Why do most softwares save unwanted tracks even when you dont want them to?

systmovadown

systmovadown

New member
I have been using adobe audition 2, and many versions of cakewalk's sonar. every time i record something, even if i dont manually save the session/project or the track, the software automatically saves a wav file of that recording in a folder. This eats up my memory. i just found 40 gigs worth of these files. why do recording programs save these files and how do i stop it?
 
in other words

why is it that in adobe audition, you can choose what file to have on your audio folder

untitlednu9.jpg



and in adobe audition 2, even when you exit out, all the other takes are saved too...

untitled2tr0.jpg

as you can see, track 1 has all takes 2, 3, and 4.

i was just wondering if there was any way without going to each individual file and manually delete them.
i was trying out other softwares and each one seemed to be doing the same.
doesn't this eat up much of your drive space?

thanks
 
That's one of the reasons I didn't keep Audition 2.0

Reaper has a "Clean project directory" feature that will delete all files not being used by the project. It also prompts you to save/delete after recording if you want it to.
 
now my second question is.
is that fully compatible with presonus firepod?
the reason why i'm not staying with 1.5 is because it doesn't support it (like 2.0 does)
 
In Cubase the stuff you don't use goes into the audio pools trashcan so it's pretty easy to delete the stuff you don't want, but also easy to put it back. I figured most software worked like that.
 
systmovadown said:
undo does nothing to these files.
they can still be found on the audio folder where the tracks are saved.
Click to expand...

That is correct. But if you decide to DO an UNDO, there they are!

Sonar has a function called "Clean Audio Folder". All files not currently in use with the project get cleaned out. Of course, you should do this upon opening the project after you have saved the project, because again, UNDO.
 
systmovadown said:
I have been using adobe audition 2, and many versions of cakewalk's sonar. every time i record something, even if i dont manually save the session/project or the track, the software automatically saves a wav file of that recording in a folder. This eats up my memory. i just found 40 gigs worth of these files. why do recording programs save these files and how do i stop it?
Click to expand...

A. Because you don't have 200 GB of RAM.
B. You don't.

They record to files on your HD for two reasons. First, it is impractical to record to RAM because you don't have enough. Second, it ensures that even if the application (or even the computer) crashes, you don't lose the recording.

If you want to get rid of the unused content, you should take advantage of the cleanup features. Most apps have such features to get rid of unused regions. WARNING: some software gets rid of portions of regions that are in use as well. Do not use such an option until you have finished editing!

That said, my advice is to just ignore it. Disk space is basically free ($0.23 per gigabyte in 250GB capacity), so 40 GB is only about $9 worth of storage. If you're running out of space, get a bigger drive.
 
Acid pro does the same, which i use for small projects that are pretty much going to stay rough, i just rename any tracks i plan to keep. That way i can just delete all the other stuff manually. I also just delete the projects i know i won't come back to or will get rerecorded to be usuable. I think to many people feel the need to beable to go back to every project they've ever done because they can. To me, often times it counterproductive.
 
Audition 2.0 can get a little clunsy sometimes, so if I'm just recording a little jam and want to play it back, I make a new folder for it and then trash the whole thing later if I don't like it. I hate when I'm working on a song though and it saves everything even whe I delete it. I like in Audition 1.5 how you can "destroy" the file right from the program, to my knowledge, 2.0 does not have anything like that. I'd also like a "clean-up" button, where it will remove anything from the file directory of the session file that's not on the multitrack screen, that would be nice. Of course it would keep all the files on the HD, just not load them in the session file. There may already be a setting for that, but I haven't spent much time looking for it.
 
They are cheap... You can get a WD 160GB SATAII drive for $59 I think it is on newegg. There's also 200gb for around that price range too.
 
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