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Subject:FIles eating hard drive
Posted by: spinweb
Date:11/13/2004 5:26:51 AM
I have a 24 bit sound card and now when I record a single track the files ACID creates are 20-30MB! This is rapidly eating up my hard drive. How do people manage in ACID without multitracking? I wind up with several tracks to create one part, which adds considerably to my disc space problem, not to mention being able to see my way around large projects. Can these be bounced to one track? Isn't this a pain in arse? Do other people make copies of tracks and pan them left, center, right? Does this slow ACID down? Thanks! Rick |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: pwppch
Date:11/13/2004 6:09:38 AM
Welcome to the world of digial audio. 44.1 kHz @24 bit == ~15 mb per second of stereo audio. If you need to save disk space, then you can: - work at 16 bits, that will save you 5 MB per minute. - if you are tracking something that is mono, then record in mono, that will cut your disk requirements in half. Large harddrives are cheap compared to a few years ago. 250 GB of space is ~$150 if you hunt for bargins or send in rebates. While ACID does not provide a DAW like multitrack UI, it is more than capable of streaming audio from the harddrive just like Vegas does. A true multitrack would not solve this problem either. Mixing down multiple tracks would require even more disk space as the original would still be there on your harddrive until you remove/delete them. Peter |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: spinweb
Date:11/17/2004 4:52:26 PM
This may be a stupid question, but what is mono? That is, which instruments are mono? |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:11/17/2004 5:12:33 PM
> which instruments are mono? Think about it. Your voice is mono. You have only one mouth. Any single instrument is mono: a bass guitar, a flute, a violin. The only time you have stereo is when you record something with two microphones or you have an electronic instrument or effect that is capable of routing different signals to different channels. Otherwise recording the same thing into two channels just to call it stereo is a waste of disk space. You are going to place it somewhere in your stereo mix and the whole mix will be stereo but that one voice is still mono until you process it in some way to split its signal. Think back to the old days of 16-track tape recorders. (OK, I'll think back, you might not be old enough ;-)) They recorded 16 mono tracks and together you pan them into a stereo mix. You didn’t dare record the same thing on to two track unless it was truly stereo because tracks were a precious commodity. Recording in ACID is no different. Why waste hard drive space recording mono instruments in stereo when it adds no sonic value? It just wastes disk space. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: pwppch
Date:11/17/2004 6:43:46 PM
Monophonic (sometime incorrectly referred to as monaural.) One channel of audio vs 2 (typically) for stereo or stereophonic. The concept is better understood if you consider what stereo is. A stereo recording correlates information between two (typcially) channels of audio. It is intended to be heard over two (or more) speakers to give the illusion of sound source localization (position) and depth. A mono source can be "panned" or mixed into a stereo space or mix. Guitar Right, Drums center and away, Bass Left, vocals center and front. If you put a single mic on each instrument and record them mono, then you can mix these seperate "sources" how ever you want into a stereo space. Yes, this is an oversimplification of the art of mixing, but it should give you a point of reference. Peter |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: MyST
Date:11/17/2004 6:52:25 PM
OK Peter. Now, can you give an oversimplification on the art of understanding women?? Some of us need a point of reference. ;-) Mario |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:11/17/2004 7:32:13 PM
Mario, Here’s the point of reference: Men are monaural. Women are stereophonic. (just when you think you're dancing to the music in the left channel, the right channel changes its tune) ;-) ~jr |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: Chienworks
Date:11/18/2004 5:50:30 AM
I'm not sure where this originally came from, but a friend of mine sent it to me a while back after a date gone bad. I think it explains a lot of the difference between men and women! http://www.chienworks.com/fun/man-woman.jpg On a more serious note, one theory i've come up with involves the idea that the brain has two primary functions: thinking and feeling. In men, these functions are disparate and don't work together. Men don't have thoughts about their feelings and don't have feelings about their thoughts. In women these functions always work in tandem. They always have feelings about whatever they are thinking and are always thinking about their feelings. This might be a bit of an oversimplification, but it also seems to explain a lot. |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: ATP
Date:11/18/2004 11:36:48 AM
haha that picture is great! and so true :) as for the topic starter's question, i can only echo Peter's comment: welcome to the world of digital audio. if you want the best sound quality you can get, you shouldn't be concerned with file size. ergo, get a really large hard drive. :) i prefer 24 bits of 16 bits since a lot of FX i use in a project are capable of processing in 24 bits, which results in better quality when you render the entire project. it does take up a lot of space tho. i recently mixed a whole album at a studio, and i had to render each instrument used in the song as a seperate wave file, amounting to about 1 Gb per song. 14 songs: 14 Gb for a complete album. yes, it's a lot of space, but i feel better knowing i squeezed the best quality as possible out of my system. |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: spinweb
Date:11/18/2004 12:37:54 PM
I'm fine with getting a large drive. However, since I'm working off a (decent) laptop (IBMT30, 1.8Ghz, 512MB RAM), my onboard drive is limited to 40GB. ACID has eaten 10GB fairly quickly. Have folks had success running these anciallary drives via USB1.1 OK? Does that cause problems? Latency? Also, I've noticed that the files ACID creates are in more than one place. Is that because v4 has a different default path to dump them than v3 did? How do I get these all to be in one place now? I'd like to just get all 10GB off my machine and onto a backup drive (ooooh scary - what if it fails like my other one did!) and have all ACID files going forward burn to one place. I'm scared that if I want to run these files in the future ACID won't find the stuff and I'll go nuts! -Rick |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: spinweb
Date:11/18/2004 12:41:08 PM
Thanks a bunch! That really drives the point home and I'm looking forward to saving a lot of disc space. Now, what if I really want a mono part present on both sides of my mix in the future? Can I just duplicate the track and pan it to the other side? What is the storage implication, less right? Same file, ACID just calls it twice? Cheers, Rick |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: spinweb
Date:11/18/2004 12:42:20 PM
I'll have to figure out how to record 16 bits on my 24 bit sound card. And how do I record in MONO in ACID? :-) |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: Chienworks
Date:11/18/2004 1:27:15 PM
By default, a mono file will play equally in both channels when placed on the timeline. You can then use the pan control to move it left or right. There's no need to put it on the timeline twice. However, even if you did put it on the timeline hundreds of times, it's still only on the disc once. Everywhere it's on the timeline ACID will still refer to the same single file. |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:11/18/2004 2:04:30 PM
> And how do I record in MONO in ACID? It should be an option in the Record Dialog under Record device: Even if you are using the default Microsoft Sound Mapper there should be an option in the dropdown list for Microsoft Sound Mapper(Mono, Left Channel) and Microsoft Sound Mapper(Mono, Right Channel). Just use left or right depending on which one your audio source is plugged into. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: spinweb
Date:11/18/2004 7:27:37 PM
My audio source uses a stereo mini plug. What do I do? :) |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:11/18/2004 7:49:27 PM
Just select (Mono, Left Channel) and it will record in mono. If you plug a mono source into a stereo plug only the sleeve and tip will make contact leaving the ring unconnected. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: Lostdog
Date:11/19/2004 5:12:56 AM
jr - was that last bit of advice related to Acid or women?!?! tee hee. :-) |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:11/19/2004 5:29:40 AM
You know... I’m not sure. ;-) ~jr |
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Subject:RE: FIles eating hard drive
Reply by: spinweb
Date:11/19/2004 12:22:50 PM
Yeesh. And to think I thought this was a professional board. Glad I could offer up some smiles. ;-D |