Live 9's library is horrible

[hipdeejay]

Just felt like expressing my frustration on how horribly implemented Live 9's User Library is.
Why couldn't they have just kept it the same? It makes no sense now

Everything is all over the place. For starters, what if you don't have a Live 8 library?
Would everything just be missing? None of the presets in the Live 9 user library for Live's stock effects/instruments are even there. There's just a bunch of empty folders "Amp", "Auto Filter", "Cabinet", etc. They're all empty! Are they stored somewhere else on the HD? I don't get it.
They're all there in the Live 8 folder.

No grooves? I have to copy the grooves folder over to the fancy new Live 9 library. What if I never used Live 8? Would I have no grooves in Live 9? WTH?

The Max for Live devices are all over the place. Some show up in the new Browser, the ones that don't I have to make a special "Places" for. Now I never know where to look. Why couldn't Live just recognize all the Max devices, or at least keep them all in the same place?! It makes no sense.

Now if I save a new AU plugin's preset in Live 9, it saves to the User Library folder. Instead of wherever it used to be saved. So before long, the "User Library" folder will be all convoluted with saved AU presets taking up space being all unorganized and such. Why change that?

The new library is just so messy and unorganized. Duplicates all over the place. Things that were simple and easily accessible are now impossible to find, OR they're in 2 places, maybe even 3. It's retarded.

I could keep going but I already know I'm gonna get hate for posting all this. But why change something that wasn't broken? The new "User Library" and "Browser" are just complete nonsense. Is there a way to revert back to the old browser style in Live 9? Or the User Library?

[login]

I agree to an extend, the problem is that the library/browser forces you to work it's way: the upper part is for search and fast acces, the bottom part is for organization of your content.

Your content has to comply with Abes classification so it shows correctly in the instruments section, if you don't do it it creates a mess.

[3osc]

Presets that you save in Live show up under their respective plugin/device in the browser. They reside in your user library because that's the best place to save them. It would be nice if Live 9 auto-created named folders for your presets, but you can put them in folders yourself and then rescan your plugins, although I don't see a very practical reason to do this. As for grooves, open your groove pool, right click on it and select "browse groove library". This will take you to Live 9's rather robust selection of grooves, which I have on a system that did not have Live 8 installed.

I agree that the Max4Live device organization is shit. I would like to have user installed devices show up with all the rest. Even still, I use the search feature so often that it hardly matters.

[hipdeejay]

Those are all valid points. But its such a hassle to collect all the AU presets that Live 9 put in the User Library, instead of it's own folder. Now I didn't know I could put them in my own folder and then rescan, that helps a bit but still that's an extra step just to keep things organized.

And as for the Max plugins. What if you can't remember the name of the device you want to use? Then you have to dig through the various Max folders it could be. That's a pain.

I had no idea about the browse grooves function. Are these grooves different than the ones from Live 8? It looks like there's a new folder or 2. I would of have no idea these Live 9 grooves even existed. I had to copy over my Live 8 grooves just to see them. Thanks for that tip. But still, now there's 2 places where grooves can be. Instead of a single localized location for ALL grooves. meh

[ark]

The idea is that everything in the User Library is stuff that you put there, and won't change unless you change it. The factory content is all in the Packs folder. You can't write changes into it, but when you add or update Live Packs, those updates will take effect.

Simultaneously, all your clips, both factory and user, appear in the "clips" folder, all your instruments appear in the "instruments" folder, and so on.

Why is this a problem?

[re:dream]

Initially I found the new library confusing and counter-intuitive

And I admit I felt the stirrings of 'user rage' - that unreasoning anger that takes hold when something does not work the way I am used to...

Now, two months down the line I must admit the L9 library is growing on me. Once I had the User Library set up the way I like it, I can find the presets I like fairly quickly and the search is nice and fast. There are still some niggles, but I can live with them

I can see that there are real problems for users with very large sample libraries, in that they will have to sit through a very long indexing period. Perhaps I would be a lot less happy if I was one of them

But on balance I find it a big improvement on the old browser, which I always found very clunky and counterintuitive.

[tintala]

I like it due to the fact that when doing a search, it brings up ALL SAMPLES that are relevant to the search. I never knew I had so many glitch samples for example ,or wierd percussion. I have only scratched the surface with it at this point.

[3osc]

Those are all valid points. But its such a hassle to collect all the AU presets that Live 9 put in the User Library, instead of it's own folder. Now I didn't know I could put them in my own folder and then rescan, that helps a bit but still that's an extra step just to keep things organized.

And as for the Max plugins. What if you can't remember the name of the device you want to use? Then you have to dig through the various Max folders it could be. That's a pain.

I had no idea about the browse grooves function. Are these grooves different than the ones from Live 8? It looks like there's a new folder or 2. I would of have no idea these Live 9 grooves even existed. I had to copy over my Live 8 grooves just to see them. Thanks for that tip. But still, now there's 2 places where grooves can be. Instead of a single localized location for ALL grooves. meh

All of the Live 8 grooves are in the Live 9 library, AFAIK. I don't use them, so I'm not sure.

There are some pains with this new browser, and I think they have fairly simple solutions - conceptually simple, at least, though I don't do database programming. The Max plugs are a big one and it really deters me from making more use of 3rd party devices. But there are good reasons for having two locations for grooves and presets. The best reason I can think of is portability. I've deleted tons of Live presets just because I didn't feel like hunting them down when I was reinstalling. That should never happen again as all the presets I make go into a separate folder. Plus, I can now have Live running on different computers but referencing the same library with the same samples, settings and presets. If I had more than one computer, or if I were to use someone else's computer, I could run Live off of the same library, either on an external drive, via network storage or some other solution (Dropbox? sshd mounts...?).

For the most part, Live does a pretty good job of making your personal items accessible through the browser, but it can definitely be better. Horrible? That's an exaggeration. It's just young.

[erikomic]

if they could start by removing last "cmd-F" query when you open the browser, maybe I'll start using it.

+ ability to browse with arrows from row to row, to places to folders....B.R.O.W.S.E...whenever we feel like it ! Not just, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt't.

If somebody could be so kind to explain me the refreshing state of the folders in "places".
Each time I import some new sound via the finder > I have to remove the folder from "places" then to re-import it so it is refreshened.

WHY THE HELL DID THEY REMOVE THE "RESCAN FOLDER" option.

No longer able to "close all folder".

This BROWSER start to stink for a while now !

[freshdrumma]

totally rubbish, it was good before, now i have to spend ages figuring out where things are and learn the new locations, the reason for such a stupid thing must be push, but to please 10.000 push owners they pissed a million, not to bad!

[re:dream]

Plus, I can now have Live running on different computers but referencing the same library with the same samples, settings and presets. If I had more than one computer, or if I were to use someone else's computer, I could run Live off of the same library, either on an external drive, via network storage or some other solution (Dropbox? sshd mounts...?).

+1000

Dropbox works well for this. It's an awesome way for keeping your sets and libraries in sync on more than one computer. Beats collect all and save hollow.

[re:dream]

if they could start by removing last "cmd-F" query when you open the browser, maybe I'll start using it.

What you seem to see as a bug is a feature. I can search for something, 'close' browser if I want to, reopen it and go on with my search. It would be a hassle if the search disappeared every time I tucked the browser away. In fact, I think lots of people would complain.

[re:dream]

+ ability to browse with arrows from row to row, to places to folders....B.R.O.W.S.E...whenever we feel like it ! Not just, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt't.

doesn't seem to be a problem on for me either on pc or mac... seems to work pretty smoothly every time. Under what conditions is it impossible to browse with arrows?

f somebody could be so kind to explain me the refreshing state of the folders in "places".
Each time I import some new sound via the finder > I have to remove the folder from "places" then to re-import it so it is refreshened.

Again, this is surprising. If I go to finder and add something in one of my added folders in places, it refreshes pretty instantly in LIve. No need to 'rescan'.

Maybe I am just one of the lucky ones. Maybe the browser is malfunctioning for most people...

And I am not a Push user.

[[nil]]

if they could start by removing last "cmd-F" query when you open the browser, maybe I'll start using it.

When you type Cmd-F as a way to quickly open/set focus to the browser, the last query is highlighted and you can type del/backspace to clear it (or anything, to do another kind of search)

No longer able to "close all folder".

Try double clicking the category label, it closes all folders.

[erikomic]

if they could start by removing last "cmd-F" query when you open the browser, maybe I'll start using it.

It would be a hassle if the search disappeared every time I tucked the browser away. In fact, I think lots of people would complain.

okay but it remains there even if you open it via the cmd-alt-B.
Let's just keep thing separated.
Cmd-F should open the search engine AND close it.
cmd-alt-B should open the browser to BROWSE

For the moment I have to
1. cmd-F
2. Backspace to erase
3. hit the down arrow
4. hit the left arrow

to be able to browse
from the "all result" place.

That's three manipulation too much. (not talking that if you open with the cmd-alt-B you're stuck with your last query and you have to cmd-F to do the same as above.