Changing the referenced audio file

[Gatters]

Hi all

I've been working with a couple of project files, not realising that I had them set to copy imported audio to the default folder.  I really wanted them to leave the referenced files where they were originally.  These original files are still there, so I want to point the clips to these files and then delete the duplicated files.  Since I've made some edits to the tracks already, I don't just want to delete the clips and drag the originals back in.

When I view the "Associated Audio Files" from the clip, there is no option to change the file.  Does anyone know a way I can do this?

I suppose I could close the project, delete the files and then use the "can't find audio files" UI, but it seems weird there's no easy way to just do this manually.

Thanks!

[chuckebaby]

Just close the project, reopen it and Save the project under a new name using the "Save as" function.

Check the new folder. If your happy, delete the old one.

[Gatters]

3 hours ago, chuckebaby said:

Just close the project, reopen it and Save the project under a new name using the "Save as" function.

Check the new folder. If your happy, delete the old one.

Not quite understanding - at what point in that process have we changed the referenced audio files?

[chuckebaby]

I might be a little confused as to what you want here. But it appears you want to leave the referenced files where they are to lighten up on the size of the Audio folder, thus not using the same files from 2 locations.

Doing a "save as", saves the project and all the audio files currently being used in it. This will allow you to delete the old version you have saved and start over by changing your preferences.

https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR X3&language=3&help=FileManagement.7.html

To change handling of imported files

Use the following procedure to allow or disallow file sharing between projects:

1. Go to Edit > Preferences > File - Audio Data.

2. Check the Always Copy Imported Audio Files option to create copies of all imported audio clips as a default.

Or Uncheck the Always Copy Imported Audio Files option to reference imported audio from its current location.

 

I will caution you on this though, as now that per project folders are the new default, storing these projects and opening them in years from now will be a complete mess. Always at all cost, try to store all audio files with the project in the working folder with the CWP/audio files. This way in 5 years from now, you wont be getting "missing audio files" when trying to load your project.

[Gatters]

@chuckebaby  Basically  when I created this project, I didn't notice that it was by default importing audio files, hence I dragged them in and assumed they were being referenced from their original location.   I did quite a few edits before I realised this had happened.  

I'm after a direct and easy way to unlink these new files and use the originals, eg by selecting a clip and updating the link to the original audio file (a bit like updating a web link's target URL).

In the end, I addressed this by deleting the imported files and then updating the links when prompted on reopening the file.  It just seems strange that if I can update the links in this way, but there's no option to manually change them whenever I want to and without having to delete anything.  For example, what if I accidentally clicked on the wrong file when finding the missing clips?  Would there be a way to change the linked file again manually to fix that mistake?

The main reason for wanting to do this is that I recorded a complete live gig, and I want just one copy of the source files, with individual project files for each song.  I don't want to duplicate all the audio each time I work on a song, and I'd rather not cut up all the source files either.  With sensible file naming it would be a simple matter to reconstruct things if the audio and project files ever got separated, since each song will be using the same source audio files.

Edited November 11, 2019 by Chris Gatland

[scook]

Once a clip is imported, I know of no easy way to change the path to the clip.

It is possible when importing a clip to tell CbB to use the original clip instead of copying the clip into the project audio folder. To do this, deselect "Copy audio to project folder" in the import audio dialog. There are other conditions that cause audio to be copied into the project audio folder, for details review the help section on importing audio.

Also when not using per-project audio folders or the global audio folder for projects that are not setup for per-project audio, keep in mind the projects store these clips using fully qualified file names. IOW, to find a clip it must always be in the same location.

It is possible for multiple projects to use a single per-project audio folder. This has the advantage of keeping all the clips for related projects in a single folder and still allow the projects to use relative paths to the clips. On disk the layout looks like this

• Live Show Folder
  • project file one
  • project file two
  • project file three
  • Audio (the default per-project audio folder used by all three projects)