Hi,
How do I add the Voice Memo Recordings-folder to MediaBay?
It is incredibly handy to record ideas and samples in Voice Memo and then have them available when you open Cubase, so that you can start creating tracks around them. But I can’t find the Voice Memo “Recordings” folder in the MediaBay browser.
I cannot find the “recordings-folder” the browser in MediaBay. In the path below, I can actually see the Library-folder which should be a hidden folder. But I cannot find the Group Containers-folder.
Any good ideas on how to solve this?
Either a solution for how to add a hidden folder to the media bay or to change the default folder for all Voice Memo recordings, would be good solutions, but preferably the former, I guess.
I’ve recently moved to Mac from Windows and used to have this workflow under Windows with various voice memo-type apps (on Android) saving to OneNote/Dropbox-folder, which are easy to add to the favrouties under Windows.
You may be right. But I just can’t understand how to do that. As you can see from the screenshot here, what I see in the MediaBay doesn’t at all sync up with what I see in Finder. Importantly the “Group containers” folder in the Library folder can’t be seen in the MediaBay folder structure. Additionally, any cloud storage is also missing, such as OneDrive and iCloud. Surely there must be able to use these locations in MediaBay on a Mac. What am I missing?
Is there some special way to add folders to the MediaBay on a Mac other than drilling into the folder structures like I’ve done here?
Thanks for that link. That got me thinking and I realised that Cubase can’t handle the m4a-files that Voice Memo produces anyway. So even if I can add the folder, there is no point until Cubase can handle the files.
Ableton Live and Logic can naturally handle m4a-files without any issues. And at least Ableton can add a shortcut to the recordings-folder so that you can access it from inside the DAW. The file names don’t make much sense though. And in Logic you can just drag and drop from the Voice Memo app, where you have proper labels for the different files. And this also works in the iPad app.
Why we cannot do this in Cubase is beyond me. Or am I missing something?
Is this workflow (record to Voice Memo using iPhone/iPad, use recording in DAW) possible?
This really has nothing to do with a particular app, or even workflow.
In your first case, the OS is hiding the user folder, it’s a security thing, so not something other devs should or can control. Maybe you could use a different app. Interacting with Voice Memo apps isn’t really the domain of a DAW, but I imagine there must an app out there that would save files in mp3, or any of the other formats Cubase can open.
In your second case, Cubase does not support m4a files. You should search the forum for one of the many requests for this well-known missing feature, or create a topic.
Well it is a workflow issue. As a Ableton or Logic user you have no problem incorporating Voice Memo recordings in your production, just doing a drag and drop from the folder and/or the app. Very simple workflow which has been used in every single songwriting session I’ve been in. Usually airdropping recordings to the producer. But then the DAW used has been Logic and not Cubase.
And as “everyone” in music industry is using iPhones and Voice Memo for ideas, this is a real problem for collaboration. Sure, I can find ways around this for my own personal projects. But when collaborating with others it is difficult to change their behavior, especially if it is a single writing session, whick is not that uncommon. There are enough hurdles that you really want to keep technology as smooth as possible in that situations.
I’ve seen the threads for m4a support, which is the real deal breaker and chimed in. But this needs a proper feature request.
And why Apple is hiding the folder is beyond comprehension. It is just m4a files after all. But even if they made that visible it wouldn’t help Cubase users.
I really don’t buy the arguments for this in the link you posted. It certainly doesn’t make it easier to backup. I rather keep all off my documents in one place for backup (and access) rather than scattered around the OS.
Well, they start the article saying why they use group containers arguing that it
Keeps secrets safe
Tidy up
Work together
Backup and move is easier
Those are not facts. Those are opinions based on a particular workflow and data structure that they think makes sense.
I’d argue that it definitely does NOT “tidy up” or great for backup as it stores parts of my documents in another place than in my documents folder, or whereever I think is a good place to store my information. I’ve also discovered that restoring files from these hidden folders when you cannot do a full TimeMachine restore (e.g. when you have a corrupt profile) is almost impossible to get to work, thus these files are lost, or at least at risk.
And the “work together” argument is just funny, as this is exactly what isn’t working.
It may keep things tidy for Apples programmers but not for users.
I really don’t understand how Apple can make something so simple as a voice memo application so complicated. It’s not rocket science.
Now, this is not for Steinberg to solve, but what they can solve is the m4a support and drag-and-drop from Voice Memo to Cubase.
