I have too many drum samples.
I need to cull 90%+ of them so that I have a really small usable set.
Listening to each hit and comparing seems impossible as so many are similar.
How do you guys do it?
Do you organise your drums into folders / sample chains for each drum machine? Or do you just organise your folders by type, e.g. kick, snare, etc.
I use a DT2 and/or laptop.
Depending on how picky you are, if they all sound similar, just drop them into your project randomly.
Also, are you using the DT1? DT2 letās you save kits so you could organize them that way
buy more samples. never finish anything.
And samplers!
Is this to compose or perform?
If youāre composing maybe 2 or 3 max of each type to layer. You need maybe 4 or 5 drums for each song.
If your performing multiply above by 10x so you can do an hour set. Maybe 50-75 drum sounds maximum.
Or challenge yourself and only play with one kit/set, copy it and get creative.
Life is short, finish tracks, donāt collect hard drives full of samples no one will ever hear!
Ctrl+A
Del
Click yes on the next thing that pops out.
this exactly why I fear samplers and samples, get a synth, no samples, no worries
Until you buy to many sound packs/presets!
well actually I didnāt get any until now, and also havenāt reused any preset I saved, somehow scrolling endlessly through these lists not happening, unless @ThomasJ will release a pack for drums for the SY CHIP, definitely getting that one!
This is why I probably only have a total of ten or so. I usually already know which one is more suitable (for me) and use the tools available to tweak it (bit crush, filters, lfo, noise, resonator etc. ) and sometimes layer. I like this approach because first it allows me to learn more about sound design. And i dont have to listen to 100 samples just to make a decision. I still use MPC Software for drums as I got used to it and everything is in one place.
It certainly can be overwhelming. Try not to overthink it. Iāve already done that, and hereās the results from hours of combing through every single factory sample. YMMV.
I keep a few DIY ākitsā stored in a single project template. I like to use an LFO on Sample Slot switch, so tend to stack complementary samples next to each other in the project template. This process will take you maybe a few hours tops. Be selective on what you include but not to the point of obsession (you can change things later).
Hereās my basic DIY quick template:
Sample slots 1-4 are kicks, 5-16 snares, claves and such, 17-24 toms, 25-32 hats, 33-40 bass, and I leave the rest empty to be added as needed. This covers the basics for putting together a quick improv kit on tracks 1-5. Save the project as your template and then resave it and name it after a genre, venue, whatever. Get busy whacking up beats.
Once I get some beats rolling I can quickly and randomly add samples to the project. Synths, stabs + other stuff Iāve put on the drive like vinyl FX, birds chirping, bugs bugginā, movie dialog, cartoon SFX, ad nauseam. My Drive samples are organized into appropriately named folders for quick and easy access.
LFO sample slot switch usually only needs a depth of 1 to 2 to produce some nice variation, and you can go back to the SRC page and nudge / select 1 or 2 samples over for a little more variation. Set the depth from 2-4 (or even higher) if youāre feeling freaky 
I use factory samples all the way for the basics (never bought a sound pack).
Notably missing in the factory samples are cuicas which I find immensely useful after riding the rail up to the top Corcovado. Free cuicas are easy to find online.
I pretty much have 2 basic project templates which have morphed into genres and other nonsense over time.
DT2. Iām fairly picky. But an 808 is an 808. Do we really need 10,000 variations on a single 808 kick, like you get with most sample packs?
To compose. This is what Iām looking at. Iām thinking 10-20x of each drum.
Nice
Before copying, listen to them, and just copy the ones you may need. It may take more time at first but you aināt have those problems later on 
Another options is using your own sampled ones, no mistake.
LFO sample swap leaves plenty of time for hotknobbing!
U know the buisness.
Folder structure and sample naming format are key IME.
Iāve spent a long time going through my sample collection sorting everything into defined folders and sub-folders that are instantly recognisable and navigable. For example, Drum Machines as top folder, Roland as second level folder then 808 as third level folder (alongside other third-level folders for 909, 727 etc). Or Acoustic Drums then Jazz then Brushes.
Next step was pruning the list of samples that go into each sub-folder. This took a long time. I worked out that I only need a small number of samples for each sub-folder (ie 3 or 4 variations on a 909 kick, not 100+ variations). The trick was finding best and most versatile samples out of the huge number of choices available.
On a Mac it is dead easy to click through a huge list of samples and auto-preview them as you go using the Macās Quick View function. I have system sounds on my Mac routed to my UAD Apollo X4 so I was able to hear each sample through my studio monitors for context.
Once Iād pruned down the horde, I renamed all the samples in each sub-folder with a consistent naming convention based on Rolandās two-character drum abbreviations (BD for kick, CH for closed hi-hat etc etc) for drum hits. Sample name would be (for example) āCH 808-1ā or āOH Brushes-2ā where the sample name matched the name of the sub-folder that contained it plus two-character tag for drums plus an increment number if there were several variations. This also took a few hours.
Net effect was I got my sample library of around 50 GB down to a structured ābest of the bestā condensed library of about 800 MB, just enough to fit in the +Drive of the OG DT.
That condensed library has everything I will ever need and use in it. Only problem now is that the Transfer seems to have a problem with nested folders when transferring to DT2 so I hope that bug gets fixed before I pick up a DT2.
iāve made 3 folders and donate to them dailyā¦ theyāre based on how a sample makes you feelā¦ you know that feeling when you hear something and itās so good, thatās folder one the definite folder, folder two is the really great but didnāt give me that first feeling, and the third folder is for the probably wouldnāt use but they are usefulā¦ (this is the one that I delete on the regular)
over time the samples migrate and the filtering happens naturally
Iāve cut it down to just 16 drum samples. 8 of them are assigned to the default slots on digitakt. The others are all variants. Theyāre mostly Samples from Mars that I tweaked slightly.
Obviously, I can swap them out for completely different things if I want to. But I can get a lot of mileage out of the those 16. Pitch them up or down. Filter them. Distort them. Iāve been working with them for about 6 months and Iām not bored.
