most recent 30 from http://socialsounddesign.com 2013-06-20T01:38:29Z http://socialsounddesign.com/feeds/question/5342 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://socialsounddesign.com/questions/5342/library-search-speed C3Sound 2011-01-02T21:28:27Z 2011-08-24T15:22:34Z

<p>I feel like I sit and wait a lot while searching through my library. Anyone else get the feeling they spend just as much time, if not more, waiting to audition sounds as they do editing them?</p> <p>Im guessing the only way to speed this up is to buy a faster hard drive, either Solid State or... I think ive seen a 10,000 some rpm drive? The other option is to partition depending on library, type of sound (in larger categories), etc. Any ideas?</p> <p>Also, I hear a lot about sound miner. But isnt this expensive/another program to run behind pro tools?</p> <p>Thoughts?</p>

http://socialsounddesign.com/questions/5342/library-search-speed/5345#5345 tim prebble 2011-01-03T06:12:35Z 2011-01-03T06:12:35Z

<p>no problem/waiting with sound miner with my main library database of 500,000+ sound files - how are you searching your library? I hate spotlight - slow as a wet week...</p>

http://socialsounddesign.com/questions/5342/library-search-speed/5352#5352 Iain McGregor 2011-01-03T12:22:40Z 2011-01-03T12:22:40Z

<p>I would definitely go for soundminer it really will speed up your workflow dramatically. </p> <p>If you are unsure you can start with miniminer and then step up to the standard or pro edition later.</p> <p>The main thing is make sure that you complete the metadata as you add new sounds.</p>

http://socialsounddesign.com/questions/5342/library-search-speed/9856#9856 Stavrosound 2011-08-24T09:09:50Z 2011-08-24T09:09:50Z

<p>What can help on a searching side too is to shorthand searches, such as:</p> <p>resi = residential, amb = ambience, backg = backgrounds, met = metal, plast = plastic, etc.</p> <p>It may seem like it only shaves a fraction of a second off a search, but added up over time, it saves a lot of time. As mentioned, Soundminer is a top choice. With it you can do boolean searches which are quite amazing. In many cases, I've used them to effectively get a handful of results on a search to find what I need instead of thousands of files that I don't need.</p> <p>An example would be:</p> <p><strong>amb cit traf day -bird -siren</strong></p> <p>This would mean that it searches for city traffic ambiences that are daytime, but without birds (if the file was tagged properly), and without any sirens (of tagged properly)</p> <p>This function proves to be very powerful</p> <p>One note: Soundminer and other search tools are not 'contextually intelligent'. This means that if a file is tagged with the text <strong>no birds</strong>, and you run a search for files that are <strong>-bird</strong>, it will NOT show that file because the word <strong>bird</strong> was tagged it, regardless of having <strong>no</strong> in front of it. Lesson? Only tag what the file has, not what it does not have (except under specific circumstances)</p> <p>I know this answer is somewhat of a tangent from the actual question, but it does relate to it in the sense of effective search ability and time saving.</p>

http://socialsounddesign.com/questions/5342/library-search-speed/9860#9860 Dave Matney 2011-08-24T13:29:04Z 2011-08-24T13:29:04Z

<p>If you're on an extreme budget, iTunes is a good alternative... you just have to be good with your naming and tagging. You can even drag a file directly out of iTunes and into your DAW.</p>

http://socialsounddesign.com/questions/5342/library-search-speed/9861#9861 RedSonic01 2011-08-24T15:22:34Z 2011-08-24T15:22:34Z

<p>At work I use <a href="http://www.baseheadinc.com/" rel="nofollow">basehead</a> and it is pretty damn speedy (milliseconds) at searching our 300,000+ snds (2TB) Library, it's also cheaper but not as nice looking as Sound Miner. At home I use <a href="http://www.icedaudio.com/" rel="nofollow">audio finder</a> which is not nearly as fast but gets the job done pretty well, plus it only costs $70.</p>