Workflow question

[bouzouki]

Hello all,
I've a question this time about how to manage a large audio file: I have a two hour 8 track audio file from a rehearsal. I want to mix the material that's there song by song. How I've been doing it so far is by putting the long stems into a sequence and then exporting each song segment stem by stem into a new song project. The full audio is a total drag on my hard drive, as you can imagine, but once they're divided into individual songs it's manageable.
What I'd like to know is if there is a better way to do this. As a workflow issue, this is quite time ram consuming. How would you do this???
Thanks, as usual.
Sylvia

[bouzouki]

I'm using DP 7, OSX SnowLion.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I would use chunks. One chunk for each song or segment, all 8 tracks.

Import the full audio into each chunk from the soundbites window and then cut the sections you don't want in that section. cutting it up that way will not cut up the priginal audio, just create a new region of that audio to work with. It is not going to impact your performance to have large files in the soundbites window or in any non-active sequence. What may get a little bloated is your audio files and analysis folders, but HD space is always something that is going to get eaten up my projects like that. It comes with the territory.

Then once you're happy with your individual songs, bounce them to stereo tracks and perhaps put them in a single, new chunk if you want to play with the new, stereo files and how they'll fit together in the final version of the project.

All that said, someone is going to post that they never use chunks and suggest separate projects for each song and give you all the reasons why. That's fine, but it's not the way the program was designed to work. It's highly inefficient and will also take up much more HD space as you duplicate the original project audio over and over again. Chunks are there for a reason, and a very good reason. They are efficient and it's the way DP was designed: to make light work of projects just like the one you described.

[Prime Mover]

Another word for chunks is "Sequence". I guess technically chunks are any kind of compartmentalized material: Sequences, Songs, V-Racks. But yeah, nice thing about DP (unlike some other DAWs) is that one project can contain multiple sequences. This is an excellent situation to utilize this!

[frankf]

Another word for chunks is "Sequence". I guess technically chunks are any kind of compartmentalized material: Sequences, Songs, V-Racks. But yeah, nice thing about DP (unlike some other DAWs) is that one project can contain multiple sequences. This is an excellent situation to utilize this!

It took me a long time to get my head around the Chunks concept, but IMO, understanding Chunks is essential to understanding the structure of DP. Chunks are of three kinds only: Sequences, Songs and v-racks and one project can contain multiples of each. See chapter 11 under Chunk types in the DP manual. It's not that you're wrong in practice, but Chunks are more than Sequences.
Cheers,
Frank


Frank Ferrucci

[bayswater]

It took me a long time to get my head around the Chunks concept

I don't see why it's necessary to understand the "Chunks concept". Other than the fact that MOTU chose to call Sequences, Songs, and V-Racks Chunks, and list them all in the Chunks window, they don't appear to have any real similarity or relationship. If they kept the three completely separate, how would DP work differently?

[mikehalloran]

All that said, someone is going to post that they never use chunks and suggest separate projects for each song and give you all the reasons why.

I will not be one of them.

[frankf]

It took me a long time to get my head around the Chunks concept

I don't see why it's necessary to understand the "Chunks concept". Other than the fact that MOTU chose to call Sequences, Songs, and V-Racks Chunks, and list them all in the Chunks window, they don't appear to have any real similarity or relationship. If they kept the three completely separate, how would DP work differently?

I agree, but MOTU hasn't kept them separate and so, for me at least, I had to stop using the terms Chunks and Sequences interchangeably.

[bayswater]

I agree, but MOTU hasn't kept them separate and so, for me at least, I had to stop using the terms Chunks and Sequences interchangeably.

In either the V7 or V8 manual, can't remember which, there is less of an attempt to link the three components together, and less of a tortured attempt to describe a V-Rack as a sequence. By V9, maybe MOTU will rename the Chunk window as the DoDad window and drop the term Chunks altogether.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

If you select the pull down from a chunk by using the ctl click method, one option is "duplicate sequence" so clearly a chunk is a sequence is a chunk. But a Vrack isn't a sequence yet a song is so all chunks are not equal.

[Guitar Gaz]

If you select the pull down from a chunk by using the ctl click method, one option is "duplicate sequence" so clearly a chunk is a sequence is a chunk. But a Vrack isn't a sequence yet a song is so all chunks are not equal.

I prefer the Opcode Vision description - a sequence is a sequence - and a Song contains subsequences. Chunk is a bit silly as a term - we used to call DAWs sequencers in my day! A chunk would better describe a portion of MIDI or audio data - not a multi track sequence - but its late and I don't really care any more.....

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Couldn't agree more. Chunks has a whole different meaning, especially after a night of heavy drinking.

[frankf]

Again, look at Chapter 11>Sequence Basics>Chunk Types in DP8 PDF Manual. MLC,I'm not in front of DP right now. What do you see when you select a v-rack Chunk and right click: Duplicate Sequence or Duplicate V-rack? I've never been a fan of the term Chunk, btw, and this has been discussed on the list before, but I don't recall a better term was suggested obviously, MOTU hasn't come up with a better one.


Frank Ferrucci

[Dan Worley]

Scores, Songs, Parts, Sections

Those are the words I think of.