Disk space usage

[jjefferson13]

Is it me or does Auria use an absurd amount of disk space. If i "open in" from another app I end up with essentially 3 copies (4 if I freeze) of my audio files. I get 1 in my inbox, 1 in my main "root" Auria level, 1 in the project folder, and then the potentially frozen version. Shouldn't there be a better way to deal with this?

1. Give a means to clear the inbox easily (it's very tedious to do so now)

2. A built in file management UI to copy/move/delete/etc files in bulk (user needs to understand ramifications of their actions just like on their OS)

3. If we are importing Audio in a specific format can we have the option of keeping it in that format? I imported some files in M4A and it converted to WAV. now I understand why, but the reason I imported in the lesser format is because I'm just screwing with these files in a trial format and don't want to consume a ton of space on my iPad so I could have all M4A files be less in size than probably 2 of the WAV files.

Thanks,
Jay

[Rim]

I've considered having Auria automatically delete the original file from the Inbox folder, once an import is complete. Is there any reason you can think of not to do so? It would be easy for me to implement this.

Auria (like any DAW) needs to use a uncompressed format to play and record audio, so anything you import that's a compressed format (m4a, mp3, etc), always needs to be converted to WAV first. There's no way around this, as DAWs can't play compressed files in a multi-track environment. The copied m4a file could be deleted automatically here as well. I just wonder if there are any problems with doing so.

The file management in Auria already allows you to delete any files you don't want. You just swipe across the file to delete. For example, the Import Audio dialog allows this.

Rim

[mrufino1]

Unless I'm wrong, reaper will play compressed formats (mp3, ogb, flac) without converting. I use wav or aif files, but it is possible.
As far as deleting files, it would be helpful to be able to check multiple files then hit delete, rather than swiping each on individually, which your import feature already does.
Regardless, I love using auria and mix everything in it.

[MikeDee]

Rim, I like what you are considering. In the event that a user might wish to keep the original file(s), can you perhaps pop up a Yes/No [OK/Cancel] alert (or MessageBox) to give the user the option to delete or keep the original(s)?

Best regards,

Mike

[Rim]

Lots of audio apps will play mp3 and other compressed formats without converting, but I've never seen a DAW that does this with multiple tracks in real time. Editing and syncing become very difficult, if not impossible when working with lossy formats. It's the reason why all professional DAWs convert when importing (Pro Tools, Logic, Nuendo, Cubase, Sonar).

Rim

[mrufino1]

As I said, I am pretty sure reaper does not convert the files to another format. I will try to confirm that later, I don't use it much to mix since I have been using auria, only for tracking.

[jjefferson13]

I can understand the reasoning on why it needs to convert them, this makes sense. The extra processing it takes to convert them in realtime while streaming from disk vs preloading them all into memory is the factor here. I can't comment on Reaper as I am not familiar with it.

The comment on deleting multiple items at a time is really what I'm getting at... deleting/moving/copying multiple at a time is what's really needed. It's very tedious to have to drag and drop individual files to organize them or to swipe single files to delete them, especially when you realize it's been a while and you end up with like 40 of them to do, not counting what's in the Inbox. In my opinion as a developer I would give an option in settings for "housekeeping" and allow the user to click it, let the app move duplicated files to a recycling bin and then popup a window for the user to review the changes. Allow them to "delete all", "delete none", or "delete individual" files. After the process is completed any remaining files are returned to their original locations. Also, in regards to the move/copy functionality, I think implementing a "safe" folder (maybe just named "Audio" or something) to exclude any files from the search for deletion.

I think some of the logic to determine if the file should be deleted would be something like:

1) Is the file in the Inbox and has it been imported into a project?
2) Is the file residing in the root Auria directory and has it been imported into a project?
3) The file does not exist in the "safe" folder.
4) The file does not exist in a project folder.

Now this brings up another file related topic, custom audio in Drum-a-gog. I dumped some WAV files on to use and the only way it's picking them up is if they exist in the Auria root folder. I couldn't put them in the gog folder or a sub of that folder, or in a sub of Auria. This is messy. WIth the proposed plan above this here would be an issue. Drum-a-gog would have to be able to pick up custom files from a sub of the gog folder and another rule would have to be in place:

5) The file does not exist in the gog (or any other Auria application folder).

It's not a touch design, it's just that the file management and layout is messy to start with so it makes putting all these different rules in place for it to work properly.

-jay

[Rim]

Jay,

Thanks for the input on this. Some very good ideas. I'll bookmark this thread for when I improve the file management section.

Thanks,
Rim