Library: Live stores entire sets rather than clips?

Paul440 · Post by **Paul440** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:36 pm

Hi there,

I feel this question may have been asked before but Ive dug and dug and cant find anything on it.

Ive got a set with a few voice clips in it (I like dropping in politicians speeches etc over ambient music). I want to build up a list of the voice clips in the Library for later use in other projects.

If I drag one clip from the open set into the Library then all is good. I can put it where I want and I can even make a sub-folder in the library called "Voices". So this is great....

But if I highlight several voice clips at once and drag them into the Library then Live behaves differently. It no longer puts the individual voice clips into the Library but it puts a reference to the Set and the current track they are on. This I could also live with since I could just rename the track "Voices" and it would kind of be what I want.

But the real problem is that structure (Set->Track) it creates in the Library is "read only". For example I cant now take another clip elsewhere and add it to the Track of clips that Live put into the Library. So it seems impossible to let me grow the Voice clips over time.

This problem only occurs when you drag multiple clips into the Library at once. Am I missing something? Is there some way to change Lives behaviour so that it treats multiple clips like single clips when dragging into the Library.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Paul
Sydney Australia

ze2be · Post by **ze2be** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:22 pm

Im gonna jump in on this, because I weant to do the same stuf! Except I also want to swap the clips between 2 computers, flawlessly..

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:29 pm

The more I think about it, the more I come to believe that the Live Clip feature has some serious drawbacks. The main thing seems to be that there is no way around it! It is currently kind of difficult to gather samples out of sets into a specific location. It's going to create all kinds of project folders, .als files, subfolders, etc. depending on how and where you do it.

Sometimes you need to just drag some sounds around!!!

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:18 am

The project manager dudes...
The answer to our prayers

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:19 pm

So far, I only think it is the answer for one very strictly defined way to work.

If I want to put some sounds from a set into the library, the only option from the manager is to export the entire set into the library. You seem not to be able to pick and choose which sounds.

Besides, it all seems to go into a single folder - something like Library/Clips/Imported or something like that. So that's going to be a real mess.

ze2be · Post by **ze2be** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:57 pm

hoffman2k wrote:The project manager dudes...
The answer to our prayers

Hello Hoffman! Could you explain to me how I trancefer 20 clips with their proper names from one live daw to another?

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:34 pm

ze2be wrote:
hoffman2k wrote:The project manager dudes...
The answer to our prayers
Hello Hoffman! Could you explain to me how I trancefer 20 clips with their proper names from one live daw to another?

Save them in a live set. You can access clips in a set from the browser.
Self contain the project to ensure you have all the samples.
Use the project manager to check if no files are missing or to pack the project as a live pack.

Paul440 · Post by **Paul440** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:51 pm

hoffman2k wrote:
ze2be wrote:
hoffman2k wrote:The project manager dudes...
The answer to our prayers
Hello Hoffman! Could you explain to me how I trancefer 20 clips with their proper names from one live daw to another?
Save them in a live set. You can access clips in a set from the browser.
Self contain the project to ensure you have all the samples.
Use the project manager to check if no files are missing or to pack the project as a live pack.

Hello Hoffman,
Thanks for replying to my original post with your suggestion. I had thought about the Project Manager, but I still see that as inflexible in this situation.

For example, I know that I can access a Live Set from the Browser (like you suggest), and I know that I can add one of my 20 voice clips from the browser into my current set. This is great. But what if the set Im working on has a new voice clip and I want to add that new voice clip into my Library with the other 20? (so that my Library of voice clips now has 21 clips)

This to me would be the real power of the Library because it would let me grow the voice clips (and other stuff) over time to a more powerful collection and keep it really well organised.

So far I can only achieve this by dragging each clip one at a time into a folder on the browser. This works fine - but for some songs I create 6 clips all with slightly different names representing different looping points. Its a pain to drag these one at a time into the browser....I should just be able to bulk select and drag - but if I do then Live doesnt store them in the browser as individual clips, it stores the "Set -> Track -> Clips", and it effectively becomes readonly as far as adding more stuff to it (directly from a running set) is concerned.

Let me know if this makes more sense.

Paul.

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:32 am

i started a thread closely related to this, but no one replied so i'll just pile on here. another problem aspect of this is how the clips dragged to the library are still dependent on the audio files from the project they were originally created from. if say you want to delete that set later, then all the clips moved into the library lose all their related audio files. the way ableton WANT you to work is to have the library managed as its own thing...using the "manage files" stuff that pops up in the right window to do all your management, collecting, etc. well has anyone actually clicked the manage library button? it takes forever to scan the library, which for 99% of people starts out full of stuff they don't want.

it seems like they could solve all of these problems by just adding a few contextual menu options, and by having option+dragging do something (as far as i can tell option+drag is the same as regular dragging).

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:52 am

I totally have to agree. I just started working more with Live Clips, and I have to admit I was kinda surprised at the way it works. I'd love to be able to drag a clip to the libray, and have it automaticall save just the clip settings, audio file, and effects settings for that track as a Live clip, versus a whole new project.

Kinda odd to me.

ze2be · Post by **ze2be** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:35 am

hoffman2k wrote: Save them in a live set. You can access clips in a set from the browser.
Self contain the project to ensure you have all the samples.
Use the project manager to check if no files are missing or to pack the project as a live pack.

Thanks!

One thing: How do you self contain the project?

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:38 am

ze2be wrote:
hoffman2k wrote: Save them in a live set. You can access clips in a set from the browser.
Self contain the project to ensure you have all the samples.
Use the project manager to check if no files are missing or to pack the project as a live pack.
Thanks!

One thing: How do you self contain the project?

Collect all and save.

ze2be · Post by **ze2be** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:38 am

Tarekith wrote:I totally have to agree. I just started working more with Live Clips, and I have to admit I was kinda surprised at the way it works. I'd love to be able to drag a clip to the libray, and have it automaticall save just the clip settings, audio file, and effects settings for that track as a Live clip, versus a whole new project.

Kinda odd to me.

Id love to get confirmed what we can and can not do! I mean, are we shure we cant do this? I cant find anything about it in the manual though..

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:12 pm

ze2be wrote: Id love to get confirmed what we can and can not do! I mean, are we shure we cant do this? I cant find anything about it in the manual though..

i got it confirmed direct from tech support. i'm going to play with things a little more when i have a sec, then post a feature suggestion that hopefully gets some attention.

ze2be · Post by **ze2be** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 7:56 pm

scientist wrote:
ze2be wrote: Id love to get confirmed what we can and can not do! I mean, are we shure we cant do this? I cant find anything about it in the manual though..
i got it confirmed direct from tech support. i'm going to play with things a little more when i have a sec, then post a feature suggestion that hopefully gets some attention.

-and what did you get confirmed?