Reference missing Audiofiles does not work

[SgtRumpel]

Hi there,

I work with quite large projects, as I am mostly editing radioplays and podcasts. Sometimes I have to change the location of source-files (for example, Bandlab copied the File to C://Programs/Cakewalk/ProjectA and I want the original file to be referenced that is on another Drive (D://MyProjects/ProjectA). 

As there is no possibility to manually reference a new file (which, I think, there should be!), the only possiblity I have is to delete the files from the folder and start up Bandlab, so it asks me where the files are when I open the project. So far so good. Inconvenient, but it works.

Now I have three options when selecting the new file: 

- Move the file to the project folder
- Copy the file to the project folder
- connect the file from the current location

The first two options work, but do not render the desired result - I want to reference the file on a different location.

So I choose the third option - which does not work! 

After selecting the correct file, the parts of this file are being replaced with silence. Also, the reference to the Audiofile is lost (no entry in the window: right mouseclick->connected audiodata). If the file has not the identical filename, a warning appears, but the reference will still not be safed.

I think this is quite an important bug, as Audiofiles can always be corrupted and have to be replaced by a working file. There simply is no way to do that atm in bandlab.

Some further remarks:
- The 'Search' Button for the audiofile would be way more useful, if you could specify a folder to search in.
- The standard selection for this action should be 'Copy the file to the project folder', not the 'Move to ...' Option!!!

 

 

[David Baay]

The best way to replace one file with another would be to rename the currently referenced file and copy the desired file into the project audio folder, giving it the name  of the original file.

That said, renaming/removing the file and telling CbB to reference a file with a different name from a different location should work so long as that file is identical to the first in format and length, and you re-save the project with the new references. I'll have to do a quick test to confirm success or failure.

 

[David Baay]

Referencing a copy of the same file with a different name in a different location worked fine for me. There is no need to Search; just change to the directory where the desired file resides, select it, and okay the warning that the name is different. Then Save As, being sure to uncheck the "Copy All Audio" option in the Save dialog. You can save over the exisistng project name, but I generally recommend to add a filename suffix when making changes like this just to keep everything straight, and allow going back to the original project if anything goes wrong.

Edited December 21, 2022 by David Baay

[SgtRumpel]

Hi David, thanks for getting back to me. 

I did reasearch a little bit more and found out that some of the files I used where automatically converted (e.g. form 48 to 44.1 KHz). I work with a lot of small SFX files for the radioplays, where the files all have different formats. When I selected the original file with 48kHz, Bandlab would not tell me that the file is in the wrong format, in fact it did not five me any feedback at all, but it seemed that everything is fine. Only when I get into project I find out that the clip is empty and has no reference - and now I can't even correct the mistake, because there seems to be no way to reconnect a file manually.

I think in genereal the program handles the import and connection correctly, but it is the interface, the somewhat limited options I have to reconnect a clip and the missing error reports that make this prone to errors.