Offloading and reloading recordings

[henrylaw]

Having produced CDs and put them on the shelf I would like to release the disk space used.  I've backed up the .wav files and the associated .crd files (which I presume contain the corrections) as described in "What files does Vinyl Studio create" and deleted the originals using the "Album"->"Delete" function.  So far so good; but now I want to restore one of them: I realise I can just copy back the .wav and .crd files but I bet it's not as simple as that, because they've got to be reabsorbed into the collection.  And where is track-break information kept, come to that?

Guidance on how to do it would be gratefully received.  BTW VinylStudio is exactly what I want for the job: excellent.  I tried out one of the competitors but I'm glad I've made the decision to go with VS.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Ah.  Sorry to have to tell you this, but deleting the albums from your collection will have deleted the trackbreak information too.  I think we should revisit this area of the help file...

So, um, for future reference, the thing to do would be to tell VinylStudio to delete the *recordings* (having archived them of course) but leave the albums themselves in your collection.  Then, if and when you restore the WAV and CRD files to your hard disk, VinylStudio will notice (you might have to invoke 'Check for Changes' from the Album menu) and you will be able to carry on where you left off.

Track names and trackbreak information are stored in your MCF file, along with any filter settings you might have specified (hiss, hum, rumble and graphic equaliser).  When you delete an album, they disappear I'm afraid.  I really am sorry.  I hope you have not lost too much work.  We will reword the help file before we make our forthcoming release.

Note that deleting your recordings will also delete the CRD files containing your click repairs, but, as you say, you should archive those first too.  It will also delete the 'waveform' files but VinylStudio can regenerate these automatically.  In other words, it does exactly what you want.

------

Amended help file topic at:

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/VinylStudio/helpfile_contents.aspx?page=where_are_my_files.htm

Best we can do for the moment, sorry.

[henrylaw]

Don't worry ... not much has gone and the fault is mine.  "Delete" means what it says ... this should not be a surprise to me.

I did back up the .MCF file in the state it was when I archived the files and deleted them (just late last night) and have done nothing since.  If I restore it along with the .WAV and .CRD files will VS recognise that they're part of the collection and regenerate the various other files?  If not, please say so: having to regenerate the track breaks isn't the end of the world.

In passing though I've looked at the amended help file topic at
http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/VinylStudio/helpfile_contents.aspx?page=where_are_my_files.htm and can't see the difference (yes I refreshed the browser cache). 

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

Good, that's a relief!

Yes, that should work.  Shut down VinylStudio while you are copying files around and it should notice the restored files on startup.  I would back up your latest MCF file first just in case.

If some recordings are still missing (i.e. unrestored), and you did not delete them from within VinylStudio itself, VinylStudio will complain, but you can use Delete Recordings from the Album menu (even though they're already gone!) to rectify this for the albums affected.

The amended help file topic has a section added to the end, 'Archiving your Recordings'.  We will consider, at some point, how VinylStudio might help people with this task.

[henrylaw]

Excellent, I'll try that (and save the current MCF).  BTW your response time is impressive.

I've found the changed text: although I was forcing a reload of the document it wasn't reloading the iframe ... duh.  Thank you.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Well, we can't have people losing stuff.  Thanks for posting, it was a useful heads-up.

Iframes, yes.  A mixed blessing.