I know, "it's my lack of understanding"... but Sonar wants to duplicate my imported audio files

[dougalex]

Maybe someone has encountered this situation and tell me the "secret" to stop Sonar from duplicating all audio files when create a new project with imported audio files.

I create a new project and import 32 audio files. I think I have done this properly so that Sonar will continue to "reference the audio files from their current location".

Then at some point, after I have already named/saved the project, upon a subsequent save, Sonar decides to copy all the files to my C-drive. 

The fix is easy: I just delete the new duplicates and on next open of project I tell Sonar to find the original files on my external drive.

But I clearly need someone to explain the proper procedure that would avoid me having to delete the duplicates

[Chaps]

Maybe this?

 

Edited October 13 by Chaps
more info

[mettelus]

Also see this thread. Cakewalk defaults to per-project audio folders and there is no way to disable that anymore. If you do any destructive editing (bounces, etc.), audio that shows up in the project audio folder may actually be an edit and not an import, so be careful with blindly deleting content from that folder.

Pointers in the past used to be a nightmare when the global audio folder was used. It is more common practice to work on a project, then remove audio that is no longer used by doing a Save As... to a new folder and check "copy audio with project" (only audio actually in use by that cwp will copy to the new folder). Alternatively, you can simply move your projects folder (in preferences, file locations) to where you are importing from. That will keep data off the C drive completely and it is common to have projects located on another drive.

[dougalex]

11 hours ago, Chaps said:

Maybe this?

Hummm.... I found that box "Always copy imported audio files" was already unchecked. 

[mettelus]

The "Imported Audio Files" link you need to drill into from the one referenced above, but another thing I missed was "Copies are always made if the imported audio does not match the current project’s sampling rate" (in addition to edits). This is to reduce CPU load so the program can just run from a reference file rather than processing sample rate conversion (SRC) continuously.

[dougalex]

I did some more testing and one key is:

After creating/naming/saving the initial empty project, and then, importing my 32 audio files...

THEN, I have to do one initial "Save as..." (not "Save") and click "Yes" when it asks to overwrite the project file.

Then I get no unwanted copies of audio files. 

[Bass Guitar]

I was going to recommend that. 
 

Best practices to keep everything in one folder, is to use Save As.  Always remember to check the Save audio with project box. 

This creates the project folder and only saves the audio files used. Deleted tracks are left behind. 

This is the preferred method of creating backups as well. Especially to a different drive. 

To avoid stuff going to C drive open Preferences and go to Files and change the default drive locations for everything like audio and video. 
 

This is not just a Sonar thing it’s also true for all software. Not that it matters now that most of us have at least 1TB OS drives. 
But it makes it easier to find stuff if it isn’t hidden somewhere 6 layers deep. 

 

Edited October 13 by Bass Guitar

[dougalex]

1 hour ago, Bass Guitar said:

But it makes it easier to find stuff if it isn’t hidden somewhere 6 layers deep. 

BTW, you probably have suggestions for these type of tools as well, but...

I have utilized abemeda to catalog all my external drives and it has really made my life easier.

And for local drive I use master-seeker (really fast file search)