Logic Pro 9 File orginization help

[symphinity]

Hello everyone. I am a fairly new user to logic pro 9. I have been working with it for about 6 months now, and have run in to a situation pertaining to file orginization. I have been working on an album, and now that I am progressing to the mixing stage, I have been creating a new mixing project for each song. Next, I imported each of the recording session files in to a new mixing project, and delete all the extraneous tracks so I was left with a clean project with just the final tracks I am using for mixing. My goal was to simplify the layout and workflow for mixing, and also cut back on the project size to help efficiency on the CPU. On a couple of projects I have started to get this dreaded error message when I open the project:

"One or multiple files have changed in length, as a result x number of files have changed in length or content position."

In my mixing project the result was that a track would sometimes be missing the original audio, and instead some snipet from a completely unrelated track was moved to it. So, in my research that I have done it sounds like my misunderstanding of how to properly organize different versions of the same project in one folder has caused this error. From what I can tell, the original audio files that both of these projects, original and mixing, are trying to use are in different or multiple locations, and it has confused logic as to which ones it is supposed to be using. So, here is the part where I am looking for some advice, so I can hopefully minimize the damage and prevent more of my files from being lost. Is there a safe way for me to combine, or move these mixing projects that I have made in to the original project's file so that the audio files are all where they should be. Or should I just leave these mixing projects seperate, but resave the project some how so all the audio files are copied in to the mixing project folder to prevent more of the error messages. In the future I hope to use better file managment to prevent issues like this from happening again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Chris


Running Logic Pro 9.1.6, Lion OS Version ?, Mac Pro 2.8 ghz dual quad core with 8 gb of ram

 

[Pete Thomas]

There is not really any need to make a separate project for mixing, I would just go back to your original project and mix it from there.

If you want to save a dupliacte version, then either:

Save as with include assets ticked to a completely new project folder

or

Save as without include assets ticked to the same project folder, with a new name eg. Song Version 1, 2 3 etc.

 

[Pete Thomas]

To get more out of your available CPU:

Increase buffer size in Preferences > Audio. It means more latency, but that doesn't matter as you are now mixing, not recording.

If your RAM use is on the edge:

Take out unused plugins.

Don't put the same reverb on every track in an insert, instead use that one reverb on a buss and send to it from each track, adjusting the amount you need with the sends.

 

[symphinity]

There is not really any need to make a separate project for mixing, I would just go back to your original project and mix it from there.

If you want to save a dupliacte version, then either:

Save as with include assets ticked to a completely new project folder

or

Save as without include assets ticked to the same project folder, with a new name eg. Song Version 1, 2 3 etc.

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, until recenetly I didn't realize that it was as simple as doing a new save as. I guess the problem now is, that I have done some edits and processing to the tracks in my mixing projects that aren't in the original. This is why I am worried about what I should do with these mixing projects. If I want to keep all the editing work that I have done with them, I either need to figure out a way to resolve them all back in to the original project, or if there is a way to do a save as in the new mixing project that would ensure that all the audio files are in the mixing project folder too, so hopefully it will prevent the "audio files have changed length" message from appearing.

Do you think if I do a save as and check the include assets in the new mixing project that this might solve some of the error messages that I have been getting? Or worse case scenario, do I have to scrap all these mixing projects and go back to the originals and start over?

 

[Pete Thomas]

Do you think if I do a save as and check the include assets in the new mixing project that this might solve some of the error messages that I have been getting? Or worse case scenario, do I have to scrap all these mixing projects and go back to the originals and start over?

It's very hard to answer that.

File length changed error messages are generally what happens if you destructively edit a file (e.g trim it), then forget to save the project, or replace an audiofile in the finder with one of the same name edited externally.

Next time you open it, Logic is expecting a region of the original length, but the audiofile is not long enough. Mostly this is therefore harmless, though worrying, and theoretically not happen more than once,if you subsequently save.

I think only you can make the decision of whether to plough ahead or go back to the originals and hope to recreate what you did.

Either way, if you can't decide, it means you aren't hearing any major problems so it needn't be a big deal. Or just go back and look on it as an opportunity to mix again with a different day's set of ears, something we all do to great advantage sometimes anyway.

 

[symphinity]

Again, thanks for the responses. For now, I have decided to move forward with the mixing project files that I have created. Unfortunately, I had done many hours of editing on all of the files that I would like to avoid going back and repeating if necessary. I ended up trying the save as in the mixing project witht save external files box checked in the advanced options. So far this seems to work.

I am a little worried still that the error message I was recieving from logic was a bug type issue. I have read before that this happens when you edit files outside of logic, but this is something that I haven't done. The other one you mentioned, the destructively edit a file, is also something that I don't think I have done (although I wouldn't be surprised if I unkowingly did). However, it sounds as if I did say trim a file, I would get that message because the new file is shorter than expected, but I still shouldn't notice any changes in my project. Logic is just warning me that it noticed a change it wasn't expecting. What actually hapenned to me was during playback, I noticed a strange melody playing where it wasn't supposed to be. When I looked closer, an entire tracks audio was deleted and replaced by a little snippet of audio from a different track. So needless to say, I have been a little frightened to fire up logic lately, hoping every time that I won't see that error message.

Anyways, like I said hopefully copy the audio files to the new mixing projects will prevent this problem, and in the future I will definitely make life easier and save new versions of songs in the same project folder!

 

[Pete Thomas]

What actually hapenned to me was during playback, I noticed a strange melody playing where it wasn't supposed to be. When I looked closer, an entire tracks audio was deleted and replaced by a little snippet of audio from a different track. !

No, this shouldn't happen, and is not a known bug AFAIK.

It sounds like some confusion going on with file management definitely.

Just to make sure: you are recording the audiofiles for each project into that project's own audio files directory?

This is imperative and may seem obvious as I think Logic now makes it harder not to, but in the old days this wasn't so and using a common audio file location for more than one project would cause Logic to bite people's bums like this.

Especially if using the same source of audio, e.g. a drum track, for several projects. Don't be stingy with storage, duplicate it to each project, don't share the audio.

Check in the Audiobin, all the files should be in the folder Your project> Audiofiles.

If not copy (not move) them into that folder. I say don't move, that's just in case somehow they are from some other project.

 

[symphinity]

Just to make sure: you are recording the audiofiles for each project into that project's own audio files directory?

This is imperative and may seem obvious as I think Logic now makes it harder not to, but in the old days this wasn't so and using a common audio file location for more than one project would cause Logic to bite people's bums like this.

I thought I was recording all audiofiles in their respective folders for the projects. Now I realize that this wasn't the case until I copied the files over. Thanks for the check the audio bin tip too. I will use that as a double check that I have properly copied the audio files to the new projects too. I wish learning from mistakes wasn't so painful sometimes. I sure am glad there are forums like this to help straighten newbies like myself out!