Why I prefer Sononym over all other sample managers/librarians 

I've been wondering if you see this comment and care the reply. DO you have an opinion on battery 4? i have been looking for a sampler now also and intended to upgrade to battery 4, with my recent purchase of sononym. But XO seems rad. It almost does both of these programmes. Hoping i didn't jump the gun on sononym.

Yes, that's a strong feature, but I don't typically use Sononym in that way so didn't focus on that. :)

this... me too! I know audio finder can do it, but I don't want to manually delete every duplicate :/

I feel you. I find myself using UVI Drum Designer a lot these days because I can take pretty much any starting sound that is in the right genre/feel and start composing. Then it's easy to later make adjustments to that sound to better fit the full song mix as it builds up, instead of digging around for an entirely different sample.

Sononym is a separate librarian. It does not sync with your DAW.

@@Baphometrix Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I like ADSR's tool over LoopCloud, for sure. My main gripe was always the problem I demonstrated at the beginning of the video, where you can't find many samples simply because of the bad sample naming (and therefore relying on you to manually browse folders and look at folder names to understand what types of sounds are where). ADSR and Loopcloud simply can't deal with this because they focus only on the file names alone.

Oh, and Sononym did add both "random sample" and a "shuffle results list" feature in this latest version 1.1. The Shuffle feature is actually pretty nice. The random sample feature still needs a little tweaking when used in Similarity Search results, though, because IMO it still ranges too far from the top of the results list where the most similar samples are. I spoke with the developers about that and they mentioned that they did try to weight the random result closer to the top of the results list, but they agreed that some type of user input "max range" value would be helpful to let us control how far down it looks for random results.

@@Baphometrix Thanks for the feedback. There's a huge update coming for the ADSR sample manager in the next few weeks. Mail me if you want an early build to try out - steve@adsrsounds.com

Create as FEW symlinks as you need to somehow encompass the samples you want Sononym to know about. Start with just one symlink to the main folder of your sample library.

I've never done a paid promotion, nor in consideration for an NFR copy of any plugin. I bought Sononym on my own dime and use it because it improves my workflow.

I knew it i just wanted to double check. You make very useful videos. This and the one about scaler were very useful. looking forward t the next one. Thank you.@@Baphometrix

Yes. They have a category called "Voice & Acapella".

Baphometrix - Awesome, thank you!

I still use it! It's not perfect, but there's nothing better, at least not on Windows!

Also, it would be amazing if it could estimate the key that loops are in (especially tonal percussion loops, bass/synth loops, and vocal loops/choruses) kind of like melodyne does.

Uhm actually - maybe - now it does a text match looking the whole path instead of just the filename, but it does not actually analyze the sound - yet?

Anything's possible. This video is a year old now. ADSR has probably been making updates since that time.

If I vaguely waved my mouse cursor at a file that *did* have "kick" in the file name, sorry for the confusion. Trust me: Sononym will behave as I described in the video. Look closer in your own demo copy of Sononym to verify. :) For example, here's a hit from my own library, from a search for "kick": C:\BaphoSononymLib\sym_SampleLib\World Flavor\Splice - Sounds of KSHMR v3\KSHMR_Drums\KSHMR_Kicks\KSHMR_Hip_Hop_kicks\KSHMR_808s\KSHMR_808_06_Clean_D#.wav

@@Baphometrix No prob, I believe its working as you said ;) Was just not the perfect example...

If you have literally *millions* of samples, that's pretty unsustainable, overall. Not just with Sononym, but in general. The more samples you have to wade through--whether with the help of a sample manager/librarian or not--the slower your workflow becomes, and the harder the discovery and decision-making. As to your "once you have the sample or loop you want" question, that's the entire reason for various types of "Sampler" instruments, isn't it. Every DAW has a native Sampler device. Many DAWs also have native "special-purpose" sampler devices such as the "Drum Machine" in Bitwig Studio or the "Drum Rack" in Ableton Live. Then there are quite a few 3rd party sampler instruments that all have different claims to fame and are good at solving different problems related to different use-cases for samples. XO is one example, oriented towards solving problems with drum-based samples in particular. Kontakt is another, oriented towards large, complex, layered multi-samples to create very realistic organic instrument sounds (horn sections, string ensembles, famous pianos, etc.). Another might be Serato Sample, which is oriented towards the workflow needs of the "sample flipping" process used by Hip Hop producers and bass music producers. There are no magic bullets for finding and managing a sample collection. Only tools that help with this or that aspect.

@@Baphometrix This is the current state of things. Dragging and dropping just seems so cumbersome and inefficient. I'm a pro in LA and everyone I know has "millions". If one of these companies could make a sample manager that doubles as a plugin so when you find what you are looking for you can immediately hit your keyboard and play it, manipulate it, chop it, etc. Wouldn't that be amazing! Thanks for your reviews and insights.

To my knowledge, no.

Arrrgh, that's a hard choice! XO first only because it's a great drum machine overall and drums are integral to every single song. But you'll want both eventually!

At present, this isn't possible. Sononym runs standalone only, not as a VST. You can easily drag samples into and out of your DAW. (Clipping out one drum or bass hit from your favorite reference track and then dropping that clipped-out sample into Sononym is a GREAT way to leverage its similarity search, BTW.) There are some DAW integration features on the roadmap, but synced playback to host isn't yet on the roadmap. I'd recommend dropping a feature request about this on their contact page? TBH, I rarely used the synced host playback and pitch transposition stuff in Loopcloud or ADSR Sample Manager, either.

@@Baphometrix Ok I have downloaded the trial and am transferring some files going to try it out looks really cool I probably need a new external drive though for my IMac if I make it permanent which I think I will.

@@donnacampbell248 Yeah, the struggle is real. Main SSD drives just aren't big enough for us producers and our sample libraries. I think I'm sitting at somewhere near 400-500 GB total of sample content for all my various plugins (Native Instruments being the biggest offender here), plus all my manually-collected-and-curated samples. Even with a 1 TB main SSD, I still need to keep most of my samples on an external hard drive.

Yes... The trick is to set up your symlinks properly. (Alias folders.)

That would be a nifty feature, for sure. I find that cloud browser feature VERY fast and intuitive in XO!

I don't think so. You should reach out to the Sononym devs on their site and suggest a feature like that!

Iced Audio's Finder does do that and also with midi files. (Mac only)

Cosmos doesn't do subfolders

Sorry, that's a pretty specific hardware/driver interaction type of issue.

@@Baphometrix Seems to have happened when I updated Logic to 10.5. Weird Shit!

Yes it is! Still beats out Loopcloud and ADSR Sample Manager for my needs and workflow

@@Baphometrix thank u for the response! yea I’m grabbing it.

Right click and choose "Assign Category"

FWIW, ADSR Sample Manager has evolved quite a bit since this video was made. I still don't use it (nor Loopcloud). Sononym is still the only tool with any type of similarity search, other than XO (but XO is only for drum/perc one-shots and is drum-centric).

@@Baphometrix Truthfully, I don't much use these and I know they all useful. The first time I used ADSR or Loopcloud it made me notice how many samples I have that I don't and probably will not use. I've been in a loose clean up mode of late. I think once I truncate I may see more value in these types of programs. I recently purchased XO, they had a great sale going on and I decided to jump on board...

Actually, no. I did in fact buy all those samples. I mean, some might have been from free libraries, but just a tiny percentage.

Yeah, I work in a very noisy room with lots of ongoing background noise and another person tapping away on their computer keyboard right next to me, so it is what it is. If you heard my voiceovers without that aggressive gate, you'd understand, lol.

lol for me that IS brief! I tend to do deep-dives on chewy subjects that not many other content makers will tackle. ;-)

I work in a noisy room. I know some of my words get chopped a bit at start, but shrug. ^.^