Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
keluktaaraterra
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2021 3:16 pm

Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by keluktaaraterra » Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:14 pm

Hello, my scenario is like this:
I add instrument racks to User Library, let's say Drum Kits, but the instrument rack says - Sample is Offline. When I find samples from the folder via File Manager, set the right folder and hit "Go" button, then it finds all the right samples, but I can replace them only one by one manually. I'm sure there is possibility to do it all at once, because imagine i have many instrument racks, each drum kit has many samples, doing it one by one is very counter productive and time consuming...

Ableton's official help page says for "Automatic search and replacement": https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/artic ... edia-files
"6. Once you find the correct one, drag and drop it over its location in Live's File Manager. The file reference is updated." - which means it's not automatic actually at all.

Does anyone know a workaround of this, how to replace offline samples quickly all at once without drag n dropping them individually?

Thanks!

keluktaaraterra
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2021 3:16 pm

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by keluktaaraterra » Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:23 pm

Ok already found a solution:

All the samples that you want to have in your instrument racks, copy them to this folder: Ableton - User Library - Samples - Imported.
I think this part wasn't quite clear on the Ableton Help page.

grrrz
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:54 pm

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by grrrz » Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:05 pm

what gets me crazy is I usually have several copies of the same sample and if it finds several candidate I have to manually pick one; it can't determine it's the exact same sample. When you have a lot of samples that takes really long when it should be automatic.

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by jestermgee » Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:19 pm

grrrz wrote:
Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:05 pm
what gets me crazy is I usually have several copies of the same sample and if it finds several candidate I have to manually pick one; it can't determine it's the exact same sample. When you have a lot of samples that takes really long when it should be automatic.
Collect all & save will solve this kind of problem

grrrz
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:54 pm

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by grrrz » Wed Dec 08, 2021 1:21 am

jestermgee wrote:
Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:19 pm
grrrz wrote:
Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:05 pm
what gets me crazy is I usually have several copies of the same sample and if it finds several candidate I have to manually pick one; it can't determine it's the exact same sample. When you have a lot of samples that takes really long when it should be automatic.
Collect all & save will solve this kind of problem
I know but that takes extra space and that defeats the purpose of having a sample library. I had a copy of my library on my external HD and for whatever reason live chose those samples over those I have on my HD.

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by jestermgee » Wed Dec 08, 2021 2:30 am

grrrz wrote:
Wed Dec 08, 2021 1:21 am
I know but that takes extra space and that defeats the purpose of having a sample library.
HDD space is so cheap that shouldn't be an issue really. A central library is for finding the sounds you need, collect all and save, while consuming a few extra MB of space, just saves you this kind of headache. Other option is to never move your files around for as long as you produce OR do a collect/save before.

I have a central library I refer to but as soon as I have a project close to finish I always collect and save because you never know when you may accidentally delete or archive something you needed. Just makes sense (to me anyway) to keep everything together when possible.

grrrz
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:54 pm

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by grrrz » Wed Dec 08, 2021 12:34 pm

HDD space is so cheap that shouldn't be an issue really.
hmm in general maybe; but have you try buying a mac recently? I'm on a 256GB drive and I try to keep the most used projects (which I constantly have to go back to for reasons) on the internal drive. But yeah if there are only a few drum samples I'll do a collect and save. Also I'll always do it if it a project I'll use live of for an installation of course.
I'm talking about a minor inconvenience to be honest; , which will happen when I change computer or if I'm not careful. I just don't understand why live can't scan the content of a file and determine if it's identical to another in this case.

Mark Williams
Posts: 898
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 2:43 pm
Location: Kent

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by Mark Williams » Wed Dec 08, 2021 4:45 pm

grrrz wrote:
Wed Dec 08, 2021 12:34 pm

hmm in general maybe; but have you try buying a mac recently? I'm on a 256GB drive and I try to keep the most used projects (which I constantly have to go back to for reasons) on the internal drive. But yeah if there are only a few drum samples I'll do a collect and save. Also I'll always do it if it a project I'll use live of for an installation of course.
I'm talking about a minor inconvenience to be honest; , which will happen when I change computer or if I'm not careful. I just don't understand why live can't scan the content of a file and determine if it's identical to another in this case.
External drives are cheap to use/setup even for a mac, I have a M1 512gb Mini with a 2TB SSD external drive, and any big content librarys go on the external drive i.e Omnisphere, Kontakt Librarys etc

For Ableton to scan everytime a file maybe missing/moved, would cause many users to start complaing that Ableton is slow to respond due to the need to scan your drives.
Live 11, M1 Mac Mini, Push 2, Scarlett 18i20 & ADA8200, Softube Console 1 Mk2, Deepmind12, Hydrasynth, Cobalt 8M, Moog Subsequent 25, IK Uno Synth Pro, Plethora X3, Nord Drum 3P

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by jestermgee » Wed Dec 08, 2021 7:45 pm

grrrz wrote:
Wed Dec 08, 2021 12:34 pm
HDD space is so cheap that shouldn't be an issue really.
hmm in general maybe; but have you try buying a mac recently? I'm on a 256GB drive and I try to keep the most used projects (which I constantly have to go back to for reasons) on the internal drive. But yeah if there are only a few drum samples I'll do a collect and save. Also I'll always do it if it a project I'll use live of for an installation of course.
I'm talking about a minor inconvenience to be honest; , which will happen when I change computer or if I'm not careful. I just don't understand why live can't scan the content of a file and determine if it's identical to another in this case.
Yeah I have a Mac but for the reason of their useless hardware specs (256gb is pitiful in a $2200 machine) I use pcs for production. My win laptop has a 2TB SSD and my desktop has more space than I could ever fill. Comes down to management then but yes I never understood why the matching of samples couldn’t be done on file name and attribute but have learned to deal with it as above.

grrrz
Posts: 156
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:54 pm

Re: Sample Offline - automatic replacement of files from File Manager - quickly?

Post by grrrz » Thu Dec 09, 2021 12:10 am


For Ableton to scan everytime a file maybe missing/moved, would cause many users to start complaing that Ableton is slow to respond due to the need to scan your drives.
I don't want it to scan everytime; I want to scan when I tell it to scan AND understand that the different copies I have are the exact same file. It's not a problem if I only have one copy but if not you get a "you have several candidate" message and you have to manually replace the file.

Post Reply