Linking Files

WaveLab
#1

Hello Folks,

I hope I’m not out of order posting this here as well as in the Wavelab 6 forum but I suspect a similar situation could arrive in Wavelab Elements 7.

Before launching into converting a montage from one sample rate to another, I took the precaution of making a backup copy and placing it on a separate drive to the one on which I was working. Using the forum and the help of “S-EH”, who kindly advised me as to how to set about the conversion, I was successful in producing a montage with the correct sample rate for writing to a CD. When it came to tidying up the files and archiving them in the respective directories/folders, I discovered that the new montage file was linked to the copy of the original file I had moved to the C drive. If I move the file and the .gpk file, to my second drive and to the same directory and folder as the new montage, Wavelab can’t find it and wants it back on the C drive.

Is there a way to link the newly created montage to the file in the same directory or, having moved the file, tell Wavelab where to find it ?

Thanks for any advice.

#2

Hello,
What I can tell is that Elements requests to save the .mon and the corresponding .wav files in the same folder.
This is how it works.
I can only suggest you rename your montage or the associated .wav file/files.

hope this helps.

#3

Hello Markino,

Thanks for suggesting a way out of my problem. I was aware of the file saving requirement and I thought I was following it. By taking a back-up copy I was merely being careful – at least thought I was ! Clearly I got something twisted. I hadn’t thought of changing the name of the montage so I’ll look carefully at the best way to do that and see if I can sort it out. Thanks for your suggestion.

#4

Hello Markino,

Opened and saved the montage and placed it with the correspondant .wav file then moved the whole folder to my second drive. Deleted the folder in C drive. Problem solved. A simple exercise but I just didn’t think of it till you prompted me. Thank you.
Regards,

#5

FWIW (based on experience with WL6, not 7), I believe that, as well as using a WL menu item to replace the audio files in a montage by new ones, another option is to open the montage and save (export) it as an xml file, which you can then edit - eg to alter file paths - and open again (and resave as a mon file).

I asked a related question here: http://www.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=74286 and found PG’s reply helpful in understanding how mon files refer to wav files …

… If I’ve properly understood: when you save a mon file in the same folder as the wav files, the mon file stores “relative” references to the wav files - meaning that, if you copy or move the whole folder, the mon file will pick up the copied/moved wav files. (And perhaps this will also work when the wavs are in a different folder, povided that the “tree structure” is recreated properly at the new position?) But WL also always stores the absolute paths (ie including all the details of the drive and folders) - so, when you save the mon file in a different drive from the wavs, WL can still find the wavs - even if you subsequently move the mon file. But (of course), if you move the wav files, all bets are off - you must do something yourself to get the new paths stored in the mon file.

#6

Hello Chase,

As you probably read I have solved my present problem but it is good to learn something about what is going on behind the scenes. Thank you for taking the trouble to document it for me. I shall follow your link when I get home again. In my head I think I understood roughly what was going on with the file relationships but what I couldn’t do was communicate my actions to Wavelab. Needless to say I was probably trying to move the .Wav file and not the montage.

Thanks for your link and explanation.

#7

Hello Chase,

I followed your link to Cubase. If nothing else it made me feel easier knowing that someone else had also stumbled on this problem. I was a bit confused by the order of the first suggestion you put forward:-

(1 (a) copy the wav files to their new destination
. . . . (b) open the mon files one by one, and …
. . . . © select each wav file in turn, and …
. . . . (d) use a WL command to replace the wav file by the copy in the new location

Immediately I thought, surely, as soon as you move the .wav file you are unable to open the .mon file ? I was and that was my problem. Then I read more carefully and realised the .mon file would open in relation to the still existing .wav file in its original location.

I would be interested to know a bit more about the WL command(s) used to replace the .wav file(s) with the new copy.

Thank you for your help.

#8

I’ve only done the file replacement in WL6, not 7, and, unfortunately, I can’t walk through the procedure right now to check, but I think the way (in WL6) to replace one of the files referenced by a montage file is:

  1. With the montage open, select the “Files” tab to display the montage’s list of wav files.
  2. Click anywhere in the row corresponding to the wav file to be replaced (ie to select it).
  3. Clich the “File” menu within the Files tab, and select the menu item “Change file …”.
  4. Use the resultant file-selection dialog to select the replacement file.

If you happen to have the WL6 pdf manual, this is mentioned on P444 (in the version that I have).

I hope that helps, though I don’t know if it’s easy to translate into WL7.

One thing you need to be sure to do in WL6 (and perhaps, therefore, WL7) is replace the actual file (and hence ALL clips derived from it in the montage); if, instead, you right-click (in WL6) on a clip in the montage and select, first, “Source” and, then, “Substitute for existing wave …”, only that single clip will be affected.