Best Batch File Renamer

Just bought a 80GB HD to my MPC2500 so I´m bout to put my 20GB drums library on it. As you can imagine, 20GB of drums is a LOT of drums. Years collecting. 94.586 files in 3,303 folders. So I got 3 questions.

What´s the best app that can batch rename all of them to the 16 characters limit ? If there´s one that can do it with subfolders. I have also some folder names that exceed 16 characters by themselves so the batch renamer also have to rename them.

Second question is if there´s a absolute path characters limit. I have some kits that´s on folders inside folders inside folders so what´s the limit for this.

One more question, is there any difference in this topic between JJ and AKAI OS ?

Thanx very much.

1. File names can be longer than 16 characters. The mpc just ignores everything beyond the first 16. The only issue arises when two files in the same folder have an identical first 16 digits. For example thatbanginasssnare1.wav and thatbanginasssnare2.wav would be recognized as the same file. When you audition or load either of them the first will be played/loaded. But thatbanginass1snare.wav and thatbanginass2snare.wav would work just fine. I believe the same is true for folder names.

The Mpc does have problems with periods in the filename (dashes and underscores work fine but im not sure about other special characters so I just take them out). It assumes that the extension will come after the 1st period.

As for best, I use a better finder rename on Mac. If you have a pc I can't help you. What I normally do is use it to 1. strip out all the special characters, and 2. add a three digit sequential number starting at character 14. If you have a folder with >1000 files then make it a 4 digit sequential number starting at digit 13. Any batch renamed should be able to do this.

2. I don't know for sure but I dont have a lot of deeply nested folders. Maybe 5 or 6 levels down is as far as mine go.

3. As far as I know jj fixed a file saving/loading bug and he just recently added a workflow enhancement (sample audition during saving) but he didn't touch any other aspect of the file system.

20 gigs of drums though? I bet you could lose 15 gigs and not even notice.

best batch rename app for Mac is "A Better Finder Rename 8"

mp3 wrote: For example thatbanginasssnare1.wav and thatbanginasssnare2.wav would be recognized as the same file. When you audition or load either of them the first will be played/loaded. I believe the same is true for folder names.

Yeah that´s the problem. Same thing for the folders, it recognizes them as the same, so you loose one.

mp3 wrote: 20 gigs of drums though? I bet you could lose 15 gigs and not even notice.

Yeah you absolutely right. I think the ones that I use mostly would not be more than 1GB. But I change the ones I like most from time to time, so I wanna put em there and never touch that HD again. It´s like my 5.000 vinyl collection, I know that I´ll never ever really hear all of them but it's impossible to choose some of them without felling that I´m loosing something. I know that´s bad. People should only have what they really use.

mp3 wrote:add a three digit sequential number starting at character 14.

That´s good I was thinking in truncate the file name to 14 character and insert the sequential number, but inserting is better since I don't totally loose the original name for reference ! Great!

dunego wrote:

mp3 wrote: 20 gigs of drums though? I bet you could lose 15 gigs and not even notice.

Yeah you absolutely right. I think the ones that I use mostly would not be more than 1GB. But I change the ones I like most from time to time, so I wanna put em there and never touch that HD again. It´s like my 5.000 vinyl collection, I know that I´ll never ever really hear all of them but it's impossible to choose some of them without felling that I´m loosing something. I know that´s bad. People should only have what they really use.

I used to have that many drum samples... that shit gave me option anxiety lol! I chose about 3.5gb, archived the rest on DVDs, and I still got waaayyy too many.

dunego wrote:

mp3 wrote:add a three digit sequential number starting at character 14.

That´s good I was thinking in truncate the file name to 14 character and insert the sequential number, but inserting is better since I don't totally loose the original name for reference ! Great!

Bingo. Good luck homie.

2 things.

The bulk renamer i like was recommended by lampdog. ckrename. love that ish, can do regex stuff too and pretty much any type of renaming stuff you need, plus you preview the changes realtime before you commit them, very handy. however im not sure if it does folder renaming.

definately second the notion of pruning your drum collection. i recently created a folder of my most used kits and ditched the rest. i definately feel more productive....of course, this is a set of drum kits ive created and perfected over the years, so im confident the drums i kept are exactly what i want and use............but thats also part of creating your own sound. know what i mean?

dudes critisize 9th wonder, even dj premier for reusing similar/same drums over and over, but its part of thier signature sound. ya know.

cyrus wrote: dudes critisize 9th wonder, even dj premier for reusing similar/same drums over and over, but its part of thier signature sound. ya know.

I got u. I already do this, I have about 2GB samples that are 99% of what I use and layer with what I sample from vinyl, in a particular layering way that makes a 'sound' too. The other 18GB are just that 1% that sometimes you just can't find on your 'go to' samples. But 18GB is not anyhow fair for a drum library, I will have to do a selection. Just ain't got the time yet.

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BTW about the renaming issue, I just took my 2GB main folders and did it almost manually with Renamer and Bulk Renamer, and did the numerical sequence on the other 18GB that I don't got that much love.

Thanx 4 tha help.

I use, Batch Rename Files Tool. You can easily found hier BatchRenameFiles.org that allows you to quickly rename all the files in a specified directory.

NameWhizz - excellent bulk file renamer ...