Ableton Forum

Hey (again) Folks,

How do people organize their projects or sets? I often have 20+ different sets saved within a project as I go evolve through different versions of a song or different mixes. For example:

Jezebel Project
Jezebel_100_Acoustic.als
Jezebel_200.als
Jezebel_210.als
Jezebel_211_Elec_1.als
Jezebel_211_Rock_1.als
Jezebel_211_Rock_2.als
Jezebel_211_Rock_3.als
Jezebel_211_Rock_4_DrumBeatRepeat.als
Jezebel_211_Rock_5_TomChorus.als
Jezebel_211_Rock_5_TomChorus_Packaged.als
Jezebel_211_Rock_5_TomChorus_PackagedDry.als


The three digits are meant to indicate major, minor or small changes and I try to add something descriptive to the name. Even still it's hard to look at all the sets and know what's inside. Someone suggested exporting 30 secs of each into a 'Preview' folder so you an easily preview what's in each set in the File Browser without having to open each set one at a time.

Do you keep notes in a text file?
Do you keep more than one set in a project? Or duplicate the project so there's only 1 set in each?

I like the idea that each project is wholly independent and self-contained even if it means taking up more disc space because all the sample files are duplicated too. On the other hand, multiple sets per project means file sharing. But then I never know when I should consolidate my external files.

I'd love to hear how other people manage this. I'm looking at being a professional audio engineer/mixer (currently in an MRI program) so I want to be as organized, professional and easily maintainable as possible.

Thanks in advance!!!

I've started experimenting with SVN (SubVersion) on my live project folder.
The first time I create a track I import it into a new project and at the end of every major decision I take and apply , I commit a new revision into SVN with an adequate label.
I'm still trying it out, but when I feel that it's doing what it's supposed to , I'll publish a post in my BLOG about it.

Interesting idea regarding version control!

Anyone else have any thoughts?

fireballgames wrote:I've started experimenting with SVN (SubVersion) on my live project folder.

Please please please don't bring svn into the world of music, I have enough hell with it at my day job

I haven't really dove in to the Share feature but I'm bet subversion (or better yet git) would be a great environment for sharing live sets outside of live.com.

I use Perforce every day at work and rarely have a problem with it but I don't think it would affordably scale down to a personal, home setting. I could see combining multiple file sets with some simple version control system so that only significant changes to a set get checked in as new files while small changes get submitted as new revisions to the same file.

sorry Ed J
I was telling my friends how screwed up it is that I work with versioning and I brought it into my home studio but it's sooooo useful

i just save versions as 001, 002, 003, 004, etc
i add a word or something if i radically change a track from the last version

Just as an aside really, SVN understands binary files (e.g. audio) and will only track the changes between versions.
Older version control systems such as CVS don't do this and keep a complete copy even if 1 bit has changed.

If your going to use a version control system, it's something to think about.

I worked in a professional dance music production studio for a large artist and our naming format was.

SongName_1.4.8_8.3.08_130am.als
Name_Version_Date_Time
We had so many versions and sub versions an alternate versions and combined songs ect ect ect
that this was the only way to effectively manage things. But yes the file names become VERY ugly.

One amazingly helpful feature that logic has that I would like to see in an Ableton update is the quicklook feature.
WIth Logic sessions you can just tap spacebar when the icon is selected and it'll fire up a snapshot of what the session
looked like with out even opening the app. VERY HANDY.

you could do a manual 'quick look' by saving a screenshot in the project folder.

I like the idea of svn... how much of a learning curve there for a non-coder?

jgreyson wrote:you could do a manual 'quick look' by saving a screenshot in the project folder.

I like the idea of svn... how much of a learning curve there for a non-coder?

SVN is now really old and other technologies are more popular. For revisioning to work you need a system that only saves differences also within big audio files. Otherwise you're re-saving those monster files on every commit just because there was a small change. This is luckily limited somewhat by the fact Live doesn't edit the originals themselves normally, but it's still noticeable if you do make any changes yourself.

I've been testing another commercial, free for personal use, system, but no conclusive results yet.

I do this and it works fine for me:

ProjectName_SongName_vMainVersion.IncrementalVersion_Date_Time

MainVersion = big changes
IncrementalVersion = minor tweaks

(in other words looks like v2.4 for example)

I will sometimes add brief information of the change like "NoGuitars" or "ExtendedMix" for example.

For folder names I add date first – Date_Project_Song

Oh and never use the word "Final"... it will curse you