Another good idea I saw somewhere is to add a favorites folder in each category for really quick access to your best samples. As you audition sounds, copy and paste the best ones into your favorites.

Bro this is great advice and i love your sense of humour. subbed

Thanks for the video. Just got into samples recently and already have like...20 gigs that need to be organized. Glad you could help out!

Thanks for posting this! Still useful 4 years later. Was looking for some examples of how others organize their samples. This is exactly what I was looking for. I also keep the original collections of zip files my sounds came in stored on a separate backup drive (so they take up less space than the fully extracted files). I use a sort of shorthand label code in the extracted filenames so I know where to get the original from again if something gets corrupted or deleted or if I need to review the license for them, etc. Example would be like all the extracted sample files that came from a "Loopmasters Ultimate Deep House Collection" zip file would get bulk renamed with a label code of something like "L_1 - " inserted at the beginning of the filenames. I catalog the zip files in a spreadsheet with the label codes and the associated collection names and zip filenames. I can also add a brief note for them to indicate if they came with a particular piece of gear I bought, were purchased separately, or downloaded for free from somewhere. A bit of an extra pain up front but saves a lot of time from having to poke around in a bunch of zip files to get the original sample back while still keeping the extracted filenames much shorter than if I were to use more descriptive collection names when I rename them.

Legend absolute freaking legend mate! thank you for this video, i have been sitting and thinking about how i was going to organize my crazy collection, this video visually confirms a good percent of what i had already though up and given me a great set of ideas to finish of the hierarchy... Thanks Justin!

Man I've been trying to write down a way to catalogue my sound library for like 3 years now and sometimes I just give up, but now this gave my the exact idea I need, thanks a lot for sharing!

Always knew I wanted a system similar to this but just could not implement it myself, great video cheers!

Thanks a lot - very helpful!!! All the best, Julian

Seattle check. Thank you for this! I’m afraid to start. 😂

A great way to organize the sample you have indeed, dope stuff!

I ended up putting my stuff into large buckets based on broad genres. Adjacent genres would get lumped together. This helps me know where to go when I’m looking for certain aesthetic

your the best keep up the good work uncle

I can't wait to finish organizing my library. I feel I could produce more once I know what I have. If it sucks, it's getting deleted. Poor quality samples have wasted enough of my time. -Adam Wisdom

Just stumbled on this video looking to see how others organize their samples. Liked the video for the great content. Subbed for the Pennywise hat.

For some of us it is actually earth shattering and helpful to be able to model a good folder structure. Thanks.

It’s smart to do this straight off, because now every time you open an old project, your project might open and sometimes one of your sampler plug ins like battery might tell you it can’t locate the sample. Unless of course it’s a battery sample. You could also create an Alias of them reorganized on an external. That is if you have tons of projects and you do not want to move samples from their original location.

I feel your pain ... 40 years worrth here: currently sorting to leave as a legacy :)

my g. great strategy share

this is just awesome, I appreciate your tips

Awesome vid. Thanks!!!

Thanks for sharing!

Why does this only have 4 comments? People out here okay with searching for a one shot for six hours?

Useful 🙏

I love this! I'm currently trying to optimize this Idea as much as possible. I was thinking that maybe it would make sense To split up this whole structure into two meta Folders for Drums/Perc and Instruments. What do you guys think?

Using the alias folders will save you x2 space, then you can leave all the orginals in the orginal folder amd make a copy of it that just links back to the orginal file. PLUS THIS WILL SAVE YOUR PAST PROJECTS FROM LOSING FILES/SAMPLES. So old projects samples still in same place, but new ones have better organization!

There is «library” tab in the battery. All you need is make tags for you samples snd forget about folders.

Yeah. Sononym will do the trick. Plus it does sooooo much more. You're not going to believe you didn't KNOW of this sooner.

What's the difference between drum breaks & drum loops in your Loops folder?

XLN Audio XO Drum Sample Organizer and Sequencer Plug-in

Nice Video! You live in Vancouver? Do you know Konrad Old Money, formerly Pos Crew?

@Justin Vachon another way: Renaming files with apps like "Name Mangler" and automatically PREFIX the files with name of the parent folder. Then flatten the folders, so all Clap-files are in one folder, named like "CM123 - 24Bit Balleric Bliss Samples.wav" and so on... You then can use the "Search" type "Claps" and all claps are in the list, which you can quickly browse... Another hint: when in the MacOS Finder or Ableton browser use the arrow keys to navigate. In Finder press SpaceBar to open the preview, do not close it, and then navigate through with the arrows... Not sure if it works (not having Battery) but it should be able to drag and drop from Ableton Browser into Battery directly..

I think the dogs heard it lol - anyway nice one I am about to sort my eons of sample dumpster truck loads of samples, this gave me a starting point of the folder structure as well as dealing with all my sample CDs, rex etc. Thanks for taking the time to upload this man. Is the structure still working well for you?

Thanks. Got 1100GB of samples to re-do. Should be done within few weeks 😂

Gratitude 🤝🏾...

Use sononym and you don't have to do this. this was my way also in the past. now the computer is doing this for me with this perfect software. with extra filters to find quick the correct samples that fit in the project. Even with the note of the sample + if loop, the Bpm + the correct category like in this video. Sorry if somebody already has given this info.

That looks like me sample library.

XO by xlnaudio

I feel your pain because I've been collecting computer music magazine and future music samples for years too and I know folders leading to folders over and over, I wanted to ask if you have tried a free sample management vst like ASDR Sample Manager? The reason I asked is I'm only now giving this a try because like you i'm tired of searching through folders. Also when you said Beleric bliss I knew exactly what samples your talking about because I use those. Lol

please can you send me your sample library, I will happily sort them for you :D :D :D

Some of the packs need to try to lessen the folders! It's crazy there's like 15 folders before u get to a sample smh

Why not just use one of the sample managers that you throw the big mess at and it finds all your kicks and groups them visually for you.

PLEASE MAKE A TEMPLATE!!!!!! Like... PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Just make alias folders on the same hdd. Split samples folder into two folders orginals and alias copies or organized. Then just drag and drop each sample from OG file to the alias.

hm now i think a simple app with db, ui , tag cloud makes sense, might be wrong but flattening folderstructures works for a while - then you will be stuck in folder angst again :)

lmao i'm sorry but i think this is ludicrous! literally dragging every sample/folder individually + having to rename the all folders ? won''t the finished folders or subfolders be just as huge and impossible to go through? + this will mess up completely the previous folder structure from already existing projects using the same samples i've been looking for a way to sort through my samples, i guess a 3rd party software is a must. ADSR does not do this properly at all, loopcoud is no longer free. came here really hoping to find a way to do this manually, in hopes of not spending money for such a software, but i guess this is necessary. at least black friday is around the corner

Ty bro you help me a lot 🤌🏽