Tips for Organizing Your Catalog

Whatever your naming scheme, be consistent and stick with it!

• Singular vs Plural, e.g. Viola vs Celli
• Shorthands, e.g. Pizz vs Pizz. vs Pizzicato
• Capitalization, e.g. Pizz vs pizz

Avoid redundancy and abbreviations in patch names

While your CineBrass 6 French Horns track might be named CB 6 FH, your patch should be named simply, e.g. 6 Horns with CineSamples, CineBrass and Horn in their respective metadata fields.

Use just the right amount of metadata

• Too many different tags and the filter lists can become unwieldy
• Be consistent, e.g. don’t use both Horn and French Horn in the instrument field. Pick one and stick with it.
• Use multiple tags instead of a “combined” tag, e.g. a Tremolo Sul Pont articulation should have tags for Tremolo and Sul Pont.
• Avoid redundancy: if Pizz is sufficient, no need to also tag it as Short.

Choose a consistent color scheme for patches and switches.

That often means specific colors for each family of instruments. For extra elegance, use the same color scheme as you have in your DAW.

You can also color the individual switches within each patch. You may prefer to use different shades of the same color or different colors altogether to indicate specific articulations, e.g. lighter for shorts and darker for longs.