EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

I'm about to go Logic Pro with EXS in an all-out attempt to shift my 
workflow to OSX. This means saying goodbye to SampleCell which, for all 
its lack of sophistication, was a very simple and stable tool.

My concern is with file management. I use SampleCell mainly in two ways:

1. Ready-made instruments, eg Violin section, Oboe, Pianos. Depending 
on the song it may be necessary to change some instrument parameters, 
eg violin attack, or oboe modulation speed.

2. On-the-fly instruments. Example 1, when starting a song I just load 
up a drumloop that I think might work. Maybe play it a semitone or 
three up and down to get the tempo right. Example 2, I want to build a 
drum kit so I load a kick sample into one instrument, a snare into 
another, try them out and replace them till I get the right sound. 
Example 3, spotting sound effects. (Sure I can import the audio file 
straight into Logic, but spotting SFX with a sampler makes it much 
easier to pitch things up and down without having to go through a 
time-stretching exercise in Logic.)

Once I have my song completed I just save all the SC instruments and 
samples that I've used into the same folder as my Logic song and 
archive the whole thing, so I can go back to it five years later and 
everything is still there, song, samples and tweaked instruments.

With EXS my understanding is that all instruments must reside in the 
Logic folder. Obviously I'll need to change some work habits. So how do 
I deal with these situations:

1. I load up my fave string section but find I need a slower attack. 
Because the instrument has to reside in the Logic folder do I now have 
to make a new "Strings slow attack" instrument? The next song needs a 
different attack and also a more closed filter, so do I now have to 
make a "Strings med attack close filter" instrument? Almost every 
instrument I use gets some minor tweaking to finesse it for a 
particular song - things could get seriously out of hand with hundreds 
of almost-identical instruments clogging up the Instruments folder, 
some for songs that were done years ago and will perhaps never be 
revisited, but I'd better keep the instruments just in case! There's 
also the danger I may inadvertently adjust the parameters for an 
instrument that is being used in another song.

2. Same goes for on-the-fly instruments I make. I've found a good kick 
drum and snare drum for my song: do I have to save these song-specific 
instruments in the Logic folder?

Frankly, I'm scared!


    Ian

                     ------------------------------
                     Ian G. Morris   -   Tonewright
                          ian@...
                          www.igmusic.co.nz