Managing user content between Maschine Plus standalone and controller modes

PacificState

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere, but I'm having problems figuring out how to manage samples between Maschine Plus in standalone and controller modes:

• I have several non-NI sample packs comprising breakbeats, pads, and sound effects (etc)
• On the Maschine Plus in standalone mode, it seems better to manage these with a two-level folder hierarchy
• The suggestion is, however, that I should tag these samples in the Maschine software
• There doesn't seem to be a good way to keep the samples on the SD card and on my Mac in sync, though, other than manually dragging the User Content folder between the two
• Having copied the SD card contents over, though, the samples all show up in the Maschine software on my Mac in one huge list - i.e. I can't see the folders I've just created

Basically, it looks like I need to manage the two sets of samples differently between standalone (folder hierarchy) and controller (tags) - but even then, not being able to view the folders on my Mac makes it really difficult to tag (there's about 10,000 samples in there).

Am I missing something? Thanks in advance!

ozon

Tags is the way to go.

• With tags, folder structure is irrelevant (so you’re not bound to two levels, but the first two levels define your product bank and sub-bank categories)
• Tags work very well in standalone
• Just be aware about quirks with the vendor / product / bank attributes for which filtering is currently a bit messed up on User content (they used to work properly)
• Try to stick to already existing categories and characters as much as possible as it helps to filter across a wide range of content, but don’t be afraid of introducing new categories if nothing suitable exists (e.g. for custom samples of drum machines, I added a Drum Machine category with sub-categories for several models such as Alesis HR-16 or E-mu SP-1200)
• Folder and sub-folder names are helpful during tagging as they are considered in the search.
• As the tags are written into the sample files, samples can be copied or moved to any new folder after tagging.

PS: There are also tools around to help with tagging large volumes of samples automatically by analyzing their path names or even audio content.

PacificState

Thanks! Couple more questions:

• Is there a good way to sync tags / content between standalone and controller mode, or do I need to drag and drop the files over after every edit?
• In Maschine 3 at least, I seemingly can't easily view user samples by folder (although I have other ways to search) - is there a way to do this?

PacificState

Also - is it possible to add an image that's shown when browsing the directory?

ozon

@PacificState asked

Is there a good way to sync tags / content between standalone and controller mode, or do I need to drag and drop the files over after every edit?

You need to manually copy updated files. You could probably use a file copy tool which allows you to set up sync destinations between specific directories, but that’s probably not easy either.

In Maschine 3 at least, I seemingly can't easily view user samples by folder (although I have other ways to search) - is there a way to do this?

The Maschine Browser is mainly tag based. You can browse directories instead, but it’s not the preferred method.

is it possible to add an image that's shown when browsing the directory?

That used to be possible on Maschine 2, don’t know for Maschine 3. It is definitely not possible on the M+ in standalone mode as you don’t have access to the internal file system where these images must be placed.