Behavior of "Delete Unused Recordings" please clarify

[Starship Krupa]

The manual says that "Mixcraft deletes any recordings made that are not currently on any tracks during a project save or when the (sic) exiting the software."

My understanding is that If I make any recordings, but delete those takes/clips during that session, and then Save, or Exit without saving, the audio files associated with those recordings will be deleted.

Once I do a Save with those files associated with clips, they are there until I manually delete them, right?

If I have a project, and it's been Save'd a bunch of times, but I decide to weed out some unused takes, and delete a bunch of lanes, then Save again, the audio files associated with those lanes do not get deleted at that Save, correct?

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

The files will only be deleted if you don't save. Once you save, the files are not deleted in that project.

If I have a project, and it's been Save'd a bunch of times, but I decide to weed out some unused takes, and delete a bunch of lanes, then Save again, the audio files associated with those lanes do not get deleted at that Save, correct?

That's correct. Unused files are only deleted from un-saved projects. We do it this way to err on the side of preserving your recordings.


Greg

[outteh]

So if you did a bunch of takes and redos and saved your project, all those files you deleted during the session that you didn't want any more are saved?

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

If you open up a new project, record a bunch of stuff, and then quit without saving, the recordings are deleted if you have that option checked in preferences.

Once you save that project, the unused files are not deleted.

Greg

[outteh]

Hi,

If you open up a new project, record a bunch of stuff, and then quit without saving, the recordings are deleted if you have that option checked in preferences.

Once you save that project, the unused files are not deleted.

Greg

Holy Smokes! I went to the temp location and one of the projects I worked on has a large amount of audio files that were retakes and redos. I guess that's why you have the delete temp files arrangement? Can you safely somehow (after you have completed a project) delete a bunch of these not needed files?

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

Temp files are something completely different. They are small files that help you load projects more quickly. If you delete them, your projects will load a bit more slowly the first time, as Mixcraft generates new temp files.


Greg

[outteh]

What about all the extra project files? Once you've finished a project you don't need all those takes and redos. Do you do a copy project to a new folder and delete the old one?

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

You could use "Copy Project Files" to put the project in a new folder, make sure it loads correctly from the new folder, then delete the old folder.

Or, just don't worry about it, because hard drive space is cheap these days.

Greg

[outteh]

[Mark Bliss]

Try managing collaborative projects where you consolidate a project folder where more than one person is doing revisions, scratch ideas, assorted takes and tweaks.
It can become a monster real easily.

I tend to archive everything to a backup drive. Even though the majority of extra material will never be reused.

[Starship Krupa]

This file management stuff is why I have been lobbying for a "check dependencies" function for some time now.

I would love to have a way to generate a list of exactly what files and where a given Mixcraft project is using, for the purpose of backing them up, deleting no-longer-needed takes, etc.

And, pleeeaaaase, nobody point out that I can find out that information by going through each clip one by one and then manually record it by reading the Sound tab because I already know that I can do it that way. That is laborious. It seems needlessly so when the program itself already knows the information.

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

That would be a nice feature.

Greg

[Starship Krupa]

That would be a nice feature.

I've been around here long enough to know that that is Gregspeak for "expect to be beta testing this in Mixcraft 9."

[aj113]

So if you did a bunch of takes and redos and saved your project, all those files you deleted during the session that you didn't want any more are saved?

They have to be saved, otherwise the backups would not work.