why is live unable to find its own audio files?

[Donnie]

I agree, something definately isnt right with lives search. There has been times ive had to search 3 or 4 times in the same damn location just to find a handful of files.

[H20nly]

please no osx / windows shit here.. the live internal search is blind like a mule...

but you have to chuckle a little at us debating about which OS is worse in this way...

Usually: "your OS sucks"
This thread: "I dunno mine sucks pretty bad too"

and then we all go on to agree that Live's search does indeed... suck ass.

this is either the most progress the Mac vs. PC debate has ever made or Live's search sucks so much ass that it has actually imploded pulling us into another dimension.

[3phase]

that...

Live's search sucks so much ass that it has actually imploded pulling us into another dimension.

[steko]

I think Live's search sucks so much ass that it has actually imploded pulling us into another dimension.

[H20nly]

I wonder what else we'll agree on in this dimension???

that syrup shit in Starbucks coffee really isn't that great.

auto-tune is fun to play with, but has never actually been cool for real.

marmite isn't that bad on toast or a muffin if you overlook the fact that its black shit.

the native reverb also sucks and something that sounds less like it was done by a computer would be pretty sweet.

[steko]

[[nis]]

I constantly need to show the search engine the folder where the files are in eve when it sits next to the song file.. and .. than. it dont even finds the samples inside the folder..its acting like beeing totaly blind...

allways happens with older projekts.. so L4 or L5.. but cnstantly.. there is not a singel old set i can load just wright away even when all sampkes are there..

why is that? any tips to get rid of the bad behaviour..except searching all files by hand and safe again ...

thats what i am doing since hours...

First of all, there is a substantial difference between older versions (up to Live 5) and newer versions (Live 6 or higher).

In OLDER versions (Live 5 or older), saving a Live set "self-contained" would create a "samples" folder next to your .als file. Example:

1. Saving a Live set with the name "MyLiveSet" via "Save Live Set as..." on your desktop would create an .als file here:
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet.als

-> This .als file still references the original location of its accompanying samples.

2. Using the "save set self-contained" function would collect your samples into a folder which is saved next to your .als file. So you end up having:
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet.als
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet-Samples/...

-> Now the Live set references the samples from the folder which sits next to it.

As you can see, older Live sets never have a single folder which contains both, the samples and the .als files. It rather saves a folder next to your .als file. In case you have older Live 4 / 5 sets where the .als is located in the same folder as your samples, I assume that you have manually put the .als into the samples folder. This won't work, because your .als file reference a completely different path to your samples.

NEWER versions (Live 6 or higher) will create a dedicated project folder for each Live set.

1. Saving a Live set with the name "MyLiveSet" via "Save Live Set as..." on your desktop would create an .als file here:
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet-Project/MyLiveSet.als

-> At this point, the .als file still references the original location of your samples.

2. Using the "Collect all and save" function (formerly known as "Save Set self-contained") will copy your samples into the project folder:
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet-Project/MyLiveSet.als
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet-Project/Samples/Imported/...

-> Now the Live set references the samples which are located inside your project folder. Note that everything's located in one single folder, not in a separate folder as in the older Live versions.

Using "collect all and save" is a safe way to not lose any samples which belong to your projects. Just don't touch the contents of your project folder. You can, however, safely move the entire project folder to whatever location you want.

In general, the only reason why you might have lost samples is that you have either deleted, moved or renamed any referenced audio files (or one of their parent folders).

Best,
Nico

[3phase]

I constantly need to show the search engine the folder where the files are in eve when it sits next to the song file.. and .. than. it dont even finds the samples inside the folder..its acting like beeing totaly blind...

allways happens with older projekts.. so L4 or L5.. but cnstantly.. there is not a singel old set i can load just wright away even when all sampkes are there..

why is that? any tips to get rid of the bad behaviour..except searching all files by hand and safe again ...

thats what i am doing since hours...

First of all, there is a substantial difference between older versions (up to Live 5) and newer versions (Live 6 or higher).

In OLDER versions (Live 5 or older), saving a Live set "self-contained" would create a "samples" folder next to your .als file. Example:

1. Saving a Live set with the name "MyLiveSet" via "Save Live Set as..." on your desktop would create an .als file here:
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet.als

-> This .als file still references the original location of its accompanying samples.

2. Using the "save set self-contained" function would collect your samples into a folder which is saved next to your .als file. So you end up having:
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet.als
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet-Samples/...

-> Now the Live set references the samples from the folder which sits next to it.

As you can see, older Live sets never have a single folder which contains both, the samples and the .als files. It rather saves a folder next to your .als file. In case you have older Live 4 / 5 sets where the .als is located in the same folder as your samples, I assume that you have manually put the .als into the samples folder. This won't work, because your .als file reference a completely different path to your samples.

NEWER versions (Live 6 or higher) will create a dedicated project folder for each Live set.

1. Saving a Live set with the name "MyLiveSet" via "Save Live Set as..." on your desktop would create an .als file here:
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet-Project/MyLiveSet.als

-> At this point, the .als file still references the original location of your samples.

2. Using the "Collect all and save" function (formerly known as "Save Set self-contained") will copy your samples into the project folder:
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet-Project/MyLiveSet.als
~/Desktop/MyLiveSet-Project/Samples/Imported/...

-> Now the Live set references the samples which are located inside your project folder. Note that everything's located in one single folder, not in a separate folder as in the older Live versions.

Using "collect all and save" is a safe way to not lose any samples which belong to your projects. Just don't touch the contents of your project folder. You can, however, safely move the entire project folder to whatever location you want.

In general, the only reason why you might have lost samples is that you have either deleted, moved or renamed any referenced audio files (or one of their parent folders).

Best,
Nico

ok..that explains why live dont finds the samples of the moved folders im the first place..

but why it is not finding them when i show it that the folder with the samples is just next to the song file? the actual versions of life should be able to look just at the song files location if there is a folder with the songs name..

because one has to assume that the user might have tons of songs safed in the old collect all and safe format.. but eventually got a new harddisk since 2002...

and !!

while we obviosly dont have such an arteficial intelligence feature..

when i show the search the folder... why it is not able to see the files inside ? the names of the files haven changed..
i need to move any single sample by hand into the search window.. for each song thats between 30 and 300 moves !!!

do you know how much time that eats?

So ..is ther a way to force live to take the sample of the folder it sits on?

[Donnie]

In general, the only reason why you might have lost samples is that you have either deleted, moved or renamed any referenced audio files (or one of their parent folders).

Best,
Nico

One question, sometimes even if you direct live to a proper folder (after it cant find a sample) it STILL cant find the file or only finds a few of them. There are times you do that several times and it will only find a few files each time even though they are in the same folder right next to each other. Why is this?

[3phase]

In general, the only reason why you might have lost samples is that you have either deleted, moved or renamed any referenced audio files (or one of their parent folders).

Best,
Nico

One question, sometimes even if you direct live to a proper folder (after it cant find a sample) it STILL cant find the file or only finds a few of them. There are times you do that several times and it will only find a few files each time even though they are in the same folder right next to each other. Why is this?

thats the point.. there are no samples lost.. actally most of them exsist more than 64 times on my harddrives... but of cause i prefer the version of the folder that belongs the songfile.. which is just next to it.. just on a shiny new drive... they dont last 10 years...

[[nis]]

ther must be a more technical reasn for the blindness.. ther some weardness that makes live blind for files that chnged theoer location at one point in hystory.. so its not looking after the name of the file otherwise it would see it..

That's correct. Live doesn't only look for the file name, but also for the file size and the checksum. This ensures that it doesn't replace samples which only fit by name. There may be a dozen files on your computer with the name 001-Audio.aif, but only one of them is the actual sample that belongs to your project.

It should find and offer files which only fit by name as a "candidate", though.

Is this not the case?

Best,
Nico

[3phase]

x

[3phase]

ther must be a more technical reasn for the blindness.. ther some weardness that makes live blind for files that chnged theoer location at one point in hystory.. so its not looking after the name of the file otherwise it would see it..

That's correct. Live doesn't only look for the file name, but also for the file size and the checksum. This ensures that it doesn't offer replacement samples which only have the same name. There may be a dozen files on your computer with the name 001-Audio.aif, but only one of them is the actual sample that belongs to your project.

It should find and offer files which only fit by name as a "candidate", though.

Is this not the case?

Best,
Nico

no... it dont offers anything... checksum? so a changed directory results in a wrong checksum?

actually life should look in relation to the directory path of the song/projekt file.. any folders with the song name inside that directory should have priority than..and if the files in that folder have the correct names checksums shouldnt matter...

i really would prefer some arteficial intelligence algorythm for the search... in the end we work with a computer.. it should be able to locate files much faster than me

[Donnie]

Is this not the case?

Best,
Nico

Oftentimes no, it will be the same exact same file used before. Maybe I moved it from one drive to another, but the same exact file with the live analysis file there as well.

Say I have 100 mp3s in a set, all in the same folder or subset of folders but the root folder changed drives. Naturally it doesnt find the files so I point it to the new root folder location. Sometimes it wont find any when I do an automatic search, then I do the same exact search...it finds 2. Then the next time it finds 3. Then next time none. But they are all right there in the same folder???

[Donnie]

actually life should look in relation to the directory path of the song/projekt file.. any folders with the song name inside that directory should have priority than..and if the files in that folder have the correct names checksums shouldnt matter...

Agreed!