copy and re-linking question
 

Friends I posted a question several days ago about a huge session I have that is currently running off of one drive. I received a really good blog on spanning tracks to second drives using copy and re-link. I did as instructed and everything worked. However after opening the session the next morning, I see that all of the tracks are reading off of the original drive. I selected the tracks again but they would not highlight in the project window. O.K... I then selected the tracks inside the project window and did a copy and re-link to the second drive. Again, the tracks coped to the second drive. The session plays very well... but again if I close the session and open it. All tracks read from the original drive. Is this copy and re-link a temporary fix? How can I tell the session to read from both drives till I am done with the session?? I realize that the same tracks are in drive one, but I am instructing inside the project to span. What am I doing wrong??

Thanks
Mike

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

How did you do the process? I just did this last night with a project of 70+ tracks and it works great. Did you actually SAVE after doing the 'copy/re-link'?

The way I did it, open the PROJECT window and open the AUDIO FILES. Then, in the MIX window, click/drag over all the files/regions you want to move. They should highlight in the AUDIO FILES window. In the sub-menu select 'copy and re-link' and select the new drive to copy them to.

Here's where you MAY have messed up... PT is going to want to see them in a folder named AUDIO FILES on the new drive. I actually created a new folder with the name of the session, just like the original folder, then create an AUDIO FILES folder within that, just like the original, then copy files to that.

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

Hi Eric, well I did save the session...
When I first tried the copy and re-link to the second drive I did not create an audio files folder. Just a folder with the song name. Noticing this, I created an audio track inside the session and told PT to record this track to the second drive. PT automatically created a folder with the name AND a audio folder. I then did a copy and re-link to that audio folder. I'll try it your way BUT, I am concerned because my selected tracks in the session no longer are highlighted in the projects folder. Very strange.... They are there, but ever since my first copy and re-link they do not appear as a highlight when I select inside PT . Now if I select a track that I have not re-linked it becomes highlighted and is ready for a re-link. Once I do the re-link the session runs well. I just don't understand why it keeps reading the selected tracks from drive one. Could the session be corrupted? Perhaps I should create a new session and import all the tracks. Then try the re-link again.
Thanks again for the suggestion...
Mike

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

Make sure that you're re-assigning the disk in the Disk Allocation window for each of the tracks that you're moving.

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

Ahh.... now I have not done that. I see in the disk allocation that all are "seeing" the one drive. I always thought that the Disk allocation was for when you recorded a track. BUT, again, I do see that tracks that I have re-linked are "seeing" drive one. I will select the ones for the other drive.

Eric... did you do this step?? this Disk Allocation step was not done on the blog that I viewed. Could you check and see if your tracks are there? Does this need to be done??? I'll give it a go and see if it will remember the path when I open the session again....

One question ... what does the "check" mark on some of the sound files mean in the project folder??


Many Thanks guys
Mike

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

I didn't do disk allocation because I'm NOT re-recording those tracks, which is what DA is about.

If you open PROJECT and AUDIO FILES of the project, move to where you can see the FULL PATH of the file while highlighting the region in the edit window. In my case, they all show up on the new drive, yet the originals are still there, as well... ProTools is playing the ones from the 2nd drive.

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

Yes, when I re-link I do see the second drive in the PATH area. I can see it change as I copy and re-link. However, in my case, it all goes back to drive 1 when I save, close and re open. I see the path and all the tracks that I have re-linked have now gone back to the original drive. Yes, the copies are there on the second drive but PT is playing them from drive 1. I think I'll do it again, THEN DA the selected tracks as well. That might work... I still don't know why PT does not listen to my re-link commands.

Mike

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

O.K. From my tests This "copy and re-link" is only temporary. My tracks do link to another drive, but will revert back to the original drive if you close and re open the session. Now if you use DA and record to another drive PT will remember that drive for those tracks. So, every time I open this big session. I open my project, highlight all the tracks I copied and re-linked yesterday and tell PT to just re-link the tracks from yesterday. It does..... Now if anyone is able to use the copy and re-link then close and open a session. I would be interested to know if your PT is doing the same thing as mine.

Mike

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

So when you copy and relink from drive 1 to drive 2, are you deleting the files from drive 1? It seems that's the obvious answer. Remove the files from drive 1 and you're good, right?

Re: copy and re-linking question
 

As Copy and Relink doesn't create new file ID's for the files it will default back to referencing the files on the drive with the session. Remove those and you'll be good.

Obviously make sure that you only delete files that you have copied!!

C