Compacting and cleaning up sessions?

[Skwaidu]

I am really bugged by this thing. The situation I encounter frequently is: I have a large session, and I haven't deleted any audio. I have lots of unused audio files and some audio files that are cut and edited and some that are whole files. Then I want to clear everything to save disk space, so of course I compact everything( By selecting all visible regions in the edit window, should I be using "select all" in the region bin instead...?).

Anyway, , before that I want to get rid of all audio files that are not in use at all. I select unused regions and clear selected. Then ALT- delete. But, then I get a popup about the first audio file that is only partly in use (and soon to be compacted of excess data) that says that it cannot be deleted, do you want to remove it? I have to answer yes or no.(No, for me) Either way I have to push Esc or Enter for every file like this, and sometimes there are hundreds of them!!!!

So what haven't I noticed? Or is the file management just plain idiotic and crappy?

Thnx,

[Busterman]

Go to the region bin and select all unused. Then select remove, not delete.(shift-command-b) Then select all in region bin and click on compact.

That will clean it up. However, be aware that this is not reversable, and when you get rid of the unused portions they are gone forever. Good luck [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[snoopy]

WHat I do is select all unused regions, then use the delete option. This won't delete files used in the session, it will only remove them. To make things easy, I say yes to everything (quite rapidly). This of course removes files from the session, so afterwards I select import audio, select every file in the audio files folder of that session and import them back in. After this I compact all, leaving like 500ms.

Sometimes I will import all audio files before hand in case somehow files were removed from the session beforehand. Another way is by using 'save session copy in' which will copy only used files to a new session, but this can sometimes take up more space and time as you have to wait for lots of files to copy. I do use this technique however when I want to split up a large session into multiple sessions for easier storage (such as multiple takes or sets of a live recording).

Just my humble input ;-)

[InSights7]

I use Audio Suite "Duplicate" and duplicate the small region segments being used in the session and then delete the large complete/original take.

Works for me. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[Skwaidu]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by snoopy:
WHat I do is select all unused regions, then use the delete option. This won't delete files used in the session, it will only remove them. To make things easy, I say yes to everything (quite rapidly).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This "yes to everything"(or "no") part is what is bugging me!! I tried busterman's version,and I still had to press Esc(or enter) a thousand times(Or hold it down for minutes)! I'm talking about big cleanups here, if I'd only remember to do it daily...

I don't want to play old C64 olympic games when getting rid of unused audio data from disk... So what I want is: that "Yes to all"(-->the Alt key) would work in this "Cannot be deleted, do you want to remove" dialog, or a command "Select all unused regions except whole files THAT ARE USED( by some other region)".

Does anybody understand what I am asking or is there still a point I am missing?

[Mark Haliday]

5.0 manual page196
5.1 manaul page 258

describe the use of option-click on the mac or alt-click in Windows on "the delete button in the clear audio dialog" for global deletion.

Mark

[Noiz2]

Also you can "select unused except whole files", its in the same pull down as "select unused".
that seems to be what your looking for.

[snoopy]

THere are times though when you want to get rid of hole files Bad takes, etc). I do find myself using this feature a lot though when im trying to clean up the bin a bit.

[nipple]

Option-Click on delete or remove as well as cancel I believe and it will dump everything with one click. For years now (probably due to lack of adequate drive space and storage when PT first came out) I've used a prune as you go philosophy. It's much less daunting at the end especially if a project or song has spanned a couple years and you just can't remember what was what. No use missing what you don't have as the old saying goes. I've had some very nasty results using the compact command and therefore don't partake.

[uno1234]

Here is the ultimate way to clean up your sessions, and to do it safely.

-Select unused. Remove unused.
-Select all. Compact selected. (or consolidate, if you are done editing).
-Select "Save session copy in", and check "Copy Audio Files".

Now you have a fresh session containing only in use audio files. Data that was once spread across multiple drives is now organized onto one drive for easy data backup. I also don't completely trust the "delete unused" command, as I have more than once had suspiciously missing audio files later on.

Oh, and there's no Olympic clicking of "Yes" to remove the audio files. The option-click trick only works for "Are you sure you want to delete Audio-01?"-- not for "You can't delete Audio-01, would you like to remove Audio-01 instead?" dialog box.