To Undo... or not Undo... that is the question.

[comcon]

ok... I thought I had a pretty good handle on basic Audacity Functioning, as far as not modifying original raw audio files, using an edit list, which enables just about unlimited undos... but then I ran into something that stumped me.

I record my bands (2 different bands now -- which is why I'm not on this forum that often anymore) practices, into 8 tracks/channels for a quick and dirty mix to distribute to all band members.

Each Audacity Project is 45 mins to 1 hour long, consisting of 3 to 6 songs.

The next day or so I do a quick and dirty processing:

Run all mic'ed channels thru hi pass and low pass
Make two duplicates of each vocal track, and apply GVerb and Delay to the dupes.
Pan each track left/right, and set crude gain levels

Then I select a song, trim outside the selection.
I further trim the gain on each track until the mix sounds reasonable.
Quick Mix to stereo track.
Amplify to 0 db peak.
Export as MP3

I then undo to before the "trim", and select the next song. etc.

I've been doing this for months, and have it pretty well down.

This last time... on several of the projects... after trim/quick-mix/Export-mp3 of the last song on the project... I closed the project, and answered yes to "save changes".

Then... after listening to a song on my main stereo... I wanted to change the mix slightly... so I reopened the Audacity Project.

Undo is no longer available!?!?!?

All that is visible it the last song already mixed down to stereo.

This is no big deal right now... but now I'm REALLY CONFUSED!!!

I thought as long as I didn't "save as" a different project, that I could undo back to the original 8 tracks!

[steve]

This is no big deal right now...

Wow, that's fortunate.

When you close Audacity, it zaps all of its temporary files, just copying the ones necessary for the project into the data folder - hence "undo's" are gone.

What you need to do to keep your original tracks is to "undo" all the way back before saving the project.

Something which I sometimes do, is to keep multiple versions of projects (numbered), so that I have a choice of where to go back to after I have closed Audacity. (Work flow: record tracks > save "project_01" > do some editing > Save As "project_02" > more editing > Save As "project_03" > made a mistake, so undo some edits and do them different > Save As "project_04" - Close Audacity - Next day, don't like "project_04", so go back to "project_02" and carry on from there).

[comcon]

I did. The project was saved immediately after recording... then saved a little later after the Hi/Lo pass filtering and duplication of vocal tracks.

[steve]

Each time you save with a new name, it effectively creates a new Audacity project, and each one is like a "restore point". I'm sure you've got the hang of it now, but if you're not sure, just do some tests with little files - as long as you remember that "Undo" data gets zapped when you exit, it's pretty logical.

[kozikowski]

<<<then saved a little later after the Hi/Lo pass filtering>>>

Under a new project name, or under the old one? Just so we're using the same words here, Stevie's creating many different projects as he goes. I suspect you're updating the same project repeatedly. He has "step-back points" and you don't.

Koz

[comcon]

Yes Koz... you're right. I'm just saving the same file.

If I were doing something serious, I would make multiple files as "restore points".

However, recording 8 tracks of 3 hour practices twice a week would chew up some considerable disk space. Even my terabyte raid server would soon get overwhelmed.

I did find early on... that when I create a new project, if I save it as a named project immediately prior to hitting the record button, it saves quite a bit of time. If you're recording an un-named project, when you finally go to save it, it has to copy the raw audio files from the temp location to your saved location.

(The first time I tried to save a 1 hour/8-track project to my server over a 10mps LAN it locked up my computer for close to 20 mins!)

When I save prior to recording, the raw audio files are saved in their final destination, so when you save after stopping the recording, it only takes 20 secs or so.

So... I'm not sure why I had no undos available to me. Perhaps because my method of "save" was when I closed the project, answering "yes" to "Do you want to save changes?"

I could run tests to find out... unfortunately between practices, recording, mixing, and the rest of life, I don't have a lot of time.

[comcon]

Oh... I just reread the thread, and noticed something.

Are you saying that once you close a project and reopen it, there are no "undos" available? Or stating it in another way, you can't undo past the point where you last opened the project?

ugh!! If it's all an "edit decision list" it certainly would be easy enough to do!... and cost close to nothing in memory/disk-space.

Can the filename.aup.bak file be used for anything?

[waxcylinder]

Are you saying that once you close a project and reopen it, there are no "undos" available? Or stating it in another way, you can't undo past the point where you last opened the project?

Yes that's exactly what he's saying.

And I've never found a use for the .bak file - but I do regularly Aave my projects while working on them so I can go back to a known interim point.

WC