Freesound Project

How to batch-upload files

by Bram de Jong

When to batch upload

Batch uploads of files are only accepted for very large collections of files (i.e. more than 100 files in one go) which are without any doubt legal, well described and useful additions to freesound.

Step 1: Organize your files

Only use a one-folder-deep file structure where you put your samples. I.e. say you want your samples in the directory samples you should at most have the directories samples/beats, samples/drones etcetera.

Make sure all your filenames are simple. No spaces, quotes, ... Only letters, numbers, dashes and underscores are allowed.

Step 2: Create your description file

Using excel, open office or any other spreadsheet program create a listing of all your filenames.

column 1: filenames

Make sure you list your filenames starting from the root directory all the folders. So, if we follow the example above, you should have the following in this column:

drones/drone1.wav
drones/drone2.wav
drones/amazing-drone.wav
beats/bassdrum.wav
beats/snaredrum.wav

column 2: packs

In this column you can put an optional pack name for the sample. We could for example use 'drones' and 'beats' for the packs of the example above. Again, no special characters please.

column 3: tags

This column should have space-separated tags for the file. Only alphanumerical characters and a single dash are allowed. So for example: "drone sweep drum-like". For plenty of examples of tagging, see freesound.

column 4: description

A textual description of the sample. This description should be accurate and concise. For plenty of examples of good descriptions, see freesound.

column summary

drones/drone1.wavdronesdrone sweep drum-likea frightful drone created in audiomulch by bashing together stones and slowing down the result recorded in cool edit.
drones/drone2.wavdronesdrone sweep noisynoisy drone good for noise scapes. some minor glitching at the end of the tail. a noisy envelope at the start.
beats/bassdrum.wavbassdrumshard kick bass-drum trance heavya really heavy bass drum, especially good for trance beats. Sinusoid oscillators with exponential envelopes with royal doses of distortion.

etc...

Step 3: Upload your files

Upload the files with the folders on freesound.

Step 4: export and email the admin...

Export your spreadsheet as a tab-separated text-file and send this file, together with any comments to the freesound administrator over at freesound at iua.upf.es. Useful comments would be your user ID number, the amount of files, ...

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