Sample libraries

What it is

Your samples are scattered. A Splice download folder, the packs that came with FL Studio, an Ableton user library, a folder of your own one-shots. Sample libraries turn all of that into one searchable hub that's backed up in the cloud and shared with your team.

You point the Aden desktop app at a folder. It scans everything inside, works out the tempo and key where the file name says so, and uploads the samples that aren't in the cloud yet. From then on the folder stays in sync. Drop a new Splice pack in and it's indexed automatically.

Everyone on the team browses the same library. If your bandmate already synced a pack you both own, it costs the team nothing extra: identical files are stored once.

Using it

Add a sample folder. Open the desktop app, go to Samples, and hit Add folder. Pick your Splice folder, your FL Studio packs folder, or any folder of samples. Scanning a large library takes a few minutes. You can keep working while it runs, and the row shows live progress.

Find a sample. The browser lists every sample your team has synced. Type in the search box to filter by name, or use the One-shots / Loops / MIDI / Presets chips. Click the magnifier on a library to narrow the browser to just that folder.

Preview before you use it. Press play on any row. If the sample lives in a folder linked on your machine it plays instantly off disk; anything else streams from the cloud.

Get a sample onto your disk. Hover a row and hit the download button. It saves into the library's local folder when you have one, otherwise it asks where to put it, then drag it into your DAW from there.

Keep a folder private. Every library is shared with your team by default. Flip Share with team off and it's visible only to you.

Stop syncing a folder. Hit the bin icon on the library. That deletes the cloud copy and stops the sync. The files on your own disk are never touched.

On the web

Everything you sync also shows up at Samples in the web app sidebar, so you can dig through your library from any machine, no desktop app needed.

The libraries you can see appear as chips across the top; click one to browse only that folder. Search by name, filter to one-shots, loops, MIDI or presets, and press play on any row to hear it. Playing a sample turns its row into a seek bar so you can scrub through it.

The web page is read-only: adding a folder, re-syncing it, sharing it with the team and deleting it all happen in the desktop app, since that's where your files actually live.