1.3.5 - imported audio and saving projects

[Craig]

Hello everyone

I work in a school and we have Audacity rolled out to all computers. For a while, we used version 1.0.0 (old, I know!) but it worked well for what we needed. We created a new MSI package for 1.3.5 and switched users over to it.

Generally, what our students do is: import MP3 or WAV audio from a central file server, apply trim/effects etc, and then save the project to their home directory (mapped network drive). Originally, this would save an Audacity project file and that is all. However, with 1.3.5, Audacity now creates _data directories and populates it with lots of small ~1MB files. This is going to become a huge problem with disk space. Students have their own quota and are currently unable to save projects due to Audacity trying to write, in some cases, around 100MB of files to the _data folder.

I checked the preferences, and I have these options ticked:

• Import: Read uncompressed audio files directly from the original (faster)
• Saving a project: Do not copy any audio

Am I right in thinking that, with those settings ticked, Audacity shouldn't create a _data folder, just leaving the .aup file? If so - it doesn't appear to be working.

Should I be using a different version? Are there any other settings or known issues I have overlooked?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can supply,
Craig.

[allencmcbride]

Saying "do not copy any audio" should result in smaller _data folders with fewer files in them, but it won't stop them from being created. If you export rather than save, though, you can prevent the creation of _data folders. But if saving a project resulted in a _data folder that was 100MB, then exporting to an uncompressed format will also result in a large file. (Audacity 1.3 defaults to 32 bits, so if you import a 50MB 16 bit .wav and save as an Audacity project (copying all dependent audio), you should get a 100MB project. If you import a 50MB 16 bit .wav and export a 16 bit .wav, you should end up with another 50MB .wav.) --Allen

[Craig]

Ah, I see. I'll play around with the bitrate and see how much difference that makes.

Do you know at which version of Audacity was this change added, or where I could find out please? The previous version didn't save any additional files - that's how we'd prefer it to behave.

I know exporting to compressed formats will result in a single, smaller file - the students will do this - but only at the end of the project; in the mean-time they will be working on their own individual project over various sessions so we still need to save project files (but preferably without the massive _data folders).

[allencmcbride]

I don't know firsthand when project directories were introduced, but judging by this link and from what you've said, I'm guessing it was 1.1 (someone else here will probably know for sure): http://audacityteam.org/manual-1.2/history.html

I'm curious, though... are you saying that the single project files created by 1.0 were smaller than the total size of the _data folders created with "do not copy any audio" checked? I don't see how that would have worked. Or are you trying to keep the number of files small, independently of their total size? --Allen

[steve]

Audacity projects have always had two parts - an "Audacity Project File" and a "data folder". This goes back to version 0.8 which as far as I'm aware was the first public release.

Before Audacity 1.1.0, Audacity used it's own format for the project file and had ".vaf" files in the data folder.
When Audacity 1.1.0 came along, the project file used XML and the data files in the data folder used the ".au" extension.

It may have been that your system did not make the data folder visible to the user, but it has always been there (the data has to be somewhere, and there is no room in a ".AUP" file that is only a few kB in size to squeeze a load of audio).

The options that you have set will prevent any non-essential data from being stored, but any audio that has been modified from the original file has to be stored somewhere, or the project would not work when you came to reopen it.

After the project is complete and the audio file has been exported (as WAV, MP3, or other audio file format) you can delete the Audacity Project file and the corresponding data folder.