COSMOS

Sample Finder

User Guide
 COSMOS Sample Finder is designed to find your sample files, even in the messiest of folders. COSMOS analyzes
each sample file and extracts useful information (such as instrument, BPM, key, length, one-shot or loop, and more),
and then organizes it using tags. Since you can search and filter by any number of categories, you will quickly find the
sample you want, along with others that share its characteristics. Then you can create collections of samples, so your
samples are organized just the way you want. COSMOS supports these formats: WAV, AIFF, OGG, and FLAC.
COSMOS works hand in hand with the Waves CR8 sampler. One click on a sample in COSMOS and it’s loaded in CR8,
along with the relevant metadata.
COSMOS is available as an app and a DAW plugin. These are very similar except for a handful of DAW-specific
features. This user guide presents the app version. The plugin is shown at the end of the manual.

Getting Started
SIGN IN
When you launch COSMOS, you’ll be taken to a login page.
Enter your Waves credentials (the same you use for Waves
Central), and COSMOS will open. Click the small user icon
in the top-right corner to log out.
If you update COSMOS in Waves Central,
you may need to log in again.

SELECT USER FOLDERS

Click the Folder icon (circled yellow here) to open the
Local Folders panel. This is where your samples folders
are listed and managed. The slide switches reveal or
hide individual samples folders or all local folders.

To help you get started, the Waves Audio Factory Pack folder is supplied with COSMOS.
It contains 2,512 diverse, multi-genre samples.

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 ADD USER SAMPLES FOLDERS
To add a user samples folder, click the Add Samples Folders button (+). Locate and open the
desired samples folder.

Once a local folder has been added to the folders list, the Local Folders panel will replace the Add
Samples Folder panel. Use this to add more local samples folders.

COSMOS will scan the samples in the folder, assess their attributes, and create search tags for
each sample. Once neural network scanning is finished, COSMOS begins making sync files.

Sync files are created to reduce the load times when previewing a file in sync. While it is possible to
preview a file in sync before its sync file has been completed, previewing may be slightly delayed.
Sync file creation status is shown at the bottom of the panel.

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 You can stop or resume the scan from the Local Folders panel, or
right-click on the COSMOS icon in the Windows Tray Bar (left) or the
Apple Menu Bar.
The COSMOS icon has a small, color-coded dot that lets you monitor
the scanning status, even when COSMOS is in the background.

Icon Dot Color Status

Steady Red COSMOS is not working properly.
Yellow COSMOS is scanning files.
Green COSMOS is working properly.

COSMOS runs in the background. Click the icon in the Tray Bar/Menu Bar to bring app to the front. Until you close
the app, the icon will remain visible, and the scan will continue until it is complete.

MAXIMUM FILE LENGTH

COSMOS is designed to work best with music samples. For this reason, the maximum duration of an audio file is
one minute. Audio files longer than that will be ignored by the app.

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 Searching
There are several ways to find samples.
SEARCH
Search by file name or other specific information. This is the
widest search.

LOOP VS. ONE SHOT

The most basic filter is Loop vs. One Shot, since samples are either one or the other. If you
know which of these you’re searching for, choose it. This greatly reduces the number of files
you must search through.
TAGS
A tag describes one attribute of a sample file, such as content, instrument, acoustics, style, and so forth. Tags are
used to limit the scope of a search and make it easy to locate samples. Every time you add a tag to a search, you’re
creating a more specific set of results. When you select a tag, additional relevant tags will appear. Tags that classify
the instrument or the instrument family of a sample, such as “Electric Guitar” or “Strings,” always start with capital
letters. Tags that describe other characteristics of the sample, like "dark" or "acoustic," are lowercase.

In this example, the “acoustic” tag is selected, along with suggested tags reflect this choice. Press “Clear” to remove
all selected tags and start a new search.

SEARCH AND REFINE

You can start your search with a name and then filter the results. Here, a
search for “clap” yields 46 results. When filtered with the tag, “wet,” the
results are reduced to three sample files.

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 TAG MENUS
Three drop-down menus offer different ways to use tags. Filtered samples are displayed in the Search Results list,
along with their names, waveforms, and assigned tags.
FILTER BY INSTRUMENT
Machine learning enables COSMOS to determine the
type of instrument, or family of instrument, played in a
sample. This provides very focused search results that
would otherwise be difficult to attain.
FILTER BY TAGS
This lists all the tags that are available, based on
previous search and filtering choices.
FILTER BY BPM
Enter the BPM in the text box. Use the bidirectional slider
to set the search range around it. Click the “X2” or “/2”
buttons to include double- and half-time samples in the
results. When COSMOS is used with CR8, there is no
need to enter BPM, as CR8 sends this information to the
DAW.
FILTER BY KEY
Use the small keyboard to filter the search by musical
key. The selected key is shown to the right of the
keyboard. Select “Major” or “Minor” to filter for a specific
scale. Use the “Relative Key” switch to include samples
that share the same key signature and may work with
your session.

It is also possible to set the octave of a note to

locate specific one-shots.

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 TAGGING AND MODIFYING SAMPLES
When a folder is added, COSMOS automatically classifies and tags each sample file. Usually, analysis is done with
impressive accuracy. There can, however, be mistakes in certain tag attributes.
To modify tag classification, click the three dots on the right
side of a sample (circled above), or right-click on a sample’s
name or waveform. From the drop-down menu, choose “Edit
Tags” or “Edit Attributes.”
SAMPLE MENU
A three-dot menu on the right side of a selected sample name lets you edit tags and attributes and view file details.

File Name

Edit Tags and Attributes

Opens a panel where you can edit the tags and attributes associated
with the selected sample.
Show Identical Audio Files
Click this menu item to open the Identical Audio Files window. This searches for and
displays identical audio files in the database for the selected sample. To learn about
identical samples, go to page 9 of this manual.
Show in Finder
Locates the sample in your computer's file browser.
File Details
File format, sample rate, file size, stereo/mono.
Alternative Scales
The main detected scale of the sample is shown in the Samples list. Alternative scales are
additional scales that may work with this sample.

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 WORKING WITH SAMPLES
To audition a sample, click on the play/stop button or the sample name. In the Waveform view, you can also click on
the waveform itself. When using COSMOS with CR8, click on the sample name or double click on the waveform to
load the sample into the sampler.
Use the up and down arrow keys to browse audio or load samples into CR8. Your last action determines the
behavior of the up/down arrows. If the last action you performed was auditioning a sample, pressing the down or up
arrow key will play the next or previous sample in the list.

FAVORITES
You can designate files as Favorites so that they are immediately available. To assign a sample to your
favorites list, click the star next to the sample name. Click the star at the top of the plugin to display only
your favorite samples.

COLLECTIONS
A Collection is a virtual folder that helps you organize samples that you have located. Create
Collections using the “+” button in the “My Collections” sidebar.

To add a sample to a virtual collection, click the “Add to Collections” icon next to the
sample name (circled). You can also drag the sample to the desired collection folder. A
sample can be assigned to more than one collection.

When a sample has been assigned to one or more collections, the “Add to
Collections” icon is lit up. This is a quick way to see that the sample is part of a
collection.
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 Identical Audio Files
Samples with identical audio are indicated by a “stacked samples” icon next to the sample. Click on the icon or on
the three-dots menu on the right side to access the Identical Audio Files window.

This window displays all identical audio files as a

ranked list, with the most relevant sample at the top
(based on your search criteria).
• File format, sample rate, and bit depth are shown on this
window.
• Drag files directly from the list into your preferred
destination.

COSMOS Views
COSMOS has three views: Waveform, List, and COSMOS. Move between these views with the three-button selector
on the upper-right corner.
The Waveform and List views each display search results in a list format. Waveform view
displays the sample waveforms, with fewer search results visible, while List view shows
more results, without waveforms.

Waveform View List View

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 In COSMOS view, your one-shot samples
are analyzed and scattered throughout the
COSMOS. Similar sounds will appear
close to each other.
You can change the way that samples are
arranged using the Map selections
(below). This alters the weight on the
horizontal axis given to certain
characteristics of the sound when spread
across the COSMOS.

The “Brightness” map arranges the darkest sounds on the left and the brightest sounds on the right of the screen,
and so forth. The “Dynamics” map organizes samples by their dynamic properties.

The Instrument map is slightly different, as samples of the same instruments are grouped into the same “galaxies.”
The Gradient On/Off control changes the color scheme of the samples to suit the selected map.
When Gradient is Off, the samples are shown in their default colors (which are determined by the
instrument families). Gradient On/Off is disabled in the Instrument map.

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 The selected sample appears at the top right of the screen. Press the arrow symbol to
expand it and view adjacent samples. Use the up and down arrows (or the arrows on
your computer keyboard) to browse through the neighboring samples. The selected
sample can be dragged, loaded to CR8 (double click), or added to collections and
favorites.

Use the left and right keys of the History Bar to browse back and forth between samples
you previously auditioned. You can also use your computer keyboard arrow keys.

Hamburger Menu
The COSMOS interface includes a Hamburger menu, located at the top-right corner. This menu provides access to
several features across all COSMOS components.
• Window Size – In most VST3 hosts, you can resize the COSMOS window by grabbing a corner and dragging it
to any size. In DAWS where continuous resizing is not available, Cosmos provides four predefined sizes:
o Narrow
o Standard
o Medium
o Large

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 • Settings opens the Settings Menu, where you can configure COSMOS preferences.
• User Manual opens the COSMOS user guide.
• About COSMOS shows the version of the currently used COSMOS component.
• More Info is a link to the COSMOS product page.
• Notifications displays important notices related to updates or licenses. This feature is not available in
the Standalone mode.

SETTINGS
The COSMOS Settings panel, which is accessible from the Hamburger Menu, is used to personalize and optimize
user experience.
Default View
Choose the default view for COSMOS startup:
• Waveform (default)
• List
• COSMOS
• Last Used

Group Identical Audio Files

Enable or disable the grouping of identical audio files in search results across all views.

Scanning Performance
Configure the CPU usage level for scanning folders in cases when scanning is overloading the system.
• High CPU usage
• Moderate CPU usage
• Low CPU usage
• ECO: very low CPU usage

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 Data Sharing
Data Sharing enables Waves to anonymously collect information about your installed products, and how they are
used. This helps us improve our products and provide a better user experience. COSMOS additionally uses data
sharing to enhance performance, such as accelerated scan times. While COSMOS is fully functional without data
sharing, there are performance advantages when data sharing is on.
If data sharing is disabled, there will be a small red dot on the hamburger menu; the settings menu will
display a notification:
“Data sharing is disabled. Some search abilities and features may be disabled.
Launch Central to enable data sharing.”

Turn data sharing on or off in the Settings

tab in Waves Central.

We value your privacy and security. For an explanation of how this information is collected and used, please refer to
this article:
https://www.waves.com/legal/usage-data-tracking

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 COSMOS Plugin
The COSMOS plugin component is available
to insert on instrument tracks (stereo only).
COSMOS is intended solely to preview
samples; it does not accept MIDI in.
The plugin is identical to the standalone
version, except for a DAW Sync Control bar
at the bottom.

Audition Display shows the current sample and its playback progress.
Jump to previous sample.
Audition Play/Stop.
Jump to next sample.

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 Key sets the key that you are trying to transpose the sample to. You can transpose the sample or change its
pitch in semitones.
BPM sets the BPM that you want for the sample. You can multiply tempo by values of x2 and x½.
Note: Key and BPM do not change the sample itself. They modify the audition characteristics while in
the COSMOS environment.
DAW SYNC (on/off button) enables Key and BPM sync with the DAW. When the DAW is playing, the sample
will also be synced to the bar position of the host. BPM sync is not available on one-shots.

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