KVR Audio

Ambient Mechanics · Post by **Ambient Mechanics** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 6:24 pm

Thanks for this, Droopy..just downloaded V 1.6 and am wondering how things are going since you last posted here..are you any nearer to a V.2 release?

All the best

droopy6 · Post by **droopy6** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 7:33 pm

Hello Solaris65, I'm a little bit too busy with other things right now so the 2.0 will certainly be only in more than 10 month I think. I must release the 1.7 before. I'm not sure but may be the 2.0 could be a complete rewrite of UPF. Before jumping in this crazy idea I should do this in 1.8:
- replace NAudio API by my own API because it is not enough robust to read damaged AIFF/WAV files, this require to implement an ASIO client which is new for me.
- make a MIDI player to be able to play MIDI files right inside UPF
- provide some MIDI helpers: chord recognition, chord wizard etc...

Regards.

Ambient Mechanics · Post by **Ambient Mechanics** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 8:54 pm

Thanks for the quick reply, Droopy..really appreciate it.

Sounds like you really have your hands full with this project..and my thanks for sticking with it like you have..that, too, is very much appreciated..trust me.

Regardless of how long it will take, it's good to know you are still actively developing this..which is basically all I wanted to know. More than happy to sit it out on the sidelines in the meantime, until you release a new version.

Thanks once again and kind regards to you and yours.

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 4:53 pm

I'm finally getting around to give this amazing looking software a runthrough and try to organize my samples.
A question though about how to import (don't know if this is the right forum or channel for it, if not please direct me to the proper one).

I've been reading through the manual, watched the videos, scanned some fora and experimented a bit with importing but I still lack some conceptual understanding where it comes to importing and tagging the proper way and I need some advice.

I have a few Kontakt libraries in a folder organized as:
X:\Kontakt\various subfolder libraries

And then I have some samplepacks organized as:

X:\Soundbanks\Ethnic\various subfolders
X:\Soundbanks\Jazz\various subfolders

Now the video & manual says all libraries/collections should be in a root folder called "library" and should either be added one by one by clicking "Add" then browse to the respective folder or you can drag & drop multiple folders from Explorer to the "Add" button. But when I have enabled the plugins "SampleTagger" and "KontaktDbPlugin" and click on "Import Database" the Kontakt libraries get imported instantaneously. So I am somewhat confused about the right way to import my collection to avoid double entries or missing samples.

So basically my question is: I want to import both my Kontakt libraries and my sample pack folders (WAV/REX). Are these 2 different methods (because of the activated plugin?) and will the Kontakt libraries all be imported by clicking "Import Database" and should I thus import the sample packs as described in the manual?

And lastly, can I also import the sample packs with "Add" by entering the root directory (X:\) or the genre directory (X:\Ethnic) or do I need to import them one by one as their respective pack (X:\Ethnic\World Percussion Pack)?

droopy6 · Post by **droopy6** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 6:45 pm

"Import Database" read the windows registry to import installed libs. Just don't use it. Use only the add button.
it is more usefull to import stuff like omnisphere libs, FM8 or Massive libs

you should import each sample pack after another, because importing the root folder will create one single lib.

If I remember correctly, "enabled" is used only by the "import database" button. Not by the "add". I should rename that
because it is confusing.

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 10:14 pm

Thanks for your quick reply!
So as I understand it, I should use the "add" button for importing both my sample packs and also the Kontakt libraries one by one.

What is a little confusing to me is your advice not to use "Import Database" saying it's more useful for adding presets from synths. I understand your remark about the plugin set to "enable" not being active when using the above mentioned "add" function.
But from what I can make out of the manual is that "SampleTagger" will add some additional info which can be useful and save hours of manual "sub-tagging" but as for the "Kontakt" plugin there is no info to be found at all.

It's so strange. Your tool is praised all over the spectrum of just about every audioforum but the available info is 95% copy/paste from your website and there is hardly any additional info to be found about user experience (other than "it's a great tool") and procedure and none about the plugins.

I'm not critizing you btw. It's just an observation. I did read about your tool along with Sample Librarian, AuralProbe and Zen Presetfinder maybe 2-3 years ago already in a KVR-thread about sample libraries but at that time it seemed all were in development and it was unclear (to me) what had overlap (patch vs. preset for eg.) and there didn't seem to be consensus about what was the best for what purpose. This is also why I waited so long to really decide on an option.

But now it seems most tools have been discontinued or developers sort of stopped responding (Zen/Big Tick) and you seemed to be one of the very few to have released some iterations so I thought I'd finally give it a try.

I can certainly understand running a helpdesk is not your main concern

and I want to emphasize how grateful I am you keep developping it plus as freeware but as a moderate technical guy the manual still is somewhat unclear to me. Maybe I should just wrestle a bit more with the tool and try out a few scenarios. It's just that I'm a little OCD and don't want to deal with registry leftovers or double libraries (where for eg. Kontakt is a hell in it's own when dealing wih updates or misplaced libraries) and since your manual doesn't mention an uninstall or "factory reset" for eg. I found after uninstalled it (after a failed clustered import) I still had my personal tags (leftovers) etc. hence my hesitations to just try some things.

Anyways, I'm starting to ramble

Maybe if you have the time to provide some more info about the advice not to use the "Import Database" and why it's better for synth presets (I thought this was more BT's Zen tool) or have a URL about the other plugin functions that would be great but otherwise I'll just give it some more time.

droopy6 · Post by **droopy6** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 11:03 am

I didn't work on UPF for a while, because I'm trying to rewrite my website and I don't have a lot of time to do it. so, why this "import database" ? Simply because databases from synth contains tags, tags are not in the patches. If there are some patches on your hard drive, sure I could import them, but without tags. This is not true for samples. And for kontakt, it is unclear, I don't remember what UPF does. I coded that a long time ago...
Personnally I add only kontakt and samples libs with "add", and it is enough for my workflow.

"I still had my personal tags": indeed I never though someone would like to reset the db. The uninstaller keep the db
in the folder "C:\ProgramData\Hypercube Softwares\Universal Patch Finder\Libraries.db". you can delete it to make a fresh start.

the other plugins, are basically the same, there are not special, they just import tags from libs. Scripts plugins are another story, I don't think you are interested on them, it involves programming knowledge.

there is only one thing that piss me off with what I've done: sometimes when I drag a patch on kontakt, there is
a giant dead lock for 2 or 3 minutes between the two apps. It happens when Kontakt ask for something I think. Nobody
told me they have encounter the same bug, so may be you can tell me... I think both must be used inside a DAW to make
this happen.

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 11:21 am

Once again a big thanks for your swift response.
It's clear to me now and -like you- I think Kontakt/sample libraries are enough for my purposes as well, simply because most synths have a comprehensive enough browser. Also thanks for providing the path of the db.

I now realize this tool was born out of a personal need and it becoming so widely spread and popular is "merely" something of an unexpected result. Still I think it's awesome there are people with skills like you adding useful tools for the DAW environment!

If I encounter the bug you described I'll be sure to give some feedback with as much detail as I am able to provide.
For now I'd just like to thank you once more and I'll be trying out UPF in the next few days.

Regards.

droopy6 · Post by **droopy6** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 2:13 pm

I forget to ask you: do you use the 1.7rc1 ? it is here:
http://hypercube-softwares.duckdns.org/beta/

Spiritos · Post by **Spiritos** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 5:51 pm

Ah, I should've mentioned it in my first post. I use 1.6. Mostly because in the timeline in this thread you mentioned 1.7RC released in April but then released 1.6 only in August and also the manual is only to 1.6.

droopy6 wrote:"Import Database"... If I remember correctly, "enabled" is used only by the "import database" button. Not by the "add". I should rename that
because it is confusing.

Although it could be due to 1.7rc or my lack of proper understanding, "enabled" also seems used by "add" since the sampletagger properties like waveforms were applied to the samplepacks I imported this time using "add".

droopy6 · Post by **droopy6** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 6:53 pm

I really need to take a look of my code

squooshbug · Post by **squooshbug** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 8:48 pm

Hi droopy - just doing a six-month check-in

Hope all's well.

Let me know if I can help.

droopy6 · Post by **droopy6** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:00 pm

I'm still here

I'm working on a faster way to scan sounds and produce spectrograms using CUDA acceleration (NVidia cards only). This will take a loooong time to work properly in UPF. For now it is C++ code alone without GUI. I bought a new powerfull laptop with PASCAL GPU in it.

I'm working in machine learning at work, this is fantastic because what I learn at work will help me one day to classify sounds at home. But this will be a very long journey until I can do it.

that's all

droopy6 · Post by **droopy6** » Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:02 pm

oh, there is also a complete rewrite of my website around, using Grav, but it is paused now.

squooshbug · Post by **squooshbug** » Tue Feb 28, 2017 1:04 pm

So what you're saying is you have lots of free time

Once you've created the spectrograms, is there any way to automatically analyze and categorize them? I'm thinking specifically about samples, not about kontakt libraries for this.

For example, auto-filter search results based on spectrogram for every sound that has a quick attack and release and low end frequency information (probably a kick), or every sound with mid-range frequency information and rhythmic (ie. regular intervals of volume or frequency changes) patterns. I don't imagine these filtering options being user-created, but obviously the more control you could give the user over the auto-search parameters, the more valuable I imagine it would be.

I have no idea if what I'm asking is complicated, but since I've never seen it elsewhere, I'm guessing it is...

Never hurts to ask though! Sounds like I'd better start learning C++ if I'm going to be useful here.