Our team is releasing a new version of Breezer which is a sample library manager dedicated to audio on Windows. It can read, search and manage by tags any audio asset that can be very helpful when dealing with game design, but is not our area of expertise so any feedback from this community is welcome.

We're currently in release candidate phase, so we need community feedback before the final release. We go thru a rigours testing but we all know that in the wild is a different story (I'm aware of that).

So if you want you can partecipate to the testing and tell us what you think... you can choose to install it or use our portable app. We are here to listen so tell us what you think/want in it! We know that one size does not fill all, so in this release we give more control over the view, do you work with tags... ok, filesystem-only guy? let's hide the tags panel, if needed you can also get rid of the wave/spectral view.

Thanks!

More info here: https:\\www.umbertogiacobbi.biz

Here's a screen of it.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 26, 2021

Umberto, thanks for this great software. But I do not see... is it free? Or am I blind?)

 

No drag & drop?

 

Yes there is full drag'n'drop to/from windows explorer and tag library, also if you drag a file on your daw or a folder it will be available in your DAW or copied into the target folder. If you drag a tag to any folder or file within Breezer it will be applied (or if you press CTRL removed from the target folder). For the pricing we're working on it, until we layout a pricing it is free, also because we're in release candidate stage.

 

Hey @UmbertoG great work!
Could the manager be integrated into XYplorer or other file managers (total commander / Directory Opus / etc) ?

 

@boomoperators yes sure, Breezer can be a source or a target for any file operation (can be explorer, TC, audition, another DAW, anything). It also uses standard windows functions so if you delete a file or folder it will be sent to the trash, or if you have to resolve conflicts Windows will handle that. We don't want to reinvent the wheel... make it rounder yes, but not reinvent it.

You can even create a custom loop (with snapping to due points if the file contains them) and then drag it to your daw or any folder. just click and drag on the wave view to create a custom loop.

That works for folders, files, your search results... anything. For filesystem lovers just choose the filesystem view (top menu view->filesystem) and you're ready to go without tags.

 

(I am using portable version) Drag n drop, I meant to drag an audio file and play directly, and let the player start playing and go to the same folder. If I drag file, it copies it to the folder.

Thanks

 

To play the file just select it, then you can drag it wherever you need. But the main objective is fast preview so just select a file from the file view and playback starts immediately. In the screen attached I just selected a file and it starts immediately.

Also make sure that the proper audio driver is selected in the options (audio stack, first tab, then Audio driver section, just choose the right device for your system, usually only one per system but can varying by system).

Anyway under the options panel (browsing and preview section, see the screen) you can customize the behaviour (maybe the "Stop player when a drag operation starts" is what you're looking for).

Let me know if this solves the issue, also in the near future we will post a short video with the basics of Breezer.

Thanks!

 

Man, I was a user of the original Revel Breezer. I went for it cause, at that time, it was pretty much a great alternative to using the slow Ableton Live browser. My favorite feature of the original software was the fact that it could be docked/hide on the side of the screen and roll out whenever needed to pick and browse samples to drag to Ableton. Yes, it was the ultimate Live companion that way! However, out of nowhere, the whole site disappeared. I was left hanging with a super unstable version crashing left and right with no Win 10 support. Since then, I've moved to a Resonic and Loopcloud combo for browsing and management (Kinda more cumbersome, actually). I gotta be honest though, no other sample manager software I've tried has the screen edge dock/rollout feature that made the original Breezer stand out for me.

Not sure if that dock to the edge of the screen/hide feature is in the new version or if I can put my trust in Breezer again cause I'm skeptical, but I'll keep an eye on the new development.

 

Thanks for Reviving Breezer. To get a greater following, I'd post a product alert to Gearspace.com - and reach out to the 'post production' and 'music for picture' communities over there. The majority of sounddesigners I know use Soundminer for searching sounds, a few use Basehead.

Soundminer's metadata format has became a household name with producers of sound effects libraries. I guess it's a proprietary, closed format, but it would be great if Breezer could read it.
I'm using Audiofinder on Mac myself, but could use a similar priced Windows database manager. What I like about Audiofinder are it's user created 'lists' - it would be great if you could add something similar to Breezer.

 

Hi yes a lot of water flows under the bridges of Breezer, there was some disagreement between our staff that literally killed the development for 2 years.

Now we're back (with a new team) and yes the docking feature is still there (top right corner, you know ;-).

Keep an eye on its development because this time I'm way more free about its management so it is not a problem to have a more relaxed (but stable) release cycle (like every 6 months).

Anyway give it a shot... this time you don't ever need to install it since we have a portable version.

And thanks for the feedback, we improved even the predictability of the docking feature so let us know what you think.

 

Well first thank you for your help, the more Breezer is used the more we can make it stable, right now we are focusing on stability and quality (is just one day and we already found a bug in to the wild).

Now the commitment is focusing on quality over quantity, and listen, listen, listen our user base.

We will explore the list feature after we reach our quality standard, and for the metadata we are already talking with others but most of the formats are proprietary and that's a big problem.

Anyway since few years ago that's on my radar.

Again thank you guys for the support!

 

Some remarks:
Most recent sample managers don't allow to use their software without creating a base, which is wrong. Make software portable too.
Don't use funky colours for the interface
Look at Resonic https://resonic.at they've got very nice ideas, but got to some development hell not being able to make a realise for 8-9 years.

 

Hi for the user interface under the options (workspace section) you can choose a different workspace background, change the saturation, brightness and other UI related stuff to fit your taste, but well noted for the default background scheme.

I dont understand two point "Make the software portable" if you mean bring it to Mac is not on our radar, if you mean anything else share with us your idea (in fact you can move around Breezer database, or create copies of it. But tell us your idea first.

Also "Most recent sample managers don't allow to use their software without creating a base, which is wrong" what you mean here? Can you give us an example for the developers? What you mean for base?

Thanks!

 

Next version or Resonic will bring a lot of new stuff/changes/imprvmnts/fixes.
It is still in beta.
Latest version 0.9.3 is from 2019, as I remember.