EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

On 04.01.2005, at 18:01, Aaron Rosenberg wrote:

> Hey EXS and EXSManager fans, I know the time-honored notion of RTFM, so
> I did. But after all was said and done I managed to send all of my
> Native Instruments WAV/AIFF files to a random directory and pull them
> out of their homes forcing me to install the libraries again. There 
> were
> also a ton of instruments in the red. Sad to say, the $99 application
> with my misunderstanding or whatever has made my life more difficult
> instead of easier.

I believe the instruments turned to red because they lost their sample 
location and were incomplete. Will you beat me if I say that you most 
likely can repair that by setting the sample directory to a higher 
hierarchical level and run the program again?

Second hint: before you reorganize the next time, empty the trash and 
check the option "Also references to trash" on top of the ExsManager's 
main window. And go to the "General" page - be sure that "Files deleted 
are sent to trashcan" is selected. This will help you if you accidently 
delete samples with ExsManager because the files in the trash remain 
referenced.


> The basic point is I have .exs and samples all over my machine
> (different directories, drives, etc.). How can I easily move all
> non-duplicate .exs instruments into my sampler instruments folder and
> move the respective samples into directory x. For such a helpful, 
> simple
> application, I'm find this to be a difficult task. God knows why. Any
> help is greatly appreciated. Am I supposed to use Logic Project Manager
> in conjunction with it?

Excuse the length of the description below, I simply think it can help 
you to avoid the same trap you are in...

ExsManager cannot move instruments except from sample directories to 
the one and only "Sample Instruments" directory you've set. If you have 
more than one instrument directory now, I think the additional ones 
were created during reinstallation of the libraries.

The program cannot help you recreating instruments. It's job is to 
organize samples according to instruments. So you have to rebuild the 
instrument structure from scratch. This is the time to rethink the 
organization. If you don't mind I tell you how I did it after several 
trials and errors:

===== first my stuff =====
I do not merge libraries. Not in the instrument folder and not the 
samples - I feel uneasy if everything is mingled :) - so I have the 
following:
----------
Sampler Instruments
     Logic
         01 Piano
         02 Guitars
         ...and all others...
     PMI
         Emperor
         Old Lady
     Sampleheads
         Bass
             Fender Precision
             ...and others...
         Drums
...and so on...
----------
Sampler Library
     Logic
         ...Samples...
     PMI
         Emperor
             ...Samples...
         Old Lady
             ...Samples...
...and so on...
----------

In ExsManager this structure allowes to select a single library folder 
as instrument directory and a single folder as "aux dir" were the 
sample files go. For example if I want to rebuild the Old Lady, I set 
"Sampler Instruments/PMI/Old Lady" as instrument directory and "Sampler 
Library/PMI/Old Lady" as aux directory. I never lost control since I do 
it that way. And it is fast.

"Sampler Instruments" and "Sampler Library" are located in a folder 
"Samples" in my home directory.


===== now your part =====

Make a finder search to locate all instrument folders you have. Combine 
them (by hand) to a single directory in the structure you want, in a 
new folder called "Sampler Instruments", located anywhere on your disk. 
If you are ready, you have three choices to put this folder:

#1
/Library/Application Support/Logic/
This is the root level, some installers put their files here.

#2
~/Library/Application Support/Logic/
This is your user level, some installers put their files here (yes, 
here also...)

#3
Anywhere on your disk.

In case you choose #2 or #3 put an alias of your new folder into #1. So 
Logic will find the instruments. To be sure, open Logic and test your 
hierarchy. Most likely it will not play, but you see what you have 
done.

Now create a Folder "Sampler Library" anywhere. Create folders inside 
to reflect the instrument structure (not the full depth, two levels are 
usually enough).

---

Open Exsmanager.
If your samples are really all over the machine then set the [Sample 
dir] to the highest level: "/".
Set one of your directories of your new instrument folder as [Inst dir].
Set [Aux (dest) dir] to the correspondending folder in your "Sampler 
Library" folder.

For the first run use "Samples are moved when reorganizing" and set the 
other choices to "Moved to ... (maintain hierarchy)". Now analyze and 
see what ExsManager says. If you are happy, process. Check the "Sample 
Libraries" folder.

Carry on, step by step, until all your samples are at home. Then you 
can test them in Logic and - if you want - reorganize the instruments, 
run Exsmanager again on the same folders the files are in. Don't forget 
to set the [Sample dir] to the folder where the samples now are - that 
makes things very fast.

---
Last hint:
If you have problems moving or changing files on root level because of 
permissions, you can download the small Application "chop" from Apple. 
Open it, set the permissions to "777" if you are the only one on this 
machine and do not care about permissions. Afterwards you can drop any 
folder onto "chop" and the permissions are recursively released.
---

Good luck!

Peter Ostry