CEP is driving me insane

[BrettB]

I recentely recorded several songs in CEP and it's really starting to do very, very annoying things.

Everytime I open a session he ask after several files in the song. For example, when I open a session he ask 'Please Locate Guitarpart(2).wav' when he means Guitarpart.wav. I thought the (2) only appeared when you changed something in a wav file, but also when I don't do a single thing on a waveform, and I save it afterwards, it still asks that, or the next time he even asks after guitarpart(3).wav.

What am I doing wrong????

And another thing. When I want to make a copy of the session, by clicking save As and saving it with all the linked wav files in a new directory, 2 times out of 5 the new back uped session is totally fucked up! It gives weird beeps and puts wrong files on the wrong place.

Any idea someone how this is possible?

[Tukkis]

Everytime I open a session he ask after several files in the song. For example, when I open a session he ask 'Please Locate Guitarpart(2).wav' when he means Guitarpart.wav. I thought the (2) only appeared when you changed something in a wav file, but also when I don't do a single thing on a waveform, and I save it afterwards, it still asks that, or the next time he even asks after guitarpart(3).wav.

Make sure when you close the previous session you press 'close session and it's waveforms' not just 'close session'.

And another thing. When I want to make a copy of the session, by clicking save As and saving it with all the linked wav files in a new directory, 2 times out of 5 the new back uped session is totally fucked up! It gives weird beeps and puts wrong files on the wrong place.

Make sure when you save it in the new directory you check 'save copies of all associated files'. Then press the options button next to that. This window lets you select which format you want to save the audio files as.

Tukkis

[joro]

it's the bit-rate man.....


you are probably recording 16 bit but saving your files at a different bit-rate.....

go through your sessions folders and check the bit-rate on your tracks and mixes......and change them to what you are tracking to.....

Take it easy,
Joe

[BrettB]

thx for all your advice.

Joro, I checked the bit-rate, nothing wrong with that...

Tukkis was right I think, I didn't closed the waveforms all the time, so my first problem is solved.
I don't know by the second, but I cleaned up much disk space and now it goes a lot better

thx

greetings
Brett

[dobro]

Joro's mistaken. Tukkis' suggestion is helpful, but probably not the main key. How do I know this? Because I've had the same problem myself for a very long time, and have received no useful help from Syntrillium either. Both of your problems have plagued me.

The reason it's doing that is because the Session file is screwed up. It starts to happen when you delete tracks and move stuff around and you're not careful enough about keeping the session information accurate. It doesn't happen otherwise, I think.

If you delete a track, you have to be very careful to delete it from the session information also. I do that in Edit View and use Save As to get into the session information. Then back in Multitrack, click on Close Only Non-session Waveforms before you save the session. Then finally, to close out, go into View again and click Close All Waves and Session. The reason for going into view, is that if you click on the same thing in Multitrack, it sometimes leaves one of the tracks from your session in View, and I think that screws things up sometimes between different sessions.

Now, there's another warning for you as well: when you go into View and delete the track from the session information that you've just deleted in either Multitrack or View, be very very VERY careful that you're in the right folder and in the right session. Both 1.2 and 2.0 pull this trick on me: after I delete a track I go into the folder and delete the track from the session information. Then if I go back into multitrack and delete another track and go back once again into view to delete the session information yet again, Cool doesn't automatically open the folder I've just been in - it takes me to another folder. I've deleted tracks from the wrong session before now a few times.

Finally, first aid - if your session gets screwed up, there are some things you can do:

1 Yell FUCK really loudly a few times.

2 Sometimes after you've loaded the screwed-up session one track at a time like it asks you to do, you can use the Save As command to create a new version of the whole session, and if you're lucky, the new session will be reliable and clean. BTW, 1.2 does this way more reliably than 2.0 - 2.0 is really dodgy with Save As. I haven't tried it with 2.1 yet.

3 The long, painful fix: if your session isn't too big, you can import it track by track into a new session and then spend a lot of time lining the tracks up in their correct positions.

This problem is the one thing about Cool Edit that I really really hate. Its design is such that it's really easy to fuck up the session information. I think it should be way more user friendly.

[joro]

Sorry for the bad info....but, that is what happened to me in the past...the bit-rate thing....
I do not experience the other problems....here is why....

I have a master folder called recording...
when I start a new project...I create a new folder within this master folder for each recording...titled appropriately...

If I import music...I place the file in this folder first...
all of my tracks and sessions get saved to the same folder as well...even the mixdowns...

I never delete tracks.....I just mute them and re-name them....

I guess it is just good housekeeping...ya know?

Joe

[BrettB]

Originally posted by dobro
Joro's mistaken. Tukkis' suggestion is helpful, but probably not the main key. How do I know this? Because I've had the same problem myself for a very long time, and have received no useful help from Syntrillium either. Both of your problems have plagued me.

The reason it's doing that is because the Session file is screwed up. It starts to happen when you delete tracks and move stuff around and you're not careful enough about keeping the session information accurate. It doesn't happen otherwise, I think.

If you delete a track, you have to be very careful to delete it from the session information also. I do that in Edit View and use Save As to get into the session information. Then back in Multitrack, click on Close Only Non-session Waveforms before you save the session. Then finally, to close out, go into View again and click Close All Waves and Session. The reason for going into view, is that if you click on the same thing in Multitrack, it sometimes leaves one of the tracks from your session in View, and I think that screws things up sometimes between different sessions.

Now, there's another warning for you as well: when you go into View and delete the track from the session information that you've just deleted in either Multitrack or View, be very very VERY careful that you're in the right folder and in the right session. Both 1.2 and 2.0 pull this trick on me: after I delete a track I go into the folder and delete the track from the session information. Then if I go back into multitrack and delete another track and go back once again into view to delete the session information yet again, Cool doesn't automatically open the folder I've just been in - it takes me to another folder. I've deleted tracks from the wrong session before now a few times.

Finally, first aid - if your session gets screwed up, there are some things you can do:

1 Yell FUCK really loudly a few times.

2 Sometimes after you've loaded the screwed-up session one track at a time like it asks you to do, you can use the Save As command to create a new version of the whole session, and if you're lucky, the new session will be reliable and clean. BTW, 1.2 does this way more reliably than 2.0 - 2.0 is really dodgy with Save As. I haven't tried it with 2.1 yet.

3 The long, painful fix: if your session isn't too big, you can import it track by track into a new session and then spend a lot of time lining the tracks up in their correct positions.

This problem is the one thing about Cool Edit that I really really hate. Its design is such that it's really easy to fuck up the session information. I think it should be way more user friendly.

thx for sharing this info with me dobro. CEP indeed still does strange things with me. I have enountered the same problems as you have also: when I try to save something CEP immediately opens the last folder I saved in. It is often of a different session, and when you are to quick to click yes, you save it in a wrong folder.

I still have no explanation why sometimes, when I click save as, he converts some wave files into wierd bleeps and some kind of pitched version.

I mess so much with session I have become afraid to delete wave files. Sometimes I save my session in a new folder and choose the 'save all associated waves' option. If this worked, I delete the entire old folder with the old waves and sessions. Seems ridiculous, but it works.

I just hate the guy who invented the (2.1) kinda notation. The next time CEP asks 'where is Vocals (2.1.1) I'll go insane!

[dobro]

"Sometimes I save my session in a new folder and choose the 'save all associated waves' option. If this worked, I delete the entire old folder with the old waves and sessions. Seems ridiculous, but it works."

Yeah, me too. I think this is the way to do it. Never make changes on the original session, or the session you just worked on. Always make a copy of that session and make your changes on that. Also, when the time comes to save the session, it's often useful to use Save As and save the session with a new name (and therefore new and updated session information).

[trdn1]

don't open the same file twice during the same session.

the (2) means you went back into "open file" and opened a file that had already been opened and used in that session.

long story long, if you're looping, just right click and hit loop duplicate.

if you want to open the file into the session, and you're not sure if the file is currently open, check the file list. the (2) is evil. be smarter than CEP, it's always looking for a way to bite you in the ass and make you spend half a day searching for the files that should be in there, or the same effects you had on before you opened the second one and placed the (2) evil non-twin in there.

[BrettB]

Originally posted by trdn1


if you want to open the file into the session, and you're not sure if the file is currently open, check the file list. the (2) is evil. be smarter than CEP, it's always looking for a way to bite you in the ass and make you spend half a day searching for the files that should be in there, or the same effects you had on before you opened the second one and placed the (2) evil non-twin in there.

this is idd true. I am really carefull about it now..

[dobro]

This has been a really gratifying thread for me. Why? Well, if I go over to Syntrillium and say what we've been saying here - how Cool Edit is always trying to bite you in the ass and how careful you have to be - I get loads of guys (radio guys mostly) telling me that it has nothing to do with Cool and *everything* to do with me and my sloppy housekeeping. Well, okay. Now I've cleaned up my housekeeping and I run a tight ship.

But Cool ain't user friendly in this regard, and no radio guy on the Syntrillium board is ever gonna convince me otherwise.