audio files disappearing!?!

  • Thread starter Thread starter maryslittlesecret
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maryslittlesecret

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Okay, here's a new one. Over the past week or two, I've been having a problem with my audio files disappering. Just five minutes ago, I saved a project with about six audio tracks that I worked on all weekend. I went to reopen five minutes later it and I get this message:

"Can't locate missing file..." points to a specific .wav file in my WaveData directory "Do you wish to locate it?"

I saved the project earlier this weekend and was able to pull it back up tonight without any problems, but after I saved it tonight, the data was gone in five minutes?!?

This has happened to me more than once and I can't figure out what's causing it. Please help!!!
 
cakewalk(i assume) has lost the location of your data directory. Check options/audio/advanced/data directory. If necessary use find *.wav and see where your audio has been hiding. type in the address.... for instance D:\wavdata....
I lost mine when I installed hard drive for audio. Don't panic..... your audio is somewhere on that drive unless you expressly deleted it.
 
That may be possible. When I was snooping around after this happened, I believe the advanced audio data directory properties was pointing to a different folder than the one assigned to hold my data in the global properties. However, when I did a general Windows search for the files on my hard drives, I still couldn't find the files...

I'm not worried as much about the lost data as I am about this maybe happening again with a more complete project. I know I didn't set these two paths/directories to be different, so how would the advanced audio folder end up getting switched? And is there any way I can prevent it from happening again?

Any suggestions on general 'dos and don'ts' for saving and backing up projects are welcome as well. Thanks.

J
 
I would contact cake tech support at this point. Possibly reinstall cake...keep testing to try to make it happen again....the cakewalk audio file system has driven me crazy on occaison...it would be nice if they would create a new folder for each project...the protools system does.... i think this came about because of tiny hard drives cake thinks that you should use the same .wav files on different projects.....also the CWAF tool sometimes helps find files.

I back cake projects as .bun files to cd or cdr....If the project is particularly important I make sure the .bun file loads up properly....I've had major errors in the past....do not delete the .wrk file until you are sure of the integrity of the .bun file
buenas suerte
 
What version of Cake do you have? I think that prior to version 9, audio data was saved with some other extension, something like ~AV or WA~ -- so if you have version 8 or earlier, and searched for *.wav, you wouldn't find these.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I plan on trying to see if I can make them disappear again so I can loacte the problem and know what not to do -- right now, it seems to be happening at random, though I doubt that's the case...

I have CW9, so I think I'm alright in terms of being pretty current. I will occasionally find .wov files (as opposed to .wav) but if I understand this correctly, those are something like temp files. I originally thought I was losing stuff after I saved as a .bun file, but I don't think that's the case anymore.

The other action that seems to surround these circumstances is when I mixdown/export to audio, making just a rough copy of what I have so far. It has happened after that a few times... when you make a quick mix, it doesn't wipe the previous individual .wav files, does it?

Thanks for all the advice. Let me know if you have nay other tips...
 
audio files disappearing -- update

Well, I may have found the problem (though I don't know how to fix it). After going back and rerecording everything tonight (and saving as I went) when I finished, I saved as a bundle file and closed everything. When I went to open up the normal .wrk file (that I saved the bundle from) all the audio had disappeared -- couldn't even find it with a Windows search. Luckily, the bundle saved fine.

Is it possible that something is set up wrong so that after I save a copy as a bundle file, I can't go back to using a .wrk file because it takes all of the audio from the work file and won't give it back? Please let me know if this makes any sense to anyone. Thanks!
 
Are We Having Fun Yet?

Where is your wav data folder? It might be simpler to create a new one. Have you tried your CWAF tool?
SOMEWHERE???????????????????????????????????
cakewlk is saving your audio files or you would be creating bun files out of thin air?
With bun files i save to cdr the wrk and audio files always remain on my computer until I delete them. Which is a pain.....
this all may be a good thing at least you don't have to go looking for your audio if you always save to bun.
Again I would reinstall cakewalk. This often has helped me solve problems that I didn't know i had created...
It's stuff like this that make me miss the old four track...it may have sounded like **** but at least you knew where you left it!

Buenas suerte II
 
cakewalk is haunted

yo.
i've gone from cake 7 to nine...
sometimes, without changing a single thing,
cake 7 used to LOSE MY PRECIOUS songs!
straight up, "file not found"
just terrible.
so those chaps who said folders, options,
and so on are right too...
but cake 7 and 8 are just a bit sketchy.
r
 
:confused: Not the same thing, but...

After successfully using Cakewalk for 6 months, the other day I started it up, loaded a file and clicked the play button. Nothing! The file looks fine, the scroll bar moves across the tracks, but no sound comes out.

OK, the speakers aren't turned on. No. The volume's turned down. No. Check all the connections. Everything's fine. Etc., etc., etc.

After two hours of finding nothing, I finally removed my Delta 1010 from Windows Control Panel and uninstalled and reinstalled Cakewalk. Reboot. Windows finds and installs the Delta 1010. Open Cakewalk and load file. Problem gone.

Was this some sort of test???
 
how about this one?

no, just business as usual in the wonderful world of digital audio. for months cakewalk and my computer have been acting weird sometimes i can't play 4 audio tracks without these huge spikes and drop outs on the hard drive system monitor....then I at the point when I'm ready to start emailing everyone on my tech support list I reboot and all the problems disappear. I have done endless tweaks ...windows audio optimizations etc etc .....
 
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