Browse Sound Library

Sound library is great when I know what term to search, but it's kind of redundant when I'm searching for a sound and I don't know what I'm looking for, or what search term to use. Often I find myself having to go to the folder to try and find what I need instead of wasting time trying different search terms to get anything to come up. It would be nice if Resolve would remember the folder hierarchy and we could navigate through that in the sound library panel saving me from having to search through folders and thus rendering sound libraries fairly useless.

I'm struggling with this very situation right now. Apparently, the only way to browse the sounds using a folder structure is to add the sounds to the media library which, of course, is not ideal.
I hope there's another solution for this and that I'm just simply unaware of it.

The Sound Library search function is based around metadata which provides a more efficient and extensive method of describing a source file beyond just a file name and the audio itself. The more descriptive the metadata, the more beneficial the search function will be, and the easier it will be to find related or relevant source media quickly.

With appropriate metadata, the Sound Effects Library provides a much faster mechanism of locating related source media than browsing through thousands of folders.

An alternative method to using the Sound Library, is to use Power Bins (View > Show Power Bins).

You may drag-drop folders from macOS Finder (or Windows Explorer) on to the Master Power Bin. This retains your folder structure for browsing through manually, while also still providing the facility to search within that folder structure using various filters (such as file name, description, et cetera).

The advantage of Power Bins is that they are also shareable among all Projects within the same database.

+100 for browsable sound library.

Duplicating the library contents in a browsable way using power bins is a nice workaround, but simply making the library itself browsable would be ideal.

I would like this as well. Lacking such capability is what prevents me from using the Sound Library. (If I have to go to the file manager anyway, what's the point of the Library?)

The Sound Library search function is based around metadata which provides a more efficient and extensive method of describing a source file beyond just a file name and the audio itself. The more descriptive the metadata, the more beneficial the search function will be, and the easier it will be to find related or relevant source media quickly.

With appropriate metadata, the Sound Effects Library provides a much faster mechanism of locating related source media than browsing through thousands of folders.

This is assuming that all sound effects have keywords in the metadata in the first place, which many sound files that I have don't, and I would guess the same goes for many others, and adding keywords would create even more work. Right now it just searches based off of keywords in the titles.

An alternative method to using the Sound Library, is to use Power Bins (View > Show Power Bins).

You may drag-drop folders from macOS Finder (or Windows Explorer) on to the Master Power Bin. This retains your folder structure for browsing through manually, while also still providing the facility to search within that folder structure using various filters (such as file name, description, et cetera).

The advantage of Power Bins is that they are also shareable among all Projects within the same database.

Then why use Sound Libraries at all when it would be easier to search power bins instead of guessing key words just to have nothing come up?

The only alternative is if Resolve made a selectable list of keywords made from existing metadata (if there even is any), or from the titles so you don't have to play the guessing game, but a browse feature would still be preferable to have as well.

This is assuming that all sound effects have keywords in the metadata in the first place, which many sound files that I have don't, and I would guess the same goes for many others, and adding keywords would create even more work. Right now it just searches based off of keywords in the titles.

This is exactly my case. I hoped for a solution similar to Reaper where I can browse the library in an explorer-like way.
I find this method quite useful because other than the missing metadata case, it's still handy to look at all my folders and the files in them. More often than not I start trying sounds which I wouldn't have looked at if it was for their metadata and this can lead to unexpected yet interesting combinations.

It seems for the time being I'll have to rely on the power bins. Do they create copies of the files on my project folder or is it just a link to the source file?

This is assuming that all sound effects have keywords in the metadata in the first place, which many sound files that I have don't, and I would guess the same goes for many others

Commercial Sound Effects Libraries all include extensive metadata in both the file name as well as embedded metadata.

adding keywords would create even more work

This is part of the job, and those that record custom libraries spend as much time on metadata as they do actually capturing in the field.

Then why use Sound Libraries at all when it would be easier to search power bins instead of guessing key words just to have nothing come up?

Resolve's Sound Library panel will improve over time, and it serves a very different purpose to the Media Pool, and provides a more specialised and targeted feature set.

Using Power Bins may be fine with a small Sound Library without metadata, but when dealing with multiple Sound Libraries that each contain hundreds of thousands of files and several hundred Terrabytes of storage, browsing the Media Pool is the least efficient method of working - especially when working on tight deadlines.

It seems for the time being I'll have to rely on the power bins. Do they create copies of the files on my project folder or is it just a link to the source file?

Resolve's Media Pool bins provide a link to the media, but are not the actual media itself.