Lost Audio Folder on old project

[ZincT]

I am just going through all my old projects from my old PC and checking that I can load them okay on my new PC.

Most of them seem to be fine but on one project the MIDI tracks are OK but it cannot find any of the Audio content (vocals).

On further inspection there is no Audio folder in the project folder and if I right click on the blank Audio in CbB and select "Associated Audio Files" they point to C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data.  I don't understand why it would have saved the audio there for one project and not others and I cannot find the missing files anywhere on my old system. 

I have resigned myself to re-recording the vocals for that track as any backups would only be backups of the project folder. I have copied the project folder to a new location to work on it (and to preserve the old folder if I ever find the original vocal audio tracks). I used Save Copy As which also creates a sub folder for Audio.

However, on the copied project, when I record new audio it still saves the audio in C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data ??? 😵 even though it has set up an Audio folder within the new project folder. The global audio folder setting is set to C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data but that's also the case for my other projects which save correctly to their local Audio folder.

So what's going on with this project and how do I save a version which correctly uses it's own local Audio folder for recorded audio? The MIDI is all fine and took a while to make so I don't want to have to re-do all of that from scratch.

Thanks for any help.

ZT

By the way, any new projects that I create on the new PC do correctly save their audio to their own local Audio folder. 

Edited September 19, 2020 by ZincT

[twelvetone]

Old versions of Cakewalk (Sonar?) put the audio files in the common folder by default,

C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data

That was in the day when hard drives were small and the assumption was you'd use the same clips in multiple projects.

You need to change the old default setting to save audio with the project.

Edited September 19, 2020 by twelvetone

[ZincT]

Thanks @twelvetone.

The old project was created in September 2017 so I think it would have been created with Sonar Platinum. 

There's something odd with that particular project though because other projects created at the same time have an Audio folder within the project folder and save their audio correctly there when loaded into CbB.

So my question is where exactly is "the old default setting to save audio with the project" that you mention?  I cannot locate it in CbB.

[twelvetone]

In Sonar up to 8.x it is in Options > Global Options > Audio Data.

At the bottom is a checkbox "Use Per-Project Audio Folders". 

According to the manual, in CbB  the Global Audio Folder is now used only for projects without a name, or tasks like opening bundles.

So the option seems to have been removed.

Edited September 19, 2020 by twelvetone

[twelvetone]

Yes, just checked.

Preferences > File > Audio Data looks exactly the same as in Sonar 8 except for where the checkboxes were is now Clip Tail Duration

So the option has been removed.

[ZincT]

Thanks for checking @twelvetone I have been out for a while and only just got back.

I guess I will just leave that project as is for now and carry on working my way through all of the other projects.
I suspect it is corrupted in some way and I need to check through some backups to see if I have an earlier version of it that still retains the MIDI but not the odd behaviour with saving audio.

[John Vere]

WHat you could do if it's only the Audio missing is save the project as a MIDI file and try starting with that. 

To bring back all your synths and settings you could then try the MIX recall trick I just learned ( again) 

You take the original project and save a mix scene. 

Now open the new project and using the browser find the mix Scenes  folder for the old project. open it and drag the cwm file into the track pane of the new version. It may or may not work but worth a try. 

[ZincT]

7 hours ago, John Vere said:

WHat you could do if it's only the Audio missing is save the project as a MIDI file and try starting with that. 

To bring back all your synths and settings you could then try the MIX recall trick I just learned ( again) 

You take the original project and save a mix scene. 

Now open the new project and using the browser find the mix Scenes  folder for the old project. open it and drag the cwm file into the track pane of the new version. It may or may not work but worth a try. 

Thanks John, that will certainly save some time. 

[John Vere]

I tried it and nothing happened. The trick does work when projects are identical. I guess next I would use track templates. But saving as a midi only file should strip away any corrupted data. It's not that big a deal to rebuild a midi only project. 

If you save presets for your vst instruments etc.