file management improvements...put em here

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:49 pm

there's been a lot of discussion from experienced users not liking and/or having problems with the new file management system in live 6. if you have suggestions on improvements feel free to place them here.

my first:
option dragging a clip to the browser copies the clip and its associated audio file to the dragged-to location. if the location is not a 'project' folder, a window could prompt us asking if we would like to make it one.
this could easily exist along with the current library management system, essentially allowing users to manage files as they would in their os.

onslaught · Post by **onslaught** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:27 am

thread from 'General' forum http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59102

scientist wrote:option dragging a clip to the browser copies the clip and its associated audio file to the dragged-to location. if the location is not a 'project' folder, a window could prompt us asking if we would like to make it one.
this could easily exist along with the current library management system, essentially allowing users to manage files as they would in their os.

This is needed for instrument presets also. Maybe something like: saving Impulse preset 'Kit001', have the option to save all corresponding samples in a folder that sits right next to the preset.

Search needs to be faster! At the moment it is slow, constantly hangs and closest word I can thnk at the moment is it's 'clunky'. Why cannot Live use the OS's system search (aka Spotlight-Mac OS X and Windows search) Spotlight is redicuously quicker for searching with. While I think Ableton have avoided using OS specific search so that both Mac and Windows versions act the same, at this point I'm inclined to think they should bite the bullet. Maybe there's reasons various reasons why Ableton have not done this, but even if it was an option, so WE could decide which way to search.

Search doesn't always work and/or files get lost, even when already collected and saved. The current searching is inconsistent. Please improve.

Explicit documentation. eg: extra uses for .cfg files, info like Amaury has posted in above linked thread.

tylast · Post by **tylast** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:52 am

How about embedding the ASD file in the MP3 & FLAC tags?

kineticUk · Post by **kineticUk** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:47 am

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48157
About the ASD Thing...I hate the current situation. (Link Above)
On the search, Spotlight should be used without a doubt.
On what onslaught mentioned about presets which use samples, yeah I agree we should have a kind of "self-contained" preset option for sample based instruments.
Overall I think there is plenty of room for improvement with regards to the file management.

Landser · Post by **Landser** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:51 pm

I think the most important point is a simple, consistent
and clearly structured mechanism.

At the moment IMO we see what happens, if specialists develop
things further, but get out of sight of the normal user.
Very sophisticated systems suddenly can turn into untrusted,
not understood systems by the user.

That is even more true for audio-workstations, because there all
tasks, from sample editing at the lowest level structure, over
instruemnt editing to song-arrangments are necessary.
Therefore it seems to me not good, to automate things too
much. Automation and abstraction is good, as long as no problems
occur. But once the user looses the oversight over his sample
organization and one thing goes wrong, he is lost.
In strictly user-oriented systems, where administrative tasks are done
by dedicated people while other people only use some
programs, abstraction can be very good.
But IMO not for DAWs.

At the moment i still can accept Live's managment, but it is already
very confusing. Without reading the manual again and again, i can't
solve certain tasks.

I came from Tracktion and there it was even worse IMO. A extremely
well thought out managment system (once you have learned it), but
not logical and intuitively. You have to completely trust into the
mechanism.

Before Tracktion i was for almost a decade a Logic user. And there
things were completely different: data mangment was not at all
automated, but therefore slim and logical.

So i would like to see evelopers trusting again more into the user and
keep things simple.

What really bugs me in Live, is the installation into different locations.
Since i'm using computers i've learned to keep things organized.
The Windows paradigm of differnet user-folders in deeply nested
folder structures may be useful and right for normal users, but on DAWs,
it is simply stupid to install libraries and presets by default into
user-dependent directories.
Again: please keep things simple. Install everything into one Live-folder
by default and if someone wants it the other way around, THAT should
be optional.

I will not make any suggestions, how they can make the managment
better in detail. For that too many aspects and relations have to
be considered to be useful. I think if the Ableton-developers would keep
in mind again, to keep things simple, they will come up with a very
good, simple and flexible solution.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:19 pm

- Less folders.
- Easier way to delete ALL unused audio, sucks having to do it by categories now. I'd like to see a "collect all and Archive" option that dos this as part of the collect all and save process.
- Collect all and Save should also save all ableton effects in use as new effects presets in the project folder. Naming them could be as easy automatically just using the track name and effect name if the user hasn't manually changed the presett name already.
- File management window should update automatically when you clean up unused files, etc. Now you have to close it and reopen to update it.
- DEFINITELY would love to see the drag clips to browser functionality changed. Don't force us tto use project folders, just let me drag the clip where ever I want and and save it as a clip. CTRL+drag would save the audio file as well in the same folder.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:07 pm

Tarekith wrote: - File management window should update automatically when you clean up unused files, etc. Now you have to close it and reopen to update it.
- DEFINITELY would love to see the drag clips to browser functionality changed. Don't force us tto use project folders, just let me drag the clip where ever I want and and save it as a clip. CTRL+drag would save the audio file as well in the same folder.

yes

yes

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:56 pm

Tarekith wrote:- Less folders.
- Easier way to delete ALL unused audio, sucks having to do it by categories now. I'd like to see a "collect all and Archive" option that dos this as part of the collect all and save process.
- Collect all and Save should also save all ableton effects in use as new effects presets in the project folder. Naming them could be as easy automatically just using the track name and effect name if the user hasn't manually changed the presett name already.
- File management window should update automatically when you clean up unused files, etc. Now you have to close it and reopen to update it.
- DEFINITELY would love to see the drag clips to browser functionality changed. Don't force us tto use project folders, just let me drag the clip where ever I want and and save it as a clip. CTRL+drag would save the audio file as well in the same folder.

+ 1

annihilator.1 · Post by **annihilator.1** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:21 pm

Unique names for samples.

Recorded samples are named the same as the track they are recorded to , but often the name is the same as existing samples & so a search & replace often replaces with the wrong samples because they have been misidentified.

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:28 pm

annihilator.1 wrote:Unique names for samples.

Recorded samples are named the same as the track they are recorded to , but often the name is the same as existing samples & so a search & replace often replaces with the wrong samples because they have been misidentified.

option to include time and date along with track number in the file name would serve as a valid unique identifier

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:32 pm

sweetjesus wrote:
annihilator.1 wrote:Unique names for samples.

Recorded samples are named the same as the track they are recorded to , but often the name is the same as existing samples & so a search & replace often replaces with the wrong samples because they have been misidentified.

option to include time and date along with track number in the file name would serve as a valid unique identifier

+1. I have started using Fraps religiously for OpenGL screenshots, and the timestamping in the file name is awesome. Or consider digital cameras, that have an internal counter, so that you will never have the same filename twice. That's good too.

Landser · Post by **Landser** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:37 pm

Excellent points, gentlemen.

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:52 pm

sweetjesus wrote: option to include time and date along with track number in the file name would serve as a valid unique identifier

sounds like we need a preference setting for naming conventions, options being what to include in the audio filenames:
1. track name
2. project name (my favorite)
3. date/time

joeyfivecents · Post by **joeyfivecents** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:16 pm

more choices for audio recording paths. If we could choose different hard drives for each track when recording multiple inputs it might stop the disk overload button from blinking so frequently. Pro Tools and FL Studio both have this and it's really the only thing keeping me from using Live exclusively in live tracking situations. I guess this could be considered file management.

joeyfivecents · Post by **joeyfivecents** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:27 pm

one more thing: this process is called disk allocation in PT.

file management improvements...put em here

file management improvements...put em here

Re: file management improvements...put em here