Ableton Forum

I'm looking for tips on how to manage sounds/samples/instrument racks. Live 8's library doesn't have a method for adding a rating or any metadata to describe sounds, nor any way--that I know of--to create aliases or some other way to group sounds. I'd prefer to leave things in their default locations (e.g. all the Puremagnetik instruments racks are in their default folders/sub-folders), but I'd like a way to remind myself what sounds are most useful to me.

I've tried various things. Most recently, I just created a text file and made an outline, as I auditioned a bunch of new instrument racks, noting sounds that I thought I'd like to use and brief descriptions of them.

What do you do? How do you go about it? This is more a problem for sounds that are new to me or that I don't use very often, but it's still a problem. I'm curious how other musicians solve it.

you can pretty much rename anything even samples.....if i like something, like an instrument, or my tweaked settings, i will rename it something like "eddiex likes this whatever instrument" that way when i am searching for a sound, i just type in "eddiex likes" and it brings up anything that i have named such.
for samples...you can create folders...like i have a mac so i can create a folder outside of live, then drag it to live's library and i can just put the samples i like in there....or you can separate them into categories.

If you make new folders WITHIN your library and then drag your favorite presets from the track into this new folder it will only make a copy of the rack/preset and still access the existing samples. It's important that this all remains WITHIN your library, otherwise it WILL copy the samples too. Don't forget you can use the "bookmark current folder" to find your way to these custom folders quickly. I have custom folders in Audio Effect Racks, Instrument Racks, and a few other spots, but they are all accessible from the pull-down bookmarks. Also, I like to name my custom folders 0verclock with a zero, which makes them float to the top alphabetically.

Bonus - this allows for you to make little variations on these racks/presets without overwriting the existing Puremagnetik presets that we spend so much time on

- b

Extra bonus - before dragging the preset/rack to your custom folder, right-click and edit info text. This custom text will appear in the info view pane when you cursor over the preset in the browser. for example - "I want to use this rack on vocals" or "This machine kills Fascists"

if you want to recall a certain clip, efx or instrument rack that you used in a specific live-set, then you can browse to this set, unfold it in the browser and just drop one of its clips to an empty channel on your current live-set. voilá, there is your clip/rack/device with the settings you like.

I found another approach in library management for those who like to keep their custom presets, instruments, sounds, etc inside ableton library, but at the same time keep control of their own stuff.
This approach will allow you to have all your stuff inside ableton library and at the same  time keep a backup copy in a external folder only of your custom presets/instruments.
The idea is simple and to accomplish that you need a file/folder sync software, for instance:
• GoodSync: http://www.goodsync.com/ (mac/win)
• FreeFileSync: http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/ (win)
This software will allow you to sync a source folder to a destination folder.
The idea is to filter all the files/folders that have not been customized by user, and copy them to a external folder. There are 2 methods to accomplish this:

> Method 1 (include):
In method 1 you should create folders inside ableton library to save all your presets with a recognizable TAG in their name AND/OR name your presets/files with a TAG also. For example:
• _my reverbs
• _my instruments
• _my rack fx
• _my operator
• _my sounds
• _johndoe reverb.adv
• _johndoe favorite_fx.adg
and so on...
What are the recognizable tags here? It's the word "_my" and "_johndoe".
Inside GoodSync software (you only need to do this once):
1. Setup source folder (ex: /users/johndoe/library/application support/ableton/library)
2. Setup destination folder (ex: /users/johndoe/documents/backup)
3. Setup include Filter, here you will add the following lines:
• _my*
• _johndoe*
With everything properly right in the setup and your files/folders well named (tagged) the software will filter in the analysis anything that doesn't start with "_my" or "_johndoe".
Then will copy only your tagged files/folders to the destination folder, preserving the folder structure inside the library.

> Method 2 (exclude):
In method 2 you should setup a different filter. This one should exclude files/folders prior to a modification date. Lets say that this date should be something around the day you installed Ableton Live in your computer. For instance:
• Ableton Live Installation day in 2011/5/31
• Filter date 2011/6/1
In GoodSync software the filter should look something like this:
• any time<2011/6/1
With the filter properly written it should copy to your destination folder only the files/folders with modification date after 2011/6/1.
One advantage is that you shouldn't need to tag files/folders names.

> Final Thoughts:
I think method 1 is more reliable.
In method 2 I'm not sure how this will behave when you update/repair Ableton Live Library.
You could try also a combination of method 1 and 2.
I came to this library management approach very recently, so I'm fresh in this also, I will appreciate a lot your feedback/experience.
Check the user manual of your software of choice for files/folders sync. Each one have a lot of different features and rules to setup filters.

Best wishes