Ableton Forum

How do you save sampler instruments? Are they always associated with the project fie?
Is there something similar with Maschines "save group with samples" option?

alpertt wrote:How do you save sampler instruments? Are they always associated with the project fie?
Is there something similar with Maschines "save group with samples" option?

That's no different than "Saving Presets" with any Live Instrument. All instruments also plug-ins and their presets are stored with the set file. However, it's more secure to also store presets per instrument in the project folder.

I have a folder called "Presets" in my project folders where I keep all presets belonging to the project including plug-in presets (if that is supported within the plug-in) as well as grouped Live presets (the latter is usually sufficient but why take a chance?) and in the case of Reaktor the Ensembles.

I also keep all plug-in presets I've made in their own folder under another separate folder tree as well as storing many grouped presets in my Live user library. I've lost presets one time too many because of moving disks or updating software. So this is all just a useful habit of storing for different purposes.

The samples themselves, which I think you're thinking about, are stored in my Sample library in one folder if I've made them. In another folder at the same place I've sorted any third party samples and IR files and gave given Live access to these in the browser.

Samples in the Live library are where they are so I just let them be and access them from the browser if need be. I only collect and save Sample files if I share the project, as that is a must at that point. However, if these are in a paid Live pack I have to make sure the people I'm sharing with have that as these are controlled or I have to flatten those tracks to audio.

@Stromkraft presets include parameter info. I want to save (and know where they are) actual samples with the instrument.

I am non native English speaker, so please be patient if you have already given the answer. My question is:

-I make a live set and a sampler instrument inside it (samples may be from library, anywhere in the computer and/or recorded)
-I want to save this instrument (with audio files) in my user library
so i can use it even if i deleted original project.. (recorded files in the project folder as you know)
thats why i gave the example of maschine "save group with samples"

What is the best way to save a sampler instrument to be..
how can i say.. independent hah

Yeah this happens to me all the time.
New recorded audio seems to have the same names as things I've recorded before.
Oh well...

I wonder if this is people saving their songs INSIDE their library?

Never, ever, do that.
Never.

Save songs far away from your library.

I have never experienced this issue. Not even once in 10 years of using Live!
My song location is far from my libraries.

alpertt wrote:
…I want to save (and know where they are) actual samples with the instrument.
…

-I make a live set and a sampler instrument inside it (samples may be from library, anywhere in the computer and/or recorded)
-I want to save this instrument (with audio files) in my user library

This is different depending on if the sample(s) is/are already in your Live library or not.

If it is already in your library you naturally don't need to move the samples into there. Just save the Sampler preset by clicking the "Save preset" button in the upper right corner of Sampler/Simpler. The preset will be stored in your Live user library. You can know that your sample is in your library by showing Zone in Sampler and selecting it in the list. Already if you see the option "Show in Browser" will you know it's in your library as in your "user library" folder or any of the folders you might have added to "Places".

So let's say you start a new Live project and already from the start save it under a name to wherever you save projects and not inside an existing project folder. OK?

Then you add Sampler and maybe you want to drop in a sample or a few directly from your OS file browser (Finder (Mac) or Explorer (Windows)).

Instead of doing that first add the sample(s) to your own library.

As you might already realize you can do this by going to the sample(s) in the OS file browser and copy or cut (if you want to move) your sample(s) or the folder(s) containing these.

As you also might know already you do these commands by

• right-clicking (without a right-button Ctrl-Click on Mac) on the selection and selecting Cut or Copy from the context menu (or use the shortucts).
• Go to your Sample Library and at the appropriate place paste in your samples. Now you have added these to your library (that I suggest you keep if you don't have one already).
  (If you've forgotten where you have this simply go to the Live browser and right-click on the Sampler Library folder there and select "Show in Finder|Explorer"))

Note that if you choose to keep your own Sample Libraries inside your Live User Library then you can drag samples directly to the Live browser on the Samples/Imported folder inside there. I still keep my resource folders in other places as I don't want to mix these with Live's stuff.

Now you know exactly where your sample(s) are and can drag these to Sampler and do with them what you want. Then save the preset and the samples in use inside your Samples library are referenced by it. Next time you load this preset the samples will be found.

When you later do a Collect All and Save in a project with this preset you can optionally choose to copy also what's inside your Library to the project folder. This means the samples will be available also if you lose your Samples library, move to another disk or want to use this project on a new computer. An excellent idea for projects to be archived so worth repeating even if this already has been mentioned.

I assume you also can save samples with a Sampler preset for distribution by making a Live Pack, but that's a big enough question to save for now.

alpertt wrote:How do you save sampler instruments? Are they always associated with the project fie?
Is there something similar with Maschines "save group with samples" option?

Answer: You drag the instrument devices into the User Library, into a folder of your making/choosing. This will save the instrument + its relevant files to your USER LIBRARY folder, not the Project folder (which is good, because now the devices are available to be used in other sessions and projects too). If you want all those files to ALSO be stored in the current Project folder as well, you do COLLECT ALL AND SAVE.

It's very efficient. I know there is another response already, but it was five times longer than the above, and trust me, the above two sentences covers it 100%. I do this stuff all. the. time.

-M

mholloway wrote:the above two sentences covers it 100%.

Quite sufficient, yes.

Thanks a lot for very detailed answers.

Stromkraft wrote:

alpertt wrote:
…I want to save (and know where they are) actual samples with the instrument.
…

-I make a live set and a sampler instrument inside it (samples may be from library, anywhere in the computer and/or recorded)
-I want to save this instrument (with audio files) in my user library

This is different depending on if the sample(s) is/are already in your Live library or not.

If it is already in your library you naturally don't need to move the samples into there. Just save the Sampler preset by clicking the "Save preset" button in the upper right corner of Sampler/Simpler. The preset will be stored in your Live user library. You can know that your sample is in your library by showing Zone in Sampler and selecting it in the list. Already if you see the option "Show in Browser" will you know it's in your library as in your "user library" folder or any of the folders you might have added to "Places".

So let's say you start a new Live project and already from the start save it under a name to wherever you save projects and not inside an existing project folder. OK?

Then you add Sampler and maybe you want to drop in a sample or a few directly from your OS file browser (Finder (Mac) or Explorer (Windows)).

Instead of doing that first add the sample(s) to your own library.

As you might already realize you can do this by going to the sample(s) in the OS file browser and copy or cut (if you want to move) your sample(s) or the folder(s) containing these.

As you also might know already you do these commands by

• right-clicking (without a right-button Ctrl-Click on Mac) on the selection and selecting Cut or Copy from the context menu (or use the shortucts).
• Go to your Sample Library and at the appropriate place paste in your samples. Now you have added these to your library (that I suggest you keep if you don't have one already).
  (If you've forgotten where you have this simply go to the Live browser and right-click on the Sampler Library folder there and select "Show in Finder|Explorer"))

Note that if you choose to keep your own Sample Libraries inside your Live User Library then you can drag samples directly to the Live browser on the Samples/Imported folder inside there. I still keep my resource folders in other places as I don't want to mix these with Live's stuff.

Now you know exactly where your sample(s) are and can drag these to Sampler and do with them what you want. Then save the preset and the samples in use inside your Samples library are referenced by it. Next time you load this preset the samples will be found.

When you later do a Collect All and Save in a project with this preset you can optionally choose to copy also what's inside your Library to the project folder. This means the samples will be available also if you lose your Samples library, move to another disk or want to use this project on a new computer. An excellent idea for projects to be archived so worth repeating even if this already has been mentioned.

I assume you also can save samples with a Sampler preset for distribution by making a Live Pack, but that's a big enough question to save for now.

Hi, I wonder if you can help me. Im moving across from Logic.
I have a central samples folder organised by date.
I created a new ableton project and started working. Then I dropped a sample on to a MIDI track and chopped it in the simpler. I clicked the disk save preset button, because I want to access this sample in other projects. However, I don't want the sample copied anywhere, I want the original sample to stay where it is, there is no point in duplication unless I want to share the project, in which case I would 'Collect all..'.
But what ableton has done is created a project folder, inside my samples folder, and named it the same as the sample, this contains the adv file and a copy of the sample.
Can you tell me where I am going wrong here? I just want the preset saved somewhere central and referencing the original sample, not ableton creating unnecessary project folders, in my samples folder, just to save a simpler preset.
thanks in advance.
Z

zygote wrote: Can you tell me where I am going wrong here? I just want the preset saved somewhere central and referencing the original sample, not ableton creating unnecessary project folders, in my samples folder, just to save a simpler preset.

What I have done with my sample library — I keep mine in ~/Library/Audio/Samples — is that I added the root folder as a folder in Ableton Live browser. This way Live can refer to my samples without moving them into my User Library.

When I finish a mixdown I do use Collect All and Save which moves samples into the project folder. This makes the project safe for moving to another computer.

Stromkraft wrote:

zygote wrote: Can you tell me where I am going wrong here? I just want the preset saved somewhere central and referencing the original sample, not ableton creating unnecessary project folders, in my samples folder, just to save a simpler preset.

What I have done with my sample library — I keep mine in ~/Library/Audio/Samples — is that I added the root folder as a folder in Ableton Live browser. This way Live can refer to my samples without moving them into my User Library.

When I finish a mixdown I do use Collect All and Save which moves samples into the project folder. This makes the project safe for moving to another computer.

Thanks for your time.
I also had added the root folder of my sample folder into the browser in ableton, but for some reason when saving the preset it did that weirdness that I described in my orginal post - made a project folder named the same as the sample, with a copy of the sample in it. Can you think why it might have done that?
Z

Hey, anyone who is still having this problem, if its on mac your computer automatically backs up your projects to icloud, and off the hard drive. For me that's because I had accidentally changed my file folders. You can easily recover your samples from icloud

I don't know if it is still useful to post to this threat but.

I keep having the same problem. Ableton says exactly where the sample should be, and that is exactly where it is too. But it seems like ableton can't acces them for some reason. While it is looking in the right spot.

Very weird, and this just keeps happening. I didn't move the sample's or anything. I'm talking about drum kits, not things I have just recorded.

Eliac wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:17 pm

I don't know if it is still useful to post to this threat but.

I keep having the same problem. Ableton says exactly where the sample should be, and that is exactly where it is too. But it seems like ableton can't acces them for some reason. While it is looking in the right spot.

Very weird, and this just keeps happening. I didn't move the sample's or anything. I'm talking about drum kits, not things I have just recorded.

After some troubleshooting I found I that I had renamed the folder a while ago, and I forgot about that. So things like renaming a folder also affect ableton's ability to find it.
a tip: click on "MEDIA FILS ARE MISSING PLEASE CLICK TO LEARN MORE" then you see sample "NAME-MISSING" hover over missing and you see the previous name/location of the file. This could help you get an idea of the folder name and previous location and help you troubleshoot.