UCS Naming Structure

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UCS Naming Structure

UCS uses several blocks to form file names in a standard format according to the following pattern:

CatID-UserCategory_VendorCategory-FXName_CreatorID_SourceID_UserData

Some of the blocks are required while others are optional. Strata uses five blocks by default. Refer to the following table for more information about each of the UCS blocks.

Block Name	Required	Used in Strata by Default	Description
CatID	Y	Y	Abbreviated category or subcategory, as defined by the UCS.
UserCategory	N	N	Optional user-defined tail extension of the CatID block, such as a microphone, perspective, and so on.
VendorCategory	N	Y	Optional head extension of the FXName block that vendors can use to define specific collection categories. For example, specific names of firearms, vehicles, locations, and so on.
FXName	Y	Y	Brief description or title (fewer than 25 characters).
CreatorID	Y	Y	Sound designer, recordist, or vendor. In Strata, this is AKBOOM by default, which is a concatenation of Audiokinetic and BOOM Library. This value is visible in the REAPER Project Settings window on the Notes tab in the Author text box, and is used as the value of the $author REAPER wildcard in the file name string.
SourceID	Y	Y	Project, show, collection name, or abbreviation.
UserData	N	N	Optional block for user-defined information such an ID or number to ensure that file names are unique. You can also use it to list microphone type, location, perspective, and so on.

Strata uses five blocks with the appropriate mandatory block delimiters.

CatID
_VendorCategory
-FxName
_CreatorID
_SourceID

The following example file name demonstrates real values inserted into the corresponding blocks:

GUNAntq_Pistol Muzzleloader-Shot 01 Composite_AKB00M_Historical Firearms.wav

In this example, the value of CatID is GUNAntq, the value of SourceID is Historical Firearms, and so on.

UCS Delimiters

The UCS allows the use of whitespace and has specific rules for the use of the underscore (_) and hyphen (-) delimiters:

- Prefix UserCategory
_ Suffix CatID if no UserCategory
_ Suffix UserCategory
- Suffix VendorCategory
_ Prefix CreatorID
_ Prefix SourceID
_ Prefix UserData

These delimiter characters must not be used anywhere else in the file name. Correct usage is essential for computer software such as sound effect library databases to parse the UCS names correctly.

For detailed information, refer to the Universal Category System website.

Customizing File Names and Metadata

As described in the previous section, the default Strata file name convention uses a set of five name blocks. By default, file names don’t include any UserCategory or UserData values, but you can add these blocks yourself if you need to add some information in the file name that the default naming convention doesn’t include.

To maintain a UCS file name, ensure that you add the blocks in the correct locations with the correct delimiters in the following format:

CatID-UserCategory_VendorCategory-FXName_CreatorID_SourceID_UserData

Because REAPER generates file names based on the string specified in the black Base Data Region String, you can set explicit values in the data region string to propagate those values to both file names as well as metadata.

To add UserCategory and UserData values to file names:

Expand the Region Marker Manager, which is docked at the bottom of the REAPER interface.
Double-click the black data region name. The region name string uses the following format: CategoryFull=;Category=;SubCategory=;CatID=G;UserCategory=;VendorCategory=;SourceID=;UserData=;Explanations=;Synonyms=;OpenTier=;
Position the cursor after the desired block and add a value with the appropriate delimiter:
- For UserCategory, use the following format: UserCategory=- <MyCategory MyName>; For example: UserCategory=-FPS;
- For UserData, use the following format: UserData=_ <MyData MyNumber>; For example: UserData=_Version 1.00;
Press Enter. The specified values appear in the file names of every region you subsequently render into audio files. For example, if you render a region from the Historical Firearms collection with the sample values from the previous step, the name of a rendered file would resemble the following, with the UserCategory and UserData values in bold: GUNAntq -FPS_Pistol Muzzleloader-Shot 01 Composite_AKB00M_Historical Firearms_ version 1.00.wav

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