Just curious how people are organizing samples on the M:S. Are you doing the 6 samples with the numbering so you can load full kits, sorting by sample type, changing the names so read better on the screen?
Yeah, thatās wise. Keep them shortā¦ make the folder the name of the sample typeā¦ for me, drum machinesā¦ like ā707ā is the folder name. K1 or 1K (I havenāt tried it yet so I canāt remember if the number has to be the prefix or suffix)ā¦ SN2 or 2SN, etc.
The font SHOULD be smaller on screen. Just a TINY bit smaller. Can we make this happen, Elektron?
3 Likes
No kidding. I just need like 3 more characters squeezed in. Thatās a doable OS upgrade too.
1 Like
I was just thinking about this and considering changing my method from having instrument specific folders to having sound specific folders (e.g. a folder for kick drums, another for snares, etc).
- Does anyone know if this might mess up any preprogrammed beats?
- Is this simply a terrible idea, if the number of sounds in any given folder get to be too many?
I was thinking it might make it easier after programming a beat to audiotion similar sounds.
OK, I decided to start organizing samples not by kit but by sound. What Iāve finally realized is that when changing samples the browser begins in the same folder that the current sample is in.
So for example, if you always have a kick on T1, then if you keep all your kick drum samples in the same folder, then each time you want to switch kick samples youāll always be in your kick drum sample folder. This makes for quick and easy browsing/auditioning. Iāve started to amass separate kick, snare, hihat and clap folders and I think this method will be a life saver.
3 Likes
I just picked up my model samples today. Dumb questionā¦if you have patterns that refer to samples already, will moving the samples around into different folders break the patterns?
Iāve been picking up the M:S again, and have really struggled with how to manage my samples - pretty much since I bought the device. I saw @Phurnitureās suggestion above, and that could potentially work quite well. Particularly as I try to always have the 6 āTracksā or pads be mapped to specific functions (all one-shots):
1 - Kick
2 - Snare
3 - Short HH
4 - Long HH or Crash
5 - Tom (or Melodic)
6 - Melodic (usually a bass)
So, what @Phurniture noted about the menu behavior is pretty critical - if I went to change a particular kick, snare, etc., I would already be in the folder with the appropriate type of sound when I went to change it.
But the āproblemā with that approach is that you really can no longer load ākitsā that contain all six instruments. If you long press the Orange encoder on a sample folder, it will ask you if you want to load the whole kit. As long as there are six items in the folder and they are numbered āKick 1ā, āSnare 2ā, etc., it will assign them to the proper tracks. This seems to be how Elektron intended people to use the device, because if you look at all of their sound pack content (of which there are both free and paid items), they all follow this numbering format.
So I was starting to favor the ākitā method because I had a bunch of soundpacks. But as I work with the device more, it does seem like the folder method is better for workflow. I suppose you could also do both - have ākitsā on the device from the soundpacks, but then also have folders for specific instruments that you could switch over two if you need to edit something. Iām definitely overanalyzing here, but I think M:S users will understand why - you get just a few characters on the devices screen to tell you what the sample is, so the soundpack/kit method isnāt really intuitive when I know āI need a kick hereā, or āthis track will be a bass noteā.
1 Like
I completely agree with this frustration, as it basically forces you to decide on one solution vs another. Like you Iām also contemplating how to quickly and easily have the option of working within sound specific folders but also with the option of quickly switching to kits.
1 Like
Agree thereās a dilemma here. Iām pretty new to model:samples, but Iām attempting to fix this by having both kit folders (to let me quickly get started on a track) and instrument folders (to choose between favourite kicks, favourite snares, etc). Just starting to discover I want some samples (not all) in both structures.
2 Likes
I really think thatās the way to go (having kit and individual instrument folders). The good news is that M:S has quite a bit of storage (for this price point), particularly if you are like me and most of your samples are brief one-shots versus one- or two-bar loops.
Still, itās paralysis by choice when I load up my M:S, so Iām hoping the work put into organizing the kit folders will help that. I did purchase a few of the Elektron soundpacks when they were on sale just for the heck of it. The samples sound great, but I canāt even fit the name of the sample pack on my screen unless itās 7 digits or less. And even then, am Iām supposed to recall what packs like āSizzlerā, āHoaxā, or āLazer Zunā mean? So, while itād be a lot of work, itās tempting to just go pull out the kicks, snares, etc. from those packs and dump those in my instrument folders with abbreviated names (something like āElek-1, Elek-2ā, etc.). At least then theyād get used.
While I do think itās still important to have kits, I probably donāt need that many of them. I would have 6-track kits ready to go for acoustic drum kits (a few different styles), and then some of classic drum machines (808, 909, LM-1, etc.) to recall and replicate a particular vintage style. Otherwise, Iām fine auditioning different kicks, snares, etc. on each track to make my own kit.
Youtube is full of videos from people who have had their sound packs organised by the pack vendor, and have suddenly realised (and are telling the world) that itās not a practical idea 
There are workarounds for that organisation with sample managers if youāre on a Mac or PC and using a DAW but when the samples are on your M:S that will be a nightmare. You donāt want the overhead of the extra folders, and remembering which of āSizzlerā or āHoaxā you need for that nice kick you found 2 weeks ago. Just like you donāt want to be hunting through all the kit subfolders in āfactoryā
BTW, you might be interested in this if you havenāt seen it: Categorization and location of factory sounds
1 Like