and get writing
[center]This has actully enlightned me. Thanks guys, Tehnik man your completely right… I mean if you think about it you can always store a link as a bookmark in a good ol’ browser… download it IF you ever need it =D Thanks again guys!
My samples are a bit of a mess, started trying to sort them out a few months ago and that was a serious headache (kinda got through a lot to some extent though.) And I only have 60GB and I feel I have far too much and definitely too much gumph I can weed out!
Main change was from ;
Samples/@New
Samples/Sorted
To:
Samples/@New
Samples/Loops
Samples/Single Hits
Then inside done by categories (Ambience, Bass, Drums, Effects, Instruments, Stabs, Synths, Vocals for eg.)
Also spent some time splitting the packs with multi types up among the different folders. Wish I had actually discarded more while doing it though.
And 50% of my Samples folder is in the @New folder and has not been listened to and sorted yet (or even uncompressed yet in many cases.)
if you have your folders well organized and i mean easy to browse, you won’t have any problems
obviously you are not going to try every sample you have until you find the perfect one but you have more chances of finding a good sample in hundreds than dozens
but one thing i have to do one of these days… delete some of them i’m pretty sure i will never use, things like electronic loops to make music like… i don’t know Scooter or other shitty bands like that. i don’t know why i still keep that kind of samples
I’ve been organizing my drum samples like mentioned above (/kicks, /snares, etc) but I’m really coming around to the idea of storing drums by kit rather than by drum. Building up a new kit for every song is a pain in the ass.
My sample folder is a genuine mess - which isn’t like me at all. Most other stuff in my life is meticulously organised. To solve the problem of finding sounds, I have a few *xrns where I just load up the samples I really like. One argument against that is that I’ll end up using the same samples in my tracks, but I often swap out those samples once I’ve got the meat of a track down. In fact, I’ve even been caught switching the samples on a finished track just to hear what that’s like.
because i don’t remember what’s inside them and the best thing is to look and quicly find it, like “i need a snare” and go to the drums section
pWn3d::…