Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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icedsushi
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Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by icedsushi » Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:13 pm

I'd like to clean up the duplicate audio files, save some space & reduce the clutter.

It would be best if the app were able to narrow down the search to just audio files. Just view and be able to delete duplicates of .wav, .aif, .aac, etc.

Hermanus
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by Hermanus » Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:34 pm

the best way is having a bit of order and clean up every once a while.

I don't catch something, If you're talking about duplicated audio clips in ableton live itself or just about doubled audio files

Duplicating an audio clip in ableton live does NOT duplicate the audio file itself.

Manage files in ableton live is an efficient tool for organizing files and clean up a project.
You can preview the audio and delete whatever you need.

With an automated app like you're asking for, it would be a mess IMO.
I already see users ranting because this app has deleted wrong files [meaning it deletes the good files you need]

icedsushi
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by icedsushi » Tue Jul 12, 2011 4:02 pm

No I didn't mean duplicate clips. I know they reference the same file.

I'm thinking an application that would show you the duplicates first and then an option to delete them. I reorganized some of my sample library (mostly drum hits), might have downloaded something twice or forgot I already had it. So I want to catch those.

I wouldn't delete them unless I were absolutely sure they were doubles. If the software couldn't find the file after that, I would just redirect it to the duplicate that I saved & save my work.

icedsushi
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by icedsushi » Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:07 pm

Well there was Spring Cleaning from Smith Micro that did this sort of thing. But I didn't bother to try the demo because they just told me there are no plans to update it for Lion.

I found these two that work with Lion so I'm downloading the demos now:

http://www.araxis.com/find-duplicate-files/
http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/TidyUp.html

Then there's this one looks like it's shareware?

http://www.hardcoded.net/dupeguru/

Any other ideas? It would be nice to find something like the Spring Cleaning app that has the duplicate file finder bundled in with other features, but will work with Lion.

Piplodocus
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by Piplodocus » Wed Oct 19, 2011 6:07 pm

iTunes: File/Display Duplicates?

That only works if you have all your audio files in iTunes though so might be no good for what you want. You can always create a second library just for production audio files (holding alt/option while opening) and use that to keep your audio files organised (I'd turn off the "copy to iTunes media folder" in advanced prefs though). You'd either have to make it search regularly or watch folders though.

icedsushi
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by icedsushi » Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:46 pm

Yeah I'm looking for something that will search anywhere on the HD, so the iTunes dupe search is nice but won't quite cut it for this. There weren't that many in the Apple App store, but I found a decent list on MacUpdate. In case anyone is interested, I've found & been trying Araxis, DupeGuru, Tidy Up, Dupe Zap and Decloner.

So far, Araxis is taking the lead because it has the most straightforward, clean logical interface, it does everything in a single window and displays the most information about the files that is relevant to audio files and is quickest to work with for more than one search. It has also been finding the most duplicates without any incorrect results that aren't quite a match.

Araxis and Tidy Up identified the most duplicates where the others didn't find as many when running the same search. Tidy Up has a horrible unnecessarily complicated UI for what it does though. DupeGuru is a close second to Araxis but it doesn't work well finding duplicate pics, like scanning an iPhoto library and it doesn't quite all the duplicates that the other apps did.

Decloner has a nice interface and a handy quicklook feature to do faster comparisons but it performed the worst, missing a lot of duplicates in the results.

The only tricky thing to be really careful about is that none of the duplicate samples that are being trashed are referenced from a Live set (or if so they are referenced to the other file beforehand), but this really helps trimming the size down and not having to audition duplicates when selecting samples. It's surprising how many there are.

JuanSOLO
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by JuanSOLO » Thu Oct 20, 2011 5:42 pm

Adobe Bridge should work

icedsushi
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by icedsushi » Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:45 pm

OK, I'd like to try it but it looks like it's only bundled with their other software and not sold separately, right?

JuanSOLO
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by JuanSOLO » Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:53 pm

Yeah, I think so.

Samilabing
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by Samilabing » Fri Nov 02, 2012 4:23 pm

Duplicate File Finder will find and delete duplicate files so you won't experience lack of free disk space! Obviously you can find your duplicate file from your PC. For this just need to download “Duplicate Files Deleter” from http://DuplicateFilesDeleter.com . It may be able to find this file from your hard drive.

icedsushi
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by icedsushi » Thu Dec 27, 2012 5:12 pm

If anyone is interested, I decided to get dupeGuru. Very easy to use and had the most features when it comes to duplicates. There are regular updates & it seems supported well. I was able to save a few GB and reduce a lot of clutter from my sample library with it. You have to use some caution and common sense redirecting your software samplers to the originals before trashing the duplicates (especially if they don't have the same file name) so they don't show missing samples. You can always have the option to replace the duplicates with alias files, pointing to the originals when in doubt.

The only thing it hasn't been able to detect are .aif & .wav files that have the exact same audio content. Apparently the header makes the files different enough that they don't show as duplicates.

miekwave
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by miekwave » Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:39 pm

icedsushi wrote:I'd like to clean up the duplicate audio files, save some space & reduce the clutter.

It would be best if the app were able to narrow down the search to just audio files. Just view and be able to delete duplicates of .wav, .aif, .aac, etc.
Your best bet is to consolidate all tracks then delete the audio takes in the project folder when you are done // after you copy them over to your 3TB backup media drive (if you have one).

Rogue Scrunt
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by Rogue Scrunt » Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:46 pm

PC or mac platform?
for lots of great records, check out,
http://stores.ebay.com/id=64360994?ssPageName=ME:F:ST

icedsushi
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Re: Recommend a duplicate audio file finder app

Post by icedsushi » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:27 pm

Well like I said I already found a solution, but I'm on Mac.

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