I have a collection of samples. Some of them are percussive sounds, some of them are weird generated noises, some are long field recordings, some of them processed, some unprocessed…
I have them all on my laptop. I will be feeding them to my OTmk2 when it is finally released, and I think I won’t go outside for days.
But … my samples are a bit all over the place. They have collected over years, and I keep putting them in different places as I create them. I would like to organise them a little better, to give myself an overview.
I’m not obsessive about naming and categorising; I prefer to have a bit of a jumbled mess. But some org would be helpful.
I’m sure I’m not the only one in this situation - how do you manage your collection of samples? Do you tag them with a database underneath? Do you keep them in a nice folder tree? Do you store them in random places on your hard disk, like I do?
I wrote some software for myself which is an sample database / metadata / editor / slicing/joining etc; with searching, drag/drop into Cubase/Logic/other apps etc.
I have everything in one place with multiple folders for single hits, percussion sounds, synth samples, field recordings, loops etc.
I also try to keep 64 samples in one folder for sample chains, so I have similar structure in OT and DAW.
The Roots of the organization is difficult to choose regarding your mind. If you remember the Creator of the sample collection and at some point looking for it then, it can be a problem to go by sound nature organization. To solve that i instantiate a prefix (at the beginning) trick but you can choose to instantiate a suffix (at the end)
FIRST, i keep a backup of my sample collection by brand on my backup disk.
THEN if i make this clear regarding drums we all know Gold Baby, Driven Machine Drum, Wave Alchemy
So as i write their name here, i make a TXT file called __PrefixSummary.txt at the root of my Sample folder where i wrote Brand = Prefix or Suffix
Like this : GB = Gold Baby WA = Wave Alchemy
NEXT i use (on mac) Better Finder Rename (http://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/version10.html) and add to every sample collection, their prefix or suffix regarding their brand name… So i always know where it comes from and if i looking for a GoldBaby Kick i know it will be a GB_Kick_filenumber.wav :
2496 (Generally the starting point of the Sample collection not usually the case but i generally try to buy it in this definition) to : 2448 - 1648 (conversion from 2496)
And this :
24882 (conversion from 2496) then to : 24441 - 16441 (conversion from 24882)
So i can use it how i want or how i need it regarding different Machines.
And of course i use the same way since and update my Sample Disc every time i add something to it.
For General browsing, listening and finding i use IcedAudio AudioFinder app and Native OSX Finder Tags which is good because of icloud memorizing it, alongside Alfred app and Personal Customized workflow : http://www.icedaudio.com/site/
