Managing audio files and assigning missing files

In this tour, you will learn what management functions exist for the audio files with which Melodyne operates.

Melodyne Plugin's transfer files

During transfers, Melodyne Plugin records the audio material from the DAW track; in doing so, it creates its own audio files, which it stores on your hard disk. For playback and editing in Melodyne to be possible, it is therefore not enough simply for the original audio files in the DAW project to be accessible: Melodyne needs also the files it created itself during the transfer.

It is important to bear this in mind when, for example, you want to archive or pass on to someone else a project together with the editing you have done on it in Melodyne. Care must then be taken that not only the DAW project, with all its audio and other files, are passed on but also the transfer files created by Melodyne. Without these, it will be impossible to play back the transferred passages and the edited material in the project you have passed on.

The question, then, is: where does Melodyne store the files it creates itself and how can you attach them to your project? The answer is to be found in the file manager window, which helps you manage transfer files and also search for lost ones.

Melodyne Plugin's file manager

You reach the file manager via Plugin’s Settings menu.

In the central area of the window, you will see a list of all the transferred audio extracts belonging to the instance that is open. Each entry in the list represents an audio file that Melodyne has stored on the hard disk and that it requires for this instance to operate correctly.

Above the list, you will see the storage path of the folder in which Melodyne is currently storing these transfer files. By default, this is a folder in your Music directory, which is therefore the storage location for all new projects. (Certain DAWs, however, use a different path for each new project and behave also in other respects differently to the manner we are about to describe; for these, please read the note entitled Exceptions below.)

When you click the button next to where the current path is displayed, a file selection box opens to allow you to select a different folder as a storage location. The choice you make applies to the current project only. If, from one instance of Melodyne, you choose a new storage path for the project, the choice applies then to all instances within that project. All the transfer files already created will be moved to the new storage location. If this is on a different volume, such as an external hard disk, they will be copied to it. Whenever you change the storage path, therefore, Melodyne will ask you to save your project, so that the updated file references can be saved too.

When subsequently you transfer passages to any instances of Melodyne within the same project, the transfer files thus created will be saved in the new location.

During work on a project or at the latest when it is complete, you should select the project folder of your DAW as the storage location for these transfer files. In this way, you can be sure that all the files Melodyne requires are stored along with the project and don’t get left behind when you pass the project on to someone else.

Exceptions: some DAWs are capable of telling Melodyne where the project folder for the current project is to be found. In these DAWs there is no way of selecting a storage path manually; instead, Melodyne will always use the current project folder as a storage location, in this way ensuring that your transfer files remain part of the project and do not get lost. So please don’t be surprised if in your DAW there is no browse button for selecting the path; if that is the case, Melodyne will store the files for you automatically in the correct location. To find out with which DAWs this occurs, please consult our FAQ on the Internet.

Deleting unwanted files in the plug-in

The list in the file manager shows you the audio files of all segments that have been transferred to the relevant instance of Melodyne Plugin. The entries for those segments all the notes of which have been deleted in Melodyne – that are unused, in other words – are displayed in grey, whereas those in use are displayed in black. The audio files appertaining to no longer used segments are retained and not automatically deleted so that you can, should you wish, recover them using the undo function, which would not be possible if the files in question had been deleted immediately. If you are sure that you will no longer be needing the unused files, you can delete them (according to choice) either for the current instance only, or for all instances, of the project, in order to free up storage space.

Once you have finished editing in an instance of Melodyne Plugin and saved the results as an audio file by bouncing or rendering, you should delete all files pertaining to the instance using the button provided at the bottom of the window in order to free up storage space before closing and removing Melodyne from the DAW track.

The assignment of missing files in the plug-in

If Melodyne Plugin cannot find the transferred files when it opens a project – either because they have been deleted, moved or not transferred when the project was moved to a different computer – it will grey them out in the editing area and they will remain mute during playback. In the file manager, they will be listed in red:

If you know in which folder the missing files are to be found, you can use the Find File drop down menu in the file manager. Select the entry Find Missing Files ….

Navigate then in the file selection box to the folder containing the missing files and exit with OK. The missing files in the folder will then be reassigned. Be careful, though: for this assignment, you do not have to select the files themselves (which would in any case be somewhat tricky given their automatically generated and less than intuitive names) but simply the folder in which they are located. Its contents will then be searched automatically for the missing files. Bear in mind, however, that sub-folders will not be searched – only files found directly in the folder selected. For any sub-folders containing missing files, you will have to go through the same procedure, in order that they, too, can be searched.

What if you have received a project with missing files from someone else and want to inform them, by e-mail for example, of the names of the missing files? Here the command Copy Selected Filenames comes in useful. This copies the names of all files selected in the list (multiple selection with [Shift]) to the clipboard.

Assigning missing files in the Stand-Alone implementation

In Melodyne Plugin, you can save your editing either as an audio file or as an MPD file. An MPD file is a project file containing only your editing not the audio material itself, for which it has to refer to the audio file in question.

If Melodyne, when opening an MPD file, cannot find the audio file it references, a file selection box will open to help you find and reassign the missing file. Once you have done this, save the MPD file to update the path of the audio file.

If an audio file is not found and reassigned, the corresponding blobs in the Melodyne document will be greyed out and mute.