Cubase audio file management in home recording studio (where are my files?)

[@LanewoodStudios]

Any special ways that you handle audio files in Cubase that I should know about ? Please comment below, I would love to know additional tips & tricks.

[@chizzulwinduh1941]

It's a boring subject, but vitally important. Thank you for making this.

[@LanewoodStudios]

It is both yes 😉

[@M123OCT]

This video is absolute gold. 👍 I wish I'd seen it years ago, before all my audio files ended up unintentionally spread all over the place. But now I can open up an old project, locate the missing files, then bring them all back together in one place. Thanks for the great advice. 👍

[@LanewoodStudios]

Great, glad it was useful 😁😎

[@HenryMittnacht]

Man, super Video! Over the years I stumbled upon these file issues but never knew in depth what was happening 👍

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thank you and now you know 😉

[@take942]

Very helpful instructions for clearing up the confusion with Cubase file mamagement. Much thanks!

[@LanewoodStudios]

Glad to hear that!

[@madmac66]

You didn’t mention this explicitly, even though you did demonstrate it, but always always name your track before you start recording. So easy to get a moment of inspiration and create a track and click record to capture that moment, then end up with an audio folder full of Audio-01-01 Audio-01-02 and so on. 6months later you return to that project and none of that makes sense any more. Even if you rename the track in Cubase, the audio file stays the same. There are ways to rename the files inside of Cubase but it’s cumbersome work that can be avoided

[@LanewoodStudios]

Yes that is a very good point as well. I actually thought I mentioned that somewhere in the video, but apparently it got lost on the cutting room floor ;). Thanks for the comment!

[@auzwkk]

2 years later, still worth watching 👀 👌

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thanks 😎😁

[@HenryMittnacht]

3 years and still valid

[@M123OCT]

One thing worth mentioning, when you try to do the Create Archive thing - which is brilliant, by the way - it can sometimes be greyed out on the Media menu. The function is not available if there are missing files. You either have to ensure all missing files are found first. Or, if the song is now working, with nothing important missing, in the Pool, you have to delete the missing files. Then the Archive feature becomes available and usable. 👍

[@LanewoodStudios]

Excellent tip, thanks!

[@sebastiancuthbertmusic]

Thank you! This video helped me a lot!

[@LanewoodStudios]

You are welcome!

[@joolstacho8114]

Thanks, that's clarified things a bit. Goodonya!

[@LanewoodStudios]

Glad it was helpful!

[@richardjames323]

Another useful video, clear and informative. I would just like to add something I noticed that may be useful and not immediately obvious. The cumulative number association in the form of an underscore01 _02 etc is for newly recorded parts and the hyphen01 -02 etc appears once you start bouncing tracks down. I must say this frustrated me when I started bouncing because it was creating extra tracks that were using up my hard drive but after watching this video I realise that they can be removed with impunity. Thanks again

[@LanewoodStudios]

Nice additional information. Hadn’t noticed this myself 👍.

[@ytjfm]

Really helpful !!! Thanks !!!

[@LanewoodStudios]

You're welcome!

[@globophil]

Thank you so much for this, explained calmly and slowly. Really appreciate it. So, this is the problem I have and it's highlighted above: there were two folders on the D drive and so when I return to things I did even a few days ago, it looses audio (synth) files, but keeps vst's. When I'm prompted to search folders, fine, it'll search but then in the project, it finds rogue files and doesn't find the actual ones or can't find anything at all. So, this morning, I'm gonna clean up 240 files...but also check Pool and media prepare archive to try to find hidden audio because they must be there somewhere. Definitely gonna save in the way you recommend from now on - one folder only with cubase and audio together will make life much easier. Thanks

[@LanewoodStudios]

Yes it can get quite messy if you are unaware of all this. Hopefully you’ll manage to clean up and still get your old projects working.

[@yams900]

Very useful information ℹ️ ! It can easily get messy in Cubase, need to stay cool 😎 and focused

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thanks and yes indeed, cool and focused 👍😎😁.

[@yams900]

@@LanewoodStudios Also, would appreciate how to manage archiving/backup/restore Cubase projects. How to keep them for the future, recycle ♻️ if needed, bring them back to life 😀 Just normal house keeping, tidy files on hard drive, organising.

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thanks for the idea, I’ll put it on the already long list 😉.

[@yams900]

@@LanewoodStudios Finn 🇫🇮 living in Australia 🇦🇺 appreciates your work 👍🏻

[@andylaverymusic3451]

Excellent video thanks - wish I'd seen it a few years ago! Would have saved me a bit of pain!!

[@LanewoodStudios]

Better late than never ;)

[@caynyq]

Thank you well explained

[@LanewoodStudios]

You’re welcome and thanks for commenting 👍.

[@sapinit4322]

Thank you, very useful

[@LanewoodStudios]

Glad to hear that!

[@AmitSharmaa21]

Thankyou :-) This video was life saver for me

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thanks for commenting. Glad the video was useful to you 😁.

[@in2gadgets]

Very, very useful video - thank you very much! I'll subscribe!!

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thank you for subscribing. 👍😁.

[@johnl4499]

awsome thank you sooooooo much

[@LanewoodStudios]

You're welcome!

[@MATCITIM]

thanks

[@LanewoodStudios]

You are welcome!

[@johnl4499]

Thanks again for the tutorial it was excellent just wondered is there a way of changing the directory folder in Cubase once this song has been written The reason I ask is because I’m trying to get all my recorded files onto my f drive drive rather than my C drive if that makes sense

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thanks, you can maybe archive the projects on the new drive? Edit: Actually, if you have all the files under a separate project directory for each project, you should be able to just move the whole project to the new drive and open it from there as well.

[@Speedring1]

This was very helpful. What happens with track versions? where are they saved?

[@LanewoodStudios]

That’s transparent for you as a user. It’s all in the same project file and directory. Just as if you made a new track.

[@Speedring1]

@@LanewoodStudios Ok I have a mess, support guy did a backup cause of a corrupted session. The old folder is “Warren” it has audio and images. The new Warren Final where backup was supposed to go is empty. Instead the backup is in the parent folder of Warren and Warren Final. None of the takes need to be saved how do I move the backed up cpr file to Warren Final and move audio and image files to Warren final then delete the other folders. This video would be helpful if my backed up CPR file was in Warren Final but it is not. Sorry this is confusing.

[@viktorschurban5963]

great tutorial ! thanks a lot)

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thanks and you’re welcome!

[@santiagovalenciamusic]

Great video with very useful info. Thank you! I wish this would have come with Cubase when installing. One question tho: What would happen if you started a song with the folder and cpr file name as ‘Song1’ but then you renamed the song later to ‘Rock Song’? Can you rename the folder and cpr file? Or would that mess things up and break the links in the directory?

[@LanewoodStudios]

Thanks for your comment. I think this will be no problem, but will check it for you with that specific example project to be sure. To be continued ...

[@LanewoodStudios]

Just confirmed it with my example project. Renaming the song folder separately or together with the cpr file gives no problems at all. Cubase can still find the project's audio files.

[@santiagovalenciamusic]

Lanewood Studios Great news. Thanks for that! Now I’m more in control of my files.

[@yeppy013]

When I import files into the arranger window from the media bay, the copy to project folder window doesn’t pop up where it usually asks when adding as a new audio track. When this happens, there are no actual audio waves created with zero wave file size. It keeps on renaming the file as _01, _02 etc in the audio folder. Why does it do this? How can I enable so that whenever I’m importing, it creates a copy inside the project audio folder?

[@jdrmody]

Help my files are over run with BAK. files how do I hide them? I enjoy all off your video's on Cubase, Thanks for the training

[@LanewoodStudios]

These are time based backups of your project. You can turn off the backups to get rid of these files being made automatically but then you cannot easily get back to the previous state of the project.

[@WaveMechanicsRecordingSt-ge7ei]

When I start a new Cubase project, the audio ends up in a folder named Audio, which contains audio files from ALL of my Cubase projects. How can I tell Cubase to use a separate audio folder per project? Thanks.

[@LanewoodStudios]

Maybe this helps: forums.steinberg.net/t/how-to-control-where-cubase-10-has-been-saving-my-audio-files-and-safely-move-them-where-i-want/682092/5

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

These are great, but i'm in a messed up situation. I want create a new "Top" folder for all of my project folders to go into. But I can't find a way to move it so that I can just point cubase to the new senior folder with all of the projects... I'm guessing that i'm missing something, what should I do?

[@LanewoodStudios]

If you just move them on your file system does it not work? As long as the files of a single project are relatively in the same place related to the project folder I would think you can just open each project.

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

@@LanewoodStudios What I mean is trying to move the bulk of all of my projects into another folder

[@LanewoodStudios]

@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios yes I think that just requires a ‘manual’ move folder action outside of Cubase. Start with one of them first and see if it works 😉.

[@ogrady4444]

So, if I have 2 hard drives, one for my regular stuff and one only for audio files, Will my "Default Location" be only for my audio files?

[@LanewoodStudios]

Yes you should set the default location to where you want to store your Cubase projects (including audio files for those projects). It makes a lot of sense to keep all files for a project under a single folder.

[@joachimhafergut]

I made a bunch of track presets in Cubase 12. I made a new folder for the presets. Now I can’t find them.

[@LanewoodStudios]

See if this info is useful: helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/360000327730-Location-file-paths-of-presets-in-Cubase-and-Nuendo-

[@jessestokes6608]

IT KEEPS PILING AUDIO FILES INTO THE ORIGIONAL SONF FOLDER. I WANT TO CHANGE THIS TO IT'SOWN FOLDER. IT'S VERY HARD TO EXPLAIN.

[@LanewoodStudios]

Checkout my reply on your other comment. Hope it helps.

[@jessestokes6608]

HOW DO YOU START A NEW SONG FROM AN EXISTING SONG IN ANOTHER FOLDER WITH ALL AUDIO, ETC FOLDERS AUTO BUILT IN SEPARATE FOLDER THAN ORIGIONAL SONG.....SO THAT I DO NOT HAVE TO RE-INVENT ALL STRUCTRE THAT I WANT TO RESUE AS A TEMPLTE IF YOU WILL. I CON NOT FIGURE THIS OUT.

[@LanewoodStudios]

Hi Jesse, the easiest way is probably to make a backup copy of your initial project in another location on your harddisk. Give it a try: File - > Backup Project. You can also rename it as part of the process.

[@smokingun397]

I notice on your computer desktop that you have all your older versions on Cubase still there. Is there a reason you keep the old versions? I did it for a while but then I looked through my files and the one's I wanted to keep I opened in Cubase 10.5 and saved there. I do believe that the latest Cubase will open any older version projects but only older plugins will not work

[@LanewoodStudios]

Well spotted, I have some projects that do not open with Cubase 10.5. I am also keeping Cubase 8.5 because it is the last version that can still open projects with 32 bit plugins.

[@smokingun397]

@@LanewoodStudios That's a good idea! I do miss a couple of my 32bit plugins

[@LanewoodStudios]

@@smokingun397 Yes well I just use it for old projects that I mixed with 32 bit plugins in the project. In new projects I do not use those plugins anymore because I'd rather use the latest version of Cubase.

[@madmac66]

I keep an old version around too as I have found it easier to open a project in the version it was created in. Opening a Cubase file in a later version than it was created in has always caused problems for me, whether its plugins, routing, something in the internal structure of the file just doesn’t like it.

[@LanewoodStudios]

Hi @@madmac66, yes that's smart. I sometimes even put the name of the cubase version in the project file name, so I know which Cubase version I used for the production.

[@norbertherterich4750]

Lets have a listen to "Peter's Shit" someday 😆

[@LanewoodStudios]

Absolutely 😂😉

[@i_am_thuglife]

One of my reason why I’m choosing pro tools Cubase is hiding my projects, made a beat closed cubase open the daw back up, couldn’t find the beat and I don’t remember the name of the song, so my time wasted

[@LanewoodStudios]

It should be under recent projects.

[@zeclomal2265]

20 freaking minutes, really?

[@LanewoodStudios]

Really!