Audacity Forum

I do not understand the disk space remaining feature. I record music from a cassette tape and then import it as a WAV file. When I close Audacity I do not save the changes. So, why is the disk space reducing with each use? How do I free up disk space. I have read the FAQ on disk space but did not find answers there.

jmeredith wrote:I record music from a cassette tape and then import it as a WAV file.

Do you mean that you record the music then EXport it as a WAV file?
Where do you Export it to?

If all you do is record and edit a project and Expot a WAV (or Mp3) - and then just close Audacity - then Audacity will clean up and remove its temporary files on exit.

However - if you Saved the Audacity project at ant time then the project files will be hanging around still and v=can be deleted if you no longer need them.

When you save an Audacity project as <project_name> it creates a number of things

1. a top level master project file called <project_name>.aup
2. a folder at the same filing level called <project_name>_data
3. and within the folder a sub-folder structure with lots of little .au files - segments of the recording (mainly audio clips - but a couple of them are graphics files)

When you re-open a project with Audacity you should always open the <project_name>.aup top level file. This tells Audacity how to thread together all the little .au files. It is deliberately designed this way so that Audacity doesn't have to open and work with a single humungously large file, which would hamper performance. You should not be attempting to open or manipulate any individual .au files.

Unfortunately there is mo Delete Project command in Audacity (a serious ommission IMHO) - so you would need to delete the .aup and the associated folder that contains all the little .au files.

WC

Thanks for two replies. Of course, (Stevethefiddle) I should have said export and not import. I export to a WAV file on desktop and from there I copy it to an audio CD. Thanks, Waxcylinder - I am not saving the project so I do not understand why the time remaining keeps reducing. Will I eventually run out of disk space?

The amount of free disk space should relate to the amount of free disk space on the disk that you are recording to, and the "Quality" settings that you are using.
If you are recording in stereo at 44100Hz 16 bit, a 1 hour recording will use about 600MB. Recording 1 hour at 48000Hz 32bit stereo will use about 1.5 GB.

<<<I copy it to an audio CD.>>>

Too many fuzzy words. You cannot "copy" a music file to a Music CD. Music on a Music CD is in a special format and you must use a CD Authoring Program like Windows Media, Easy CD Creator, Nero Burning ROM, or Toast.

If you straight copy a file to a CD and it succeeds (some machines can do this), you will get a Data CD which almost probably not play in stand-alone CD players or your car.

Koz