When using “Back up project” it would be great to be able to move all used audio files to a new folder as opposed to copying them.
I often use Cubase as a “sketchpad” for songwriting and like to have a setup for drums, guitar, bass, vocals etc. I know I can set this up as a template but that will create a new folder every time I start Cubase and since the song, riff, idea isn’t written yet it’s hard giving it a name that makes sense. Therefore I have a project called “sketchpad” and if I do come up with something worth saving, I could use the “save as” command but then all the audio files will still remain in the sketchpad audio folder. Hence, if I could use a command to move all used files (within the project window and not all files in the pool) it would tidy up quite a bit and save hard drive space.
Why not making a backup of the “sketchpad” project with the new name, and then delete everything out of your “sketchpad” project pool after that? If you delete files in the project pool it asks you if you want to delete them completely from your disk or just from the pool.
If you try and avoid giving each new Project its own dedicated folder you will eventually get burned. These forums are littered with posts from folks who tried and ended up with a mess of intermingled audio files.
Here is how I deal with the ‘what do you name it’ problem.
On my audio project disk I have a folder called “Unnamed Sketches”
When I create a new sketch it gets its own unique sub-folder here.
Both the sub-folder and Project get named based on the date e.g. 11-21-19.cpr
If/when the sketch gets a real name I use Backup Project to create a new top level folder with that name
But I leave the sketch in its own folder with a Notepad entry like: This became blah-blah-blah.cpr
Fortunately I’m not capable of having 2 creative ideas on the same day. But if I did I guess appending a letter would come into play.
One nice thing about this scheme is if you go back and listen from say 5 years ago you can spot trends in your writing that are not apparent at the time. It’s also nice to hear the initial sketch for things that grew into real pieces. And often I’ll find an undeveloped sketch or two worth revisiting.
Keeping organized is boring, but it’s worth it to figure out some ‘best practices’ and make them habitual
