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Old 08-23-2017, 01:02 PM   #1
J Riley Hill
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Default Relative (Sample Library) Sample Path

My number one feature request for reaper!!!
I feel like this could benefit a lot of people and hopefully wouldn't be too hard too implement.

PROBLEM:
I keep a large sample library synced across 3 computers (studio I work at, laptop, main mixing computer). Even though these all have the same files, and I have made a database of my sample library in reapers sample browser; I still need to import each file into a reaper project folder if I'd like it to open flawlessly on every computer. This is extra time and hard drive space that could be saved.

SOLUTION:
Most samplers (such as TX16w, Sforzando and Kontakt) and lots of daws (Ableton has a library path for instance) allow relative sample paths. When opening a project on a different computer that path is automatically scanned for the referenced file. Projects are portable across systems, without needing to include every referenced sample in the project itself.
REAPER could use a similar system and there are numerous benefits.

BENEFITS:
Allowing for a relative file path in the preferences, or automatically allowing sample databases to be searched as relative file paths would speed things up a lot for people like me who use multiple computers. There are loops, samples and impulses i use every single day, that really shouldn't have to copied into every project.

A MASSIVE ADDED BENEFIT:
The lack of a relative sample path negatively effects FX chains and Track Templates when sharing across systems. Since REAPER's built in sampler(reasamplmatic5000) and IR reverb (ReaVerb) use absolute paths (or relative paths based on project locations) for their samples, they cant find the associated files when used from different locations. A relative sample path would allow the sharing of track templates and FX chains across computers without having to re-link the samples every time (Just put the files you want to use all the time in your relative path). To me this would make track templates/FX chains LITERALLY twice as useful, and that isn't an over-exaggeration.

ANOTHER ADDED BENEFIT:
Users could share scripts, templates, fx chains, Reasamplmatic5000 chains etc. that require samples. All you would have to do is put the necessary samples in your relative path, scripts could even do that automatically.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:

Two things to consider would be:
- NEVER allow the "Save Project As..." Dialogue to "move" a sample out of a relative sample library file path. because people are dumb when they are being creative and that could be bad.

-the "Save Project As..." Dialogue should have a new option for "copy files from Library sample path?". So you can choose whether you would like any loops, samples or impulses you are using from you sample library to be copied into the project file. (if you need to share it with someone else or archive it etc.)

Hopefully I have explained this well enough.
Thanks!
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Old 01-12-2022, 02:37 PM   #2
zoppl
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+1000 would make sampling soo much easier
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Old 01-14-2022, 02:08 PM   #3
thevisi0nary
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Are you referring to loading samples directly into Reaper? Or do you mean a sampler like kontakt not finding the sample path when you move the project to a different computer?
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Old 01-23-2022, 11:26 AM   #4
J Riley Hill
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I was talking about a user defined relative path for audio files that could be accessed by Reaper plugins and scripts.
ReaSamplomatic5000 and Reaverb for instance, both use audio samples.

Currently:
Samples can either be located in a specified place on your hard drive (for example
"D:/MySamples"), or within a relative path in the project folder. (for example a folder called Audio in the project folder). This means when you move a project to a different computer, if you'd like to a have it load without issue, you either must include the sample in the project or have a matching sample folder in a matching location on the other computer.

What I'm saying is, it would be neat if we could set a user samples folder at an arbitrary location on our computer that can be used as a "relative" path to search for samples. As an example of how this would work:

You start by working on a project in Reaper on a Windows computer:
- Reaper has it's user samples folder set to "D:/MySamples/"
- Reaverb is using an impulse response located at "D:/MySamples/IR/RealSpaces/Caves/"

You move this project to a Mac computer:
- this computer has a matching sample folder but in a different location "/Users/JoJo/MySamples".
- Reaper has it's user samples folder set to that location.
- Upon loading the project Reaper would search for the path "/IR/RealSpaces/Caves/" starting from the relative path of "/Users/JoJo/MySamples". Assuming this file is in the correct place it will load the impulse response correctly.
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Old 01-31-2022, 11:11 PM   #5
J Riley Hill
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Some more reasons why this idea could be cool with Reaper:

Could use the relative path for images as well, since Reaper lets you use images for track headers and items. Having a non-standard location for those images (that isn't the project folder) would make it easier to access those images across multiple Reaper installations.

A relative user defined sample path could facilitate easier sharing of lots of different types of things on the Reaper stash (reverb or guitar cab impulses, samples, images) Since Reaper is so community oriented this seems like a win.

Having a user definable relative sample path would make it easy to put your sample folder in something like Dropbox, to allow syncing assets to the cloud without having to mess about with file/folder linking.
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Old 04-06-2022, 05:31 AM   #6
lexaproductions
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... If at least Reasamplo could look in Reaper's data folder. It does form the track icons afaik
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Old 11-28-2022, 09:12 AM   #7
dylanoid
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Default relative path for IR samples

If you create an audio folder with a relative path in project settings, then selecting IRs in the top level of that folder using browse will ensure the relative path to those IRs is used, ie you can move the top level project folder and everything works fine. A bit quirky but useable.
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