How do you organize your sounds?
I have a metric F-ton of Refills, loops, samples and MIDI files. I really struggle how to organize all these into a manageable form that is conducive to songwriting and production. I would love insight into how you guys manage all this.
Chris Peters -> Richmond, VA Reason 8 - MacMini (2012) i7 2.6 Quad Core w/10G Presonus AudioBox1818 -Alesis QX49 - Akai MPD26 - Presonus Monitor Station 2
Refills are organized, basically. The other files… makes excellent refill fodder. I have made many refills just for personal use. In fact it was good training, getting the knowhow & workflow sufficient to be able to create commercial ones.
Making your own refills? I'm way behind the curve
@OP: I struggle too. What I did was make some rudimentary changes with key areas. Originally, I had a "my stuff" folder that had everything (shock) It was a mess. I finally just recently organized it a bit (work in progress) to where songs are one part, patches for channel strips/combinators in one, and one is "wavs" for, well, you know. The "my stuff" folder is where I drop all my refills. There are still some things in that I need to organize, but maybe that gives you an idea of where to start? It's gonna get a LOT deeper as time goes on.
I'm on windoze. I don't know mac.
@OP: I struggle too. What I did was make some rudimentary changes with key areas. Originally, I had a "my stuff" folder that had everything (shock) It was a mess. I finally just recently organized it a bit (work in progress) to where songs are one part, patches for channel strips/combinators in one, and one is "wavs" for, well, you know. The "my stuff" folder is where I drop all my refills. There are still some things in that I need to organize, but maybe that gives you an idea of where to start? It's gonna get a LOT deeper as time goes on.
I'm on windoze. I don't know mac.
I have a 250gb SSD just for Refills etc. I've created several folders and anything which is predominately Rex/loop stuff goes in one folder, Separate .wav files and samples in another and then a basic Refill folder. This one then has sub folders organised by Refill Dev : "Jiggery-Pokery", "Navi Retlav", "SoftPhonics" etc.
There is also a folder called "Community" that holds anything offered here. That has sub-folders for the more prolific members and a folder for the community Refills (Xmas etc). If someone gives away a load of individual patches, I wait until I have a few and then pack them up and drop them in the appropriate place. Finally, there's a folder for Demo Refills that gets a work-over from time to time. Deleting as I try them and buying the ones I like.
The whole disc is copied in it's entirety onto three HDDs as back up. One is internal so that if anything goes wrong, I can just assign it a drive letter and I can carry on - I can then fix issues with the main drive later. The other two copies are external which are stored in various places.I update the internal backup every time I add something new and the external ones are updated monthly. I've tried different ways over the years and this is the one I'm happiest with.
There is also a folder called "Community" that holds anything offered here. That has sub-folders for the more prolific members and a folder for the community Refills (Xmas etc). If someone gives away a load of individual patches, I wait until I have a few and then pack them up and drop them in the appropriate place. Finally, there's a folder for Demo Refills that gets a work-over from time to time. Deleting as I try them and buying the ones I like.
The whole disc is copied in it's entirety onto three HDDs as back up. One is internal so that if anything goes wrong, I can just assign it a drive letter and I can carry on - I can then fix issues with the main drive later. The other two copies are external which are stored in various places.I update the internal backup every time I add something new and the external ones are updated monthly. I've tried different ways over the years and this is the one I'm happiest with.
I have tried to organize by category; Drums, loops, bass, synth, etc. the problem is that a Refill may contain all these items or at least a large subset. Is there a way or more essentially is it a good idea to unpack all of my refills so I can arrange/organize my stuff?
Chris Peters -> Richmond, VA Reason 8 - MacMini (2012) i7 2.6 Quad Core w/10G Presonus AudioBox1818 -Alesis QX49 - Akai MPD26 - Presonus Monitor Station 2
Genre
Packs/Refills
Instrument Patches
Midi
Patches
Bounced Audio
Genre
Packs Refills
Instrument Patches
Midi
Patches
Bounced Audio
Instrument Refills/Patches
A Combinator
A Kong
A Mael
A NNXT
A Sub. .... so they are on top of browser window before genres....
Midi
Synths (Samples Refill emulations of classic Synths)
x audio
x effect patches
x FX
z Tutorials or Videos (reminders, learning)
z vocals
z zip (save zipped rar files) because I have enough room.
Packs/Refills
Instrument Patches
Midi
Patches
Bounced Audio
Genre
Packs Refills
Instrument Patches
Midi
Patches
Bounced Audio
Instrument Refills/Patches
A Combinator
A Kong
A Mael
A NNXT
A Sub. .... so they are on top of browser window before genres....
Midi
Synths (Samples Refill emulations of classic Synths)
x audio
x effect patches
x FX
z Tutorials or Videos (reminders, learning)
z vocals
z zip (save zipped rar files) because I have enough room.
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- Location: Sydney, Australia
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This is a bit simplified as I'm not at my main computer, but from memory:
Main directory is called SOUNDBANK, subdivided by:
REFILLS, listed alphabetically and if there is more than one refill by a developer they will have their own folder.
DRUMS, set up the same way but for Refills that are mainly drum sounds.
SAMPLE BANK, which is folders of .wav files split into many catagories:
1 Shot - Chords
1 Shot - Bass
1 Shot - Guitar
1 Shot - Synth
1 Shot - Synth Bass
1 Shot - Pads
1 Shot - Stabs/FX/Hits
1 Shot - Vocals
1 Shot - Piano/Keys
DRUM SAMPLES, folders of .wav files split into MANY categories such as Cowbells/Bongo/Conga/Synthetic Kicks/Acoustic Kicks etc
LOOPS, broken up by Percussion/Breaks/Drums
USER PRESETS, saved patches that serves as a favourites folder.
Main directory is called SOUNDBANK, subdivided by:
REFILLS, listed alphabetically and if there is more than one refill by a developer they will have their own folder.
DRUMS, set up the same way but for Refills that are mainly drum sounds.
SAMPLE BANK, which is folders of .wav files split into many catagories:
1 Shot - Chords
1 Shot - Bass
1 Shot - Guitar
1 Shot - Synth
1 Shot - Synth Bass
1 Shot - Pads
1 Shot - Stabs/FX/Hits
1 Shot - Vocals
1 Shot - Piano/Keys
DRUM SAMPLES, folders of .wav files split into MANY categories such as Cowbells/Bongo/Conga/Synthetic Kicks/Acoustic Kicks etc
LOOPS, broken up by Percussion/Breaks/Drums
USER PRESETS, saved patches that serves as a favourites folder.
I try to organize ReFills and samples by producer. For example, I have separate folders for TPSD, NAA and NSL. The only sounds I group together in a sub-folder are drum samples but they are also separated by producer inside of that drum sub-folder.
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