If I create a file in WaveLab and save it in a WaveLab Projects folder, it displays the Cubase icon
on the saved file, as if Cubase created the audio file. If I correct this to show the WL icon, then my Cubase saved files are labeled with the WL icon. The files seem to open in the correct programs… (edit - no, they will not open from within the program if they are mislabeled).
This started recently and as it happens, I updated both Cubase and WaveLab two days ago, C10.0.60 and WL 10.0.30. It also alters my iZotope RX file folder icons, but not Ozone9.
Yes you can, and this is what I did, and what I was trying to describe in my first post, PG…but it changes the files in all three programs. If I change the WL file to WL, then my Cubase files are now WL, along with my RX7 files. If I change the RX7 files to RX7, then all three files are labeled RX7 files. It’s rather maddening. Note: the Cubase files marked as WL files will not open in Cubase or WL - I have to relabel every file to the appropriate program if I want to open it from within the program.
Is this a Windows10 thing? I’m running the latest OS build: 18363.752
Looking back, I believe this started when I transferred a Cubase audio file via the Cubase Export process to Open in WL yesterday. I do use RX7 from either program, but this seems rather odd that it got involved in this mislabeling, right?
This has been like this in Windows for decades. You tell Windows what extension belongs to which program and it can only be one program - I don’t see how you can say “This started only recently”. Must be something you haven’t noticed before?
Now this remark I don’t understand: “I have to relabel every file to the appropriate program if I want to open it from within the program.” In my system I never bothered to assign the .wav extension to either Cubase or WL so it is allocated to Groove Music I think (the Windows standard anyway)… But this doesn’t prevent me from opening any .wav file in Cubase or WL - or any other program. And I do open .wavs from the Cubase Audio directory to edit in WL (with Cubase not running) and all that happens is that a .gpk file is left in that directory.
Arjan is exactly right. One can only have one default program. It has no effect in opening a file from within a program. .wav is an extension for a file type. Any wav file can be opened by any program that opens wave files. However if you wish to use a double click to open a wav file it will use the default program it is assigned to. In my case it is Groove music that is the default. It can be assigned to any program you like.
I don’t use Groove music, I use the WinMedPlayer and all my music files, 550G, are labeled MP3. The files I generate in WL, Cubase, and RX7 - up until two days ago - were tagged with the program that generated them.
Q: So, you open Cubase and import a music file, MP3 or CD track let’s say, and you alter it in Cubase, maybe change the bit rate and add some EQ or efx plugin, and then you SAVE IT to your Cubase Project folder… And that saved file is labeled Groove Music?
It is not “labeled Groove Music” it is associated with Groove Music. Goto settings/ apps & features/ Default apps in Windows 10 and you can see a list all file extensions and the default programs that are associated to them. You can also change it to wavelab if you like.
Q: If you save a project in WL, is the saved file tagged with the WL icon specific to WL? You stated before - rereading your post - that the file created by WL would be labeled with the Groove Music icon.
I get it that you and Arjan are using Groove Music as your default player - and consequently all your music files now are branded with the Groove Music icon while my music files are not…
Either way, that you and Arjan, having chosen a default player, and me not, this is not my issue. My issue is that suddenly I have 3 programs - that were independent of each other and HAD the option to create work that could be saved and recalled easily via a double click - but now are tied together. If I choose Cubase as the program to open a Cubase file, WL and RX7 files are now automatically labeled as Cubase files, if I choose WL as the program to open a WL file then the RX7 and Cubase files are automatically labeled WL files, if I choose RX7 etc…
No, I am not using Groove Music for anything. I use Media Monkey.
A file type can only have one program as the default to automatically open on double click. That default program becomes the icon for a file that it is set as the default to. This can be changed. Clearly A Windows update reset the icon for audio files that could be opened by WL to groove music. The icon means nothing to me. I know I can open the file in the program of my choice by running the program and opening the file I want. The reason, I believe that WL was the icon for wav in the past for you is because you may have installed it after a Windows update. The install for Wavelab made it the default for that file type. Later with a new update for Windows it reset to its own media player. For you and others that don’t use Windows to listen to music while you are doing the company books this is noticed. For everyone else its an unimportant non issue.
For me its also a non issue because I use all sorts of audio programs. It would be useless for me to choose one as the default.
John, as much as I appreciate a response, you’re not tracking my issue:
“My issue is that suddenly I have 3 programs - that were independent of each other and HAD the option to create work that could be saved and recalled easily via a double click - but now are tied together. If I choose Cubase as the program to open a Cubase file, WL and RX7 files are now automatically labeled as Cubase files, if I choose WL as the program to open a WL file then the RX7 and Cubase files are automatically labeled WL files, if I choose RX7 etc…”
I did look, btw, at the defaults that might have magically appeared in a Windows update - nothing has changed. Also, I am not having a problem related to WMP. Windows is not trying to play my saved WL, Cubase or RX7 project files. What has always been the case before two days ago, is that I could open my WL program and then open the folder where my Projects are stored, and then click on the particular project (that I had saved) and it would open in WL. If the Cubase icon is attached to the saved file, WL will not open it. If I change the icon to WL, the project will open, but then the WL icon is attached to the Cubase file and Cubase will not open it. The data is not damaged, it’s the fact that the various icons attached to the file will not let a different program open it. This is not correct, it’s as if the programs are cross-breeding…
@mr.roos you are now talking about clicking on a ‘project’ from within WL that would have a Cubase icon. I don’t know what you’re describing anymore, is it .wav files or project files? It is really IMPOSSIBLE in Windows to have a .wav file that was created in one program exlusively being opened in only that program - and at the same time make it change its icon in doing so.
Please make your Windows show file extensions in Explorer and then tell us what you are dealing with here: .wav, .cpr, .wpr?
This is taken with my iPhone, poor quality and perhaps not a professional demonstration of what is going on but close enough, and it should answer a few questions. And yes, these are all .wav files.
I can also report that yesterday, by changing the icon associated with either programs ‘Saved’ files, WL, Cubase, or RX7 (all three simultaneously), it would also change the file icon of all three programs to the particular icon I selected. In other words, if WL had a ‘Saved’ Project file with the incorrect Cubase icon, and I changed it to the appropriate WL icon, then all three programs would have their files changed to include the WL icon. However this afternoon, suddenly Cubase and WL were able to separate themselves and let me add the appropriate icon to either Saved program file and behave as you would expect. Of course, watching the video you can see that WL and RX7 are still acting as they did two days ago - adopting the same icon that is chosen for the other. And I hope you can see how having the saved files labeled incorrectly can create some problems?
Windows assigns icons to file types and NOT according to which program is being used. And File types are globally assigned to a program (using ‘Open with’) regardless of which folder they reside in. So basically, forget about icons and think about file types and file extensions. I’ll repeat that. Forget about icons and think about file types. This is already explained in PG’s responses at the beginning of this thread. As Arjan suggests, I’d also suggest you make the file extensions visible for all files in Windows Explorer and then you’d have a much better idea of what is going on.
However, in your video I have no idea at all what is going on when you close Wavelab and then RX7 seems to get launched automatically.
In your video, near the beginning - I didn’t watch further - you clearly show wave files in two directories, and expect them to have different icons. They won’t ever - Windows will only have one “association” between a file type and a program at a time. I have my wave files associated with VLC so that they play if I double-click them, but I can open them just fine in WaveLab, RX, or anything else, either from within the program concerned, or by right-clicking the file and using “open with…”.
I guess you are finding a confusion between Wave files, which are simply the audio, and can be opened in many programs, and project files which are specific to the programs that create them, and have different file extensions (turn on the display of those - Microsoft’s decision to hide extensions by default, or at all, leaving the icon to carry that meaning, was one of their daftest). WaveLab also has a specific type of project file which saves a montage. All these project files will carry the icon of the program they belong to, and that’s no problem as no other program will be able to open them. But Wave files can be opened by any audio editor or player, and so may have any of a great many icons with no effect on their usability.
pwhodges, yes, there is some confusion here, but, if Cubase, or WL, or RX7 offer the option to SAVE A FILE THAT THE SPECIFIC PROGRAM IS INTENDED TO RECALL, then there’s a reason for this. And the reason is clearly work flow and organization. If you don’t need this, well, cool, who needs to be organized, right? Clearly, if you had watched the entire video you would see that as the mislabeling issues extrapolate, things fail, intended purposes of a file system meant to help breaks down. Watch the whole video, you missed something.
“Windows assigns icons to file types and NOT according to which program is being used.”
You’re saying that Windows systematically assigns a random icon to a program file that was created by a particular program? Really? You don’t think that a DAW program creator can create a file system that is unique to his program?
And if you’re not saying this, are you saying that there is no reason/purpose/point for the programmer to create a unique file system?
