Audio sample management
September 14, 2021 — February 19, 2022
Here are sample library indexers that use machine listening to classify audio for music production purposes.
1 Atlas 2
Atlas 2 (USD99) (Windows/macos/linux)
I have, use, and love this. It is a combination drum sequencer, sampler, and indexer. The interface is smooth and well-designed but definitely quirky. Undo is limited, but there is much scope for random re-dos. The similarity search seems powerful, but most of the information is hidden from the user in favour of a shiny animated visualization through which we can browse.
It looks like some kind of classic 2d clustering such as UMap driving the search, which is fine IMO; that is more or less what those algorithms were designed for. You are encouraged to lean into serendipity to get stuff done. I would say that this attempts to surf serendipity, which is probably the right approach for me personally.
2 Sononym
Sononym (USD99) (Windows/macos/linux) is more of an indexer and less of a sampler in its own right. It also focuses on drum sounds but has a richer vocabulary for them than Atlas; it seems to be designed to supplement traditional workflows with precision searching rather than as an instrument in its own right.
Since I already seem to suffer some kind of OCD when it comes to sample organization, I am restricting myself to Atlas rather than get lost in the excessive informativeness of Sononym. This is probably about my brain.
3 Incoming
Looks like Atlas 2 but…
- better sequencer
- no linux support
Polarity’s intro video is pretty good I didn’t know xo could do that? : Bitwig
4 Acquiring samples
That’s a different thing; see sample libraries.