# Software for organising your own sample content?



## MarcusD

Starting to accumulate a lot of sound recordings and can't seem to find any software which handles everything for: Tagging, Naming, Bulk Editing & Moving / Organising files. Up until this point I'm simply using a Bulk Rename Utility then moving the files, was just wondering if there's any better solutions around? Is there anything available that's been made specifically for audio workflows?

Cheers


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## charlieclouser

I just make use of meticulously-organized folder structures in MacOS and precise naming schemes that keep everything in order and easy to find. I don't like to rely on third-party database apps or other non-OS methods of organizing things, because if those solutions go away or become incompatible with some other app or OS version, there goes your organization. (Been there, done that with a FileMaker DB back in the day. Oops!) But since the OS will never go away, my organization will stay intact even if I switch from Mac to Windows or whatever. Plus the MacOS Spotlight search engine is fully integrated within all apps and can always find what I'm looking for.

But, if you're not satisfied with that, there's SoundMiner, which is THE high-end, sophisticated (and expensive) system for tagging, sorting, and importing samples to major DAWs. It supports ReWire, direct spotting of samples to the ProTools timeline, etc. Originally developed for SFX editors, it's matured into a system with powerful features for music editors / supervisors / librarians as well as music creators. It's mega. Too mega for me, even though I have literally millions of one-shot and loop samples. 






Soundminer


Soundminer Asset Management System



store.soundminer.com





You don't say if you're on Mac or Windows.

On Mac, I use AudioFinder for previewing, renaming, batch conversions, etc. It's fast, light, and extremely useful, and can do slick things like auto-spot to ProTools timeline, pop-up a waveform window when previewing in the Finder, etc. It also has a basic destructive sample editor for doing quick cuts, fades, etc. and can also batch-process through AU plugins. It's my main engine for dealing with stuff... can't live without it.

http://www.icedaudio.com/site/
There's also BarbaBatch, which is getting a bit long in the tooth but is still a current product and can do mass batch conversions quickly, including recursively searching downward through nested folders and replicating that folder structure to the destination.






Audio Ease - Barbabatch - professional batch sound file conversion application for Mac OS X


BarbaBatch is a professional batch sound file conversion application for Mac OS X.




www.audioease.com





Another great little thing is Sample Manager from ADSR Sounds. It's a plugin that allows browsing, tagging, and tempo-matched previewing and keyboard-triggered playback of your samples from within your DAW. Amazing for browsing loops and previewing them in context in your DAW. It's pretty great - and FREE!!!









ADSR Sample Manager by ADSR - Find the perfect sound in an instant! for Mac/Windows - ADSR Sounds


The optimal starting point for every production session, ADSR Sample Manager makes organizing, finding and auditioning samples and loops refreshingly simple.ADSR Sample Manager makes your entire sample library searchable with smart and custom tags. Preview any sample in your local library or...




www.adsrsounds.com





Tragically, AudioFileEngineering and Aurchitect are both out of commission due to some squabbles over the IP when the companies transitioned. This is terrible, because AudioFileEngineering's SampleManager / WaveEditor / LoopEditor trio was one of the greats for destructive batch editing and conversions. It was (sort of) replaced by Myriad from Aurchitect, which was a little less awesome but still very useful. Both are now in limbo unfortunately, but I have hopes that the IP will live again someday.


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## MarcusD

charlieclouser said:


> I just make use of meticulously-organized folder structures in MacOS and precise naming schemes that keep everything in order and easy to find. I don't like to rely on third-party database apps or other non-OS methods of organizing things, because if those solutions go away or become incompatible with some other app or OS version, there goes your organization. (Been there, done that with a FileMaker DB back in the day. Oops!) But since the OS will never go away, my organization will stay intact even if I switch from Mac to Windows or whatever. Plus the MacOS Spotlight search engine is fully integrated within all apps and can always find what I'm looking for.
> 
> But, if you're not satisfied with that, there's SoundMiner, which is THE high-end, sophisticated (and expensive) system for tagging, sorting, and importing samples to major DAWs. It supports ReWire, direct spotting of samples to the ProTools timeline, etc. Originally developed for SFX editors, it's matured into a system with powerful features for music editors / supervisors / librarians as well as music creators. It's mega. Too mega for me, even though I have literally millions of one-shot and loop samples.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Soundminer
> 
> 
> Soundminer Asset Management System
> 
> 
> 
> store.soundminer.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You don't say if you're on Mac or Windows.
> 
> On Mac, I use AudioFinder for previewing, renaming, batch conversions, etc. It's fast, light, and extremely useful, and can do slick things like auto-spot to ProTools timeline, pop-up a waveform window when previewing in the Finder, etc. It also has a basic destructive sample editor for doing quick cuts, fades, etc. and can also batch-process through AU plugins. It's my main engine for dealing with stuff... can't live without it.
> 
> http://www.icedaudio.com/site/
> There's also BarbaBatch, which is getting a bit long in the tooth but is still a current product and can do mass batch conversions quickly, including recursively searching downward through nested folders and replicating that folder structure to the destination.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Audio Ease - Barbabatch - professional batch sound file conversion application for Mac OS X
> 
> 
> BarbaBatch is a professional batch sound file conversion application for Mac OS X.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.audioease.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Another great little thing is Sample Manager from ADSR Sounds. It's a plugin that allows browsing, tagging, and tempo-matched previewing and keyboard-triggered playback of your samples from within your DAW. Amazing for browsing loops and previewing them in context in your DAW. It's pretty great - and FREE!!!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ADSR Sample Manager by ADSR - Find the perfect sound in an instant! for Mac/Windows - ADSR Sounds
> 
> 
> The optimal starting point for every production session, ADSR Sample Manager makes organizing, finding and auditioning samples and loops refreshingly simple.ADSR Sample Manager makes your entire sample library searchable with smart and custom tags. Preview any sample in your local library or...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.adsrsounds.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Tragically, AudioFileEngineering and Aurchitect are both out of commission due to some squabbles over the IP when the companies transitioned. This is terrible, because AudioFileEngineering's SampleManager / WaveEditor / LoopEditor trio was one of the greats for destructive batch editing and conversions. It was (sort of) replaced by Myriad from Aurchitect, which was a little less awesome but still very useful. Both are now in limbo unfortunately, but I have hopes that the IP will live again someday.



Firstly, thank you for taking the time to type all that out and provide all appropriate the links. Very helpful and much appreciated! Currently using a Windows machine with BulkRenameUtility (free software), which does the job well for batch renaming but that's about it.

The issue I have is with Windows, in the search columns you can add extra sections. However, for audio you only have Bit Rate, Bit Depth and File Type. Bit Depth never seems to show anything in the file column, Bit Rate works fine along with File Type, however, there's nothing for viewing sample rates. So having software that can view / handle all the tagging and move files, would be great.

When naming things I've tried my best to tag them in a searchable way, but as I keep amassing more and more files and recordings I've found my old naming methods flawed and had to rework them. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that you need two or more types of naming methods. One for Foley / sound design and one for instruments.

For Foley recordings:

Object > Action > Surface > Size > Length > Number

SFX:

Type (Braamm etc...) > Pitch (High, Med, Low) > Name > Length > Number

For instruments:

Type > Instrument > Number



I'd be interested in hearing what your naming method you use, also open to any suggestions!

Cheers


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## charlieclouser

Since I don't do any SFX work per se, my naming scheme is oriented only toward musical sounds. I do have a decent collection of SFX that I use for weird sound design, convolution / impulse responses, etc. - but I don't get too granular with the naming of that stuff because there's not that much of it in my library. 

When I do use a piece of SFX as a musical sound, I give it a name that correlates to its musical use, mostly disregarding the source. I don't need to keep track of "FootstepFemale-StilletoHeel-Gravel-Left-22" vs "FootstepMale-CubanHeel-WoodFloor-Right-49" for example. I do have tons of things like machinery noises that I use as percussion or braams, but I name them as if they were always percussion or braams.

My typical file names for non-loop samples would be things like:

[instrument] - [source library] - [articulation] - [mic position/mix info] - [round-robin group] - [dynamic layer] - [root key]

So that would result in names like:

violins-XXXX-Staccato-Decca-rr03-mf-A#2

brassfx-XXXX-ClusterStab-Mix-rr04-ff-C3

braam-XXXX-PumpEngine-D3

snare-XXXX-Supra8x14-CenterHit-Room-rr12-pp-D2

etc.

I skip any fields which don't apply for a given sound, and some sounds have extra fields unique to that category. I don't try to force every single sound to comply with all the rules - that would result in too many empty / skipped fields or placeholders - and the names would quickly get too long.

I don't include sample rate, bit depth, length, or any other parameters like that in the actual file names because that info either doesn't matter to me or is easily visible in MacOS. Sample rate or bit depth I don't care about unless I'm batch converting stuff in AudioFinder, which shows that info in column views, and I can derive rough length info from the file sizes or view exact lengths in AudioFinder.

For some categories I re-arrange the order of the fields - like for braams, which I deploy in "menu" patches in my sampler with one sample per key, using keyswitches to change pitch in the same manner that some commercial Kontakt libraries use. So for those I'll make the Root Key the second field so that they all sort by Root Key in lists - this makes it easier for me to import all "D1" samples and have them mapped next to each other in a menu patch where I can quickly edit them in Logic's EXS Editor. So the naming scheme is subject to change depending on how I'm going to deploy the content.

Loop-based content gets a slightly different naming scheme:

[source library abbreviation] - [tempo] - [description] - [number]

So I'll have loops with names like:

PS-090-CinePulse-02

XG-109+6-JunkPerc-04

The first example would be the second 90bpm loop of a Cinematic Pulse sound from the ProSonus library, and the second example would be the fourth 109bpm loop in 6/8 time signature of Junk Percussion from the X-Static Goldmine library. That's how I deal with odd time signature loops - I just put a "+" sign after the tempo and then a 6,7,11, etc. to denote the time signature. It's usually enough and keeps the names compact and sorted in lists. I also use leading zeros for tempi below 100bpm so that lists don't get sorted incorrectly. MacOS now sorts correctly even when leading zeros are not present, but back in the 1980's this wasn't the case, and old habits die hard.

With this naming scheme, I can have master folders like "Metal Percussion Loops" or "Cinematic Synth Pulses" and within those folders all of the loops from various sources will sort in groups by source library, then by tempo, then by name, then by number. So if I'm browsing and don't want to hear any more of the ProSonus loops I can just scroll past the "PS" section in the list. A long time ago I put the tempo as the first field but then I'd have all the 100bpm loops from every source next to each other in the list. This made sense before tempo-matching DAWs like Ableton, when I needed to manually tempo-match loops in a non-time-stretching sampler, but now the original tempo info is less important to me than before, so I prefer how my lists sort with this scheme.

I often don't preserve the original descriptive fields, preferring to use my own shorthand for categories unless it's a universally-accepted term like Braam, Staccato, SulPont or whatever. My shorthand has lots of terms that make sense only to me and my friends who I've made records with, and has terms like:

ambisyn = (ambient, processed, pitched sounds that are playable as pads / drones)
akutex = (ambient, pitched sounds from acoustic sources that are playable as pads / drones)
blast = (like braams but more synthetic / processed / guitar-like. Think NIN one-shots)
crust = (sounds that are distorted or bit-crushed almost to oblivion, barely anything remains)
cubix = (like braams or blasts but synth-based, like the main riff sound in 808 State's "Cubik")
gronk = (like braams but softer, more processed and quieter)
neub = (Einsturzende Neubauten style metal percussion. Loud and industrial)
shmeng = (one-shot swells with a synthetic, ring-mod, or other processed character)
swipe = (one-shot swells with a less processed, more acoustic character)

etc. ad infinitum

So my categories don't really make obvious sense to outsiders, but I can usually tell at a glance what I'm going to hear before I hear it.


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## gsilbers

metadigger


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## rrichard63

A less elaborate and less expensive alternative to SoundMiner is RY Audio's Sample Librarian. It has flexible tagging, displays bit depth, sample rate, number of channels and duration, and can "learn" about non-standard file types. I only used it for a short while, but found it to be stable during that time and got quick answers from the developer. There's a 30 day free trial. The main potential downside is that I'm not sure it has been updated in several years.


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## Living Fossil

charlieclouser said:


> Another great little thing is Sample Manager from ADSR Sounds. It's a plugin that allows browsing, tagging, and tempo-matched previewing and keyboard-triggered playback of your samples from within your DAW. Amazing for browsing loops and previewing them in context in your DAW. It's pretty great - and FREE!!!




Thanks a lot of mentioning this!
How does it deal with sounds that are moved to different folders etc?
I have a harddisk for sounds/soundeffects etc that accumulates them for the last 20 years
(of course it's not the same physical drive since 2000, but it still relies on the same folder structure...).
While i have a very clear structure to classify different categories, there are always some giant amounts of sounds that i haven't classified yet. They reside in the "noch_nicht_geordnet" folder.
Or sometimes i change the folder structure because i find out that it would be more efficient to differentiate categories etc.
Would Sample Manager lose the tagged info or does it keep it independently from the folder the files are in?


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## charlieclouser

Not sure how SampleManager deals with directories changing etc. To be honest I've never used the tagging features it has, in fact I've never used the tagging features of any app for this since I move and rename things all the time and I reckon that's just one more database to try and keep in order. So I don't use any such features of any app at all - for me it's only the folder structure and file names that form any sort of organizational table - THAT's the database for me.

I've only used Sample Manager as a way to preview loops in-tempo with a song in progress, and for that it's great. It allows you to instantly trigger and play any sample with pitch control from a MIDI keyboard, and loops can lock to host tempo. So you can quickly bring material into your DAW by doing a scratch MIDI track and using bounce-in-place or whatever. This is much quicker than my usual method of running Ableton Live as a ReWire slave. I still use Live as a way to create large arrangements of looped material and manipulate it, but for just bringing in a single loop quickly Sample Manager is great.


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## Living Fossil

@charlieclouser : thanks a lot for you answer. In fact, i guess the function of triggering audio sources instantly while playing back Logic would improve my workflow - also without tagging. So i guess i will try it out...
And: Thanks a lot for your inputs...it's great that you share so much of your insights.


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## MarcusD

@charlieclouser thank you for providing detailed insight into your method. Pretty sure there's a couple things I could take from that and apply to own naming schemes.

I've Been spending some time trying out different free software solutions that have been suggested by everyone (on windows) and TBH I've not quite found anything that has hit the spot. Sound Miner looked interesting but lacked any file editing features such as renaming, adding prefixes or suffixes, batch processing or moving / copying files to another location etc... If Sound Miner had a love-child with Bulk Rename Utility, that'd be exactly what I'm after. Which is what Audio Finder seems to be. I don't think what I'm looking for actually exists on Windows yet.

EDIT: Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!


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## timprebble

"lacked any file editing features such as renaming, adding prefixes or suffixes, batch processing or moving / copying files to another location etc..."

@MarcusD SoundMiner Pro (OSX) can do all of those things you say it can't.
Might pay to have a read of the manual... (but I dont know about the Windows version)
SoundMiner also has a thesaurus, which is invaluable when working with sound library 500k + files...

For naming FX, AMB etc I generate file names and metadata using a concatenation formula in Excel, and then auto rename my final edited library files using A Better Finder Renamer (OSX app) which lets you rename a folder of files using a Tab Seperated text file (source filename, new filename) ex my Excel naming & metadata spreadsheet

Only issue I have had with AudioFinder is speed. SoundMiner scans your media and creates a database, which makes searching etc very very fast. AudioFinder does not do this (or it didnt, havent checked latest version) and is much slower to work with imho


Another app thats in similar vein to SoundMiner is Basehead





BaseHead, LLC | Find Sh*t Fast!







baseheadinc.com


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## mixtur

Antother option is Resonic : https://resonic.at/

its still being developed but it’s promising


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## mixtur

mixtur said:


> Antother option is Resonic : https://resonic.at/
> 
> its still being developed but it’s promising


the pro version would be the one to get https://resonic.at/pro


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## MarcusD

timprebble said:


> "lacked any file editing features such as renaming, adding prefixes or suffixes, batch processing or moving / copying files to another location etc..."
> 
> @MarcusD SoundMiner Pro (OSX) can do all of those things you say it can't.
> Might pay to have a read of the manual... (but I dont know about the Windows version)
> SoundMiner also has a thesaurus, which is invaluable when working with sound library 500k + files...
> 
> For naming FX, AMB etc I generate file names and metadata using a concatenation formula in Excel, and then auto rename my final edited library files using A Better Finder Renamer (OSX app) which lets you rename a folder of files using a Tab Seperated text file (source filename, new filename) ex my Excel naming & metadata spreadsheet
> 
> Only issue I have had with AudioFinder is speed. SoundMiner scans your media and creates a database, which makes searching etc very very fast. AudioFinder does not do this (or it didnt, havent checked latest version) and is much slower to work with imho
> 
> 
> Another app thats in similar vein to SoundMiner is Basehead
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> BaseHead, LLC | Find Sh*t Fast!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> baseheadinc.com



Whoops! That's my mistake, I got SoundMinder confused with Sample Librarian when posting that. SoundMiner doesn't really make it clear (at first glance on the product page) if it works on Windows so I totally disregarded it assuming it's macOS only (HD obviously does both), besides I'm not looking to drop £££ on something that could be potentially done for free or just done with usual method (be it not perfect method).


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## Anders Wall

@charlieclouser thanks for sharing.
Folder and naming schemes are the way to go.
I've yet come across a third party program that is as good as the built in browser.

For those on ProTools the included search/browser named Workspace is a real gem
If you haven't looked at it, check it out here: --> 

I'll add this to the already great collection of links.
Perhaps more aimed for sound effects.








SoundQ - Unlimited Sound Effects & Music


All the sounds you need for every project. Bring your ideas and videos to life with one inspiring source for sfx and music.




www.prosoundeffects.com




clocking in at $99 it does a great job and feature things like spot to track/cliplist etc.

Myself, if anyone cares, use Basehead. And this is only, really ONLY, because the major broadcaster here in Sweden uses it and they provide me with 80% of my work :O
Else I'd stick with the ProTools workspace and name my files from start.

Best,
Anders


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## AndyP

MarcusD said:


> Starting to accumulate a lot of sound recordings and can't seem to find any software which handles everything for: Tagging, Naming, Bulk Editing & Moving / Organising files. Up until this point I'm simply using a Bulk Rename Utility then moving the files, was just wondering if there's any better solutions around? Is there anything available that's been made specifically for audio workflows?
> 
> Cheers


Massive Excel Sheets. I know this is old fashioned, but always my first step before I transfer anything into my templates.


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