What happened...serious crap.

[sundaypaul]

I opened a song I had been beat editing (drums) for a while last night. I saved and closed it to continue this morning, but when I opened it...nothiing was there. All the soundbites are not even listed in the SB window. I looked at the history...it shows my work...lots of edge edits etc... This is the first tiime I've ever seen this. I've been a pro user of DP for years now. Please help. I DO NOT want to redo all those hours of work. This is nuts. There must be an explanation. If anyone has a clue or has had this happen to you...please reply. Do macs get viruses? Thanks!

[dweiss]

That's a strange one. I know you're not a new user Paul, but If you're tired anything is possible. Is there any chance that the file was "saved as" twice, to two seperate places? Are the audio files in the "audio files" folder for the project? If not, do a search for them. If they don't show up anywhere on your drive I'd look at the health of the drive. Check the directory with Disk Utility and repair permissions.

[wonder]

all computers are subject to something going wrong.
just the other day i did a freeze track of IVORY and closed the program.
when i opened it back up, the file was there but the waveform was missing. first time this has EVER happened.

look ALL over in your computer ... do a search, open folder, etc etc.

[sundaypaul]

Here's the deal. The Audio Files Folder still contains the soundbites. The Song file's soundbites window shows nothing in this file. Sure I could drag the soundbites back in, but this would not get me back to the last step of hours of editing etc. --also, I'm not really sure what files I used. All hope is not lost. I can go back to my "main" file that has the original takes etc..the file from which this wacked file was created from and start all over again. However, I'm just trying to see what and why the problem happened and IF there's a fix. I just spoke with a MOTU tech and he suggested reloading the seq/chunk into a new file...didn't work. He had never heard of this problem before and was going to check with the other techs. This is really bazzar! It would make more sense if the file opened and said the soundfiles were missing...would I like to locate them. But, it's as though my last move last night was to select all soundbites in the SB window and select Remove from list...this would be the result of my present situation. But I never did this. Any more ideas...anyone? Thanks! Oh yeh, and every timne I tried going back in history DP will "unexpect. quit". Also, another strange thing. I had cleared my history fairly resently so there are only about--i'm guessing--50 or more edits etc in the history window, BUT...the "oldest" item listed is "new file"! what the heck...that doesn't make sense at all.

<small>[ June 06, 2005, 09:38 AM: Message edited by: Paul Colley ]</small>

[Splinter]

Are you looking at the wrong chunk? Do you have multiple chunks in this file? Just a thought. Maybe you have the same track layout, but no soundbites in it. Check your chunks window.

[sundaypaul]

I never even use chunks...it's not my method of working. I'll check it though, but would the soundbytes window be empty?

[Shooshie]

Did you somehow add a chunk? You know that you can hit a key on your keyboard that will sometimes select a different chunk.

Shooshie

[Shooshie]

View filters?

Was your disk full?

Man, I don't know, but if you figure it out, would you tell us?

Shooshie

[sundaypaul]

nope, chunks is not the issue. What i'm looking at is exactly as though I selected all soundbytes in the SB window and then had them removed frm list. The DP file itself is about 1.2mb, which shows all those edits and my work is in the file, just no soundbytes... Unless someone else has had this problem...this is a first and no fix in view. At this point it looks like I'll have to do all the work again, at least I've got the audio files and the first DP file which I started with. I'll work on some other songs that need editing in the mean time...just in case a solution shows up.

[pinky]

Have you tried going back in thew history? Did you clean or compact the file? That might have flushed some history...

Haven't experienced anything like that in the last few years except as attributable to user error... <mine>

[sundaypaul]

I've tried to go back in history but DP will "unexpect. quit" every time. MOTU tech supporrt has no answer, they only suggest that the file is corrupt. Looks like I'll have to re-beat detect the drums and edit all over again.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Originally posted by Paul Colley:
I've tried to go back in history but DP will "unexpect. quit" every time.

Clearly, that is the most telling sign you've provided. I'm not a progammer and don't understand the inner workings, but if the file is corrupted, that would explain the symptoms you desccribe.

Mac viruses are rare and I don't think this would be a result of one.

Here is a thought... you might try a utility like:

http://www.binarybiz.com/vlab/mac.php

There is a link to show you files it can recover BEFORE you buy it. These things are not fool-proof, but if an older copy of the file still exists on the HD somewhere, you might retrieve last nights "second to last" version and resurrect that; save the day.

FWIW, I know what you are going thru. I once created a MIDI violin solo of about 20 minutes and to "save a little space" decided to add a single harp note at the end of the 25 minute orchestral piece. Unknowlingly, I deleted 6 weeks worth of composing and editing. To make matters worse, the session to transfer the masters for DVD was to take place about 3 hours from the discovery and there was NO TURNING BACK!

I was able to recreate the violin part from memory, but it was a pale version of an otherwise effective track. I was on an Atarti ST 1040 (whoo hoo!) so I had no real tools to deal with the problem.

But I HAVE saved files with problems like your with file recovery programs and it might be worth a try (especially since you should be able to SEE the file before buying the prog!)

Good luck. Let me know if you try it and it works...

<small>[ June 06, 2005, 09:31 PM: Message edited by: MIDI Life Crisis ]</small>

[thesoundsmith]

Pointing out the need for backups. I have been extremely lucky in this area. A project I have been working on for two years and is almost complete has a ton of edits and punches that were impossible to reconstruct. Three days after I backed up the folder, I opened the project and it was all gone. ALl the soundbytes had vanished, just like Paul. Could not find the files anywhere, but when I opened thebackup, everything was there. Copied (with Audio files) back to the original location and all was well except for the last couple of edits.

It happened again to a different project two weeks later.

BACK IT UP!!! There's a glitch somewhere. It looks like there is some key combo that can be accidentally struck that can do this, but I don't have a clue what, except it may have to do with pruning the Undo tree.

[Tim]

Originally posted by The Soundsmith:
It looks like there is some key combo that can be accidentally struck that can do this,

I'd think that there'd be evidence of something that destructive in the undo history.

What OS version?

<small>[ June 07, 2005, 03:05 PM: Message edited by: Tim ]</small>

[PFulton]

This thread may have gone cold, but I'll chime in, anyway. I, too, lost a bunch of audio, despite it having been formerly saved. Also, when working in iMovie 3, the same thing happens. So, I surmise that the problem may not lie in the program, but some larger system glitch. Alas, the lost audio left no trace of itself.