Live 9 Browser Behavior for User Folders

[MTG105]

OK so I might be in the minority here but the way that the new browser in Live 9 works for searching user folders is not working well for me. I have a system where all my samples are keyed by mixed in key then organized by folder.

Example: Melodic Samples->Bass->Acoustic->Sample Library Manufacturer (ie Loopmasters)->Sample Pack->Samples in this pack (ie 1A Bass.wav, 2A Bass.wav, etc)

Now the problem is, with Live 8, I could select my Bass folder which in it has ALL my bass sounds and do a search for whatever key I want to find samples in (like 1A). Then the subfolder tree would disappear and Live would give me a list of ALL my bass samples in 1A. The problem with Live 9's browser is that I'll do the same search but the subfolders wont disappear, so now I have to manually navigate to each subfolder to find a file that matches the search. Basically instead of a nice clean list of search results I have to go diving through subfolders, and this is a huge workflow killer for me.

I don't really understand why Ableton did this, surely if you do a search wouldn't you want a list of all the matching files rather than have to go into the subfolders to find the files that match the search results? Please let me know if there's an option to change this behavior because if there is I haven't found it.

Thanks!
-Max

[MTG105]

Anyone?

[MTG105]

Is there any way to get 'all results' but only for certain folders?

[login]

Is there any way to get 'all results' but only for certain folders?

slecting the folder doesnt work?

[snakedogman]

Hmmm it looks like it does not show files in subfolders, it finds them but then you have to manually twirl open the subfolders to actually see the files! Which makes the search pretty useless.
So I guess the only way to work like you want to it work is to have no subfolders in your "bass" folder and have all the categorisation in the actual filenames.

[snakedogman]

btw. If you put your samples into the user library/samples folders, then they will show up under "Samples" in the categories pane in the browsers. From there, if you do a search on "bass A1" for example it should turn up all the results directly, even if the samples reside in subfolders.
Of course this means moving all your samples into the Live user library.
Why can't we just choose which folders we would like to be included in the "Samples" category?

This is really not very well thought trough by Ableton.

[snakedogman]

Ok after reading the manual I'm confused. The manual states:

After adding a user folder, Live will scan it, which “teaches” the browser about its contents. Following this, it will appear in the Places section of the sidebar, and all of its Live-usable items will become available in the appropriate Categories panels

To me it seems that last bit does not actually happen. Samples in added user folders will not show up in the "samples" categorie for me. Only samples contained in the user library and in live packs show up there.
Bug?

*edit*
the samples (from added user folders that are NOT in the user library) are in fact showing up under the "All results" category! But not under the "Samples" categorie. This definitely seems like a bug to me.

[Angstrom]

I find the best way to get usable results out of this browser is to use Control & F (Command F) to summon up the "search everything" and then type in the focused box.

Fortunately I always saved my presets with the prefix 'ang' or 'angstro' as an author tag, so hitting Control & f and typing "ang bass" will show me the basses which I have made.

this produces the same sort of results as in Live 8. In Live 9 those other "searches" are actually categoric textual filters, which is actually how it worked in L8 too, but now that we have so many categories it means that it's less easy to find things, that combined with the perpetually closed folder problem.

So in L9 focusing on the category 'sounds' and typing "ang bass" just shows me the second level category 'sounds/bass' with no actual results.

But hitting Control and F, then typing "ang bass" I will see the actual results displayed.

I consider the new browser to have a lot of problems personally and am sticking with L8 until they implement some solutions. It's more flashy, but is actually less useful to me.

[CancerRidden]

In Places I added a custom folder called "Favorites"

My intent is to put samples I like and discover in there. But I can't find a way to drag and drop into there from within live.

Is there a way to do this?

(obviously I can do it through mac finder, but thats kind of clumsy)

[snakedogman]

not sure if I understand correctly but I can drag and drop a clip from Live into a custom folder in "places"

[login]

not sure if I understand correctly but I can drag and drop a clip from Live into a custom folder in "places"

yes.

[MTG105]

btw. If you put your samples into the user library/samples folders, then they will show up under "Samples" in the categories pane in the browsers. From there, if you do a search on "bass A1" for example it should turn up all the results directly, even if the samples reside in subfolders.
Of course this means moving all your samples into the Live user library.
Why can't we just choose which folders we would like to be included in the "Samples" category?

This is really not very well thought trough by Ableton.

right but that oversimplifies things, now I can't search a specific folder (like just bass) because I'm searching all my samples and not just the specific folder I want. if I search for just 1A bass after moving all my samples into the library/samples folder then not all my bass samples will show up because not all of the files have 'bass' in the filename. and of course some kick samples would also show up now (ie bass drum.wav) I spent a long time getting my folder hierarchy correct but left the filenames untouched. even if I were to rename all of them I'd get a ton of missing samples from previous projects :/

well I'm glad to see I'm not alone here, this new system doesn't make much sense. hopefully if we make some noise Ableton will fix this in the next update, I just hope its a simple thing to do. I'm going to make a feature request.

[MTG105]

Basically instead of a nice clean list of search results I have to go diving through subfolders, and this is a huge workflow killer for me.

I reckon some people will find it an advantage though. It's a sort of filter within a filter like that. Maybe you'll have to rethink your number of subfolders or whatever.

For instance, I go into a sample pack called Miami Tech and search for kick. Live lists 3 subfolders, so I can immediately ignore multisamples and FX and go straight to Samples.

is that really that much faster than browsing for the kick folder? I mean if you already have the sample pack directory up in the browser then just browse to the kick folder, searching isn't significantly faster. by doing away with searching specific folders and returning a simple list of results, the user browser becomes a lot more cumbersome and a lot less useful. I can see how this might be an advantage to those who have randomly threw all their samples packs into one folder and need the folder hierarchy of the search results to quickly search such an unorganized collection but for those of us who have kept meticulously organized sample libraries its a huge step back.

[MTG105]

Just trying to look on the bright side!

Can't you do it by looking in All Results?

no, all results searches your whole library

[MTG105]

feature request up: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=190590