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Organising samples, loops, and other assets

Started by Kylotan May 19, 2009 at 2:30 PM 2 replies 1.7k views

Original Post

May 19, 2009 at 2:30 PM

For some types of music I use various samples and loops, often downloaded for free or obtained from magazine cover disks. I have quite a few gigabytes of them, many of which I'll probably never use, but keep around in case they become useful in the future. Unfortunately they can be hard to browse since they tend to be packaged rather arbitrarily: sometimes by format, or by pitch, or by tempo, or by the developer/author, etc. I was wondering if anybody else finds themselves with many gigabytes of samples like I do, and if so, how they have organised them to fit into their workflow? (Apologies to anybody whose sensitivities are offended by the use of pre-recorded loops. ;) )

nsmadsen

May 19, 2009 at 4:14 PM

I don't really work with loops too often, but for VST samples I often create templates for myself. I'll have orchestral, rock, techno, jazz templates already saved on my computer. I load up one, then make any minor changes or additions to the instrument list and start writing. Maybe you could try a similar approach?

Side note: I do have Acid Pro 4 and I've always found that to be pretty fast for previewing and going through my loop library.

Omri Lahav

May 21, 2009 at 3:07 PM

Quote:
Original post by Kylotan
For some types of music I use various samples and loops, often downloaded for free or obtained from magazine cover disks. I have quite a few gigabytes of them, many of which I'll probably never use, but keep around in case they become useful in the future. Unfortunately they can be hard to browse since they tend to be packaged rather arbitrarily: sometimes by format, or by pitch, or by tempo, or by the developer/author, etc.

I was wondering if anybody else finds themselves with many gigabytes of samples like I do, and if so, how they have organised them to fit into their workflow?

(Apologies to anybody whose sensitivities are offended by the use of pre-recorded loops. ;) )

I think basically it depends on how you "catalogue" your samples in your head.
Me for instance, I find myself much like you, with many gigabytes of sample libraries, I tend to sort my own private libraries by the date I created them - it's how I remember best.
And exteranl libraries are usually catalogued by Manufacturer.
If you tend to associate your libraries to genre, instrumentation, format etc... sort them by that feature.

Kylotan

May 22, 2009 at 3:56 AM

Quote:
Original post by Omri Lahav
I think basically it depends on how you "catalogue" your samples in your head.

My problem is that, so far, I don't have any catalogue in my head. I don't use them all often enough to be intimately familiar with every sound I have, and in turn being slightly unfamiliar with them means I don't use them as often as perhaps I should. So I hope a more useful organisation system would aid my productivity.

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