Cleaning Up A Pro Tools Session- help!

[JayB]

Hey guys, so I know how to clean up a session in Pro Tools, at least the basics. I know to right click on the regions area to the right, select unused regions, and delete. I also know that there is a button you can hit when it asks if you're sure you want to delete the files, but I can't remember what it is. Otherwise, you have to hit like 1000 dialog boxes asking if you're sure... does anyone know the shortcut?

Also, I have a session that I've been messing with since before I knew about deleting the files completely from the hard drive- I thought "remove" did this but the files still get left on the HDD. With the songs being constantly toyed with/ rewritten etc the session for the full album is a ridiculous amount of gigs. Is there any way to find unused files, that say have been "removed" in the past but are still lurking on the HDD? I tried going into the folder and just deleting some of the oldest shit, but I ended up accidentally deleting stuff that was still being used in the session and had to bring the files back from a backup. Also, with all of the cutting up and editing of files sometimes it will say that an unused file is still being used by the session- what does that even mean? How could it come up as unused if it's still being used? All of this makes me afraid to delete anything and the session folder stands at around 55 GB, haha. Literally. 55 GB. Help!

 

[mva801]

hold option and press enter

 

[mva801]

Also for your second question, use the save a copy command. You can choose to save a copy of the session and applicable audio somewhere else on the drive, and then you can delete the old folder with all the junk on it. Just MAKE SURE you check the right boxes when saving a copy so it COPIES all of the audio you need and doesn't just reference it to the folder you'll delete.

At least I'm reasonably sure it will only copy the files you need. There's a chance it may copy the whole audio files folder. In THAT case, maybe you can try it another way. Make a new session. Totally clean. Go to import session data, and choose all the tracks. Tell it to copy from source media and not to link, and it will pull in all the tracks and copy the audio for them into your new session folder. Then delete the old one.

If anyone can confirm the behavior of the save a copy command that may help.... I'd probably just try it the second way because I KNOW that will only copy the tracks you select....

 

[JayB]

hold option and press enter

ah... I was holding alt and clicking yes. Thanks!

 

[JayB]

Also for your second question, use the save a copy command. You can choose to save a copy of the session and applicable audio somewhere else on the drive, and then you can delete the old folder with all the junk on it. Just MAKE SURE you check the right boxes when saving a copy so it COPIES all of the audio you need and doesn't just reference it to the folder you'll delete.

At least I'm reasonably sure it will only copy the files you need. There's a chance it may copy the whole audio files folder. In THAT case, maybe you can try it another way. Make a new session. Totally clean. Go to import session data, and choose all the tracks. Tell it to copy from source media and not to link, and it will pull in all the tracks and copy the audio for them into your new session folder. Then delete the old one.

If anyone can confirm the behavior of the save a copy command that may help.... I'd probably just try it the second way because I KNOW that will only copy the tracks you select....

Cool, thanks... I'm getting close to finishing this project anyway so I think I'll end up just bouncing the steams and deleting all the other bs, haha

 

[Mikaël-ange]

At least I'm reasonably sure it will only copy the files you need.

It copy only the files you need

 

[mva801]

It copy only the files you need

Word. Thank you sir!

 

[JayB]

Thanks for the tip, I'll try this later!

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Before doing that don't forget to clean unused region

I don't know if that change something for what follow but I always have keyboard focus on (as everyone I think)

-Now open region list (right column)
-cmd+shift+U (that select unused region)
-cmd+shift+B (that delete selected region)
-choose remove (remove region from session but those are still on your HD) instead of deleted (deleted open the f..... pop up window asking if you really want do it... and that for each region! Good luck with that after an 8 hours drum tracking session).

Now go to
-File>save copy in

Now select PT session format (latest is the most used but if you need to work on PT MIX, you need to choose PT 5.1>6.9 or 5.0 format)
Check the sample rate, audio file format and bit depth

On the item to copy box choose all audio file>ok
Now put the session where you want to copy it and click save.

Done

 

[tempe]

It's amazing I've never thought of using save copy as for this. Thanks for suggesting that, it's going to be a real time saver!

 

[Mikaël-ange]

It's amazing I've never thought of using save copy as for this. Thanks for suggesting that, it's going to be a real time saver!

That what is used by every big mixer assistant for cleaning session...
Time saver for sure: 10mn for +100 tracks session instead of 2 hours
Glad that help

 

[Lasse Lammert]

on)
-choose remove (remove region from session but those are still on your HD) instead of deleted (deleted open the f..... pop up window asking if you really want do it... and that for each region! Good luck with that after an 8 hours drum tracking session).

you can just hold down alt while you're pressing clicking "delete" and it'll delete all the files without asking you again all the time

 

[Mikaël-ange]

you can just hold down alt while you're pressing clicking "delete" and it'll delete all the files without asking you again all the time

That why I love PT!!! You can work on it every day and still learn something.
Thanks Lasse