Unexpected Additional Audio Files [Solved]

[Bill Phillips]

Where the 18 additional audio files in the project I just created come from? And is it ok to delete them? The additional files are the ones shown in Explorer with one and two digit sequence numbers and shown as selected in the second screenshot. I noticed that they were all created over about five minutes about 45 minutes after I finished loading the audio files. See second screenshot. Could that have been when I dragged the acoustic guitar DI clip to the timeline to create the tempo track? If Melodyne did create them, why? Are they at all useful?

I just created this project, starting with the empty project template dragging audio files in using the media browser. I have 11 track. Two have two takes. So that's 13 files all with three digit (i.e. 242) sequence numbers in their file names. I have slip edited and dragged clips to start at 1:01 and I've dragged the acoustic guitar DI clip to the time line to create a tempo track. I haven't bounced anything to clips or tracks.

Then I opened the audio folder (lower left) and was surprised to find 31 not 13 files as shown in Explorer at lower left of the first screenshot. Not knowing why I had the 18 additional clips, I opened Clean Audio Folder, which I don't think I've ever used, hoping it would show the 18 additional files as no longer used. No such luck. It shows 27 files are no longer used. That would leave only 4 of the 13 files I loaded.

The top three clips in the Clean Audio dialog are also the top three files shown in File explorer. The one with the (242) sequence number is the one I dragged in from the browser and the one shown in track 9 of Cakewalk on the right side of the first screenshot. I also went through all 11 tracks and verified that the files I drug in are the only ones listed as "Associated Audio Files."

If I were to "Delete All" in the Clean Audio Folder dialog all but 4 of the audio files I want would be gone, but I'm not going to do that. I tried to play the additional clips (the ones with one and two digit sequence numbers) in the Clean Audio Folder dialog but the play function didn't work. The Clean Audio Folder looks to be pretty much useless and dangerous. Am I wrong?

 

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Bill Phillips

[msmcleod]

New audio files are created every time you change the audio on your track - e.g. split, re-record etc.  These are created so that:

1. You can undo those operations during a session
2. If you use auto-save, the older versions of the track audio is still there for those older versions

The safest way to get a "clean" version of your project with only the audio files you need is to use File->Save As , and save your project to a new folder.

The new project will only have the files it needs for the project.

[David Baay]

Right-click a clip  that you think is using a file that Clean Audio is going to delete, and choose Associated Audio Files to verify the path and name it's referencing. My guess is that Clean Audio is not wrong, and either the content is in one of the four remaining files or the clip is referencing a file in the original source location.

Regardless of what you find, the easy way to clean it all up wiithout risking data loss will be to Save-As the project to a new folder with 'Copy All Audio' enabled. Only needed files will be copied, and any files referenced from another location will also be copied to the new audio folder as needed.

 

[reginaldStjohn]

Did you do mutliple takes for the tracks? Ussually the numbers represent take and or record passes. Ope one of the take lanes to see if there are more then one take for each track.

[Will.]

Could be the edit clips, bounced clips, grouped clips, recorded, imported and conversion takes. 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Will_Kaydo

[Bill Phillips]

2 hours ago, reginaldStjohn said:

Did you do mutliple takes for the tracks? Ussually the numbers represent take and or record passes. Ope one of the take lanes to see if there are more then one take for each track.

These tracks were recorded some time ago in another project. I loaded the audio files into an empty project using the media browser.  There's 11 tracks. Two tracks have two takes. So there are 13 files. The other 18 files are not associated with any tracks and were added by Cakewalk or maybe Melodyne when I dragged one clip to the time line to create a tempo track.

[Bill Phillips]

On 9/16/2021 at 3:11 PM, David Baay said:

Right-click a clip  that you think is using a file that Clean Audio is going to delete, and choose Associated Audio Files to verify the path and name it's referencing. My guess is that Clean Audio is not wrong, and either the content is in one of the four remaining files or the clip is referencing a file in the original source location.

Nope. Clean Audio is wrong. Completely wrong. The Associated Audio Files for each track are the ones I loaded using the Media Browser.

 

On 9/16/2021 at 3:11 PM, David Baay said:

Regardless of what you find, the easy way to clean it all up wiithout risking data loss will be to Save-As the project to a new folder with 'Copy All Audio' enabled. Only needed files will be copied, and any files referenced from another location will also be copied to the new audio folder as needed.

That works with the expected result. The 13 audio files that I'd loaded using the Media Browser were copied into the new project.

[David Baay]

5 minutes ago, Bill Phillips said:

Nope. Clean Audio is wrong. Completely wrong. The Associated Audio Files for each track are the ones I loaded using the Media Browser.

Now that you've got a good copy with everything intact and nothing extra, I'm curious to know of running Clean Audio on the 'cluttered' project will actually break it by removing files that are in use. I suggest you make a copy of that whole project folder in another location outside your normal projects path with Cakewalk closed, just using  Windows Explorer, and if Clean Audio *does* in fact break it, zip up a copy of the original folder and send it to the Bakers as a bug. They will surely want to know about anything that can cause data loss, and they might also be able to discern how the extra files were created.

[Bill Phillips]

15 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

New audio files are created every time you change the audio on your track - e.g. split, re-record etc.  These are created so that:

1. You can undo those operations during a session
2. If you use auto-save, the older versions of the track audio is still there for those older versions

The safest way to get a "clean" version of your project with only the audio files you need is to use File->Save As , and save your project to a new folder.

The new project will only have the files it needs for the project.

Thanks for the explanation. I used Save As to verify that only the original loaded files were the 13 I'd originally loaded using the Media Browser. So I deleted the other 18, I think duplicate, tracks which didn't seem to have any impact on the project performance. I'm going to keep the Audio folder open in Explorer to get a better idea when new files are created.

The Clean Audio Utility doesn't seem to identify the correct files. In my case all the files created by Cakewalk and all but 4 of the files I'd loaded would have been deleted. The Play button doesn't work either. I'm guessing it hasn't been maintained as Cakewalk has evolved.

[Bill Phillips]

3 minutes ago, David Baay said:

Now that you've got a good copy with everything intact and nothing extra, I'm curious to know of running Clean Audio on the 'cluttered' project will actually break it by removing files that are in use. I suggest you make a copy of that whole project folder in another location outside your normal projects path with Cakewalk closed, just using  Windows Explorer, and if Clean Audio *does* in fact break it, zip up a copy of the original folder and send it to the Bakers as a bug. They will surely want to know about anything that can cause data loss, and they might also be able to discern how the extra files were created.

I didn't do that, but if it removed the 27 files it had identified for removal it would have removed all but four of the 13 files I'd originally loaded.

It could be that the Clean Audio Utility is far down the Bakers list of bugs. ?

[David Baay]

3 minutes ago, Bill Phillips said:

...it would have removed all but four of the 13 files I'd originally loaded.

That's what needs to be verified, and shared with the Bakers if true. Push the button, Max!