Very frustrated sound designer

[Crussom]

I can't be of any help on the Digibase front, as I didn't find it all too useful for me, like you, I encountered searches that took way too long, and I just don't have the time to mess with it and see if I could make it work. Have you looked into other SFX solutions like MTOOLS or Soundminer. I use MTOOLS daily with OSX and PT6 and couldn't be happier. I know that MTOOLS supports SDII and AIFF as well as wav and other formats.

[Craig Henighan]

I agree, while digibase is a much improved searching tool over what was in older versions, it is very slow in regards to tracking thousands of sound effects over a large number of drives. Customizing the searches and sterne organization of your drives, seems to speed it up a bit, but still takes a long time. Soundminer is a great alternative, works seemlessly with PT/OS X and you even have the benefit of using VST plug ins on your sounds that can then be rendered as new files upon importing to Pro Tools. Sound Log Pro is another library app that works as well.

Craig Henighan
Sound Dogs Toronto

[DigiTechSupt]

Storm...

I replied to your post in the TDM forum as well. It is important that you index your drives particularly large ones. If they have been indexed already then you could be dealing with corrupt or incomplete database files, either re-index or trash them and then re-index.

To index a drive, inside Pro Tools in the workspace window select the drive(s) you want to update and select "Update database for selected" from the toolbox menu. This could take some time for large drives so do as you leave for the night or do one drive at a time.

What this does is creates a database file that lives in a folder called "Digidesign databases". The file is called "volume.ddb". This is an index or list of all of the files on that particular drive. Pro Tools will not automatically index a drive until you tell it to do so. So, if a drive is not indexed it has to search the drive itself which will take considerably longer.

It is possible for this volume.ddb file to be corrupted or not up to date so you may want to do one of two things...1) occasionally select a drive and choose "Update database for selected" so that any new un-indexed material can be added to the index and/or
2) trash the file and have Pro Tools recreate it. But, again, if you do this on a large drive it could take a long time to recreate.

Hope this helps,
Jon Connolly
Digidesign Product Specialist

[stormtrooperpez]

Sorry for the double post, but maybe I'll get more sympathy (or help) in this forum than the TDM one...

Hello,

Once again I seek answers to the same perplexing problems: why are searches with Digibase so slow, and why does the search results window take so long to update?

I'm trying to search across 5 drives over a 100BaseT network. The drives contain nearly 100GB of sound effects in aiff and SDII formats.

Using OSX's toolbar search, I type in 'auto', and in about 40 seconds I get 3,841 results. I can scroll through the list, and the screen updates almost as fast as I can move the scroll bar.

Using Digibase, I replicate the search. I choose the 5 drives, type in 'auto' and hit search. I get a message saying, 'searching databases' and after 1 minute and 19 seconds, I get the same number of results (3,841) - but then Digibase starts 'searching the file system' and after 5 minutes and 52 seconds, the search is finally complete (with no more results beyond the first 3,841).

The second problem is with the search results window. I try to move the scroll bar, and I get the spinning beach ball for 30 seconds, and then the screen updates, although not to where I let go of the scroll bar. And forget about auditioning the audio file.

What gives? Is Digibase simply incapable of dealing with large numbers of results? If so, it makes for a pretty 'lame duck' sound effects database solution. Everyone who is currently using PT 6 on OSX (10.2.6) here on my team at EA is having this problem. Unfortunately, we are stuck with it because our old system (Sonic Science's Sonic Search) will probably never be ported to OSX. In OS9, this system was super fast, completing the same search as outlined above in about 5 seconds.

[stormtrooperpez]

Thanks Jon,

I have been using indexing since the beginning, in fact I just re-indexed all the network drives yesterday.

Even with a small number of search results (200), digibase is extremely sluggish with networked drives. The worst problem is that I can't even move the vertical scroll bar a tiny bit without getting the spinning beach ball for 20-30 seconds.

I have tried everything to alleviate this - indexing, creating catalogs from the FX folders, repairing permissions, reinstalling system software and PT 6, changing ethernet ports and cables... nothing has worked. I have tried a demo of Soundminer and it was lightning fast on the same searches with the same drives. But why should I have to buy third party software to do something that ships as part of ProTools?

AB

[stormtrooperpez]

I've added a detailed reply to this topic in the TDM forum - let's end this thread and keep the discussion over there. I have figured out what causes this slow down, although I don't know how to fix it.

AB

[Polaris]

Out of curiousity, are your networked drives on a dedicated server running server software or a spare mac using built in filesharing? We gained a HUGE speed increase and a lot more stability once we sprung for true server software.

-Polaris

[Frank Kruse]

switch to soundminer as your librarian and forget your problems...

frank.

[stormtrooperpez]

The networked drives are on a true (if outdated) server called Sonic Search by Sonic Science. The problem is that the client software is OS9 only, and will likely never be ported to OSX.

I really like Soundminer, but I work at a large game company and I have no control over what type of fx database software they will buy - this is why I had high hopes for Digibase. Anyway, I think I have found the source of the problem; I've added my reply from the other thread ('Slow searches on Digibase' in the TDM forum) below...

If I move every column out of the fixed pane (except 'name') and into the scrolling pane, and then close the scrolling pane, I get a HUGE boost in the browser window responsiveness. As soon as I put the waveforms column back into the fixed pane, wham, I get slowed right down. This sucks because being able to audition the file with the waveform is one of the coolest features of Digibase. What could be causing this slowdown? It reminds me of how it would take forever to open a folder in OS9 if you had 'calculate folder sizes' checked.

BTW, it doesn't matter if the waveforms are calculated or not, it's just having the column visible that causes the system to slow down. It also affects the search speed, because it updates the waveform column as the search results are coming in.

Here's a real world example of the drastic difference, searching for 'cobra' yielding 99 results:

With Waveforms Column - 1 minute 25 seconds, extremely sluggish search results window.

Without Waveforms Column - 2 seconds, quick response in search results window.

Does anyone else have this problem?

AB

[MusicTrax]

Originally posted by stormtrooperpez:
really like Soundminer, but I work at a large game company and I have no control over what type of fx database software they will buy

Well, look. You're in Canada -- Soundminer is in Toronto, and they have a trial version you can use for a couple of weeks just to see how it works. I suggest you download the demo and try it out, show your bosses how well it works, and see if they'll spend the US$800 for the package. Believe me, it's worth it -- it's the fastest indexing tool I've ever seen for this purpose, particularly for the money.

--Marc W.