A good value sound library search engine for the Mac?

Question

I'm looking into having a sound library search engine for my sounds. My organised folders and filenames work to a point, but I can see soon it will get a little too much. I've looked at some of the professional sound library search engines, like Sound Miner and NetMix but they all seem very expensive for what I need.

I'm basically after just a sound library search engine which allows for meta tags to be added to allow easier searching. Does a more good value solution exist for the Mac?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 05 '10 at 15:14

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Audiofinder. There's a new version coming out (5 and soon I hope), and feels faster and like a proper database now. Shame it doesn't support plugin chains (yet?).

answered Mar 05 '10 at 15:14

georgi

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I think with version 5 it does look like meta tags is supported. Excellent stuff. – littlejim84 Mar 08 '10 at 11:27
Please answer this question: Quick pitch-shifting from Audio Finder to DAW? --> http://bit.ly/bX7fN0 – alansende Jul 20 '10 at 20:04
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@georgi.m Yes. it's the best – Cvrgoje Nov 18 '10 at 18:00

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '10 at 17:50

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Basehead is currently in Beta for Mac. Final release is supposed to be very soon. It is under $300 and every bit as good (and better in some ways) as Soundminer.

answered Mar 05 '10 at 17:50

Chuck Russom

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I use Basehead on Windows and is really good. I totally recommend it. – Miguel Isaza Mar 10 '10 at 05:26

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 05 '10 at 14:45

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I think the best for you is Audio Finder from Iced Audio. http://www.icedaudio.com/ It's not expansive and works well. Soundminer is too expansive, and crash too often for me, but it's really powerfull with the spot and metadatas editing.

answered Mar 05 '10 at 14:45

Benoit Tigeot

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I was thinking Audio Finder... But I can't seem to find the feature of adding and searching by meta tags? – littlejim84 Mar 06 '10 at 02:09
metadata = version 5. – georgi Mar 06 '10 at 18:04

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 05 '10 at 18:50

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You almost always get what you pay for. That being said, although it is slightly pricey, my vote goes to Soundminer. Not only is it an excellent search engine with comprehensive metadata and networkcapabilities, it's also a great sound design tool:

http://designingsound.org/2010/02/charles-deenen-special-quick-sound-design-with-soundminer-and-plugins/

answered Mar 05 '10 at 18:50

Jay Jennings

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Soundminer is a great tool, my only complaint is the proprietary metadata format. If they ever make it so that the metadata can be read by any program, I'd be very happy. For now, I'll be sticking with the Digibase Browser in Pro Tools. – Shaun Farley Jul 20 '10 at 11:38

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 20 '10 at 09:05

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stamper,check it out before you shed loads of dosh, used by some of my film sound FX editors

answered Jul 20 '10 at 09:05

stef

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Stamper? I can't seem to find it on the internet? Do you have a link? – littlejim84 Jul 21 '10 at 07:04

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 18 '11 at 19:43

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Soundminer HD, a new version that's available for as little as $199. I've been running with the Pro version ($299) and it works wonderfully, very fast SRC. Its like a hybrid of Soundminer v4 Standard and Miniminer.

answered Jul 18 '11 at 19:43

Stavrosound

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 19 '11 at 21:30

In my opinion, they all come up a bit less than ideal for me. I am using AudioFinder at the moment, simply because it exists. The interface is rather convoluted, which is a side effect of the sheer amount of features in the software. It does do a whole lot, and much of it is very useful. There is another called LibraryMonkey that I'm keeping my eye on.

At the end of the day, the only way to get what you really need would be to build your own, but that's a whole other mess. I guess I'd recommend AudioFinder for a turnkey solution that is very affordable.

A good value sound library search engine for the Mac?

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