How do you name/manage your audio files?

H

Hoodoo

New member
I'm curious as to the nomenclature you use for naming your various audio files. For example, I've used this:

SongName_Instrument_Take#_Dry/WetEffects.wav,
so that a first guitar take might be:
Evenflow_LeadGtr_1_dry.wav.

Subsequent processing of the file (with post-processing effects) might lead to:

Evenflow_LeadGtr_1_reverb-distortion_1.wav, and Evenflow_LeadGtr_1_reverb-distortion_2.wav, etc.

What works for you?
 
For me the song name is always the filename folder.

I use abbreviations because I hate long file names.

KD - kick drum
SD - snare drum
TH, TM, TL - tom high, tom mid, tom low
OHR/OHL - overhead right/left
HH - high hat
RR/RL - room mic right/left
BG - bass guitar
EGA1 - electric guitar (part a, overdub 1 and so on)
AGA1 - acoustic guitar (same as above)
BVA1 - backing vocal (same stuff)
MVC1 - main vocal (chorus, bridge, verse, song etc...)
 
I also keep the song name on the folder. I shorten those that take longer to type:

hi hat
sn - snare
crash1
crash2
ride
sride - soft ride
hitom - high tom
midtom - mid tom
lowtom - low tom
fltom - floor tom
kick
bass
rg 1 (or l) - rhythm guitar 1 (or left)
lg - lead guitar
vox - lead vox
bvox - back vox

Alternate takes are typically suffixed with "temp" or "edit", such as rg temp. When I am dialing in a sound I will include "spec" in the name. "rgspecre12" designates "rhythm guitar spec using dual rectifier preset number 12"
 
I use the song name, abbreviated, with an identifier on the end: "YABGN guitar", for example. If I have multiple vocal parts I would have "YABGN vocal1" or "vocal2"; if I later overdub I use "vocalx" etc so I'll know when they were recorded. Using the song name in abbreviated for is important because then I can name mixes with the full name and the bit depth (i.e.: "32You're A Big Girl Now") and not be confused when I'm opening up a session (this is in Adobe Audition, which uses .ses format to assemble tracks into songs). This also groups all the songs that are finished except for dithering down to 16 bit for CD burning in the same place in the folder. Once the songs are what I want, I dither 'em down and apply the straight name ("You're A Big Girl Now") because some CD players pick up the file name and display it while the song's playing.
 
For me, each song has a folder
Subfolders for each instrument
Filenames are: Instrument_(Patch#)_(Section or Measure#)_(Take#).wav

For example:

SongTitleFolder
| Songtitle.song (sequencer file and mixdowns in root)
| Mixdown1.wav
\-----Piano
Rhodes_25_SectionA_Take1.wav
LeadPiano_Mea52_Take3.wav
|
\-----Guitar
LeadGuitar_Mea25.wav
RhythmGuitar_SectionB.wav
|
\-----Sax
TenorSax_Intro_Take3.wav
AltoSax_Mea10.wav

And so on.....

Backup is easy, just grab the entire song folder and burn to a data CD.
 
Seeing that i only deal with vocals i would tend to name things..

verse1 part1
verser2 take 2
verse1 bu (as in back up)

etc...
 
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