Skip to main content
Version: Beta

Packages, libraries, presets and other components

Floe organises its content into several key components. This page serves as an overview and glossary to help you understand how these pieces fit together.

Packages​

A package is the portable distribution container used by Floe. It's exclusively used as the format for downloading and installing content. It's a ZIP file with a specific internal structure. Packages are installed using Floe's Install package button (or manually).

A package may contain:

  • Samples Libraries
  • Presets/Preset Banks

Typically, a package contains one sample library, and a bank of factory presets for the library.

But alternatively, a package could also contain only presets, or a collection of sample libraries, or any combination.

Floe doesn't remember packages after installation; they're just a means to get content onto your computer. Packages are created using Floe's packaging tools, or using a ZIP utility.

Sample Libraries​

Sample libraries are collections of mapped, playable sounds along with images, tags, and other metadata. Without sample libraries, Floe can't produce any sound.

Sample libraries often have a theme or focus, such as 'Music Box Suite' — multisampled music box instruments, or 'Lost Reveries' — a collection of ambient single-sample ambient tones.

A sample library may contain:

  • Instruments
  • Impulse Responses

Sample libraries are not loaded directly; instead you load the instruments into Floe's layers, or impulse responses into Floe's convolution reverb. However, you can view your installed libraries by clicking the info button on Floe's main window.

Libraries typically focus on instruments, however, sometimes a sample library exclusively contains impulse responses for use in the convolution reverb - expanding the options for sound design.

At a technical level, Floe sample libraries are a new, custom format; they're open, portable folders of audio files and configuration files developed with Floe's developer tools. Any user can access the audio files if they wish. Typically, a sample library is in a folder with a name like Developer Name - Library Name.

Sample libraries can contain thousands of audio files and can be many gigabytes in size. They typically have a Samples subfolder and a file called floe.lua.

Instruments​

An instrument is a playable sound source. It might be something like 'Upright Piano' or 'Ambient Drone'. It might be a single sample that loops, or a multisampled instrument with many samples mapped across the keyboard along with velocity layers and round robins.

Instruments are loaded into any of Floe's 3 layers using a powerful browser which lets you easily find instruments across all your installed libraries. A layer that has no instrument loaded will say 'None' instead of the instrument name - click this to open the browser.

Instruments are provided via sample libraries, developed using Floe's open developer tools.

Impulse Responses​

An impulse response (or IR) is a sample that determines the character of the convolution reverb. These are selected on the convolution reverb effect found on Floe's effects rack.

IRs can be chosen using a browser, allowing you to easily find the right IR to colour the sound.

IRs are provided by some sample libraries, although Floe does have a built-in set of IRs that can be used without installing any additional libraries.

IRs are provided via sample libraries, developed using Floe's open developer tools.

Presets​

A preset is a full production-ready setup of all of Floe's parameters and options, along with a name, description, and tags. It's a snapshot of Floe's state ready to be loaded using the preset browser.

Presets typically only use instruments and impulse responses from a single sample library. However, using any installed instruments and impulse responses is supported. You can have presets that blend sounds from completely different libraries.

You can save presets using the save button at the top of Floe's window. This puts the current state of Floe into a preset file to be loaded later.

At a technical level, presets are just portable files (.floe-preset) arranged into folders on your computer. You can rename and organise them as you wish using your usual file browser (Finder, File Explorer, etc.) - Floe automatically detects changes in its preset folders and immediately displays the new hierarchy on the preset browser. The name of the preset file is the name you see in Floe's preset browser. The description and tags are stored inside the preset file itself and can only be edited by using Floe to save over the preset.

A preset bank is a small extension to Floe's preset system. Some folders are marked as 'banks' and contain some more metadata such as a description and version. 'Music Box Suite Factory Presets' is a preset bank, for example. (Floe also automatically identifies some well-known factory preset banks that existed before the banks system was added, even without a metadata file present.)

Presets are tiny files - typically just a few kilobytes in size. Even whole banks of presets take up very little disk space.