Useful free utility for sample hoarders

If, like me, you have loads of samples on your drive and would love quick and easy way to tag, search and preview samples, have a look at Mutant:

https://sonicwire.com/mutant/download

The website is in Japanese but it asks you on setup what language you would like to use. It's a great, free utility for those who want something a bit more comprehensive than Sonar's Browser (which is great but I wish it could search sub-folders).

Cheers, Mesh! I'll check out that when I get home. It looks very useful!

auricle


I've found another tool that's not free but cheap ($30). 

It's called Taggtool - www.taggtool.com   

It can tag and find any type of file - wave, midi, instrument files (my MachFive .m5p for example). It supports full drag and drop so once you've found the file you're looking for you can drop it directly in Sonar. I can even drop a found .m5p file directly into MachFive to load that instrument.

Pretty useful.

Regarding the Drag & Drop feature, the free Samplesort utility provides that . I'm not sure about the .m5p files, but it does support over 160 file types. Since this is in Beta, he's open to suggestions as well for improvements.
(I better stop as I'm starting to sound like a rep for his product....lol).  

Beepster


As I've been messing around with building loop based songs I'm finding it a pain digging through the browser to find/retrieve stuff I like. I'm assuming there is a way to create my own folders so if I find a few loops I'd like to try in a project I can store them there instead of hunting around. I'd prefer they were just shortcuts to the actual loops so I'm not creating double files or whatever. Then once I have everything done I can just delete the folder to avoid clutter. Please tell me this is possible. Cheers.

Possibly this may help you.
 
It's a software that searches for a pattern in a loop collection. Both midi and audio.
http://www.cpuproductions.com/gd/index.html

I also have a pretty good size library of loops and have generally
organized them in a genre/style order. I'm afraid you/we may not have much of a choice other than organizing the loop folders to best fit the need.
I do have the folders readily available in X1's browser, but finding the right loop that fits sometimes takes awhile to find. 

I'll likely be constructing most of my own beats and stuff for my songs so I'd just create a folder for each song and toss stuff in for that. I'm just wondering about creating a folder to drop stuff into for when I'm perusing other content (that I have not written). If there was a way to have two browser windows that would make things far easier. I'd create my new folder in one browser then poke through the loops in the other. When I find something I like I'd then copy and drag it into the new folder. I'm sure there is a work around for this but I still need to read up on the browser a little more. Right now I'm actually dragging loops I might use right into the Track View in the deadspace at the end and snagging them when I want to drop them into the tune. It definitely works but I feel it's kind of a silly way to do things and once I start getting into having massive amounts of loops in a single song I could see it causing a real problem. It also makes previewing them a little weird because I'm actually having to solo the track and play them using the transport panel. This also makes it so I can't preview a loop while the song is playing. I'm sure I'll figure it out though.

They should have a sampel editionm of that show hoardes where they show hard drives overrun with samples. i just found a free sample cd from Futiuemusic from 1996

Sad the referenced programs have not been updated. But I will install and test.

=========================
I have attempted to minimize the seemingly unreasonable installation processes of most programs by aggregating audio programs and samples into quickly accessable locations.

 
I use 3 disks: C (OS,programs), D (samples), E (projects, user data)
 
The C disk is partitioned for dual boot with w7-32, and a storage/CD-files partition.
 
Pagefiles on C, and D, NOT E.
 
I want clear access to the audio programs and related files. I DO NOT want to have to hunt for user defined/saved files in obscure, hidden folders.
 
I install Sonar to:
   C:\Sonar 8.5 32
   C:\Sonar 8.5 64
   C:\Sonar X1 64
 
All Shared programs, presets, VSTs,.. are installed to:
   C:\AudioCommon32
   C:\AudioCommon64
 
All other audio programs, and tools are installed (as much as possible) to:
   C:\AudioPrograms32
   C:\AudioPrograms64
 
Samples:
   D:\AudioSamples
 
Sonar Project files:
   E:\SonarProjects
 
Sonar templates, CAL, drum maps, layouts, and all other USER modifiable stuff:
   E:\AudioProjects
 
Other bits, such as the Picture Cache, tutorials,...:
   C:\CakewalkStuff
 
 
Unfortunately, the CW managers have followed the MS path insanity. This results in files, like presets, stored in way-stupid locations like:
   C:\Users\Jesse\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Shared Presets
And the Plugins:
   C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins
And other stuff:
   C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\SONAR 8.5 Producer
 
 
This is dumb. These folders ONLY get backed up when imaging the disk. NO user data should ever be buried in these hidden (by default) locations.
 
I specifically chose  C:\Sonar 8.5 32  for the install, But nooooooooooo!
All kinds of stuff is installed to:
   C:\Users\Jesse\AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\SONAR 8.5 Producer. 
 
And, then I have to copy all the folders to  E:\AudioProjects.
 
I Chose to put ALL other Sonar sample content into C:\CakewalkStuff, But nooooooooooo! It is put into buried and the Documents folders:
   C:\Users\Jesse\Documents\Cakewalk\SONAR 8.5 Producer\Sample Content.
   C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\SONAR 8.5 Producer (Sample Content)
And then I have to separate and move it to the appropriate locations for easy access and use:
   C:\CakewalkStuff\sample projects
   E:\AudioProjects\Cal,...
 
The tutorials and such never need to be backed-up. It should not be stored in the USER's files location.
 
======================================
 
I have external disks for backup, I use Always-Sync and the MS Sync Tool for quick backups from the folders I have created in the Root directories of the disks. And if need be, I can grab any of the folders (ie E:\AudioProjects) and drop them to disk for quick backup, without having to search for all the folders that may contain stuff I have saved.
 
There are programs that put EVERYTHING into ONE folder, with minimal use of the windows registry that work just fine. Storing ANY user data, such as presets, in the registry is even more insidious than putting it in hidden folders.
 
============
 
But, Don't get me started.
 
j

Hi Adrian,
Good to see you again. I remember you using samplesort awhile back.....what was your experience with it?

Is there anything out there that will also allow sample playback on your midi keyboard (even in low quality)?.

Kindof like a cheap auditioning soft sampler built in...

Had my eye out for smth like this for years but guess theres no demand...