9.0.5 finally browses some user content

[drez]

I can finally browse my entire puremagnetik library in push! So nice.

[Vé]

I wish I could say the same, but my browser only seems to contain the top four standard place folders and none of the folders I've added. I've tried removing and re-adding to no avail. I wonder if this could be related to the fact that I had previously employed a Push browser hack for custom folders and sub-folders? But the update normally replaces all those files, so I'm nonplussed. I've also tried adding files to Places with samples directly in the folder, rather than sub-folders. Still no joy.

Alas, I shall be returning to my hacked browser - thoroughly functional, albeit a little fiddly to set up initially.

[Fugazi81]

Hi,

it is working but you have to know the logic behind the browser/Push.

For example you can´t load samples on a "Audio" Track ( with the Push), thats why you can´t see your sample folders, you have added to places, on your Push.

But you can browse samples on Push with a Drum Rack/Drum Rack Pad

To see your sample folders do the following.

Add Track or hit "Browse" when you have selected a midi track
-> Add "Drum Rack" (for this example i use a "Drum Rack" in Core Library)
-> select "empty pad"
-> hit "Browse"
-> scroll to "Places"
-> select your sample folder
-> select and load your sample

This is a bit daft, because i would like to add samples to an audio track and that isn´t possible at the moment. Or i don´t know how to.

Let´s hope they improve it a bit.

Have fun.

[Vé]

Ahh, indeed you are correct! Foolish me.

Although I am still a little disappointed that subfolder structure is not preserved, and all the samples within the 'place' are just arranged in one big list. With the original hack, I had subfolders functioning so that, for example, you might select a drum pad and browse to the 'Kick' category, which contained subfolders for each 'place', each of which in turn contained all the samples from the 'Kick' folder within that place's associated folder. Very nice to use.

I will be returning to my original hack, but at least this is a step in the right direction and it is approaching useful functionality. I seem to recall hearing some reason why listing genuine file-tree subfolders was a difficult thing to implement, but I can't recall the details.

Oh well, hope they keep at it.

[Vé]

Argh.

The original hack I was using no longer works in 9.0.5!

Deeply frustrating. I'm stuck with a lame browser again.

Any browser that cannot handle sub-folders is fundamentally flawed. Even if it only indexed four folders deep, that would be enough. This just isn't a functional way to navigate when working with libraries with thousands of samples.

At least let us know why this isn't happening. Please.

[bytheriver]

I want to be really clear on this, since 80% of my production time is spent making beats and choosing samples from my library is a big part of that;

Currently, I could change a single drumpad sample with Push, using the 'samples' folder in my places (which is just a folder on my HDD filled with sub folders), however the subfolders will not function and I'll just get a list of thousands upon thousands of samples with names totally out of context since I cant see if 'kick 1' is from the 'sampled kicks' folder or if its from the 'bad samples' folder?


If thats the case.. I really cant see how people can use Push to produce, it'd be almost like they designed it to be demoed with pre-setup drumpads and live sets and gave no thought to real world use.

[Because789]

1. Why would you want to include a folder named "bad samples" in Places anyway? A folder called like this I would expect to have only, yeah, bad samples in it which you never use anyway. Why not just put the folder to a different location?

2. In my opinion it's much more convenient to do everything sound choice/design related on the computer. It's much quicker to find a sample/sound there and you have the ability to prelisten sounds immediately. Therefore I have to different workflows with Push:

a) I got some simple templates with drum racks and instruments for different moods prepared which allow me to put down musical/rhythmical ideas very quickly. When this is done I move to the computer to work on the sounds.
b) I put together the racks and tweak instruments on the computer and move the to Push to lay down the musical ideas.

Like this Push works perfectly for me. But I understand that this is not your workflow...

3. If you insist on loading everything from Push, I guess at the moment there is no way around reorganising your samples. There are many ways to do this, which have been discussed in various threads here. But if I were you, I would wait with that until the next couples of updates come out. Browsing user folders was just added in 9.0.5, it seems to me obvious that the guys at Ableton are aware that getting to user content quickly is an important issue.

In the meantime you could explore other ways to use Push, maybe you'll find yourself doing stuff you have never done before and maybe even better, you'll end up liking it

[bytheriver]

1. Why would you want to include a folder named "bad samples" in Places anyway? A folder called like this I would expect to have only, yeah, bad samples in it which you never use anyway. Why not just put the folder to a different location?

2. In my opinion it's much more convenient to do everything sound choice/design related on the computer. It's much quicker to find a sample/sound there and you have the ability to prelisten sounds immediately. Therefore I have to different workflows with Push:

a) I got some simple templates with drum racks and instruments for different moods prepared which allow me to put down musical/rhythmical ideas very quickly. When this is done I move to the computer to work on the sounds.
b) I put together the racks and tweak instruments on the computer and move the to Push to lay down the musical ideas.

Like this Push works perfectly for me. But I understand that this is not your workflow...

3. If you insist on loading everything from Push, I guess at the moment there is no way around reorganising your samples. There are many ways to do this, which have been discussed in various threads here. But if I were you, I would wait with that until the next couples of updates come out. Browsing user folders was just added in 9.0.5, it seems to me obvious that the guys at Ableton are aware that getting to user content quickly is an important issue.

In the meantime you could explore other ways to use Push, maybe you'll find yourself doing stuff you have never done before and maybe even better, you'll end up liking it

Thanks for the reply and clarifying how it works, I don't actually have a folder called bad samples, but I do have some for deeper house sounds, some for techno, some for funkier sounds, some that are all glitched, some dry some wet etc. 'Closed Hat 1' or 'short perc 1' could be pretty different depending which folder they came from.


Its an interesting idea to do the sound choice/design separately to making the beats, but I find my rhythms depend a lot on the sounds, and the sounds vary a lot depending on the rhythms, I'm pretty sure I'd keep needing to go back to my samples and so on as I built the drums up.


I really want a Push, I love Ableton and I love the way it allows you to do melody and harmony parts with pads etc

Problem is, techno/house is so beats-based, I see videos of people whipping through 100's of samples and building drum parts on a maschine and that is what I'd spend most of my time doing, building drum parts. The ease of arranging/using those drum parts from having them all in native Live drum racks looks great, but I cant get past the hugely limited browser/sample selection.

Add to that the fact you see maschine units on ebay go for 200-250 pound and Push is at 420 and its a hard sale. It'd be nice of Ableton came out with a planned roadmap of changes/tweaks they plan on making, I'd not mind getting a Push now if I knew in a few months it'd match Maschine for sample selection/browsing.