audio files not found when opening session

[rodzimguitar68]

Every time I open a session, it tells me it can't find the files. I tell it to skip the files it can't find.

It then opens and all the audio is there.

Mixbus, why you gotta play games?

Can anyone tell me how to stop this crazy thing? FYI I have used the command to bring all audio into the folder.

The other thing I've tried is to "SAVE AS" only in a futile attempt to have all the audio brought into a nested file tree that will then work without giving me this crazy message, but that always fails and all I get in the new saved as folder is 1 XML file.

iMac, Catalina, Mixbus 32C-6

Thanks

[PBuryk]

Resource Management is an area where I feel Mixbus could improve, at least in its
documentation. There are too many ways to specify where audio files, session
snapshots, templates, backups, new sessions, etc can be stored and that even gets
more complicated across the different OS variations. These particular "flexibilities"
have lead to frustration for me and my partner studios.

Some things to try and keep consistent:

- Always copy import files to the session. Unless you've specified otherwise (via a
preferences option), your imported audio files will be found in the "audiofiles"
folder under your active session.

- When you "Save As" ... You will have the opportunity to completely change the
PATH of your saved session. If you do that, then you might want to check the box
in that menu to allow your audio files to be copied to your saved session. If you
do not change your session PATH then don't check that box and the session file
that is created for your saved session will reference the files of your new and previous
session correctly.

- For sanity purposes, I never copy my audio files out to a saved session.
This way every "Save As" session copy (of that song) will reference the original session's
audiofiles folder for its audio files. In other words, I prefer to have all of the files
associated with any version of a song - in one place - the original session's audiofiles folder.

- If you have to move or rename -any- portion of the PATH leading to a session folder,
then you may need to edit your session file(s) (.ardour) and update the PATH
string therein that points to your audio files. This is the biggest stumbling block
that has affected my remote studio partners. "Oh, let's organize the layout of our
projects/songs/artists to be a little more logical"... and, when you do that, your
session files not longer point to where their audio files are. Then you go and
specify another PATH when you get the "Can't find" message (at startup) and that gets put in
your session file PATH too. That may solve your immediate issue, but... Sometimes
that will lead to session initialization finding audio files in multiple places - same
name but different sizes/versions. The only way to sort that out is manually approving each
selection during the startup and listening to the session mix to see if you really
loaded what you wanted.

From my experience, all of this is brought on by not being consistent with your
specification of what should be stored where. Not saying that this is what -your-issue is
but I'll bet you a virtual beer that it is.

How to fix:

View -all- of the session files (.ardour files) of the song(s) where this is happening
and document the full PATH values that are detailed in the audio files path variable.
Remember, there may be multiple PATHs there, separated by a ";".
The session files will also name all of the audio files that are used in that particular
session of the song. Make a copy of that list.

Then, navigate to each of those folder PATHs and document what audio files are
where. Most likely, you will find that there is a mis-match of the list of expected
files against what files are actually in the audio files folder. This could be because
your missing files are actually in the audio files folder of a different session path.
If this reads as complicated to you, it's because it is. This is not an easy issue to
unravel.

The solution will require that you either properly re-set the session files to point to
all of its audio files, or COPY the missing files into the audiofiles folder that the
session file is pointing to. I've done the latter of these choices - a few times - and
that has cleared up our "Can't find" issues.

Very Best of Luck!!!!!!!!
Patrick

[DrummaMan]

PBuryk -


I am "new" to Harrison Mixbus, but a long-time user of Cakewalk/Sonar, and Studio One.



I have a similar issue and found this thread searching for a solution.



I did not change the folder, but instead replaced older files with new ones in the same project, same folder.



The old files were deleted, so Mixbus 32c now tells me there are missing files on every opening of that project.

With "skip all files" selected, the project opens just fine, and all tracks play.



There should be a way to delete them from Mixbus 32c's memory banks, no?



I went into the Regions tab and deleted all files in red. But still I get the error window.



Is there a cache somewhere that can be cleared/deleted to end the reminder?



Thanks,

MG

[Dingo]

@DrummaMan have a look at clean up function in the manual...
http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/mixbus/m...c/clean-up

[Dingo]

Every time I open a session, it tells me it can't find the files.  I tell it to skip the files it can't find.

It then opens and all the audio is there.

Mixbus, why you gotta play games?

Have a look at Session setup and the chapters within.
http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/mixbus/m...-a-session
Check that your preferences are correctly set for where you are creating sessions.

[DrummaMan]

@DrummaMan have a look at clean up function in the manual...
http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/mixbus/m...c/clean-up

Thank you Dingo -
I will give that a go!

[metull@verizon.net]

All I do is fight with this daw....when it's works it is the ''best daw ever''.....now I am having the same old problem, ''where are my audio wav files''.....I want to spend more time being creative then fighting with the storing of my wav files...In cubase, you create a new session, get the location, name it and anything pertinent including wav files and any info related to the project goes to that ''ONE'' folder,done....had this same problem with friends who used cakewalk/sonar,instead of naming the files guitar or vocal etc, it names those files CW14358393933,CW84842945612 AND SO ON....which makes no sense...all of whose unidentifiable files are also in one common folder....so if ya wanted me to get ya guitar  and voice track for song ABC, it is virtually impossible...sorry venting....please if anybody can explain to me the simple way of doing this in mixbus 32c v9 + I really would appreciate it....I NEED HELP....angry or happy responses welcome.....thx

[PBuryk]

@metull -

MB & MB32C both place all session related files in the "interchange/.../audiofiles" branch of the session.
If you import files for your session that dialog screen gives you the opportunity to copy in source files; use that option.
If you have to save your current session to another session name, it is highly recommended (but not necessary) to
enable the option that copies all of the currently session's files to the new session area.
If both of these session management aspects are followed then you should never experience a file not found message when starting up your session.

Well, let me rephrase that.... unless you have moved your session from one folder to another outside of the control of MB/MB32C.
Many cases of not finding audio files are due to the FULL PATH of the restored session being different than where the session resided previously.
In these cases, it should be a matter of editing the session's (songname).ardour file. Look for the full Path references of the sessions audio files
and correct every instance of the old path to the new one. Your session should now start up with all your source and other session files.

The above addresses your reference to Cubase, storing all of its audio files in one place.

Regarding the actual NAMING of your files, MB/MB32C use text that you have entered in your session tracks for session files; I recall no cases where
they would be named with random text by the session. So, if you're seeking guitar files, and you have used some form of "guitar", "GTR", "Acoustic", etc.
then you should file a collection of session files where those strings are part of the filename, there in the .../audiofiles folder.

Hope this helps your situation.

Cheers!
Patrick

[Dingo]

Not sure what the exact issue you are having is ... so lets see if we can break this down into bite size pieces...

All I do is fight with this daw....when it's works it is the ''best daw ever''.....now I am having the same old problem, ''where are my audio wav files''.....I want to spend more time being creative then fighting with the storing of my wav files... In cubase, you create a new session, get the location, name it and anything pertinent including wav files and any info related to the project goes to that ''ONE'' folder,done....

Mixbus stores 'everything' in the one session folder. The location of that folder can be determined:

a/ When you first install or do a fresh install of Mixbus.
b/ When you create a new session you can nominate the location of the session folder.
c/ By going Preferences / General / Session Management - Default folder for new sessions.

When you Import audio the default setting is to copy all audio into your session folder.

If you elect to reference material and not copy, it is advisable to eventually bring all audio into the one location to allow for archiving or portability.

Session / Cleanup offers various options such as Bringing all media into the session folder, or cleaning up unused sources or regions.

It is also important that you do not rename, delete or move media from the session folder without doing that via the Mixbus programme.

had this same problem with friends who used cakewalk/sonar,instead of naming the files guitar or vocal etc, it names those files CW14358393933,CW84842945612 AND SO ON....which makes no sense...all of whose unidentifiable files are also in one common folder....so if ya wanted me to get ya guitar  and voice track for song ABC, it is virtually impossible...

I cannot comment on Calkwalk or Sonar, but in Mixbus audio files are named automatically by the name of the track you are recording to.
So if I have a track named "New Name" ..... take 1 will be New Name-1.1 take 2 will be New Name-2.1 etc....

There is also the option in Session / Properties / Filenames to add:

1. Track prefix number, so in my case (using track 6) that would name the recording 06_New Name-1.1
2. Prefix Take Name.

Note:  You cannot change a track name whilst record armed.

The names CW14358393933,CW84842945612 look like peak files (waveform) not audio files.
Session media is found in the interchange folder.

sorry venting....please if anybody can explain to me the simple way of doing this in mixbus 32c v9 + I really would appreciate it....I NEED HELP....angry or happy responses welcome.....thx

I hope I have actually answered your question... if not please break it down into simple single issues.

@PBuryk - you obviously type much faster than I do

[Klaus]

I had similar 'not founds'...
Happened when copying the whole project to an external SSD to be worked on
on a mobile MB32C install...

If you open a existing project from another project folder, MB should detect
where from and use this other project folder...
Copying back to the same studio project, but how ?
Replace the whole project from the mobile location ( scary idea ) , or just
use SyncTwoFolder to sync the projects ?

Thanks for clearing up

Klaus