Backup on CD- Data or Audio

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alanfc
  • Start date Start date
Alanfc

Alanfc

New member
I have a question on backing up large Bundle files from Cakewalk . I guess this might apply to any program.

Anyway I found some reference on these boards to saving the stuff on to CD as DATA rather than AUDIO.

Can someone please tell me the difference?
And if I have Windows XP and Cakewalk HS XL will I get some prompt that will make me choose?

I'm not trying to Burn a CD, just trying to backup using CD as a temporary fix until I can get a big external hard drive.

Specifically on Cakewalk- would regularly saving during a session on my main drive as a .WRK file; then backing up every night on the CD drive as a .BUN be a prudent way to go about it.?

I've seen proponents both for and against .WRK's and .BUN's so I want to keep it all covered..

thanks
 
Unless it's a music CD that you want to be able to play on your regular CD player, make it a data CD. The files contain music, but they are still just files.

Also, if you have Sonar 2, turn on per-project audio folders, as that is the easiest thing to back up. I once had a .bun file that reached about 350MB, and I just don't trust anything that huge.
 
what about the CD itself

Skysaw:

I wish I had Sonar but have Home studio now.

Question on the actual blank CDs I buy at the store, do they need to be anything special? My Windows XP Help notes says they need to be "writable". So, in the store is there going to be like a thousand different types to wade through? Like "Writable", "non-writable", "audio", "data", etc..?

thanks
 
Yes, you do want to backup with .bun files to a data CD. A .wrk file is a small file that contains the various settings for the mix, but it does not contain the actual .wav data. That is stored in another folder. When you convert your .wrk file to a .bun, it takes the settings AND the .wav data and puts them all into one big-ass file.

Basically what this means to you is that if you want a backup of the mix AND the .wav data, you have to save the file as a .bun and then burn it to CD (or transfer it to a Zip disk, or whatever). If it is too big for one CD, you should first try compressing it with winzip or winrar, and then if it is still too big, try splitting it into two or more archives with winrar or winace.

The only annoying things about .bun files are that they take a minute or so to extract all the audio data when you open them. But I guess if you're only using them for backup, and not actually working from them, that shouldn't matter.

As far as the CD type that you want to buy, it'll say CD-R 700MB on the case/spindle. If you want to use rewritable CDs (which you might, since you're using them for backup and could just use the same disk over again each night), then you want to get CD-RW disks, which are more expensive and also have to be formatted prior to use. DO NOT get the CD-Audio disks.

Good luck!
Ryan
 
The other thing you could do if Cakewalk saves the song in it's own folder is zip all the song files up with winzip and then burn the zip file to CDR. Assuming the bun file is a backup you can create with Cakewalk, that sounds easier to copy to CDR though. I dunno if it compresses but using winzip with audio files can half the size of the data so you can backup large projects up to 1.4 GB or so to a 700 MB CDR.
 
Zipping reduces WAVs to 1/2 their size? I don't think so...

I just ran a test and the original, unzipped WAVs totalled 95.0 MB; the ZIP file with the compression set to "normal" came out to 89.5 MB. When I set the compression to "maximum," it came out only 4KB smaller than that.

Percentage-wise, that's a reduction of less than 6% in size.

WAVs are fairly incompressible with a non-lossy scheme, which is the whole reason for the existence of sophisticated lossy schemes like Real Audio and MP3...
 
This is starting to get more complicated than I intended (I think)

My only intention is to save my Cakewalk bundle file to the CD each night after doing recording/mixing/editing. As a temporary substitute for an external hard drive .

I'm not worried about space- I figure I can get a couple Bundle files on each CD. I don't care about that.

Someone told me that CD-RW disks risk degradation of some kind if you save over things too often? Is this true? I thought that if I'm going to save everything as data that its not "burning". And I've heard from another person (not on this board) that they save their stuff as Data AND Audio.

I must be getting something mixed up here. Are there differing degrees of quality or degradation depending on HOW I save ? Are people using the word "burning" sort of generically? I always took "burning" to mean making the final CD.

There, I've made it more complicated while trying to clarify myself.

Anyone have a way to make it clearer to me now that I've added more questions?

Thanks alot
 
If a .bun file is small enough to fit on a CDR, then that is your best route to go. I use cheapass CDR's that we buy for about .19 each to do this and have had to restore of transfer the files to another computer and all was well.

The problem starts if you have a .bun file that exceeds the storage maximum on a CDR. Like stated earlier, you would need to zip those up and split it up to two smaller files to save to two different CDR's. I run into this a lot.

In Sonar 2, you have the per project folders, and ALL .wav file data is saved there. This makes archieving the project even easier to do.

CD RW are mostly unreliable, or at least that has been my experience with them. If you value archieving, just pay the .19 each for cheap CDR's to burn to and call it good.

ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR WORK!!! :D

Ed
 
Oops Screwed up the quote. Trying to fix a damn notebook computer while surfing the net :D
 
AlChuck said:
Zipping reduces WAVs to 1/2 their size? I don't think so...

I just ran a test and the original, unzipped WAVs totalled 95.0 MB; the ZIP file with the compression set to "normal" came out to 89.5 MB. When I set the compression to "maximum," it came out only 4KB smaller than that.

Percentage-wise, that's a reduction of less than 6% in size.

WAVs are fairly incompressible with a non-lossy scheme, which is the whole reason for the existence of sophisticated lossy schemes like Real Audio and MP3...
Click to expand...

Okay, thought my Acid project was a little bigger than it was. Plus I was doing a rar file not a zip file. Figured they be about the same. Tried it again to get solid numbers. My 125 MB acid project ZIPs down to 95 MB and RARs down to 71 MB. ~24% ZIP and 43% RAR. Still not bad. Winrar is similar to winzip and is just as easy to use, and I also used this for creating the ZIP file. This is still gonna be close to 1.2 GB of stuff on a 700 MB CD after RAR-ing. If the data is bigger than that you can span across a couple zip/rar files to get something backed up but then it starts to become more of a pain in the ass.
 
My personal preference for long term archive and cross platform compatability would be 24 bit Brodcast Wav Files (BWF). They are time stamped and line up properly when opening up multitrack projects in different BWF compatable software programs or HDR's
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top