How do I import a large sample library from my computer to Drambo?

Hello,

new to the forum, have been using Drambo for maybe 6 months or so and I’m loving it, it’s incredible how capable it is and how far the ability to create music on an iPhone/iPad has come. I have figured out most of the features relevant to how I work and have read the manual but now I’m ready to import my sample library and can’t figure out how, I didn’t see it in the manual but maybe I overlooked it.


I have my Sample library on my Mac and it’s maybe 100gb or so I haven’t decided if I’m going to import the entire thing but I want to import at least 50gb of my stuff. So how would I import it from my Mac to my iPhone?

thanks in advance!

Comments

  • Oh, that's going to be a tough one.

    Do you have the samples available as separate audio files?

    How are you going to map them to keys?

    Do the file names contain note and velocity information?

  • They are primarily one shot drums, vocal stabs, chord stabs, things like that m. Nothing I’d need to map just stuff I’d throw in a sampler and play. They are all .Wav files and the names don’t contain any additional information. They are all available as separate audio files and are organized in folders and sub folders by where they came from and then what they are.

    I was really hoping I could just drag and drop them and then just access them like you can with the built in samples. But it sounds like it’s more complicated than that?

  • You can import any folder that you can access through the files app. So, if you know how to share a folder on the Mac and then connect to that share from the files app, that's one way you can try.

    Large file transfers to iOS are problematic the files app is nowhere even as good as Windows 95 was more than 25 years ago. 😐

    Don't even think about trying to import 50gb of files at once. Maybe start with a folder or two to get a feel for how well it will work and take it from there.

  • edited January 2022

    OK, that's good. If it's just import of many files then that's quite easy.

    • Connect both your iPhone/iPad and your Mac to the same WiFi network (or create a m2m WiFi network on your Mac)
    • Hit Drambo's left top burger menu and enable WebDAV
    • On your Mac, open finder and choose Go => Connect to server...
    • Enter the URL shown in Drambo's WebDAV dialog and choose "Guest" (anonymous login)

    You have now full access to Drambo's file storage. You can create folders (the Sampler module will look for samples under ./Samples) and you can create any folder structure unter that.

    I wouldn't mind using multiple Sampler modules to organize convenient sample access in your racks.

    For samples that don't need multiple velocity layers, you can use the different velocity levels for other purposes by setting the velocity sensitivity to zero. Incoming velocity values will still select the appropriate layers and play at original sample volumes which can be used for alternative sample versions like in round robin or different instrument articulations.

    Another note: Sampler allows import of .m4a audio files as well. Bit rates of 128..160kbps are usually indistinguishable from linear pcm and you'll save plenty of storage on your iDevice. I'm using Apple's afconvert, one of the best Mpeg 4 audio encoders.

  • @matthew_savant . Just one little thing that was left unsaid in the above. Leave the Drambo WebDAV popup open while transferring files. The server only runs while it is open.

  • BTW, watch your step and make sure you have your backups in place.

    Prompted by this thread I decided to move my samples onto my mac and I ended up deleting all of Drambo content by accident (because finder was using tabs instead of separate windows) and for some reason I couldn’t find deleted files in the trash and there was no undo available.

    Fortunately I had an iCloud backup and this is my secondary device but….I’m now spending time restoring from backup instead of doing other things ;)

  • Good point in making a backup before @supadom. Files deleted over WebDAV will be deleted permanently.

  • very informative, thanks to all of you!

    I’m going to try both ways transferring to see which one works better for me. I agree about iOS ‘Files’ app, win95 file structure literally worked better. It’s just Apple’s answer to Android users being able to use their devices as hard drives etc but it’s a poor answer.

    I really appreciate the step by step and the advice. I’ll start slowly with just a few of my favorite sample folders and see how easy or difficult it is to import and retain the folder structure that I have my samples set up in.

    I do look forward to being able to use the samples I’ve made and collected over the years in the Drambo ecosystem. Drambo is so awesomely capable of genuine music production I’m still in awe that this is all on my phone.

    After I get my samples sorted out I want to start collecting all the apps I can that are Audio unit compliant both instruments and effects, I already have a decent collection but I feel like there is probably more that I haven’t found yet. I’m going to search this forum to see if anyone has compiled a list or just listed their favorites if I don’t find anything I’ll start a new thread about it.

    Thanks again guys, respect!

  • @matthew_savant Regarding audio units, my purchases went down dramatically after Drambo came. I'm still using Korg Gadget here and there mainly for composing (with only very few iAP purchases like iWavestation and Stockholm for all my REX files) and the few "essential" AUv3 addons for me are the Thafknar convolutor and Streambyter for mangling MIDI messages. Oh, and TB Equalizer for dynamic equalisation and spectrum analysis.

  • @rs2000 i haven’t bought a music app in ages, perhaps the last one was TB Barricade. If ios music app market collapses we will know why ;)

  • No Audioshare?

    Just got into drambo last night :)

  • Simplest, safest approach for me was copying all the files I want to transfer onto a memory card connected to a USB c hub and then using the Import Folder option in Drambo to import those into Drambo's library. I have about 15gb imported. It was pretty fast using iPad Pro 2020.

  • edited May 2022

    I'm always using WebDAV for managing Drambo's files conveniently.

    No matter if it's on the same iDevice (using Readdle Documents for example) or from your Mac or Windows or Linux machine, it's much more convenient than the iOS native Files app because I'm free to choose the file manager app. When mounted on a desktop machine, all Drambo folders appear like a normal (yet slower) drive.

    @auxmux's approach is certainly faster though.

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