Storing samples in the project folder

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

Although there’s an option to store samples in the project folder instead of the default “Audio” folder, it is mentioned several times in th manual:

Although audio files can be placed in the project folders it is for convenience sake recommended to put audio files only in the AUDIO folder

I myself would place samples recorded specifically for a project in the project folder. And even use the “collect samples” command to gather everything together so that each project is a s self-contained as possible. So I wonder what “for convenience sake” means exactly?

And as an extention to my question: will the “collect samples” make copies, or will the collected samples be moved from their original location?

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#2

I wonder what that means too. Maybe it was just the opinion of the manual writer? One of the first things I did on the OT was change my samples to be stored in the project folder. Now I’m finding it might actually be counterintuitive because I can’t remember if that Supertramp sample I recorded is in “New Sounds” project or in “playing around” project… Whoops

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#3

I think this could be the underlying reason for the recommendation in the manual :slight_smile:

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#4

I’ve also wondered this!

From my experience it, it makes a copy in the project folder and leaves the original alone. This may be why they’re suggesting to store everything in the Audio folder – to avoid the redundancy. However, I find it much easier to navigate samples this way.

#5

Yes, that makes sense. But the other way round is true too. I’d rather have “bass loop” in my project folder than a huge list of "bass loop 001, bass loop 002 etc " in the audiofolder… Hmmmm, I will need to think this over

Wouldn’t that be exactly the opposite? If we store everything in the audio folder , then do “collect samples” to gather everything together, we are creating redundancy instead of avoiding it. (Not that I’m against redundancy! On the contrary, I’d say)

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#6

I think it also just depends how organized you are. I’m meticulous about what I name everything… But because I’m still learning and playing my projects don’t have any real names and each bank is a collection of random jams I’ve had, complete with random samples I’ve recorded. I imagine if I had “a song” it would be a lot more straightforward and I’d want it all self contained in the project folder.

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#7

Same here. But things are starting to get serious and my lack of organisation so far is now becoming a handicap. I need to fix an efficient workflow so that I can concentrate on creating music!

#8

I went into this knowing every file would have to be named properly or I’d have a headache in the future. When I saw that files were stored in the audio pool in whatever order they were recorded (or is it alphabetical?) I said “fuck that” and changed the setting to be stored in the project folder. I like things being tucked away in folders, not just hanging out.

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#9

Yeah, this is how I work - one project per song, samples stored in project.

I use the Audio folder for shared stuff - drum samples, chains, etc. This tends to be stuff I’ve copied directly onto the card rather than sampled in during the songwriting process.

Hadn’t noticed the collect samples option, might have to start using that!

#10

So I’m not alone! That’s pretty much what I figured out would be best practice for my workflow too. On top of this, the “collect samples” feature makes sure I won’t delete/modify any material that’s also part of some other project.

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#11

Centralised location where the samples are available to all Projects within the Set.

Make copies.

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#12

No! I use project folder option, and Audio Folder for usual stuff, collect sample if needed.
I don’t create subfolders in the project.

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#13

The way I see it the “convenience” of the pool is just so your samples are available to all projects in the set. I see “collect samples” as a way to make your project self contained for export, say you want to give a project to a friend it’ll be all there for them, but you still have the samples available to all your projects in the set because it copied instead of moved. Or you just are way more concerned about your main project and don’t want to backup everything so you collect samples and backup for a tidy not too large backup. If one really wanted to have them all per project you can just do that straight away and never even put them in the pool. If you do decide you want to “collect samples” for a project in a set and don’t need them in the pool anymore you just delete them. If collect samples moved instead of copied one might inadvertently pull samples from the pool that other projects are using if they haven’t meticulously kept track of everything, and then those projects wouldn’t work.

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#14

Just for the fun of it I’ll mention that I’ve never even had to make decisions about this. All my OT projects over the last 4 1/2 years use a total of about 3 or 4 saved samples between them and I never save and reuse recorder buffers. :smiley:
I have to feed audio into it to have it make sound, all my patterns are made out of recorder buffer placeholders! :heart_eyes:

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#15

That’s exactly what I’m after but I still want to know and make sure I remember what my projects are about and how I need to operate the framework I built, because when I hit “play”, most of the time nothing really happens, some sounds might play every once in a while and that’s all… So having everything gathered together helps a lot in identifying what my intention was in the first place. I’m also a professional musician, sound engineer and a photographer, I can work on electronic music for 6 months and then all of sudden get work in photography for another 6 months or do FOH for a band for 2 more months… when I get back to e-music it’s incredibly helpful to have a well-organised, comprehensive environment so I can pick up the projects where I left them without wasting too much time learning everything all over again. This way of preparing the workflow even before I seriously start committing creative work has been a live saver more than once.

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#16

I think that’s one of the “my convenience isn’t your convenience” situations. I, for myself, find it much more convenient to have all samples used in a project in the project folder itself (like the OP).

How the hack would you make self contained project backups otherwise? Always remember to collect the samples first before making a backup? I know myself too well, that this will fail more often than not … :smile:

This. In my case there are sometimes even years in between.

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#17

With OctaZip of course.

#18

I saw that coming :rofl:

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#19

You tee’em up, I knock em down :rofl:

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#20

You monster…

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