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How many Gigabytes/Terabytes do your sample libraries total?

I remember feeling like a filthy greedy capitalist back in 1985, when I had a show box full of cassette tapes... Now I have a 2 TB SSD full of libraries, and I guess I should feel the same. It's too much for a hobbyist. But then... is it?
 
You young-uns need to devise an organizational strategy for all your samples now. I preach this all the time and few listen - organize your patches in your DAW and stick to it.

I have about 6 TB
So far, my standard procedure for everything i buy has been to add it to my existing cubase template, writing down the keychanges in the notes of the inspector, purge and patch resave, and then disabling and hiding the new tracks.
I find it to be the best way i've seen, because you start with a blank project because all tracks are disabled and hidden, but you've got everything ready and set up. All you need to do is press ctrl-f and type in the instrument you want to use.
 
I have about 2tb's of libraries, then another two with projects. I hope SSDs get cheaper soon, as I'd love to have a 10tb SSD (and another for backup).
 
That's great - sounds like you have a plan! Once you start getting into other sample engines (and it will happen over the years), searching across everything will be a little more difficult. Right now I can open my library in Logic and see exactly how many Pipas, Celestes, or Djembes I have, regardless of it being EXS, Kontakt, Engine, UVI, STEAM, PLAY, or even hosted in VEP, and load the desired file with a single click - super slick! I believe the same can be done with the Media Bay in Cubase. It really is an open ended system that grows with my acquisitions.

That's the kind of organization I'm talking about - going a level above the sample engines' search capabilities; but again, sounds like you already have something that works well for you!

You bring up a good point. I’ve made no major efforts to sort my uvi, spectrasonic or korg libraries. Eventually it may benefit me to go deeper into my DAW (studio one in my case) to find a more complete organizational method.
 
So far, my standard procedure for everything i buy has been to add it to my existing cubase template, writing down the keychanges in the notes of the inspector, purge and patch resave, and then disabling and hiding the new tracks.
I find it to be the best way i've seen, because you start with a blank project because all tracks are disabled and hidden, but you've got everything ready and set up. All you need to do is press ctrl-f and type in the instrument you want to use.

I have far too many patches to make that approach work. In Cubase you can save not only expression maps and notes in your patches, which is fantastic; Logic won’t save notes, which is really stupid! If this works for you, then awesome! In Cubase I think you can just save all you’ve created individually as patches if you ever want to convert over to a system like what I’m talking about.

It really is amazing how flexible these DAWs are!
 
I have far too many patches to make that approach work. In Cubase you can save not only expression maps and notes in your patches, which is fantastic; Logic won’t save notes, which is really stupid! If this works for you, then awesome! In Cubase I think you can just save all you’ve created individually as patches if you ever want to convert over to a system like what I’m talking about.

It really is amazing how flexible these DAWs are!
You mean track presets, right? I thought about it too, but i don't see any advantages.
Why do you think you to many patches for that approach? I think we kind of do the same, just in a different way.
 
You mean track presets, right? I thought about it too, but i don't see any advantages.
Why do you think you to many patches for that approach? I think we kind of do the same, just in a different way.
Just bought CSB and there are a total of 9 patches that one needs tracks for in a project (assuming use of expression maps for articulation switching). However SFA Albion One must have hundreds of patches - would you add ALL of those or would you just add a few and launch others from within them?
 
I just cleaned up my library after buying some new instruments during the recent holiday sales. All of my core libraries fit on the 500 GB SSD in my laptop. The other lesser used instruments (mostly pads and free libraries) now sit on a small 500 GB external SSD. Although I certainly will WANT more libraries in the future, the bottom line is that I have everything that I NEED to create great music. Sometimes, having abundant choices can actually inhibit creativity.

On a related note, i’m trying to squeeze some extra space out of my internal drive. I was thinking of deleting all or most of the Kontakt factory library. Has anyone ever done that?

Scarlet Jerry
 
Just bought CSB and there are a total of 9 patches that one needs tracks for in a project (assuming use of expression maps for articulation switching). However SFA Albion One must have hundreds of patches - would you add ALL of those or would you just add a few and launch others from within them?
Well, for the Albion Orchestra i have 55 tracks in my template, and because i use keyswitches i think that covers almost everything. There's some stuff like the COG patches that i havent included.
For the sounddesign i just added a track for each folder, so one being CHX Brunel Presets, another would be Extreme Warped Brunels and so on.

The nice thing is i don't need to care how big my template grows, i start with all tracks hidden and only make the tracks i want to use visible.
I think Junkie XL does it similar, his template has more than 2000 tracks.
 
You mean track presets, right? I thought about it too, but i don't see any advantages.
Why do you think you to many patches for that approach? I think we kind of do the same, just in a different way.

I can imagine I would have upwards of 8-10k tracks if I had all my patches in a single template - 20 more years it would easily double that. That approach doesn't work for my small mind, but again, if it works for you, and you see it as a way to continually expand - that's great!

Sorry for the extreme derail OP - I'm now up to 6.4 TB...
 
So far, my standard procedure for everything i buy has been to add it to my existing cubase template, writing down the keychanges in the notes of the inspector, purge and patch resave, and then disabling and hiding the new tracks.
I find it to be the best way i've seen, because you start with a blank project because all tracks are disabled and hidden, but you've got everything ready and set up. All you need to do is press ctrl-f and type in the instrument you want to use.
I do the same thing over here. but first thing I do is a review of the library in it's entirety at first, spot the patches that I like or think can have cool potential, even with fx on it, then add them in the template with maybe a quick note in the editor or in the track name so I know at first glance some usage for it I experimented during my review. For instance, a drone patch may sounds ok in normal keys but when you bring it to high notes with some pitch bend, it turns out a very nice sound to add tension.
Then it will either go in my VEP or Cubase template as disabled track, depending if I need it regularly and if I might need to apply fx or play with it's Paramus. Regular use with no edit will go in vep, the rest stays in Cubase.

I find it useful to have my stuff at my fingertips, ready to go rather than explore my drives and spend my time loading libs as needed. That way my time is mostly spent in creating and follow the inspiration. ;)
 
Sitting at just under 20 terabytes as of this afternoon:

11.6tb = Kontakt
3.6tb = EXS24
2.4tb = raw wav + aiff samples and loops
1.9tb = various "ROMpler"-style libraries (Vienna, BFD, Superior, Play, HZ Strings, Whitaker Choir, Phobos, etc.)

All on SSD. My wallet hurts.

To be fair, that's thirty years of collecting, but it's really gone through the roof these last five years or so. It started out as a briefcase full of floppies.
That feeling when you think you have a bad habit then others prove you wrong :)
Its not really an honest analysis though, because SF libraries are huge as are OT ones, with others being smaller but just as expensive.

So you could have taken up far less GBs, but have spent the same if not more ;)
 
I have far too many patches to make that approach work. In Cubase you can save not only expression maps and notes in your patches, which is fantastic; Logic won’t save notes, which is really stupid! If this works for you, then awesome! In Cubase I think you can just save all you’ve created individually as patches if you ever want to convert over to a system like what I’m talking about.

It really is amazing how flexible these DAWs are!
Slightly off topic... it you can save notes in Cubase patches??
Any tutorials you know on patch saving and best practice?
 
is it possible to connect more external SSD via USB powered hub, anyone using?
I’ve not tried running multiple SSDs through a USB hub, but I do use a USB enclosure that has two bays without incidence. Give it a try. Do make sure that the hub is a USB3.
 
4TB's now, but it's tight and a move to 6 is imminent. I've moved to Cubase precisely because I can create a track for everything and then unload. The process has helped a lot since I had to go through everything I possessed and discovered a few gems that I had forgotten about. Having all the tracks there helps me remember now. Every new library gets tested and then put into the template.

You have to be a little careful re-loading libraries, too many at a time and Cubase/Kontakt can go into a bit of a CPU spike death cycle. The Kontakt 6 player seems to be a little better in this regard so now I'm moving everything to K6 where possible. Wish I had though of that at the beginning of the process.

Out of a 1000-odd tracks only 50-100 are ever loaded for a particular piece so memory is never really an issue. This was always a problem in Logic. I still mix in Logic though since it is so efficient with plug-ins and I find separating the two processes very beneficial. If I can get the raw orchestration to sound acceptable then I know it's only going to get better in the mix. There's a bit of a natural tendency to 'produce' while writing and by removing that temptation I find I'm concentrating on the actual notes much more.
 
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