Project file size increases significantly

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NewbeeNo99
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Project file size increases significantly

Post by NewbeeNo99 »

I'm wondering if my project is corrupt.

If I save it I notice the file size is 397 873kb. If I save it again with a new name without doing anything in the project, the file size increases to 398 361 kb. Sometimes if I do anything, like adjusting effects or midi, the file can incerase with 20-30 mb.

I did a test and removed every single track from the project. File size reduced to 393 492 kb. Is that normal behaviour? Basically there is nothing left in the project anymore.

I feel my project is running on limited time her and I should probably be done with before this is a total loss.

Mixcraft pro 9. Version 9.0 64-bit Build 470

EDIT: I should add that there is no recordings in this project. All is midi.
EDIT2: Now that I think of it, I had earlier some voices (wav) inside the project. They are deleted i a previous file version. Could they be the cause of this if Mixcraft is still storing them?
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TrevsAudio
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by TrevsAudio »

Hi

Just a suggestion here - Remember that every time you save a file, Mixcraft creates a backup. These obviously occupy 'space' in the project folder.

Of course, this can be disabled in Preferences, but I personally would not recommend it.

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Acoustica Greg
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

Audio files aren't stored inside the project file, but MIDI is, and so is information about the edits you made, the plugins you're using, etc. Audio files themselves can be very very large, but they don't add much to the project file size.

Are you looking at the file size of the .mx9 file? Or of the project folder? The project folder would contain the audio files and might easily be 20 or 30 MB or larger, depending upon whether audio is in the project.

Just don't worry about it if the project is loading and playing correctly.

Greg
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NewbeeNo99
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by NewbeeNo99 »

Acoustica Greg wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:42 am Hi,

Audio files aren't stored inside the project file, but MIDI is, and so is information about the edits you made, the plugins you're using, etc. Audio files themselves can be very very large, but they don't add much to the project file size.

Are you looking at the file size of the .mx9 file? Or of the project folder? The project folder would contain the audio files and might easily be 20 or 30 MB or larger, depending upon whether audio is in the project.

Just don't worry about it if the project is loading and playing correctly.

Greg
But I just saved it once again. I adjusted some volume curves and changed a preset on one of the master effects. Result: Jumped up 42MB in filesize. With this speed I'm gonna hit 1GB for the file pretty soon :shock:
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Passionpasi
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by Passionpasi »

Hi,

I had similar case with Mixcraft 9. I removed all the tracks but still .mx9 filesize was incrreasing on every saving. There was left only master track with effects on it. So i removed master effects one by one and found that 3rd party effect "youlean loudness meter" was doing it. When removed it, filesize dropped back to original. If only inactivated effect filesize didnt increase but remained same. I tested that same happens with mixcraft 10. So "youlean loudness meter" plugin needs to be removed after every use.

Yyou can remove one by one all the things which might cause filesize increase and save project to see result on filesize.
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Acoustica Greg
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

Another thing to try would be to see if the same thing happens in Mixcraft 10.

It would be great if we could nail this down and figure out what is causing it. You are looking at the size of the project file itself, and not the project folder?

Passionpasi's suggestion is also a good thing to try. Something is different about that project if it's the project file itself that is growing that much.

Greg
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NewbeeNo99
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by NewbeeNo99 »

Passionpasi wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 10:58 am Hi,

I had similar case with Mixcraft 9. I removed all the tracks but still .mx9 filesize was incrreasing on every saving. There was left only master track with effects on it. So i removed master effects one by one and found that 3rd party effect "youlean loudness meter" was doing it. When removed it, filesize dropped back to original. If only inactivated effect filesize didnt increase but remained same. I tested that same happens with mixcraft 10. So "youlean loudness meter" plugin needs to be removed after every use.

Yyou can remove one by one all the things which might cause filesize increase and save project to see result on filesize.
This is very interesting. I have youlean loudness meter as an effect on my master on this track. First time I've used it. First time I've experienced this "save bloat" ever with Mixcraft.
Acoustica Greg wrote: Thu Jun 08, 2023 11:03 am Hi,

Another thing to try would be to see if the same thing happens in Mixcraft 10.

It would be great if we could nail this down and figure out what is causing it. You are looking at the size of the project file itself, and not the project folder?

Passionpasi's suggestion is also a good thing to try. Something is different about that project if it's the project file itself that is growing that much.

Greg
It's the single project file that's increasing yes.

I think Passionpasi's on to something here. I'm going try to roll back a few revisions on the project. Remove the YL meter and see if that fixes it.

EDIT: Holy crap...... removing Yolean Loudness Meter reduced project file size from 439 826kb to 5 700kb. No clue what's going on with that vst, but no more metering for Youlean.
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ylm.png
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Acoustica Greg
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

Thanks for reporting this! We can get the problem to happen here, even in Mixcraft 10, and we're filing a bug report.

Greg
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lingyai
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by lingyai »

Using the YouLean meter seems to be one cause, but not the only one.

I'm having a similar problem, as I detailed here
https://forums.acoustica.com/viewtopic.php?t=29520
Making changes to clips with Melodyne and rendering them (overwriting the existing clips) had caused my project file in MB to grow from low double digits to 508 MB! To be clear, I'm talking about file size -- *.mx8 -- not folder size.

In my help ticket Greg wrote to advise removing Youlean Loudness Meter. I did wonder how a meter plugin could cause such a problem, but tried it. Did it work? Yes and no.

Just before I'd removed Youlean, the file size was 508 MB.

Right after removing it, the file size fell to 196 MB --which is a big reduction, though it still seemed high given the amount of visible (and audible) audio. As I continued working, the file size started growing again, from 196 MB to 248 MB. Please see the screengrab below.

So Youlean seems related, though there seem to be other issues at play.

All rather mysterious a) how a metering plugin would cause file sizes to grow b) why the file size grows even after removing the plugin.
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mixcraft file sizes_directory view 10 June 2023 .JPG
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Acoustica Greg
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Hi,

I could only get it to happen with the Youlean plugin in Mixcraft 8 (or 10). Check that there's not a second copy of that plugin in the project. If there's not, please send in your log file again.

Greg
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Acoustica Eric
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Re: Project file size increases significantly

Post by Acoustica Eric »

When trying to reproduce this, the file size grows with each split I make on an audio clip, but it does not grow when using melodyne, finalizing it, then saving.
Can you get this to happen by just splitting the clip and saving?
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