I did try removing the tracks with Variaudio on them and saving to a new project.
Project size is still about the same. I did NOT physically delete the audio files, which was probably a mistake…?
Can someone from Steinberg please tell if Variaudio data is saved in the project file or not?
I think this is even mentioned in the manual somewhere. It also was dicussed in the old forum, IIRC
-Created new project - 23 mono audio tracks length 20 -30 sec. → save project → project file size 406 kB
-Analyze all files with Variaudio → save project → project file size 6,12 MB (more than 10x increase)
-Straighten /Quantize Pitch on all recognized segments on every track → save project → project file size 6,21 MB
-“Bounce selection on all tracks”, remove unused data from Pool → Save project → project file size 392 kB
-“Bounce selection on all tracks”, keep unused data → Save project ->Project file size 6,21 MB
Thanks.
So basically I could make a copy of the project (for backup, and possible Variaudio changes later on). Bounce the tracks with Variaudio to disk. Remove the original tracks and pool data. Import the bounced tracks, and I should have a much smaller projectfile.