Force Cakewalk to list clip names as markers, just as it's automatically done when adding new clips?

[pulsewalk]

So, when you import samples and put them onto the audio tracks by dragging .wav files into Cakewalk, the clips get the filename as "clip names".

All these imported clips are then also placed as markers on the timeline and can be seen in the list of markers.

I've deleted all those clip names from the list of markers to clean it up, but now I'd like to have all the clips used in the project listed in the list of markers.

Is it possible to somehow force Cakewalk to list all the clips and thus placing the names of them back in the list of markers, by a push of a button so to speak?

 

AND/OR is it possible to list all "active" clips used in the project? It is possible to list the audio files in the project folder, although it will list everything, even those clips that were deleted from the project. I'd just want to list the clips that are placed on the tracks.

Edited February 2 by pulsewalk

[mettelus]

I am not familiar with your first question regarding renaming clips/markers, but hopefully someone can chime in to address that. As far as active clips in the project, there is an old utility for SONAR called "Project Scope" that may be useful. I am not sure if it still functions properly in CbB, but it gives you insight into cwp files without needing to open them (including wav files), so has the advantage of only looking at a specific cwp rather than the entire Audio subfolder.

[pulsewalk]

15 hours ago, mettelus said:

I am not familiar with your first question regarding renaming clips/markers, but hopefully someone can chime in to address that. As far as active clips in the project, there is an old utility for SONAR called "Project Scope" that may be useful. I am not sure if it still functions properly in CbB, but it gives you insight into cwp files without needing to open them (including wav files), so has the advantage of only looking at a specific cwp rather than the entire Audio subfolder.

Thanks man! Just tried it out and it actually works on the new .cwp files too! At least it does on mine. However, the list of audio files seems still be the same as when one list the files in the browser inside Cakewalk. Thus displaying also unused audio files in the project (audio files that ones was used in the project but where the clips themselves have been deleted from the tracks, but not the audio file itself in the audio folder).

I wish there were some feature to display only the files that are actually used in the project, and not least making the names of those clips popping back up in the timeline as markers.

[mettelus]

4 hours ago, pulsewalk said:

I wish there were some feature to display only the files that are actually used in the project, and not least making the names of those clips popping back up in the timeline as markers.

A common cleanup trick may be simpler for you to try. If you open a cwp and do a "Save As..." then save to a brand new folder and check "Copy all audio with project" the new Project/Audio folder created will contain only the audio in use by that particular cwp. Bear in mind if you have multiple cwps in a given folder, this would need to be done for each one to preserve all audio used by all cwps, but if you are working on a final mix version, this will create a new folder with only the audio being used by that version. It can be easy to create massive audio folders from bounces and this trick can lighten the data load on your disc (if you are being limited by space and need to clean up the original project folder). In your case, that new Project/Audio folder is only the files in use by the cwp in question.

[pulsewalk]

3 hours ago, mettelus said:

A common cleanup trick may be simpler for you to try. If you open a cwp and do a "Save As..." then save to a brand new folder and check "Copy all audio with project" the new Project/Audio folder created will contain only the audio in use by that particular cwp. Bear in mind if you have multiple cwps in a given folder, this would need to be done for each one to preserve all audio used by all cwps, but if you are working on a final mix version, this will create a new folder with only the audio being used by that version. It can be easy to create massive audio folders from bounces and this trick can lighten the data load on your disc (if you are being limited by space and need to clean up the original project folder). In your case, that new Project/Audio folder is only the files in use by the cwp in question.

I actually did that too, but got the same results. I'm not sure why many waves, not used in the project, are still listed. This project have some corruptions in it though, so that might be one reason. It seems almost like there are "hidden" tracks and what not.

[mettelus]

Ouch, that makes things a bit trickier depending on how complex the project is. Corruption is certainly not heard of. Reconstruction can be a royal pain to drag/drop tracks between projects but is an option. Other options like bouncing entire tracks to a single clip or even exporting the project as stems can reduce clip "count," but will in turn make them HUGE (even silence has "size" in that case) as well as other potential issues.

If you start trying things like that be sure to save the cwp with a new name so you always have the original to fall back on. Hidden tracks seems the most likely, but if that is already a dead end for you, I am at a loss on what is most efficient to address your situation.

[David Baay]

Utilities > Cakewalk Audio Finder Tool  (CWAF) will also show you what files are used by which projects. It will likely show that all the clips in the Audio folder are in fact referenced by the project. Most likely there are tiny slivers of clips left over from deleting with incompete clip selections. Unfortunately those can be hard to find in a complex project.

If you know which files should no longer be referenced by name, you can select each track/lane one at time, right-click and choose Associated Audio Files. If you see one of the 'unused' file names in the list, you can start searching that track/lane for it.

If you do a partial selection of a track/lane - even an apparently empty region - you can right-click and choose to see Associated Audio Files and it will show if there's something there or more than the one file you expect. Since it's possible (though unintended) for clips to be layered on top of eachother in the same lane, you'll need to check regions with visible clips as well. Once you narrow down the area, you can zoom in and scroll around to find the troublemaker(s). If the problem involves layered clips, you might have to move 'known' clips to another lane temporarily to find hidden ones.

I realize this is a pretty ugly solution, but it's the only way I can think of to track them down.

[pulsewalk]

9 hours ago, David Baay said:

Utilities > Cakewalk Audio Finder Tool  (CWAF) will also show you what files are used by which projects. It will likely show that all the clips in the Audio folder are in fact referenced by the project. Most likely there are tiny slivers of clips left over from deleting with incompete clip selections. Unfortunately those can be hard to find in a complex project.

If you know which files should no longer be referenced by name, you can select each track/lane one at time, right-click and choose Associated Audio Files. If you see one of the 'unused' file names in the list, you can start searching that track/lane for it.

If you do a partial selection of a track/lane - even an apparently empty region - you can right-click and choose to see Associated Audio Files and it will show if there's something there or more than the one file you expect. Since it's possible (though unintended) for clips to be layered on top of eachother in the same lane, you'll need to check regions with visible clips as well. Once you narrow down the area, you can zoom in and scroll around to find the troublemaker(s). If the problem involves layered clips, you might have to move 'known' clips to another lane temporarily to find hidden ones.

I realize this is a pretty ugly solution, but it's the only way I can think of to track them down.

Thanks for the tips! I actually didn't know any of these features! I tried to right click in the track pane on certain tracks to see the "Associated Audio Files" but couldn't find it in the menu. Then I discovered that I had to right click in the clips pane instead

I hope we'll get a feature in the future, when one can search for a certain clip name and Cakewalk takes you to it and highlight/select it automatically. That could be quite useful in some situations in large projects!