Clips vs Audio File deletion on different PT files.

[alfiea]

Hello,

I know little about how protools stores audio files vs clips communicate with one another, perhaps someone could shed some light?

Whilst cleaning a PT file to send to be mixed, saving the file as another name, File B. In the process I wanted to delete all the unused Audio that show in clips on the right side. Instead of ‘clear’ I foolishly chose to delete, believing that they would only be deleted for the file i was working on and on the internal computer hard drive i was using.

(I will at some point want to go back to use older original files, that are stored / backed up, along with the audio, on another external drive).

My question is.

If i connect that external drive and open the file B, or any file that is linked to that audio, will protools delete the audio files on that external hard drive in the process? Is it linked in some way within protools? If i open an earlier file will all that old audio still be on that external hard drive? Obviously I’d like to find out before i connect that external back-up drive.

I hope i have made the clear enough to understand?

Thank you for any information given.

[smurfyou]

We don't know the specifics of your sessions.

But most individual users have all their session audio inside that sessions' "Audio Files" folder. If you merely "Save As" a different name PT is still using the original audio. It will only use new files if you "Save Session Copy" and check the box to copy audio files to a new location. The new session copy will point to those new files and forget about the original. Hope that clears it up.

[smurfyou]

Oh and you can look at the Clip List and/or Workspace project browser to see which files the clips are pointing to.

[alfiea]

thank you but i guess i didn’t make my question clear enough. i’m more concerned with hooking up the external Hard drive and how that will be seen by the new PT file that i’d deleted audio from that sits on my computer. The last thing i want to do is have audio files erased from that external drive because the file on my computer thinks they have been deleted and are redundant, thereby deleting those audio files to.

I guess the only way i’ll find out is to try it out.

Again, thank you.

[smurfyou]

Pro Tools will never delete files unless you explicitly tell it to.

[_JJ_]

If the "File B" copy on your external drive is a folder containing a session file and a populated audio folder then it should open as you saved it - before you did the "clean up" of the "File A" version on your internal drive. Make sense?

But as Smurfyou pointed out, if you only did a "Save As" and the "File B" folder doesn't include audio, then the session will likely be referring to the audio in its original location on your internal drive. If that's the case it may not be able to find it.

But ... have you empty your trash??

[cwsand]

Connect the external drive, copy the entire session to another drive, disconnect the external drive, work from the session you copied.

[albee1952]

Is there some confusion on "Clips" vs "Audio Files"? They are the same thing. Maybe the unclear part is; do you WANT to keep all audio files, or are you wanting to create a leaner session to hand off to another studio? Simply copying the session folder works as long as all audio for the session is actually INSIDE the session folder's Audio Files sub folder. If you imported audio from other sessions or locations, then its possible your copied session might be missing files. With this in mind, here is how I handle sending sessions to another mixer;
1-Start by doing some "house cleaning" on the session. This might include printing any midi or instrument tracks to audio(in case the mixer doesn't have all the same VI plugins) and print/commit any tuning(Melodyne). Also, if you have any critical special effects in place, you might print them as well.
2-Do a File>Save Session Copy and check the box to copy audio files. If the mixer doesn't need alternate takes(extra Playlists), then check the option to copy only the main playlist.
3-When you get comfortable with clearing the Clips bin of unused clips, that can streamline things a lot, but you want to make sure you are doing it the right way(if in doubt, copy the entire session folder to a new location and then open THAT version and clear out unused audio. If you mess up, the original session folder is not affected)
4-you could also consolidate every track back to 00:00:000 and export those clips to a folder so those audio files can be imported into any DAW

[alfiea]

thank you all…greatly appreciated.

I did a ‘save as’ from the original song folder sitting on my computer. I then backed it up (twice) on two external drives just in case. I then cleared the unused audio from the PT file I want to send for mixing. Both in clip section as well as physical audio in that folder. That has been sent for mixing.

I understand that portion. What i don’t understand and am unsure of is;

how PT relates to those original audio files that have not been erased and sit on the external backup drive from the back up in a ‘save as’ situation. If i connect that external drive to my computer and open up the ‘saved as’ file that i had sent to the mix engineer, will it then relate to those audio files on the external drive and because they have already been deleted, will PT also then delete those backup audio files believing they’re not needed?

In the future as has been told here i will do a ‘save as copy’ I guess that way it becomes and independent file. Much like a new song.

I’m asking this because in the past i have lost audio that i later wanted and of course it wasn’t there because i had not understood the PT process.

I am being cautious. but as i said, i guess the only way i will find out is to hook up that external drive.

again thank you everyone, the knowledge and help on here is a good thing.

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Is there some confusion on "Clips" vs "Audio Files"? They are the same thing.

Sorry but this is incorrect. They are very different. Clips are what used to be known as Regions. They are virtual representations of the audio files, which may represent the entire file or just a portion. Multiple clips can link to one single audio file.