banzailoco wrote:This is a reminder to save all your project files on a backup drive.
So... when I copy the Mixcraft project folder I'm only saving information about the project, not the files needed for the project. I found this when Mixcraft could not load the .Wav files because they where missing. It also was searching for them at the old folder.
If the files needed for the project are in the Project Folder, then they will be copied. If you used drag-and-drop to put audio into a Mixcraft project, then the file is still in its old location and not in the project folder, so it won't be copied when you copy the folder.
Disclaimer: I could be wrong about the next two paragraphs.
The reason Mixcraft tries searching the old folder is because Mixcraft usually uses absolute file locations to search for files, not relative locations (it's trying to find the file at "C:\Users\Me\Mixcraft Projects\This Project Was Moved\audiofile1.wav", not "the-folder-you-opened-the-mixcraft-file-from\Audio Files\audiofile1.wav"). If Mixcraft used relative locations, then you wouldn't have a problem when you copy the folder.
When you move the folder, Mixcraft doesn't recognize that it was opened from a new file location. It simply tries to do its job of finding its files in the last known location, which is why there's the Find Files... dialog. Once the project opens up and finds all the files, you can simply save the project right away and it should correct the file locations.
banzailoco wrote:"Copy project files to" doesn't save everything about the project.
Correction, it saves everything about the project
that the project file is aware of. If you deleted a clip, then the file is no longer aware of that audio being used, and so it won't be copied, only because "Copy Project Files To..." looks for files that the
current project uses.
banzailoco wrote:Copying the project folder from the documents folder doesn't either.
When you record, it's save as a .Wav file. Why does Mixcraft saves the .Wav files in a different folder?
It shouldn't. It should save recordings to the root project folder.
banzailoco wrote:
This may sound stupid, but how exactly do we achieve a complete backup of the project. What folders and files do we need to copy and save to the backup folder.
1. Make sure that all sounds are recorded to one single folder.
1b. Make sure that 'Save as' project variants are saved to the same folder.
2. Make sure that all imported sounds (e.g. samples, reference tracks etc.) are saved to the same folder too before importing.
They should be a big pop up reminder when saving the project to backup all your files.
(-_-) V
To prevent further confusion, here's some complete steps you should use for backing up a project, including the automatic project file backups and unused audio.
- Find the project folder
- open the latest version of the project
- Copy Project Files To > Folder
- Select the folder that your project is currently using. All audio files being used by the current version of the project (this includes files from the Library) will be copied to the project folder and Mixcraft will create a new project file that uses the new file locations.
- You can now back up the entire project folder to an external drive.
If you want to use the Copy Project Files To > ZIP File, that might only be good for projects that you know are complete and you probably won't be editing constantly in the near futureāat that point you know what audio you will/won't be using, so the unused files aren't necessary. The ZIP file copy is best for archiving finished songs that you might only ever pull back up for reference or copyright claims or the likes.
Going off topic a little bit, but we're starting to delve into the problem of "what should I keep?" when it comes to audio and projects. A stereo WAV file at 44.1k/16bit takes 10mb of data per minute of audio. No big deal for one single track, but if you have a big audio-based project with a lot of tracks and a lot of takes, most of which you don't use, you might be looking at a very large project folder, only because of the audio files. It's up to you to decide if the unused audio is worth keeping or not, especially when it comes to long-term archiving. Granted, file storage is improving all the time, but it's still something to consider. Mixcraft basically uses the "the audio isn't in the project so it's not worth archiving" method, so it's up to you to include a few extra steps in order to get everything.