Saving files

buckkillr8

buckkillr8

David Gilmour's clone
Played around today with Reaper for the first time in awhile and noticed that there's tons of "mini" files that are getting saved for any giving project. Is this normal? I never had this with Sonar. Anyway to stop this? Seems like a simple reaper project file is all that's needed to be saved whenever I save something. Not hundreds of pieces. :confused:
 
Different applications have their own ways of managing their files. Reaper, though, like all other applications, saves just one project file. What you see are likely to be a: the wav files recorded during a sessin, and b: their associated peak files.

When you are happy with a recording session's results, you can got File/Clean Current Project Directory and get a list of all the unused files which it is safe for you then to delete. However, good housekeeping means that you create a new directory for each song, so that only the files of that song sit inside it . . . otherwise who knows what you've got.
 
buckkillr8 said:
Played around today with Reaper for the first time in awhile and noticed that there's tons of "mini" files that are getting saved for any giving project. Is this normal? I never had this with Sonar. Anyway to stop this? Seems like a simple reaper project file is all that's needed to be saved whenever I save something. Not hundreds of pieces. :confused:
Click to expand...

You've never played with Audacity then. Talk about a mess of .wav files!:eek:

Like Zed said (ha! It rhymes! I know, I know...) earlier, project folders are a must. I've found out the hard way that it pays to be organized. It definitely comes in handy when you need to go back and remaster something at a later time.
 
jjones1700 said:
Like Zed said (ha! It rhymes! I know, I know...) earlier, project folders are a must. I've found out the hard way that it pays to be organized. It definitely comes in handy when you need to go back and remaster something at a later time.
Click to expand...

So true, and thankfully, REAPER has it's "copy to project directory" and "move to project directory" options when you're saving.


The files you're seeing are the .wav files of the recordings, the .reapeaks files which are a graphical representation of your waveform, and the .RPP REAPER project file. You may also see some .RPP-bak files and some other files depending on your auto-save and undo settings.

I believe there is a feature request for better organization of the project folder, but I can't seem to find it now..
 
Yeah I know the file types in there, and it's not so much of a being organized problem. It's the problem of why so many files? Say for instance I did a solo take. There's 20 files of that solo take all broken down in pieces. Why? If there's a way to minimize these files could someone take me through the steps to do it?

Basically I just want 1 reaper file, 1 audio file for a given project. I understand the way it's doing it now is for going back to things but when I make a major change on a project I'm working on I pick save as and name it as a different take.
 
buckkillr8 said:
Yeah I know the file types in there, and it's not so much of a being organized problem. It's the problem of why so many files? Say for instance I did a solo take. There's 20 files of that solo take all broken down in pieces. Why? If there's a way to minimize these files could someone take me through the steps to do it?

Basically I just want 1 reaper file, 1 audio file for a given project. I understand the way it's doing it now is for going back to things but when I make a major change on a project I'm working on I pick save as and name it as a different take.
Click to expand...

Mine has never done that, at least not that I recall. I know if I do multiple takes on the same track (deleting the previous take), it will have a bunch in there. I think there is also a setting in there for the amount of memory each "chunk" can be before it writes it to a file.:confused:
 
buckkillr8 said:
Yeah I know the file types in there, and it's not so much of a being organized problem. It's the problem of why so many files? Say for instance I did a solo take. There's 20 files of that solo take all broken down in pieces. Why? If there's a way to minimize these files could someone take me through the steps to do it?

Basically I just want 1 reaper file, 1 audio file for a given project. I understand the way it's doing it now is for going back to things but when I make a major change on a project I'm working on I pick save as and name it as a different take.
Click to expand...

When you say "I did a solo take," Do you mean you literally open a new project, save it to some directory, record one take, save and close, and you have 20 files?

Or, do you record a bunch of different tracks, maybe re-recored the vocal or rhythm guitar a few times until you're happy, then save and close?

I'm guessing the later - ANY multitrack audio program will save individual tracks and individual takes to their own wave file. They have to, otherwise you'd never be able to alter the mix. Getting a single "audio" file that holds all of the project's audio is simply not realistic.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
When you say "I did a solo take," Do you mean you literally open a new project, save it to some directory, record one take, save and close, and you have 20 files?

Or, do you record a bunch of different tracks, maybe re-recored the vocal or rhythm guitar a few times until you're happy, then save and close?

I'm guessing the later - ANY multitrack audio program will save individual tracks and individual takes to their own wave file. They have to, otherwise you'd never be able to alter the mix. Getting a single "audio" file that holds all of the project's audio is simply not realistic.
Click to expand...


Basically the later yes. But Wouldn't it just save over other parts if you saved that way? This is like it's auto saving every 5 seconds. If you finally get happy with a track and save wouldn't that be the main file?

Some of these audio files being saved are like 2.8 seconds. WTF? Whereas when I used to use Sonar there was the one "cakewalk project file". You opened that in Sonar and all your project was there, audio etc. etc.
 
reaper saves EVERYTHING as its being recorded, just in case the computer BSODS or lighting hits it or something.

You can always clean out the stuff later, but when the worst happens, youll be glad for the mess
 
But how do I know what to clean? :) Everytime I always remove something from a old project or just a noodle project it doesn't open anymore. :D
 
gecko zzed said:
Different applications have their own ways of managing their files. Reaper, though, like all other applications, saves just one project file. What you see are likely to be a: the wav files recorded during a sessin, and b: their associated peak files.

When you are happy with a recording session's results, you can got File/Clean Current Project Directory and get a list of all the unused files which it is safe for you then to delete. However, good housekeeping means that you create a new directory for each song, so that only the files of that song sit inside it . . . otherwise who knows what you've got.
Click to expand...

Gecko. I've been wondering about this. Thanks. That's great advice. I find myself having to 'check properties' for all the different versions of a song to find out which is the 'final'. Thanks again.
Also, I've just been wondering. Are you any relation to Victor French? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_French
 
buckkillr8 said:
But how do I know what to clean? :) Everytime I always remove something from a old project or just a noodle project it doesn't open anymore. :D
Click to expand...

This should do it - when you're finished, save the project to a new directory, and choose the "move project audio files" option. Then, check to make sure only the individual track files in use got moved, and if so go back to the original directory and delete everything there, since you now know it's not in use. :)
 
buckkillr8 said:
Basically the later yes. But Wouldn't it just save over other parts if you saved that way? This is like it's auto saving every 5 seconds. If you finally get happy with a track and save wouldn't that be the main file?

Some of these audio files being saved are like 2.8 seconds. WTF? Whereas when I used to use Sonar there was the one "cakewalk project file". You opened that in Sonar and all your project was there, audio etc. etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that's because Sonar had a seperate audio directory where it saved all audio files. These files were still being created, but they just weren't being stored in the same folder as the project itself.

If it's a 2.8 second file, it means you started recording, then stopped after 2.8 seconds.

It's not auto-saving - it saves each take to its own file. So, every time you record a take, you create a new file.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Yeah, but that's because Sonar had a seperate audio directory where it saved all audio files. These files were still being created, but they just weren't being stored in the same folder as the project itself.

If it's a 2.8 second file, it means you started recording, then stopped after 2.8 seconds.

It's not auto-saving - it saves each take to its own file. So, every time you record a take, you create a new file.
Click to expand...

Would it still save that 2.8 second file if I did a "undo record"?
 
buckkillr8 said:
Would it still save that 2.8 second file if I did a "undo record"?
Click to expand...

My understanding is that Reaper keeps everything. All the commands that you use (e.g. delete, undo etc.) relate to what appears on your screen. For example, when you do a 'punch in' recording, Reaper starts recording from the moment you hit record, and not just the target area, even though that's all you see as having been recorded.

This is a similar operating paradigm to Vegas, where you have a media library from which you select, manipulate and cut up clips at will . . . yet the originals remain intact.

The benefit is that you never lose anything. The disadavantage is that there are lots of files floating around. This disadvantage is negated if you make sure you have a specific folder for each song (project) and make sure you use Reaper's directory clean-up function.

I also run an older version of Logic (5.1). If I messed up a take and deleted it from the screen, Logic would also delete the file from the directory, which was a cool way of keeping files under control. But that only worked if it was done during the sme session. If you delete a take in a subsequent session, it removes it from the screen, but not the directory. It then becomes difficult later to now what's being used and what isn't. I prefer Reaper's system.
 
hmm

just skimming over the thread.....
is this what you are talking about?





edit: upon reading more i realize this is not what you are talking about....but hey it is a cool feature.
 

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