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  #11  
Old 10-31-2013, 02:32 AM
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JFreak JFreak is offline
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

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Originally Posted by CME View Post
Absolutely. The only reason I started cleaning up sessions was when I started mixing my churches services. When you have 20+ channels recording nothing for 30 mins or so while the pastor preaches, you end up with a lot of wasted space. Most services are 20-25 GB when recorded. After cleanup I can usually get them down to 5-7 GB. Much more manageable.

When it comes to tracking songs I don't even think about cleaning them up. Hard drives are cheap enough these days for some wasted space. 20 GB a week is a little much IMO though.
Been there, done that. With 32-48 tracks and +180min total, gig after gig, about a hundred times. Here's a trick that might work for you. If you're recording that speech to cd-r anyway (a big if, but bear with me), you could choose to not record that track to your session to begin with!

So what you want to do is set up an AUX track for the speech mic and route it straight to your master outputs. Then just stop recording once band stops playing and restart when the speech is ending. Depending on your buffers, it makes a small click when you restart, but it's very hard to notice if you have a good timing (find a half a second pause and mute the PA while you restart -- three clicks total, or if you don't care about a small click then just restart and don't care).

Or if there is a good half a minute pause between band coming off and pastor coming in, and vice versa, you could just stop recording, alt-click record enable button to disable all tracks, then click on the speech track, and record only that track while the band is on coffee. Then reverse the setting once band comes in. Nobody notices few clicks if there is noise anyway.

But yeah, those empty tracks keep wasting space. Good for you to get them compacted :)

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  #12  
Old 07-05-2017, 01:44 PM
chrismeraz chrismeraz is offline
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

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Originally Posted by Carl Kolchak View Post
In the clip / region list menu :

1. select unused region.

2. clear selected.

3. when prompted to choose between "remove" (clip region from session) & "delete" (file from hard drive), select "delete"

To avoid being asked / prompted for every audio file, hold down the Alt key when you choose "delete"

Just be damned sure you really want to do this, as the files are deleted directly from within Pro Tools, rather than moved to the trash, so it's not possible to undo once you've committed.
I followed these instructions exactly but all the parent files ("whole files") are still on disk in the session "Audio Files." What gives? I need to condense these sessions...
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  #13  
Old 07-06-2017, 12:29 AM
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

As far as stuffing hard drives with with useless data goes, the most commun mistake I see is people who when they're tracking, instead of "undoing", select the unwanted clips and delete them (real world thinking : I don't see them, they don't exist). This removes them from the screen but not from the audio files folder (typically, their sessions shrink by half when I clean them). This is not necessarily a bad idea as it gives you a trash bin to dig in if you need little bits to patch up a part. But for that, I personnaly prefer to use the playlists to keep one or more parts that are not ideal but could be uselful for editing purposes.
So when recording, I tend to clean all the time with the cmd+shift+u - cmd+shift+b commands...
PT keeps all the files it's using in the session and only deletes the ones it's not using AT ALL, so it's absolutely safe to do that as long as you have only one session file (or multiple mixing sessions files, all using the exact same clips).
If I have to track multiple new instruments when the mixing is already started, I tend to create a new light "recording" session without the alternate playlists just for that, and then import the tracks in the original session.
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  #14  
Old 07-06-2017, 04:20 AM
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

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Originally Posted by chrismeraz View Post
I followed these instructions exactly but all the parent files ("whole files") are still on disk in the session "Audio Files." What gives? I need to condense these sessions...
If you create a session with whole consolidated files and chop them in little clips, PT always keeps the original ones.
In the menu of the clip/region that opens on the right of the edit windows, you'll find a "compact files" function that allows to shorten (all or a selection of) the clips to the length that you're actually using. In the process, it'll ask how long you want the handles (poignées in french) to be, which is extra length.
I do that when I'm done mixing a movie, as for every laughs, steps, explosion, whosh, etc... I often import a file containing many of them, lasting for a few useless minutes...
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  #15  
Old 07-06-2017, 01:12 PM
chrismeraz chrismeraz is offline
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

Merci bien mups. I am aware of both of those features, but that is not what is happening here. The whole files were deleted from my regions list on the right side of the PT screen, and I did ask PT to Delete them from disk. However, they are still on my hard drive.

I will keep trying.
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  #16  
Old 07-06-2017, 03:49 PM
mups mups is offline
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

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Originally Posted by chrismeraz View Post
Merci bien mups. I am aware of both of those features, but that is not what is happening here. The whole files were deleted from my regions list on the right side of the PT screen, and I did ask PT to Delete them from disk. However, they are still on my hard drive.

I will keep trying.
Right... That has happened to me too, files that are in the audio folders but don't show in the session. Never quite understood what makes that happen.
Then either pull them out and open the session to make sure nothing is missing, or simply "save copy in, with audio files" and trash the original session folder...
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  #17  
Old 07-30-2017, 01:28 AM
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

"Select unused Clips" (Ctrl+Shift+U) and "Clear selected Clips" (Ctrl+Shift+U) is part of my workflow. After tracking, comping, clip editing and audiosuit rendering for hours virtually hundreds/thousands of files are created in the audio folder. Personally i find it messy and like to tidy things up with select and clear as mentioned above and then consolidate. Consolidation makes it easier to copy or move regions around. Clips worth saving i keep in a playlist track.
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  #18  
Old 02-03-2018, 03:05 PM
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

When I record, and then undo, the clip disappears from my clips list. But it stays in the audio files folder. This is a problem because when I tell pt to select unused clips, it doesn't find the ones I used undo on, and so will not delete them. Does this happen to anyone else? Is the only way to create a copy of the session?
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  #19  
Old 02-03-2018, 03:18 PM
BScout BScout is offline
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

Command + period if you want to make it like it never happened. Have to do it while still tracking.
(dangerous command in the wrong hands)
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  #20  
Old 04-23-2020, 08:05 AM
tabonik tabonik is offline
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Default Re: Deleting unused files?

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Originally Posted by CME View Post
And if you've already cleared a session but didn't delete the files you can do this. Create a copy of the session to somewhere else and select the option to include all audio files. This will move only the files you're using. If you've already removed them from the clip list.

Then I move the old session to the trash. Compare folder sizes. Open the new session and make sure everything is there. Then empty the trash.

But I typically just delete from the get go. But that's what I've had to do the few times I hit the wrong button and only removed the audio files from the session.
Thanks for that! Precisely what i needed explained..
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