I have been appreciating the chance to use spectralayers in cubase via ARA. It’s been very helpful.
One thing I’m curious about is the way SL in ARA mode seems to save the SL data in the Cubase 10 song file, instead of as a separate audio file in the audio folder the way Melodyne does with ARA.
So, it’s making my Cubase song files much larger. Since I save versions a lot, it’s really increased my saving/ backup, etc.
Is there a way to change this?
Sorry if this has been asked/answered already, and thanks for any help.
The ARA SDK actually recommends saving all ARA related data in the DAW project file, I guess so that users can move or copy project files without worrying about hidden dependencies. Actually as an ARA plugin you can’t know where the project is going to be saved, you just have access to a memory space.
I guess more ARA saving options could be added in a future patch, but not fully sure about the right options yet, other than the recommended way.
That being said, if you use a versionning system (such as git or subversion) it will automatically see what binary part of your project file remained the same, you could save a lot of space this way if that’s really an issue.
thanks for taking the time to try to explain this to me, Robin. i confess that i’m not a programmer, and haven’t used something like git or subversion, and don’t really understand how that would work. i understand if you don’t have time to explain any more of this to me.
the reason i’m asking-- and i think you understand, is that when a normal cubase project file for me can be 1 to 20Mb, saving is quick. when i’ve done only a couple of edits in spectralayers to a vocal or guitar track, it can balloon to 300 or 400Mb. when i’ve worked on a project over several months with 50 or 60 versions, that can add up in terms of saving time and disc space.
what’s been confusing is that when i am using melodyne as an ara extension or using spectralayers as an ara extension, but then making the actual edit in izotope rx7, and transfering it back to spectralayers, and then back to cubase both of those methods seem to add a lot less size to the cubase 10 project file-- than making edits in spectralayers via ara.
if i am following you at all, you seem to be saying that spectralayers is following ara protocol to save the data with the cubase project file-- and so, that must mean that spectralayers generates more data per edit than melodyne or rx7. so when i use melodyne or rx7 via ara the way i described, they are adding data to the cubase 10 project file, just not as much data as spectralayers.
am i getting anything right here?
thank you for your work on spectralayers, it’s been really helpful to my work in the past couple of months.
This obviously isn’t SL specific (probably best in the main cubase forum?) but I’m also finding when I remove the extension the file size doesn’t come down