Audiofinder sous OS X

[Admin]

Une news en anglais parue sur OSXAudio (http://www.osxaudio.com), concernant un outil indispensbale à tout possesseur de banque de samples, ou de grosses sonotèques sur disque dur:


Mystical Sun Software has updated its application, AudioFinder to 2.2.

Changes since 2.0


[*]Added "Transfer" menu. This feature allows you to quickly file sounds in folders by category.

[*]Added the ability to create a soundbank using aliases.

[*]Added "MIDI Patch Changer" under the Window menu. This feature allows you to change the bank and program on a remote MIDI device. It is very useful in conjunction with a MIDI sequencer for trying out sounds on external synths.

[*]Added "Audio MIDI Setup" under the Window menu. This feature launches the system Audio MIDI Setup.

[*]Added "Toggle Mini View" under the Window menu. This option switches between the minimal AudioFinder playback controls and the full controls. You must have a sound selected before going into Mini View mode. Autopilot works in Mini View mode and the Dock menu can be used to select new tracks.

[*]Added the ability to find within results in the Seeker.

[*]Moved the find options from the Options menu to buttons in the Seeker.

[*]Added right click context menus to the Browser and Seeker

[*]Added Next Sound, Previous Sound, Loop and Autopilot - Dock menu controls.

[*]Added Play, Stop, Copy to Favorites and Make Alias in Favorites - Dock menu controls.

[*]Fixed a bug in Create Soundbank.

[*]Added "Create Soundbank" under the File menu.

[*]Added the ability to make comments on a sound. The comments are also visible in the Mac OS Finder in Get Info and vice versa.

[*]Added a "Check For Updates" menu item in the AudioFinder menu.

[*]Autopilot Shuffle Play will now no longer repeat sounds it has already played.

[*]Added a preference to bypass adding the directory name "AudioFinder Favorites"

[*]Fixed a bug where Autopilot play did not work correctly in the Startup folder.

[*]Added Favorites Drawer


AudioFinder is a professional music application and unique in the world of music software, it has its own niche. AudioFinder lets you look at what is already on your system's hard disks in new ways so that you will find sounds that you never knew you had. AudioFinder is the fastest way to find audio files in the history of the planet -- really we mean it.

Ask yourself what good is it to have thousands of sounds on your computer if you don't know what they sound like or where to find them? How does one tame a hard drive full of sounds and make them appear when called? Those are the questions that brought AudioFinder into being. There are a zillion different ways to use AudioFinder even though it may appear very simple, it is actually very smart. It does the monotonous tasks and scanning for sounds while you do the fun and creative stuff.

AudioFinder was designed for digital musicians to gain control over their sample library. The idea behind AudioFinder is elegantly simple - provide a user interface like the Mac OS X Finder that is optimized for browsing and auditioning audio sample files. AudioFinder can be controlled exclusively from the keyboard or by the mouse. By using the up and down arrows the user can quickly scan hundreds of audio files. When the user finds an audio file that they would like to use in a project they can either copy the file or refer (make an alias) the file to the favorites directory. When the user has found all the sounds they plan to use in a music project they simply go to the favorites directory and start work using their music program of choice. Double clicking on a file opens it in the preferred audio program as configured in the preferences.

The Seeker Tab is a birds eye view of all the directories from the location currently selected in the Browser. The more files the longer it will take to scan as AudioFinder recursively cruises through all the directories and looks for sound files. AudioFinder scans for files in a background thread. The status bar on the bottom will indicate how far along AudioFinder is. In general it is good to navigate in the Browser Tab to the directory that is nearest to where your sounds are kept and then select the Seeker Tab. This will be much faster. However, it is also perfectly valid to navigate in the Browser Tab to the root of a volume and scan the entire hard disk, this will take sometime, but will yield a complete list of all sound files on your computer. Once this is full scan is complete you can click the disk icon next to the find field and save the results into AudioFinder's long term memory. Then you will not need to scan again and every sound on the system will always be instantly available in the Seeker each time you launch AudioFinder. Note: if new sounds are added, moved, renamed or deleted outside of AudioFinder the saved long term memory will get out of sync. This is harmless, and can be fixed by Forgetting the memory and rescanning.

The Find field is a very powerful feature. This enables you to find any sound based on the file name. A list of useful keywords is already stored in the combo box and will auto-complete for you as you type. For instance just type 'Lo' and 'Loop' will be filled in automatically. Finds happen instantly since all of the files are already in the list. In the screen shot above AudioFinder had thousands of files in the Seeker. Every sound instantly at your fingertips, There is nothing like this feature anywhere, if you are addicted to using samplers, this is a massive time saver.

Another problem that AudioFinder solves is the management of drum loop files. Often a drum loop will not have the BPM in the file name therefore making it difficult to find the right match when searching for a loop. AudioFinder can guess the BPM or the user can utilize the BPM Tap Pad to tap out the tempo. Once the BPM is found AudioFinder can rename the audio file to include the BPM. This can be a great time saver when searching for drum loops that are close to the tempo of a music project. Additionally DJ's can use AudioFinder's BPM Tap Pad to quickly find out the tempo of their favorite vinyl.

There are even more great features like the ability of AudioFinder to "Autopilot" and play a list of audio files. The idea here is to use AudioFinder in conjunction with your music creation tool of choice. Launch your music program (IE, Ableton Live or Reason) and start your song playing. Launch AudioFinder and navigate to a directory where your samples are. Click the first sample file in the list and then click the "Auto" button. Sit back and listen as AudioFinder "Autopilots" the list, when AudioFinder plays a sound that you want to use in your project click the "Copy to Favorites" button. Then switch back to your music program and add the sound file. AudioFinder transforms a simple directory into a sample CD.

Note: Currently AudioFinder supports the AIFF, AIFC, SD2, REX and WAV formats, the primary formats for all professional music software. AudioFinder can even play what is inside of a REX file.

How Much Does it Cost?

AudioFinder is shareware and is offered for the price of $35. It may be purchased online or by sending a check or money order for $35 to:

Mystical Sun
PO Box 891
Clayton, CA 94517

If the public would like new features to be made available then sending in the shareware fee will insure it will happen.

http://www.mysticalsun.com/software/

[Admin]

Mystical Sun Software
http://www.mysticalsun.com/software/

Not wanting to rest for a while, Richard from Mystical Sun Software has updated his application, AudioFinder to 2.5. This update adds a Sample Extractor to AudioFinders ever growing collection of tools.

The Sample Extractor is a unique and powerful feature that will save you many hours of audio editing. While some professional sample CDs come in WAV or AIFF format the bulk are in Audio CD format, with each track containing multiple samples. In order to use the individual samples from Audio CD traditionally one would have to import the track and then open it in an audio editor application and manually find each sample section, cut it out and make a new file. AudioFinder's Sample Extractor automates the sample cutting and editing process so that sounds with multiple samples can be sliced into individual files almost instantly.

Changes in AudioFinder 2.5 since 2.3

* Added the ground breaking Sample Extractor feature for converting Audio sample CDs into individual files.
* Added a preference to turn off the confirmation beep.
* Added file type filters in the Seeker mode.
* Added the ability to save multiple scan memories.
* Improved the scan memory handling user interface
* Now scan memories can track offline media.
* Added melotron-like keyboard controller
* Refined the user interface
* Fixed various bugs.




Changes in AudioFinder 2.3

* Added mp3 playback support.
* Improved Create Sound Bank error handling.
* Added Bookmarks menu.
* Fixed various bugs including one where the info window would remain blank.