How do you organise your samples, presets etc?
Hi all, new to BM 2 after reading about it as a much better competitor to things like iMPC. Really reminds me of how I used to make music, all sample based, so I'm just getting my head around it all but I want to get the filesystem right from the start. I think I've got it but, questions!
Samples: should I keep them in one big Samples folder or should I be clicking that 'copy samples' button when I make Presets and keeping them there? I used to think the latter but I'm going for the former now, mainly saving the state of the pads and Banks via the Project file as opposed to creating a new Preset every five minutes, and keeping all my samples in one big folder.
Also, another big question: unless I put all my own samples in one unsorted folder, with no sub-folders, how can I search *just* my own samples? If I try to 'Search All' I'm swamped with the Factory sounds I'll never use.
Presets: I'm not really going to use them to create, save and regularly use specific banks of sounds. I expect this would be useful for DJs who perform with BM2, but I'm just going to be creating unique samples mostly. I thought I might use them to save the state of the sampler pads and banks, but can I just do this by saving the Project I'm in? I like to chop up loops so I've found making Presets with the pads auto-loaded is a good use but other than that do I need to be using them better?
And finally, what's the best practice for when you have a loop you've chopped: when should you save the chops as individual samples and when should you keep it whole (and just save the chop markers) but still let BM2 assign the chops to pads?
Thanks for any suggestions, everyone's different and maybe I'll get a better idea!
Samples: should I keep them in one big Samples folder or should I be clicking that 'copy samples' button when I make Presets and keeping them there? I used to think the latter but I'm going for the former now, mainly saving the state of the pads and Banks via the Project file as opposed to creating a new Preset every five minutes, and keeping all my samples in one big folder.
Also, another big question: unless I put all my own samples in one unsorted folder, with no sub-folders, how can I search *just* my own samples? If I try to 'Search All' I'm swamped with the Factory sounds I'll never use.
Presets: I'm not really going to use them to create, save and regularly use specific banks of sounds. I expect this would be useful for DJs who perform with BM2, but I'm just going to be creating unique samples mostly. I thought I might use them to save the state of the sampler pads and banks, but can I just do this by saving the Project I'm in? I like to chop up loops so I've found making Presets with the pads auto-loaded is a good use but other than that do I need to be using them better?
And finally, what's the best practice for when you have a loop you've chopped: when should you save the chops as individual samples and when should you keep it whole (and just save the chop markers) but still let BM2 assign the chops to pads?
Thanks for any suggestions, everyone's different and maybe I'll get a better idea!
Comments
As you said there are many ways to organise your folders.
Using the copy samples is mostly used when you think about exporting your preset or project on another device.
It's also a way to have your samples tied to a project or preset within one folder.
This is also convenient for moving samples you may have recorded with an audio track. (You can get rid of the recordings in the MyContent folder afterward).
For searching samples, I can recommend tagging them, with an artist and/or category of your choice, so you can search for that later on.
For chopping samples, it's all a matter of what you'd like to do with them.
Splitting samples will use disk space, and is kind of definitive, but you'll have different samples which you can apply offline effects on without changing the original sample.
Using the original sample, you won't use more disk space, you can save the markers and edit them later if you misplaced some of them, and you can still save as another sample if you want to further edit it.
Hope this helped a bit,
Cheers,
Vincent.
I get how I'd use Copy Samples for keeping stuff together if I export etc, but can you explain more about how it's convenient to use Copy Samples when extracting individual samples from an audio track you've recorded? If Im already keeping samples in one big folder would I not just trim down the samples I want and Save As a new sample in my Samples folder? (I realise its just another approach you're suggesting, of course, but I'm trying to settle on one system and stick to that)
With chopping, when I choose not to split into individual samples how is it possible for BM2 to still assign the slices I marked in Chop Lab to individual pads as if they were indeed unique samples? And can I do that manually, just assign a single slice to a pad, without actually saving them all out as unique samples?
Finally, back to sorting and searching - I know I can search by tags, categories, genre etc but it only seems to search within the folder you've navigated to. If I keep all my samples in organised folders, the only way to search them all is by Search All menu item but as I say that results in being swamped with Factory sounds that are also tagged, none of which I will ever use. Unless I create entirely new tags that only apply to my samples, which seems like a waste of time when there's already a decent Category and Genre tagging system in place.
Also you suggested searching by Artist - I only see tagging for Category, Genre and BPM - are there further tagging types available?
So, that brings me back to, either I save all samples completely disorganised in one big folder but with the ability to search just my samples by searching that folder for tags etc (but not names, so frustrating!), or I organise my samples into folders to keep things a bit neater, perhaps by Source (song, artist, sound effect etc) but in so doing lose the ability to search them all without acres of Factory samples in the results.
Hmm, rock and a hard place if that's the case...
Sorry this is so wordy. I have trouble boiling my questions down to simple sentences, hope you don't mind!
Be careful as beatmaker2 is not intuitive in the file department, especially if you are coming from a computer system.
Its amazingly easy to save files in scattered locations, lose files, and have songs not able to find files that were used in them..not load properly again.
Beatmaker2 does not direct you anywhere when you are saving...it must be directed prior to saving...which works like nothing else period...and i said works...even though this is not a realistic statement.
The problem arises when you save something in a wrong location...and move it using the computer...and then try to reload it...bahahahaa not you must link up every single sample again.
I have been animate about the file system being "less than adequate" but this meets great resistance in this place of subpar app worship. Maybe we will all get a real filesystem soon? Hope so.
Inside the my content folder, this is what it look like:
(Various audio files from recording audio tracks)- intua please allow us to save the audio files within the project.
Then I have these folders which everything has a home:
Exports
Presets-> 2 sub folders drum machine & keyboard
Projects
Samples-create as many folders as you need
The best way to do it is to backup your files, then bring everything over in an organized way.
Until the file system gets more manageable this has been my method.
(I tried deleting the Factory samples using apps like iExplorer but I gather that without a jailbreak the contents of the .app folder are not deletable. Pity, it annoys me that they exist! <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) --> )
Am I right in thinking the contents of my pads and keyboards, where the samples are mapped to etc, that's all saved as part of the Project file? Not sure if I need to be saving Presets every time I change a few samples on the pads etc, or just wait till everything's pretty much how I want it for the time being and then saving a Preset.
Thanks all.
But I do have folders for drums, bass etc sorted by kits in the samples folder. Whenever I sample a record it goes the "by artist" folder etc...
I figured maybe you haven't noticed, when you are in the sample lab, either from the pads view or the studio view, you can create a preset for the drum machine out of the markers in position.
The preset file contains positions for each pad, with the same sample.
Cheers,
Vincent.
I'll try to be clearer! <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->
Okay so I've noticed that when in Chop Lab, it's possible to tap a button that says 'create a preset with this slices' which then assigns the slices to pads, but doesn't actually create unique samples from the slices.
I had thought the only way to get slices on to pads was to actually create unique samples, but clearly this method allows you to bypass that.
Okay - so, my question is, if that's possible using this function as described, is it also possible to manually assign the slices to pads without creating unique samples, or is it only possible to do via the method we both described?
<!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> Thanks!