#1

Hey everyone!

Wanted to bring up an idea regarding how we load samples from various applications. At the moment the process of loading lets say 8 samples is a bit of a pain workflow wise and here is why:

PROBLEM:

  1. When loading a sample you always have to start from a root directory, then go into sample folder, then select another folder and then select a sample.
  2. The pain starts when you have to go through the same process for each sample slot, making it really slow and repetitive.
  3. Since there is no way to preview samples, point 2) really becomes frustrating.

SOLUTION:
I have no idea how to achieve this, but it would be great if Norns could remember the last loaded sample’s location, and instead of starting from the root folder every time (its ok to start from root when a new app is selected and you are loading the first sample), it would start from wherever you were last time. This workflow is basically the same as on elektron octatrack, where you have a lot of folders and fast and intuitive access is essential in order to have a flowless workflow. Additionally it would be great if it was possible to preview the samples before actually loading them into a sample slot.

PS: I love Norns and it’s forward thinking community, but this particular issue seems to be too basic not to be implemented in such a cool device, not having it really kills the workflow for any sample based application.

Thank you!

6 Likes
#2

this should be fairly easy to implement in an individual script, though I agree it would be nice to have system wide default behavior.

I think basically you’d just need to store a reference to the directory, and then overwrite the reference when you load a new sample. Something like this could work (untested)

-- store reference to directory
local dir = os.getenv("HOME").."/dust/audio“

-- handler for loading a sample
fileselect.enter(dir, function(path) 
  -- strip filename and overwrite dir with new path 
  dir = path:match("(.*[/\\])")

   -- do something with file
end)
1 Like
#3

Thanks for the idea! I havent tried wiritng code for Norns yet so probably won’t be able to test it as of now, but will definitely consider doing it and hopefully others who made sample based apps can get inspired and update their scripts :slight_smile: System wide default behaviour would definitely be ideal

1 Like
#4

I’ll be adding an audio file preview feature and API as part of large upcoming update to audio backend. (My considerations do not include how this should be used in scripts / libs / menu)

8 Likes
#5

storing folder position is an easy update on the param menu, will get that in

13 Likes