I recorded my band’s latest gig using CuBase 14, but someone killed power to the computer before I closed/saved the file. The project appears in the correct folder, and the .cpr file is large enough that the audio data must be there, but when I open it the tracks all appear empty and nothing plays. Is there any way to recover from this?
Thanks in advance for your help,
Greg
The Audio isn’t really saved within the Project itself. Rather they are separate external Audio files that the Project references. Typically they will be in the Project’s Audio sub-folder. So do you see the files there? And if so are they showing up in the Project’s Pool Window?
It seems logical that the actual audio would not be in the project file, but then, why it so large? In this case it’s over 200MB.
There are numerous .wav files in the Audio folder, and it looks like the same files appear in the pool within CuBase. However, none of these files are dated correctly for the ones I’m looking for. That is, they appear to all be from other projects/sessions.
Are you saving multiple unrelated Projects in the same Folder? If so you should rethink that in the future.
If they are in the Pool that means either they were created by that specific Project or at some point they were manually Imported into the Project.
In any case if you listen to them do they sound like what you are looking for?
Not totally unrelated - they are all recordings of the band, but on different dates. Is that an issue?
The .wav files in the audio folder are indeed tracks from various recordings, but all are from previous sessions. So I’m thinking that while files were opened for this recording they were never closed, so there is no directory entry for them. In that case it might be possible to recover them with a recovery app, but it might not be worth the effort.
Firstly you need to create a new project folder for each session otherwise it will get really confusing with all audio being in the same folder.
If the new recordings aren’t there then it’s likely that they are lost. I take it power was lost while part way through recording? Any files recorded after you pressed stop should have been committed but I suspect (may be wrong) that any audio that was being recorded when the power was lost would not be finalised so lost.
Do sort out how you manage projects though as keeping them in the same folder is a recipe for disaster.
Thanks - will do.
The power was cut after we finished the last song, but before saving the project. I’m pretty sure that means that the data is on the disk (since it is way too much to be stored in RAM), but recovering it is difficult, if at all possible.
Well the other possibility is that the data isn’t anywhere anymore.
So what I meant is the files will have been written to the drive but if not finalised then they won’t show. I don’t know how Cubase does this or if it doesn’t actually create from the data a wav file until saved. Maybe someone can answer when the audio is actually safe on the drive. Talking about saved, do you have auto save enabled and have you checked for any bak files?
Do you see any of them listed in the Pool?
At least temporary audio data would have to be written to disk because you could easily run out of main memory. It is quite possible that only raw data is saved, and then converted to a .wav file when you click “save”. I was not aware of the autosave feature, but noticed the folder and checked it: Only older sessions are there.
Yes, the same tracks appear in the pool.
You don’t have auto save enabled?! Now that’s a first…
This is what Steinberg has to say -
According to this the files are written to disk (the Audio folder) in real time and so should still exist with content up to the point the system crashed. You may have to import your files back into the project depending on the state of the .cpr at the time of the failure.
So, it would appear that all your files should be there.
I’m sorry this happened to you, but this might be a good place to mention this:
Power in live situations can be … iffy. I’ve had stuff happen like a band blowing out the power to the building(!) during their soundcheck.
So I have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply, basically a battery backup) that feeds all my gear in live situations. It’s saved me more than once, and is an investment well worth making. Not as fun as, say, buying a new synth, but it’s cheaper, and you’ll be very glad you’ll have it eventually because you’ll likely run into a power mishap sooner or later if you deal with live music.
I happen to use Cyberpower UPS gear for on the road, and Eaton UPS gear for the studio, and both work as advertised, for what it’s worth.