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Hi -
I'm working on a podcast episode, and I am using a watermarked music track for demonstration purposes.

Now that the music has been approved, I need to replace the watermarked audio with a clean copy. I've done lots of edits - looped sections, etc - and so there are many "child" soundbites that use the watermarked source.

Is there a way to replace the "parent" file and update all soundbite references so that all of my edits stay in place and just use the new audio file?

The only way I've come up with is to:
1) Trash the analysis file of the watermarked audio
2) Trash the watermarked audio from the audio files folder, put the "clean" copy into the audio files folder, and rename it so it has the exact same name as the old watermarked audio
3) Reload the project.

Surely there is a more elegant way?

Thanks!

How would you feel about just merging the soundbites? You'd have a "committed version" with all fades/crossfades rendered into the finished track.

stubbsonic wrote:How would you feel about just merging the soundbites? You'd have a "committed version" with all fades/crossfades rendered into the finished track.

? I'm not sure you understood my question? I need to replace a watermarked song with an unwatermarked song, and have DP update all the references to that file throughout my session.

This is a confusing situation that begs all sorts of questions, but I'll hit the main points.

1 - Why is the production music "watermarked?" Is it your music or was it provided to you by some else?

2 - If it is your music, why didn't you put the "watermark" (whatever that means) on a separate track? This assumes you added the WM so that your work would not be used until the project is finished. I've never been that paranoid about protecting my music from misuse.

3 - If it is not your music and was supplied by a second party, why did they give you a watermarked recording? For me, that is a sign of mistrust on the part of the collaborator/client. If you get fairly deep into production and the client hasn't provided a clean copy to work with, then they have to absorb the cost of redoing the project. Personally, I would have refused to start work until a clean production copy was delivered to me.

So to recap, my main issues are:

Who's music is it?
Why is it WM?
Why did you use WM music for production?
WTF does WM mean in this context?
What exactly is the WM in question: A beep even 10 seconds? Poor quality?

But to your initial question, I suspect your only "easy" out is to try and replace the WM file with the clean one and see if DP will rebuild the segments in question. But if you've done bounces, created new soundbites, froze tracks, etc., I'm guessing there is no easy way out.

If you do have to rebuild the file you might want to take a screenshot of the Soundbites window with the USER and ORIGINAL timestamps displayed. If it's a large project, you might need several screenshots. AT least then you'll know where you made your cuts. That is assuming, of course, that the WM and clean copies are otherwise IDENTICAL.

Frankly, I don't like this watermarking bullsh••. People get too damn paranoid about this stuff. Besides, there's a lot of money to be made in defending infringed copyrights. Sometimes much more than the music itself is worth. lol

Seriously, WTF is the "watermark" and why was it there in the first place?

If you get fairly deep into production and the client hasn't provided a clean copy to work with, then they have to absorb the cost of redoing the project.

Is there really any other issue?

I sometimes have to deal with corrupted audio file headers from other studios. DP hates those but I never know it going in. Only when/if DP misbehaves will I do the detective work. Cleanup is easy but the time it takes to figure out the problem needs to be charged—and I do.

When I edit a soundbite, DP makes a copy with a modified name. I doubt there's a way to automatically swap them all. I'd make your sequence window nice and big and scroll through and watch for the name of the bit that needs replacing, and add the new version instead of the old version.

And I suppose you could try quitting DP, deleting all of the watermarked files from the Audio folder, then restart the project and when it complains about the missing files, point it to the new file. But I have no idea if they'll be edited correctly...

RodneySauer wrote:When I edit a soundbite, DP makes a copy with a modified name. I doubt there's a way to automatically swap them all. I'd make your sequence window nice and big and scroll through and watch for the name of the bit that needs replacing, and add the new version instead of the old version.

And I suppose you could try quitting DP, deleting all of the watermarked files from the Audio folder, then restart the project and when it complains about the missing files, point it to the new file. But I have no idea if they'll be edited correctly...

It's be a lot of fun to try! lol

I’m curious as to what works but not enough to invest the time.

Sitting in my armchair with a bowl of popcorn. Waiting to see what happens in the 3rd act.

Doris gets her oats.

I wonder if, within DP, you could try pasting the unwatermarked audio in the waveform editor (i.e., select all, paste). I wonder if the "children" would still point to the same parts of the parent.

Of course you'd probably want to work on a copy rather than the original project.

kestudi wrote:Hi -
I'm working on a podcast episode, and I am using a watermarked music track for demonstration purposes.

Read: Not his music; he's done the right thing.

kestudi wrote:Now that the music has been approved, I need to replace the watermarked audio with a clean copy.

Again, done the right thing and seeks a more-elegant method of replacing the original, lesser-quality file than the one he came up with.

Note:
His method worked; he was simply hoping for something involving less steps.

Why am I bothering?
At the risk of sounding like a shrinking violet, it'd be proper to address the question rather than impose what feels kinda like some sort of bullying on the guy... assuming he's a guy.

EDIT:
I feel bad now! LOL Telling anyone what to do isn't something I do; I'm an asker, and a rare one at that.

Ignore this post if you like; guess I'm havin' a bad day.

No bullying here. I'm simply telling it as it is. If you're expected to pro work, you expect to be trusted. If that's lacking I say forget the gig. Period.

I hear you, Magilla.

I understand the OP's POV 'though; it's background music he's probably sourced from a library and has had to wait for usage-licence approval.

It's nevertheless by-and-by; his question about replacing the "source" soundbite could be relevant to other scenarios I can think of, and IMHO the solution he found isn't a bad one. A bit-clumsy, yeah, but it worked, so I learned something that could prove useful at some point.

Sorry if I went a little OTT, bud.

Addressing the original question- I too have many occasions to replace a file with an edited version (in my case, doing some processing in RX7 that I probably should have done before importing the file in the first place) and I have found that:

1. The OP's method usually does work; and
2. I have not found a better method.

Side note: If I get lazy and don't bother to delete the anlysis file, about half the time the replaced soundbyte will be loud white noise. When that happens, close the file, delete the analysis file and reload the project.