Audacity Forum

I have been using Audacity to record my client sessions successfully for a while now. I know that with each saved project, there is a folder and two files - one a .aup and the other a .bak file. Recently I recorded the first hour of a session, and stopped the recording. Instead of saving the first half immediately, I hit record again, and recorded the second hour. It showed up under the first recording. At the end I could see both recordings. I tried to save the two files separately, but somehow my computer at that time came up with "low memory resources" and so what I got was one saved file, that when played I could hear both tracks playing simultaneously. So when I closed the program and opened it again, there was the one file that had both tracks still on it. I copied the 2nd track and inserted it at the end of the first track, and deleted the 2nd track in the process I edited the file, got it to where I wanted it. I then told it to save as a new file name, "pauline whole session" and it kept crashing in the process, ongoing memory challenge I think even though I had cleared several gig on the hard drive. In the end I had to shut the program down and restart my computer after freeing up some memory space. Now... what I have is a Folder with the saved file name, "pauline whole session", but no aup or .bak file of that same filename. I have looked in that folder, and its full of small files. Just can't find a way to access it! I still have the first saved project file called , but the second track is no longer on that. I have checked the temp files, and no, the recording is not in there. Can you help me? Is there a way to recover that second file with the whole two hours on it.

astrochick wrote: Is there a way to recover that second file with the whole two hours on it.

From your detailed description, it sounds unlikely. The .aup file needs the data from the data folder, but data without an .aup file is just as useless.

You understand the difference between "Save" and "Export"?

"Save" will save the project, where as "Export" will create a normal audio file (WAV or MP3). It is worth "Exporting" the tracks as soon as you have recorded them so that you have backup files. If you have multiple tracks, you can select a single track, (or a section of a track) and use "Export Selection" to export just the selected track or selected area (rather than exporting a mix of the whole project).

What he said.

When I finish capturing a performance, I Export As WAV... immediately. That gives me a stable, robust sound file that I can go back to if everything else goes in the toilet...like that happened to you.

Then, if I feel like it, I can Save Project As..., although that's far less important than getting that one WAV sound file at the beginning.

Audacity doesn't use "Save" like other computer programs do. Apparently, Save in the other audio programs works this odd way and Audacity just went along. A Project isn't a single thing. It's a cloud of production files and it's easily damaged by the slightest misstep. All those little capture snippets you saw are part of the project cloud. Both of the blue waveforms in the editing window are each individual graphics files inside the cloud.

Everything in the cloud is coordinated by the AUP (project) file. Any damage at all to that file and the system can't find anything in the cloud any more, and your show turns to dirt...unless you have that one exported sound file. If you exported that WAV sound file at the beginning, you can discard the broken project, open the WAV file and start over--without having to recapture the performance.

Another way of looking at it is that you can easily email a WAV sound file to somebody. it's all but impossible to email a Project.

Koz

Thanks guys, I had a horrible idea that you would say that, but worth a go. I had not appreciated the importance to import rather than save, as in the past I haven't had a problem and my work with the program has been pretty simple. I have been doing a browse through your chat items, and this program is way more indepth than I had realized, and I can see it would be interesting to understand better what it can do. Cheers

kozikowski wrote: When I finish capturing a performance, I Export As WAV... immediately. That gives me a stable, robust sound file that I can go back to if everything else goes in the toilet....
Koz

I absolutely agree with Koz' advice here and endorse it - and I do it myself after each LP capture, for the same safety reasons.

If more folks could be encouraged to do this as a natural part of their recording workflow we would get a lot less postings on the forum ...

Maybe the Wiki tutorials and the manual could be updated to recommend this as part of the recording process ?

WC