KVR Audio

[The]Windy[Season] · Post by **[The]Windy[Season]** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:42 pm

I use FL Studio 9 on Windows Vista.

When I'm making music, I work mainly with samples - loops and single notes or hits and longer audio clips, like acapellas. I get my sounds from other music and from a few professional sample packs. As my collection has grown over a few years, it has gotten to the point where it's just become too unwieldy and unorganized, and the way it is set up really hurts my work flow and creative process. I have about 60,000 different WAV samples (of all different type) and I feel like I need some better way to organize them.

I really like how Native Instruments uses a tag-based system to organize and help you find sounds (I've used NI Massive and the Kore player in the past). Is there any sort of program out there where I can load all my WAV samples into it, apply searchable tags to the different samples (e.g. from simple tags like "percussion," or "melodic," or "loop," to more in-depth ones, like "wet," or "metallic," or "tambourine," and so on), and maybe get a visual waveform preview of the selected file? I just basically need a searchable tag-based system. I tried, at first, just putting different sounds into different folders (snares into a "Drums" folder and then a "Snare" sub-folder, melodic loops into a "Melodic" folder, etc.), but this system doesn't work as well as I had hoped it would. Any help would be appreciated; this has been really frustrating for me.

CC4 · Post by **CC4** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:02 pm

Sample Organization Utilities

Free/Open Source

Hypercube Softwares Universal Patch Finder (Win) - Free
http://hypercube-softwares.dyndns.org/

Aural Probe (Win) - Open Source
http://sourceforge.net/projects/auralprobe/

JamSoft's SampleSort (Win) - Free Beta
http://www.jamsoft.co.uk/
Note: Website triggers a Trojan:JS/BlacoleRef.CZ warning - 6/2013

SoundManager (Win) - Free
http://www.drums.sk/soundman.htm

Gersic Splat Sound FX Database (Win) - Free Beta
http://gersic.com/static.php?page=static060724-080916

WaveAgent (Win/Mac) - Free (w/ registration)
http://www.sounddevices.com/products/waveagent.htm

Samplecat (Linux) - Free
http://samplecat.orford.org/

Sonicwire Mutant (Win/Mac) - Free Version
http://sonicwire.com/mutant

Commercial

SoundLib (Win/Mac) - $15
http://www.rootsolutions.de/soundlib/index.htm

Bard (Win?) - $19
http://getbard.com/

FindSounds Palette (Win) - Various Versions $20+
http://www.findsounds.com/palette.html

RyAudio Sample Librarian (Win) - 40€
http://www.ryaudio.com/

74mph Solutions WavSniper (Win) - $49.95
http://www.74mph.com/wavsniper/index.html

Revel Breezer (Win) - Free Express Edition / Home Edition 14.90€ / Professional Edition 49.90€
http://www.revel-software.it/

ifoundasound (Win) - Free Version/Professional Version 69 €
http://ifoundasound.com/

Iced Audio AudoFinder (Mac) - $69.95
http://www.icedaudio.com/

Audio Ease Snapper 2 (Mac) - $79/59€
http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Snapper/SnapperMain.html

Library Monkey (Mac) - v4.1 $129 / Pro $449
http://www.monkey-tools.com/

SoundMiner (Win/Mac) - $199.00+
http://store.soundminer.com/

BaseHead (Win/Mac) - $249.00+
http://www.baseheadinc.com/

MuscleFish/Audible Magic SoundFisher (Win/Mac) - $349.00
http://www.soundfisher.com

NetMix Pro (Win/Mac) - $995.00
http://www.creativenetworkdesign.com/

FX Library (Win) - ?
http://www.fxlibrary.co.uk/

Miscellaneous
Rapid Evolution (Win)
http://www.mixshare.com/re3preview.html
- helps find key & bpm information

MusicBee
http://getmusicbee.com/
- audio player with many customizable fields

Discontinued

Sample Catalog (Win) - Free / discontinued
http://lesliepere.com/portfolio/samplecatalog.htm (dead link)
http://www.geocities.ws/samplecatalog/ (dead link)

Zealey Loop Horse (Win) - Free / discontinued
http://www.zealey.co.uk/
http://www.artservant.co.uk/zealey/zeal ... phorse.htm

Azertopia SampleTagger (Win) - Free / discontinued Beta
http://www.softsea.com/download/Sample-Tagger.html
http://azertopia.free.fr/sampletagger.html (dead link)

Yorum Sound Design SAM (Win) - Free / discontinued
http://www.jeroenvanrooij.com/sam/index.html (dead link)

ProXL Sonic Explorer (Win) - Free / discontinued?
http://www.proxl.nl/p/sonic-explorer.html (dead link)

Redmatica ProManager (Mac) - was $70 / discontinued (Redmatica was purchased by Apple)
http://www.redmatica.com/ (dead link)

- Updated 6/2013

CC4 · Post by **CC4** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:11 pm

my commentary:

Azertopia SampleTagger - it would be great if it wasn't so buggy
Sample Catalog - it's great but limited due to its age
Aural Probe - kind of funky; works on a half decent level
SAM - needs work; it may become good / feels limited
SoundManager - limited
Gersic Splat Sound FX Database - decent / have to put a lot of work into it
Zealey Loop Horse - can't find it anymore / didn't like it a long time ago
ifoundasound - free version has too many limitations

the others - cost money, cash better used elsewhere

*
Sonic Explorer - can only make a favorites list
Revel Breezer - good for auditioning
Wave Agent - if you want to attach metadata

bpblog · Post by **bpblog** » Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:31 pm

CC4 wrote:Sample Organization Utilities

Azertopia SampleTagger (Win) - discontinued? unfinished Beta
http://azertopia.free.fr/sampletagger.html (dead link)
http://www.softsea.com/download/Sample-Tagger.html

Sample Catalog (Win) - Free
http://lesliepere.com/portfolio/samplecatalog.htm
http://www.geocities.ws/samplecatalog/

Aural Probe - Open Source
http://sourceforge.net/projects/auralprobe/

SAM (Win) - Beta/$?
http://www.jeroenvanrooij.com/sam/index.html

SoundManager (Win) - Free
http://www.drums.sk/soundman.htm

Gersic Splat Sound FX Database (Win) - Free Beta
http://gersic.com/static.php?page=static060724-080916

Zealey Loop Horse (Win) - discontinued
(dead link)

ifoundasound (Win) - Free/69 €
http://ifoundasound.com/

FindSounds Palette (Win) - $20+
http://www.findsounds.com/palette.html

RyAudio Sample Librarian - 40€
http://www.ryaudio.com/

Iced Audio AudoFinder (Win) - $69.95
http://www.icedaudio.com/

Redmatica ProManager (Mac) - $70
http://www.redmatica.com/Redmatica/ProManager.html

SoundMiner (Win/Mac) - $199.00+
http://store.soundminer.com/

BaseHead (Win/Mac) - $289.00+
http://www.baseheadinc.com/

NetMix Pro (Win/Mac) - $995.00
http://www.creativenetworkdesign.com/

FX Library (Win) - ?
http://www.fxlibrary.co.uk/

-----
Additional Utilities *

Sonic Explorer (Win) - Free *
http://www.proxl.nl/p/sonic-explorer.html

Revel Breezer (Win) - Free *
http://www.revel-software.it/Breezer.aspx

WaveAgent (Win/Mac) - Free (w/ registration) *
http://www.sounddevices.com/products/waveagent.htm

awesome post! i'll have to check some of those out. thanks!

Stopani · Post by **Stopani** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:31 pm

Great post from CC4! Sadly for windows users, the Iced Audio one is Mac only

I've been using the trial version of Sample Librarian for the past 2 weeks. Given the way it has sped the endless trawling thru directories up, im thinking it's worth the 30 Euros.

I've given up hope on Azertopia SampleTagger being finished. It looked really promising!

tungsten carbide · Post by **tungsten carbide** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 6:32 pm

I just got done doing a lot of search / evaluation covering most of the products on CC4's post, and my conclusion is the only viable solution for Windows users is Sample Librarian by RyAudio.com (I paid $40 for it, which is a reasonable value). Everything else is either buggy- / vapor- / dead-ware, or not really a sample librarian (e.g. basehead, which is really for game devs and only does WAV/MP*), or big iron ProTools / RTVF-oriented (NetMix), or is Mac-Only (iced).

There are features I'd like to see added to Sample Librarian, but the ones that are there provide good basic functionality bug-free with a nice interface, and the best way to get an expanded feature set IMHO is to support the developer by purchasing the product.

W74

Oliver Schmitt · Post by **Oliver Schmitt** » Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:02 pm

hey, wow! thanks for sharing this CC4 !!!

i was also in search for a sample organisation tool...

best, olli

Yuroun · Post by **Yuroun** » Fri May 25, 2012 7:41 am

CC4 wrote: SAM (Win) - Beta/$?
http://www.jeroenvanrooij.com/sam/index.html

I lost the source files, so this project is terminated.

Lerian · Post by **Lerian** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:41 pm

Awesome post CC4, thank you!

I also found aural probe and sample librarian to be the simplest and easiest ways to find the right sample. I hope though that more developers will go into this area because both can be improved.

Aural probe especially, being open source, could use some improvements: bigger font, maybe more info on the cells (maybe including the tone of the sound)

loopdon · Post by **loopdon** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:05 am

Oliver Schmitt wrote:hey, wow! thanks for sharing this CC4 !!!

i was also in search for a sample organisation tool...

best, olli

Mad thanks from me as well. Fantastic list!

CC4 · Post by **CC4** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 1:14 am

JamSoft's SampleSort could be added to the list:
http://www.jamsoft.co.uk/

And perhaps, eventually, this "Universal Patch Finder" I noticed in the KVR Database by Hypercube Softwares:
http://hypercube-softwares.dyndns.org/

I wish I could find a free one that I was happy with since I really don't use samples all that much. Despite its limitations, I guess I still like Sample Catalog the best. I guess you get what you pay for.

Yuroun · Post by **Yuroun** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:09 am

CC4 wrote:JamSoft's SampleSort could be added to the list:
http://www.jamsoft.co.uk/

I couldn't get it to work. The support forum is full of spam.

CC4 wrote:And perhaps, eventually, this "Universal Patch Finder" I noticed in the KVR Database by Hypercube Softwares:
http://hypercube-softwares.dyndns.org/

Looks promising

Pytchblend · Post by **Pytchblend** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 6:10 pm

Great list there CC4... I'm surprised there are so many!
Has anyone auditioned these fellas? I'm time-stretched and would love to know the top 5?
Ta!

bob bobwood · Post by **bob bobwood** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:42 pm

I left this comment on (kvr product page) UniversalPatchFinder a month ago;
"Select; Notify me when it is actually available"
and yesterday droopy6 kindly let me know it's now available

UniversalPatchFinder;
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/univers ... -softwares

It works as a plugin and scans the directories you want and lists
NKI=*.nki
NKM=*.nkm
WAV=*.wav
AIF=*.aiff
REX=*.rx2
SF2=*.sf2

I haven't had time to go into it much but it seemed fast and accurate. Then you can browse, preview drag and drop with ease. Without reading the manual and discovering all its tricks it impressed me, and as I have already organised most of my files to my liking it is a neat tool.

Oh aye, I nearly forgot, it's free.

Hats off to Hypercube Softwares. And it's just had an update.

Shabdahbriah · Post by **Shabdahbriah** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:57 pm

FR: There was a feature in an audio file browser I loved way back 10+ yrs ago, which is no longer developed/supported, and which never did "update" to read 24-bit files.

That feature being: It auto played everything in a selected folder sequentially, and as you auditioned sounds, you simply hit the 'spacebar' to copy any file you liked to a 'temp folder' window in the browsers UI, and then save it (those selections) as a source folder for your project.

Any thing like this in any of the above?

Thanks for all those great links btw.

Sample Organizer