Split up a long project - how?

Patanjali · November 27, 2013, 1:34am

The

Grim:

As far as I can see, I would approach it in this way:

Sorry…You are way overcomplicating this process

All cut-and-pastes will leave tracks at their full 3 hour length, even in a new project, regardless of how long it ‘appears’ in each song. Certainly, that would take up a lot of disk space on the project drive and where you back them up to.

Not when you use “backup project” & tick delete unused media and minimise audio files…you will get only the files you need at the length you have cut them in the arrange window and you have no need to mess around with templates, recreating any FX and groups etc etc…all your project settings are kept intact.

So step by step.

Save the song under a different name in case you mess up (just a standard save as)

Create the folders on your audio drive for each song (Outside of Cubase)

Cut all audio except for song number 1 in the arrange window

Backup project to new folder. Tick boxes to delete unused media and minimise audio files

Use undo to get all the audio back to full length
5.Start again at step 2 for song number 2

You could move the files or process bars/delete bars from tempo in this project before backup project so there isn’t a gap at the start or you can do this in the individual songs projects later on.

I’m glad there are many ways ‘to skin a cat’! Good suggestion. Keeps file sizes small and song management independent.

Issues with in-place (common project folder)
Regarding the in-place suggestions:

Those almost assume that one will never have to clean up (perhaps offline with RX3) the files. Working with multi-hour files can be tedious, and very difficult to cross reference if you have shifted the [visually-trimmed] clips to the start of each particular song project.
Any destructive editing requiring ‘Freeze Edits’ will result in new files (if you want to keep the previous versions). These will each be the original multi-hour long. Basically, you will end up with multiple huge files with changes to only one song in each.
The edit-audition-repeat-approval iterative lifecycle of each song may be better managed in completely separate projects+files for each.
If you like file naming conventions that include a version, forget it.

Reducing clips to visual size in the Pool
When I did our CD in 2004 with SX3, I remember there being an option in the Pool to trim a clip to its visual length, creating a separate file in the process, rather that a reference to the common file. It would be the best as it would allow full flexibility to do either project management stream with maximum efficiency. It was easier to keep track of versions, and minimises file sizes.

However, I could not find it again in C7, so if I have missed something, please could someone enlighten me as to how it can be done now.