❓ How do you name/label/organize your tracks/projects files/samples? [The File Organization Thread]

[wayne]

Anyone who has made more than 100 project files over the course of a couple years knows how THICC a “Music Projects” folder can get with subfolders upon subfolders upon subfolders upon subfolders.

I think another thing we learn somewhere down the line is that if you don’t implement some of your own personal organizational guidelines, then Future [you] will never find “that one cool beat you worked on a year or two ago” in your digital teenager’s closet of a Finder window. Musical ideas we intend on picking up later, but then get distracted by our shinier and more exciting creations, tend to be forgotten till much later (at least in my case). Just like that freezer-burned, shrink-wrapped venison from the deer your uncle slaughtered and gifted you as a Christmas gift last year that’s now welding itself to the bottom of your icebox.

So! I am interested to see how y’all maintain some sort of order/sanity with your files:

• What’s your file arrangement system? If you don’t have one, tell us why you crazy bastard! (Bonus points for screenshots)
• How do you choose your project file names when you hit “Save As” for the first time?
• How/where do you store and arrange your samples/presets/MIDI/racks/tools etc.?

Extra Credit Assignment:

1. Go into your project files, click “Arrange by date added (or modified)”
2. Click on the oldest dated folder and open it
3. Take a screenshot of the contents
4. Post picture in this thread
5. The first person to reply to your post gets to choose a file from that folder at their will
6. Use that file to create a new project using that arrangement/sample

[KvlT]

Select all > send to recycle bin > empty recycle bin

If something is sitting around and hasn’t gotten uploaded or transferred somewhere, god help it. Trying to wrangle all the things I make would take a lot of cloud storage or hard drives, and that seems like overkill.

For those who do… I salute you. I’d also love to hear how it’s done

[wayne]

@wayne

What’s your file arrangement system? If you don’t have one, tell us why you crazy bastard! (Bonus points for screenshots)

I’m a “by year” kind of guy. I know this is something I will need to probably narrow down if I plan on being more prolific at some point and being the content-machine I’ve always dreamt of being, but in 20 years of producing, that just really isn’t my style.

Generally my master folder has always been “Music Production”, with folders for types of projects highlighted at the top (covers, collabs, released, etc.) and the un-specified projects all get put into subfolders labeled by years: 2004, 2011, 20018, etc., all the way up to 2024. I generally know what year I was working on something so breaking it down to that base timeline has always worked for me, but even then it can get tricky.

My Music Production folder:

As you can see it’s sort of arranged by type of project it is, whether it’s Ableton Files (where all of my ableton projects go), Live Performance, Sound Files (all samples, loops, presets, everything I use as a tool when producing), and other stuff that I like to “keep out” so I run my eyes by it as often as possible to remind me it exists (ie. Education – where I keep reading materials, digital books, etc.)

Here’s inside the Ableton Projects folder:

Not everything is on this HD because I recently restored an old HD that carries all of my work from 2004-2014, and I’m still working on organizing everything into one place, on one hard drive, but anyone knows this kind of file organization shit is a constant work in progress. Who knows when I’ll ever be satisfied with how I sort.

Here’s a look at “2024”:

Now I am breaking each project into subfolders based on again the type of project it is: Beats. Soundscapes. Sound Design. Learning.

I also like to have a RAW WAV dump folder where I send all renders because it’s like having a “junk drawer” in the kitchen, but it’s ONE folder where every sound I materialize into a .wav or .aiff or .mp3 file from any project exists in one place and I never have to click through a million different project folders to find them.

@wayne

How do you choose your project file names when you hit “Save As” for the first time?

I ask this because I was that guy who used to name things “track1.als” or “thingy I did.als” or “some_dumb_shit_im_drunk_lol.als” and at some point realized this was not copacetic with a more sober producer in the future that wanted to find the things he did when he was in an altered state. I can be high as fuck on hallucinogens, and even then if I save a project my system is something like this:

• “03-02-19 Chill 117bpm basic vibes Fminor-C major Project”
• “12-26-23 reckon you don’t sample - beat 70 bpm - needs a dope bass line Fmin-ish Project”

That said, I still have project files named things like:

• “04-02-20 new version of this shit because quinn thought it was quote a little rushed unquote even though he chose the fucking tempo before”

…dafuq?

@wayne

How/where do you store and arrange your samples/presets/MIDI/racks/tools etc.?

Here’s my “Sound Files” folder.

Cool, ok. arranged by type, nice and neat.

/Samples folder:

/Oneshots folder (THE DOOZY):

Oof, I think this is where I made a grave error and it’s hard to undo.

I used to have every sample pack arranged by company, artist, website, or person I got them from, but at some point I decided it would be a “good idea” to arrange all of my one shot samples into different subfolders by type. This is where arranging by date or type might not be a good idea, since sample and loop files are generally labelled quite descriptively and can be searched for easily. All this did is make it more annoying to find specific sounds I want that coalesce in a group.

This is where XLN Audio’s XO came in. I can’t think of a more useful sample aggregator and arranger than this one. The GUI is fantastic at organizing the type of samples into color groups, and placed in the XY spectrum based on the timbre of the sound. Really subby bassy kick drums are red and go near the bottom, punchy less bassy kicks go toward the top of the red, snares are blue, percs are yellow, etc. You can scroll your mouse around and hear every sample you own all placed in a nice rainbow colored pile, zoom in and zoom out with ease, then Option+click drag the sample over into any clip or track in Ableton. This VST is one of my most favorited and valuable tools.

I tried sononym but with XO didn’t find much use for it, and I no longer care where samples are in my finder, nor do I need to spend too much time arranging them into the subfolders.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Extra credit assignment:

Here is my oldest project folder:

Holy crap. Well… first reply gets to choose my destiny. Which of these 3 old ass Reason files should I reopen and extract bits from to create something new?

[st3aLth]

I have folder Reaper on my external drive and inside I have month’s and them sorted march2023, april2023, etc. Inside folders I have naming from 0-100,etc. and these filename stay constistent through every folder, sometimes I call the projects different
For samples I have folders on 2 external harddrives and it’s called samples.

[st3aLth]

I also had 2021, but I deleted it and the projects were lost there and I regret it.

This is how it looks inside for example

Ohhhhhhh! Also I saved my successful projects in separate folder with all samples etc. but now I don’t do that because once I tried to open old projects and because I called every renders the same as projects like 1.wav, 1-001.wav it failed to load and now I don’t save my project in separate folders.

[st3aLth]

If you want me to choose, well then I’ll choose the third one. whatsthepointinwaiting.rns

[wayne]

coolio, I’ll see what I can do with that (if I can even open it LOL)

[Mecha_Twitchy]

I know this is old, but I wanted to give my two cents
Quite often my project names are just random, because I start music and can’t think of a name to match the feeling of the track, but if they’ve got a name right off the bat I just allcaps it

As for audio or midi, I have a specific way of doing it
Audio is “description/name” “overall key” “tempo” “chord progression”
So for example, I have a kick called
“sf_bounce new F# 200”
the “sf_” and “new” just mean I’m going to upload it to SampleFocus, and I made it with a new method.

Chord progression is in roman numerals, like:
VI IV iii v
etc.

The key is really important for some samples because Serum 2 can automatically recognise the info and use it.

[wayne]

This is great! thanks for sharing

[karmakaniks]

As for projects, a system I have been trying out is having them sorted by year, but with a ‘sketches’ and ‘projects’ folder. The idea is that I try to have 2 actual projects I’m intending on finishing on the go at all times, and no more. But I’ll have little random jam sessions that are usually limited to a few bar loops, and these go into the projects folder. Once I’m done with a track, anything that I’m still really feeling the vibe of from the sketches folder can then be moved into the projects folder.

This way, I always have a few bits on the go at a time to avoid fatigue, and also lets me sit on the ideas I have for a while so I can hear them with fresh ears and a bit more objectivity later on without committing to an idea straight away.

As for sample management, I have no idea, it’s mostly chaos. I heavily rely on XLN’s XO for finding one-shots, but when it comes to longer samples, I’m basically fumbling around in the dark. I should probabaly address that.

[KvlT]

I found a solution that doesn’t involve trashing everything - just use the DAW.

• Saving complex setups as DAW presets (including modular rigs)
• Saving simple ‘time-saver’ presets into the DAW (quantizers, probability, note latches)
• Saving all VST presets as DAW presets so you don’t have to fish around for your shit
• Saving clips and gnarly clip automation as embedded devices (saving by clip)
• Pasting livecode text into the DAW comments sections (I think that’s what those are for)
• Painstakingly organizing native and plugin devices so they’re only a click away
• Creating custom interfaces in the DAW for plugins so you don’t need to open them**
• Naming things exactly what they are (the biggest one here, not surprisingly)
• Keeping custom solutions as simple and modular as possible

I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do all of these without Bitwig, so I guess selecting the best daw for the purpose is part of it. But I think I finally found a way to retain and access shit while being 10% less disorganized.

** = You’d be surprised at which weird dropdown menu bullshit you can instantly turn into a slick knob instead. Often when you select them in a plugin, you just get a sweet macro back that allows you to flip through modes without having to dive through menus and read shit. Works with things like Miniraze, Ohmicide and probably many others. You’re welcome

[psyber]

I used to care about file organisation, email organisation, notification organisation… all forms of digital organisation.

For a long time now, I’ve been in a state of no longer give the slightest fuck, and I so rarely need to find some specific old file, because I stopped caring much about old files. I perception-filter numbers in red boxes, and turn off most notifications… I’ll look at messages and apps when I fucking feel like it, as that’s, you know, a natural and healthy distance to keep from the anxiety inducing, addictive, and mentally damaging hyperreality of modernity.

The sole exception was in my profession as a software engineer. I am very good at organising things if i think it actually matters, and when I’m doing a job as a professional. I quit that career though, because I now fucking loathe the nature of pretty much every product or business I could reasonably get a job working for. No, I don’t want to help some dispassionate international company make more money by providing them with a good product that tey go off and use to exactly that end.

Now I sell books, old ones. I like it. Minimum involvement with technology.

---

Anyway that kinda evolved into something of a tirade against technology. Don’t’ worry, I’m not going to mail you a bomb. For one, I’m not Ted Kaczynski, and two, I don’t think that’s a good solution. Spiking your food sources with concoctions of psychedelic compounds that will leave you permanently mentally scarred is far better, I want you to suffer the rest of your miserable existence, not die very suddenly or just end up with some 2nd degree burns and maybe a bit of shrapnel in your arm.

I jest…

Here’s how I organise my music projects:

Oh, and yes, I use labels to group things like snares, hats, kicks, melodies, bass, background percussion, pads, and whatnot in drum racks and in the mixer, so I can find them more easily in dropdowns, I use the notation [Type], in square brackets, to make ti clearer… nested groups get another level of square brackets sometimes if there’s more thna two or three. Otherwise, I have a good memory visual memory, and can remember where most things are in a project - it’s fine, I don’t care much

[Artificer]

Markdown file in the working directory. Track name, general notes and ideas, screenshots of settings for plugins, sample sources, whatever. Then I shove it to git so I have a searchable change history that ties to the directory name.

[Mecha_Twitchy]

How do you guys deal with project files or similar that you can’t think of a creative name for?
I’m getting sick of having to rename everything all the time…

@psyber

Here’s how I organise my music projects:

This is great

[wayne]

Honestly this is definitely a way to go and a whole other level of insanity that i vibe with

[wayne]

@Artificer

Markdown file in the working directory. Track name, general notes and ideas, screenshots of settings for plugins, sample sources, whatever. Then I shove it to git so I have a searchable change history that ties to the directory name.

ooo u fancy tho