Getting Started
This walks through everything from opening Smart Sample Manager for the first time to finding a similar-sounding sample and dragging it into your DAW. It should take a few minutes.
1. Open Smart Sample Manager
Launch it as a Standalone application, or load it as a VST3 or Audio Unit plugin in your DAW. All three run the same interface. For plugin-specific install locations, see Installation.
2. Sign in and activate
Sign in to your NITE DSP account from nitedsp.co.uk/account to see your entitlement and license key. Activation inside the app itself uses that license key and works offline after the first successful check -- you don't need to be online every time you open the app.
3. Add your first sample library
Click SCAN FOLDER and choose the folder containing your samples. Smart Sample Manager analyses every audio file it finds, entirely on your machine -- nothing is uploaded. You'll see the sample count in the top-right corner climb as it works, and points begin appearing on the visual map as each sample is processed.
A large library can take a while the first time, since every file needs analysing. Rescanning the same folder later is much faster, because already-analysed files are skipped.
4. Preview a sound
Select a sample -- either from the grid or a point on the visual map -- and use PLAY / STOP to audition it before committing to anything.
5. Find a similar sound
With a sample selected, click FIND SIMILAR. Smart Sample Manager compares the actual audio -- not the filename -- and lists other samples in your library that sound like it. See Find Similar for more detail.
6. Explore the visual map
Every indexed sample is plotted as a point. Sounds near each other tend to sound alike, so the map is a way to browse by ear instead of by folder. See Visual Map.
7. Use the sound
Drag the sample straight into your DAW's timeline or sampler from wherever it appears in Smart Sample Manager.
One thing to know: reopening your library
Smart Sample Manager doesn't automatically reload your last library when you reopen the app -- you'll need to click SCAN FOLDER and choose the same folder again. Thanks to caching, this is quick (already-analysed files aren't re-processed), but it isn't automatic today.
Where to go next
Still stuck? Contact NITE DSP support.