Hey Guys,

Just wondering the best way to store backups of Samples, do y'all store them as archives (rar's or zips) or as unrar'd extracted samples. The reason I ask is that, obviously, for space and for ease of copying Rar's are better (lots of tiny samples take much longer to copy than fewer larger rar's) but if there is any corruption or crc errors, the whole archive gets toasted while if the samples are expanded you might lose a few samples here and there.

Thoughts and strategies would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I always leave scene files exactly how they are when they are released for backup/archive purposes.

For use, I extract them all. I delete all the artwork, demo files, and any other spam they put in there. I put MIDI, Presets, and Samples separated. Then samples are either Drum Kits and Breakbeats, FX/samples, VOX, or Tonal (synths, instruments). Kontakt stuff completely separate.

I put the vocals seperately so they are easier to delete all from one place

 

Good question.
For space reasons, I'm often compressing samples from loops and construction kits (not instruments!) to lossy formats. Been using Ogg Vorbis in the past but switched to MPEG 4 audio because of better support in apps. Quality can be adjusted to match my own sense of "perfect". That usually reduced the size of a library to about a tenth of its original size.
Since Ableton can preview compressed files like any other audio files, that works well for me.

 

I pack everything with WinRar. For large files I split the volume size to 500 MB. Do not be afraid of CRC errors.
I also had a CRC error once, very annoying but very rare, one in 100 000.
Samples that I need more often I have unpacked in a folder.
Everything important should be backed up - that is, burned to DVD / BluRay and/or moved to another hard drive.

 

I'll let you know when I finish organising one of the (last) 32TB storage units I just filled

 

I prefer to store as rar archives for protection of the libraries and for a faster data transfer between external SSD drive and computer.

 

i have my samples always extracted and plugin, programs always archived

 

Archived, takes forever to back up otherwise.

 

Personal long-time method:
Everything is extracted. If it's a midi pack of 4GB midi files, I'll convert it an ISO for mounting.
Extracting all archives allows for faster installation on a bare-metal system, removal of unnecessary files from the archive, and proper organization, e.g. if a sample pack has SERUM, KONTAKT, WAV, MIDI, TCI files - those are moved to their respective folders.

 

My normal procedure to store samples:

• Clean the name of each sample to avoid redundancy (the name must be as short as possible)

• Delete all unnecessary characters such as _%. @ # etc
• Delete .nfo files, .sfv files and other not needed files

That's how I store my collection. Then for the backup, I just copy the folder as it is (never used rar's). Obviously I don't rename each file manually, I use a batch renaming app

Note:
It is not advisable to change samples names for packs like Kontakt / Ableton Sampler etc as it will break the link with files in the preset

 

I keep sample libraries and my projects on NAS archived with RAR 500MB volumes, non-solid, and 10% data recovery record.

Regarding samples I use, I make up to 8GB ISO files with sorted samples in them [drums, synth, waves, wavetables etc.] that I mount with Alcohol Portable as needed. It's far easier to defragment a HD with 10000 files on it than a 1000000.

Kontakt libraries that are already compressed in 2GB files I leave alone, of course. I don't use Kontakt much anyway since I use only a handful of useful sample libraries. I keep a copy of the libraries RARed on the NAS as I described.

 

Who defragments his hdds nowadays your hdds just wear out