Logic Pro 9 Housekeeping...

Mockliam

Logician
Hi there,
I've noticed that the Audio Files folder for my projects contains all takes including ones I deliberately delete while recording due to mistakes etc. This makes the project folder unnecessarily large. Looking through the help files I can't find any information on this. The project clean up option doesn't seem to usefully identify the unused files. Any ideas on reducing the load on my hard drive? I'm using Logic Pro 9. Thank you.
 
From time to time I do this:

In the Audio Bin:

1) View > Hide all regions, you should be seeing the location of all the audiofiles in the correct place, ie in the project Audio Files folder.

2) Click on Edit > Select Unused, now delete these from the Audio File menu. Make sure you did step (1) in case the song shared files from another project (not good, see below), you would not want to delete those!

3) Now clean up unused regions: View> Show all Regions, then again Edit > Select Unused and delete with backspace key.

If there are audio files in the project folder that are not used in the project, check by using Audio File > Add audio file. Any audio files already in the project will be greyed out, any that are not greyed out are not used in tha project so you can deleted them in the Finder, or load them into the project then use setp 2 (above).

Shared Audio Files:

Never let two or more projects share the same audiofile referenced at one of the project's Audio Files folder (are some othe folder on the drive) or you will be sorry one day.

The exception might be for some filesd you know ae used a lot and you have dedicated folder for these, even then if you inadvertantly do a destructive edit on one, it will affect all uses so again, you will be sorry.
 
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Thank you Pete. I did as you suggested and managed to reduce the number of audio files in a project. However, when I checked the Logic storage folder on my drive, the number of audio files in the audio folder had not changed and the folder size remained the same (748Mb for this project - all audio). This remained the case even after restarting my computer. Any options on reducing the overall folder size per project on the drive?
 
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Hi Pete,

I think I see the problem here. When I loaded Logic Pro 9 it set up its own folder for projects. Due to my inexperience I have been saving projects in a separate folder in the 'documents' section of my hard drive (for easy access I thought). 🙄

I'll transfer these folders to the 'right' area and then see how this affects file size etc following your previous instructions. Will let you know how it goes. Thanks.
 
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Hi Pete,

I think I see the problem here. When I loaded Logic Pro 9 it set up its own folder for projects. Due to my inexperience I have been saving projects in a separate folder in the 'documents' section of my hard drive (for easy access I thought). 🙄
.

That should not bea problem, you can save the projects to wherever you like. The important thing is that each project has its own Audio Files folder, and that should be the recording path.

Things can get complicated when you import files from another project, you should always then copy them into the target projects folder. Or this may happen automatically if you hade save assets ticked (though I haven't quite worked out all the ins and outs)

All of this will change with Logic X if it does to us what Final Cut Pro X did, we will then only be able to save in a dedicated projects folder. So fingers crossed that doesn't happen.
 
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I've moved the folders as mentioned below. All loading properly etc. I deleted 'unused' files on another project as suggested. There are now 7 audio files showing in the audio bin of that project but still 23 audio files showing in the 'logic folder' and, therefore, no change in size on the drive.
 
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Are you talking about the folder User> Music>Logic> Audio Files ?

It sounds like you have got in a bit of a mess.

The safest way to sort this is (If you don't have too many projects), open each one, then File >Save As (with include assets and copy files ticked). This will duplicate each project and save each one with it's own audio files. Also tick EXS or ultrabeat instruments if you created any of those along with the project.

If you had third party plugins with associated files, e.g. melodyne, you would also need to move deal with those within the plugin file settings.

Otherwise I'd be afraid any quicker advice may result in you losing file references or files.
 
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Got it! Folder has now reduced by over 50% 🙂 I'll do that with the remaining folders and keep an eye on future projects. Thank you for your patience Pete.
 
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