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Subject:Sound Forge Project Files
Posted by: mpd
Date:12/20/2004 2:31:16 PM
Hi all, After working on a few big projects, I am running a bit low on disk space. Is it safe to delete both the .swf and .tmp files in the folder associated with SF project files? As far as I can tell, the tmp files are identical to the source wavs, but I don't want to take any chances. Thanks. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: rraud
Date:12/20/2004 3:17:09 PM
Yes it's safe to delete those files once you have saved as a .wav or other format. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: Sonic
Date:12/21/2004 7:55:58 AM
Well, it's safe if if you never want to open the .frg again, in which case you can delete the .frg and the entire folder it references. J. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: mpd
Date:12/21/2004 9:25:34 AM
This is what I was afraid of. I have a few project files where the source wav is in the 100 meg range. Through the course of editing, several temp files were made, and each of them is identical to the original wav (I did a binary compare). So, each one of my projects is now ginormous. I am also a little surprised for the need for temp files. I would have though that projects would have just used in/out points for the source files, and saved a list of edits and processing. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: Sonic
Date:12/21/2004 12:55:48 PM
The short answer: That's just the way it works. The long answer: There's no restriction or expectation that the original will remain where it is at the time of the initial .frg save. So a single copy of it must be rendered with the project data as long as it resides anywhere in the undo history. As long as the source media is already contained in the project, edits that do not generate new audio data (e.g. cut/copy/paste) are completely contained in the .frg itself and require no temp files. Edits that generate new data (e.g. applying an effect), will obviously create a temp file of the same size as the edit. All those temp files must be moved/stored in the project directory in order for the undo history to be recoverable and executable between sessions. That is, temporary files are temporary. They are deleted from the temp directory on exit. Hence, saving a project moves everything the project needs to re-assemble itself into to a safe location (the project directory). If no other windows reference the file, this is just a move/rename, otherwise it may be a partial or complete copy. Either way, from that point on, the .frg references that file in the project location. Aside from, arguably, the copy of the original, all those temp files have to exist *somewhere* in order for Sound Forge to rebuild the edit history, regardless of location. Putting them in a dedicated folder makes projects at least marginally portable. In other words, it's not like Vegas where the impetus of managing *all* media is placed on the user (the undo history is not saved either). If that were the case, you'd be prompted for a filename every time Sound Forge had to generate new data (via an effect or whatever) and you'd be expected to keep track of it yourself. Having said all that, there are some places Sound Forge could be more selective about what it stores off. But by-and-large, it's only copying off what it needs. If you are absolutely certain you are getting *exact* duplicates (which admittedly sounds fishy), send an email describing the problem to tech support and it will get to the right people. J. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: mpd
Date:12/21/2004 1:31:03 PM
Thanks for the reply. I understand your answer and agree with it, but I am indeed seeing *exact* duplicates of the source files. I have compared them two different ways: with the Win2k comp.exe utility, and with cmp on one of my unix machines. In all of my project directories, there are multiple duplicates of the source files. In some cases there are six or seven. This really eats up disk space when the source files are in the 100-150 meg range. The only things in the undo/redo history are: paste, insert silence, mute, fade, and region change. I also sent the original message to tech support and will pass on more info, but they generally take about a week to get back to me... |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: Sonic
Date:12/21/2004 2:30:08 PM
I'm not quite clear which files are duplicates. Are you saying there are multiple copies of a single source file? Or is it perhaps a single temp file corresponding to each paste source? J. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: mpd
Date:12/21/2004 4:41:47 PM
OK, let me explain my workflow. Basically, this is what I did: 1. Record to file1.wav and file2.wav 2. Preprocess file1 and file2 to expand the bit depth and set the gain where I want 3. Open file1 and file2 4. Create blank file, save as project 5. Copy the proper chunk from file1 or file2 6. Paste into newfile 7. Edit the inserted data (mute, delete, fade in/out) 8. Insert some silence after the edit 9. Create a region 10. Goto 5, as necessary When I am done, I have a region in the project file corresponding to each cell in my script. I can then redner a file that gets postprocessed (ie, a plugin chain), and then extract my regions to files. When I go through this process, file1 and file2 are in the project folder, and there are several tmp files which are exact duplicates of file1 and file2. Using a project for this process may be a bit overkill, but being able to undo as necessary is a nice safety net. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: Sonic
Date:12/22/2004 7:27:40 AM
Good details. I'll try to reproduce. Do you happen to have the "Use floating point temporary files" pref enabled? And just for the sake of completeness, can you specify the source and destination bit-depths and sample rates? Thanks, J. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: mpd
Date:12/22/2004 7:52:57 AM
No, use floating point temp files is unchecked. I recorded to 44.1kHz/16 bit/mono in normal wav format. I extended this to 44.1kHz/24 bit/mono, which was both the source and destination format. Thanks. |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: mpd
Date:1/3/2005 10:46:12 AM
If anyone is interested, I heard back from Sony on this: "Yes you can delete both .sfk and temp files. The only thing you may notice is a slower loading time of your files. I hope this information is helpful. If you have follow up questions or need further assistance with this issue, please update this incident." |
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Subject:RE: Sound Forge Project Files
Reply by: Sonic
Date:1/3/2005 8:48:23 PM
I see the problem here and will try to get it resolved. In the meantime, I have a partial workaround. a) paste once from each of the large source files to a new window and save it as your project b) close the source files and re-open their like-named copies from the project directory c) continue as usual This should circumvent the extra copies (which make sense for some other cases, but certainly not this one) and speed up your saves a bit. One caveat, don't just delete everything in the project window between steps (b) and (c). Leave a little bit of data in there and just mute it or something. If the length of the window goes to zero, Sound Forge seems to get stuck thinking you need to Save As, rather than Save, which works, but shouldn't be necessary. J. |