confusion on clips and sessions

[tomoc_99]

when recording a new piece, and saving it saves a ptx file and audio files
when you bring up the ptx it lists clips, which seem to correspond the the audio files.
Okay, now suppose you save a session that's pretty good, but you may want to come back to it later. When you come back to it you probably want to rerecord the whole thing. I am confused. Do you completely store everything in a completely different named directory, or do you save with version numbers, and have multiple ptx files under one directory? There is a problem when you do that with clips. you will have a huge number of clips and the temptation is to select unused clips and throw then in the trash. But some of the clips may be used in another saved sessionor ptx file.

I guess I need a tutorial on the best way to make multiple version of one tune.
I just found out the hard way that my last two versions have completely blank
edit displays and the clip list entries are no where to be found. I have the best version, but this is NOT good. What if I rerecord it, but want to have parts of the old version?

[Ben Jenssen]

Forget about the clips. I think what you want is a tutorial on how to use playlists in PT. In short, when you come back to a session and want to re-record it, but keep the old recording, you make a new blank playlist on every track. Then record. Then you can jump between the two recorded versions with a click, provided all the tracks are grouped. Look into playlists in the reference manual.

[albee1952]

Good advice above, but wait! There's MORE(cue the cheesy TV ad music)
There are more ways to save multiple versions of a song. One way is to work the song to a point that you like and save it. Now, go to File>Save As and save again but change the name to reflect the changes you intend to make. Now, the first version you saved is untouched, and your new version will be saved with your changes since the first save(think that over a bit if its not making sense). Don't confuse a Session File and a Session Folder. The Folder holds everything, the Session File is like a snapshot when you hit Save.

Many of us will save multiple versions of a song, but all versions will be contained in the master session folder(the one first created at the start of recording any given song). As an example, I might have a session folder for "songname". Inside that session folder are sub-folders such as:
Audio Files(all audio recorded into the session)
Bounced Files(if I bounced any mixes)
Melodyne(if I am using Melodyne in the session)
Rendered Files(fades)
Session File Backups(assuming you have that enabled, which you should)
Next will be the actual session file(s) and mine might have:
Songname Raw(no edits at all)
Songname Edits(after basic editing is done)
Songname Mix 1(first mix)
Songname ExpEnding(a version where I made changes to the ending as an
experiment)
Songname Mix 2
etc, etc, etc

The idea being to have as many versions as I need, but all within the main session folder(and the entire folder should be backed up onto another drive at least once, and again after any major change, so you don't lose work if something happens(like a drive failure). Of course, there are other ways that make sense for other people. Someone might decide to save as a completely separate session(maybe the song is going to be redone by another artist).

Lots to think about, and here's a little more for those that are still new to all this. Clips are simply audio files. A Clip could be 1 beat long or the entire length of the song. A Track might hold a single Clip, or it might hold dozens of small Clips if you went thru and did some Clip Gain, or maybe you pasted chorus 2 over chorus 1 because it sounded better. A Session is made up of the session file(what you click to open), and all the folders I mentioned, BUT(and this is a big "BUT"), there are situations where all the audio is NOT inside your session folder(in the Audio Files sub-folder). I'll leave that for now as this is getting too wordy