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"Never record audio to the drive used for DAW etc.."


steve trusty

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I read today that you should keep all audio files on a second drive vs the one used for programs, daw etc..

I have everything installed on my 240 gig solid state drive. Memory is filling fast. I have 120 gigs free on that and Im trying to keep it that way.

All save paths in sonar bandlab point to C drive. I also have a 2T hard drive which is D :drive.

Id like to use that for all audio/project files etc.

I located the folder section in preferences. Just not sure which ones to change so that D :is where all audio files are pulled from.

Thanks

Edited by TryMyTones
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To use Per Project Audio folders, save-as project to the 2T (D) drive and check "Copy all audio with project".

OR

In Preferences go to File - Audio Data and set your global folders to:

 D:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data

 D:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache

Edited by sjoens
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It is not necessary to make changes to preferences. Projects may be created on any drive and by default the audio will be in a folder immediately under the project file. That said, changing Project Files in preferences changes the default location for projects. When changing the project file default in preferences consider changing the Global Audio Folder to a folder under the new project file path. Personally, I do not change these in preferences preferring instead to move "C:\Cakewalk Projects" to D:\ and making a directory junction to the new location. To do this,

1) in Windows Explorer move the "Cakewalk Projects" folder from C:\ to D:\ then

2) open a command window as administrator and type:

mklink /d "C:\Cakewalk Projects" "D:\Cakewalk Projects"

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Whichever works best. I leave the Global Project location default and change the Global Audio & Picture cache to another HDD so any global files don't load up the C drive. No moving directories required.

P.S. The Picture Cache should be emptied occasionally to avoid HDD from filling up and clips misbehaving.

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One must go out of the way to write project audio into the global audio folder. Per-project audio folders are the default. Still, it is a good idea to have the global audio folder on the same drive as project audio. I avoid putting the picture cache on the project audio drive to keep the I/O separate from the project audio data. On a two drive system that means leaving the picture cache on the system drive. Probably not that big a deal either way.

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Once the junction is in place, the change is seamless. No special effort is required on your part to create projects on D in the "Cakewalk Projects" folder. The junction insures that any time CbB writes to "C:\Cakewalk Projects" it will actually be writing to "D:\Cakewalk Projects." IOW once the junction is made "C:\Cakewalk Projects" and "D:\Cakewalk Projects" both refer to the same physical location "D:\Cakewalk Projects."

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"The Picture Cache should be emptied occasionally"
What is the safe way to do this?

Audio Data, Samples and Project files are on External D HDD
Picture Cache is in the default C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache

When viewing in explorer or Directory Opus, Is there a way to display the audio signal graphic of the .WOV file?

Edited by sadicus
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Delete all the files in the picture cache folder. The only programs that should be writing into this folder are CbB and the old Twelve Tone Systems/Cakewalk line of DAWs.

Wov files are decimated wav files. They are not images. I suppose one could hack the registry to treat wov like wav but not image formats.

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When using a regular HDs, best practices calls for putting audio I/O on a second drive for better performance.

With an SSD system drive performance is usually not a consideration but many still consider it a good practice to keep user data off the system drive if possible.

A dedicated drive is also a good idea for samples used by virtual instruments especially when instruments stream samples from disk.

Keeping data off the system drive can make backup and recovery easier.

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Yes, project data on the boot drive is a bad idea for several reasons.

  • For backup purposes, you want to keep the boot drive clean/lean.  Otherwise, backup is slow/tedious... and consumes a lot of additional (redundant) space.
  • For top performance, you want the audio files streaming from a separate drive.
  • If the boot drive were to die prematurely, your project data is still intact on the data drive/s.

 

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As mentioned, it's a general "good practice" thing. If you're running a SSD, you're not going to see a huge improvement, but as others also mentioned, if you do backups on the disk and stuff you can isolate your projects from that part. Back in the day with slower drives there would be a noticeable bump in performance when writing to a dedicated drive for your projects. 

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No, following these instructions

On 1/6/2019 at 3:01 AM, scook said:

 to move "C:\Cakewalk Projects" to D:\ and making a directory junction to the new location. To do this,

1) in Windows Explorer move the "Cakewalk Projects" folder from C:\ to D:\ then

2) open a command window as administrator and type:

mklink /d "C:\Cakewalk Projects" "D:\Cakewalk Projects"

takes care of both the Project and Global Audio Folder preferences (assuming Project and Global Audio Folder are set to factory defaults). You could not create a junction for "C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data" if you wanted to because "C:\Cakewalk Projects" is no longer a physical location. Any activity in "C:\Cakewalk Projects" is actually happening in "D:\Cakewalk Projects."

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