Search Bar and BLOCKs
The Search Bar is where all the magic happens!
You can create complex search strings using the main search bar and by adding satellite search [field] blocks and then on top of that then add filter blocks on top of that to search with military sniper like accuracy.
BASIC Search Operators
You can use typical Boolean searches to filter your search results.
“AND” Search
If you type in a search term with Spaces the search will perform an “AND” search and look for results that contain all of the words entered. It will not search for an exact match for the sequence you type, only if ALL words are found in the field
“NOT” Search
You can exclude a word match by prefixing a minus (-) to the word. This will exclude any result that has this word as a match. In this example, results will be listed if metal AND hit are found but only if crash and hollow were not found in the description.
“OR” Search
You can perform an OR search that will return results when either word is found by adding capital OR between words. Alternatively, You can also do it coding style with a single or double vertical bar like these
Examples of computer coder style OR’s can also be used:
metal|wood and metal||wood
“EXACT” Search
If you need to search for an exact match, place your search “within quotes”.
Combo Searches
You can also string these all together to doing combination searches like the example to the left.
Search Bar/Block Options
Clicking the right side icon will revel options available in your version of basehead. If you mouse over the buttons and toggle switches the ToolTips will explain what each does with Keyboard shortcuts if available.
ProTip: Keep ‘Deep Character Search’ OFF unless YourFlilesAreMostlyCamelCaseLikeThis style otherwise if you search for “rain” you will get results with “train” in it.
See the bottom this page for a more detailed explanation when to use ‘Deep Character Search’ and when not to.
The ‘Choose’ button will bring up a picker of the default [fields] that the Main Search Box will search in by default, so make sure to review our choices to make sure it aligns with your way of working.
Keep in mind that the default search mode is AND so if you search for “car crash” it will ONLY return results that find BOYT words in the selected [fields]
Choose Main Search [fields]
As always, we recommend leaving this at the default settings, but you might want to narrow down the searches a bit more. Yes, old BH had 4 separate search boxes and now looks to be only one.
Don’t be fooled….keep on reading to see why and how to work the old way OR with even more insane power then before by far.
Search and Filter Blocks Explained!
- One style of Block is a basic Search [field] Block. This is basically an improvement to old BaseHead’s 4 separate boxes. The difference now is we are NOT limited to 3 extra boxes. It’s unlimited now!
So here is an example of creating a satellite Search [field] box to the Main Search box.
1. Click the plus button or (Ctrl/CMD)+SHIFT+F
2. Arrow down to [designer]
3. Type in the name of the greatest Sound Designer of all time….haha
4. At this point you can either press ENTER to search OR press the down arrow to create the Block.
So now you just created one of the 3 missing search boxes from old BH, but instead of being limited to only 3 extra ones you now get unlimited!
NOTE: Also this all be done with out EVER touching the mouse and only using your keyboard. This will be explained in the video.
Thesaurus T-Blocks
(Ultra only)
The Thesaurus also creates T-Blocks and opens up the ability to search for “like” terms using a comprehensive inbuilt word library specifically curated for sound designers. Users also have the option to exclude or add their own words to the internal Thesaurus database also.
The Options Page has a dedicated Thesaurus section so you can customize it as you see fit.
As you enter a word in the top search box, matches will be displayed in the second search box. You can choose to modify the thesaurus match if you need to add/remove a word from the search. If you wish to edit the thesaurus library see the Thesaurus section in the Options Page or click the gear icon next to it in the Search Bar/Blocks Options Panel. Press (SHIFT+T) to enable Thesaurus T-Blocks.
FILTER BLOCKS
You can create Filter Blocks from many areas of the program now including Imports, Groups, CloudPacks, UCS Categories and Exploded ‘Import’ Folders. Just hold (Ctrl/Cmd)+Click any of the these items to create Filter Blocks to perform searches only in the visible filter blocks. These work as an OR search be default cuz if you created two Filter blocks of two different ‘Imports’ you will probably get zero results so look at Filter Blocks as…”I think the sound I am looking for is either in this ‘Import’, this one or maybe this ‘CloudPack’ type thing.
Below are two examples of things you might want to do focused OR type searches instead of sniper like pin point searches.
NOTE: you can create block for full ‘Imports’ or Explode the Import and create a block from a specific folder. It’s insanely flexible!
When to use ‘Deep Character Search’ and when not to?
This icon to the left of Main Search Box indicates if you are in ‘Full Text Search Mode’ or ‘Deep Character Search Mode’ or ‘DCS’
‘DCS’ can FindWordInsideThatAreSpelledLike this. When it’s OFF it’s in ‘FTS’ (Full Text Search) mode and searches by full words at the start. So “train” will still show “trains” and even return “_trains” or “-trains”
The BIG thing to know is…
If you are in ‘DCS’ mode if you type in “rain” you will also get results with “trains” in them so beware when to use this mode.
‘DCS’ is slower, but has it’s purposes for sure as it looks inside of everything like a detective or a scientist with a microscope, but will find things you might not want to see also.
ProTip: You can (Ctrl/CMD) click this left side icon to toggle between these two search modes.