Command line utility to "save as packed song file"

To combat my awfule file organization

Hi - I’m interested in a utility that will run from a command line and take various switches to save a song as a packed song file. Over the past couple years, I’ve wound up with songs and wav files scattered across various drive partitions, both server-side and locally. The utility could unpack them too.

Using batch files or perl scripting and such a utility, I could automate a process that will find all my sng files and move them to a new storage area with all their parts.

Or is there a way to do this now?

Or is the format of the format of the packed song file documented somewhere so I could write my own utility?

Thanks.

Hi drybij:

I hear you regarding file organization…
I’m what anyone would consider as being a poor File organizer when it comes to directing n-Track to look for tracks for a work-in-progress…



As early as v1 of n-Track I would make suggestions here on the Board to design some kind of improvement to the way n-Track Addresses Project/Track Storage of .wav files…


However, I have little-if-any suggestions of how to arrive at a workable change in it’s present design…


So…
to that end I have come up with a system that works for me-and-my-setup…



Each of my Computers/DAWs have six hard drives in them… There are NO Projects/Tracks/.wav files on any of the “C” Drives of these DAWs…
However, the .wav files for each project I have in progress can be found on as many as twelve hard drives on any of the machines
I use for Tracking-and-Editing any one project…
These machines are LAN’d together…
Tracks can “Stream” from any of the Hard Drives to a timeline on any of these DAWs…
I believe that the more hard drives you can use for storing tracks the less stress is placed on the hard drive’s reading/writing pens on any one hard drive…
and operating system…



When I start a project I create a folder and name it…
Then within the project’s folder I create Sub-Folders when specific Tracks/.wav files can be found/stored-and-located…
In the Settings/Config. Panel of n-Track I point n-Track’s project locator to where the project can be found…
From there the .sng file will locate where-and-what Hard Drives the .wav files are stored to be placed on the timeline…
That system works about 95-97% of the time…
But sometimes I write notes for each of the projects-in-progress and place these up-dated notes in a folder with-in the Project’s folder…
where these tracks can be found in case the .sng files gets out-dated…
That happens quite often here…
So, I have up-dated the procedure I use to date the latest .sng files for each project…
e.g.
Today’s date…
e.g. 151107, will appear on the latest “SAVE AS” for that .sng file…
After rendering begins…
the files are then stored in duplicate back-up folders and hard drives…
with updated .sng files…




Now, it gets confusing…
at least for me…
So, in that regard I believe Audio Guys have devised their own personal way to store their projects…



I prefer to use the “SAVE AS” rather than RE-NAME a File…
That way you never discard/rewrite a.wav file… But
that requires a huge amount of storage space…



Anyway, those are some of the ideas that I regard as important and how I archive .wav files here with the setup I have…



It would be nice if I could find a better way that would work for me, but time makes it harder-and-harder to change what works, i think…



Bill…

[EDIT]

I forgot to address the idea you have …
I never thought of and I never have used the format of “Packed Song Files” for any projects I have going…
here… I’m not sure “WHY” though…
That might work quite well… for me…
I guess it’s not what you do… It’s what you get used to doing…

This function is available in N-Tracks, at least after version 4.

Eyup!

Packed song files are a function started with version 3. I use them as a way of consolidating all the files I use in a project. The individual .wav files can be scattered anywhere, depending on how organised you are when tracking, but saving the project as a packed file brings everything together and saves it in one place.
If you mess with the packed file settings and set the compression ratio to NONE then your .wav files are simply tagged onto one another, uncompressed, along with all other program settings, which you can then “unpack” into a single folder of your choice.
So the “Packed Song File” function in NTrack does exactly what you want drybij, but not from the command line.

The NTrack .sng file format is a binary format and the code is not public.

Steve

Thank for the replies.

woxnerw:

Under different circumstances I might be able to plan ahead and make a good organizational scheme. Unfortunately, though my n-Track setup is used primarily to record my band practices. I have a bass in my hand at the time and the stop / save as (type in file name here) / new / start procedure leaves me little time to maintain the organization.

I’m also trying to find a way to use some kind of macro utility with a midi device (like a footpedal) to drive the software and save the files for me. Haven’t cracked that one yet. So I’m left with files scattered around my drives (LAN included).

michaelST, Beefy Steve:

I’m aware of the packed sound file capabilities in the n-Track software. My interest however is a command line utility that I can use with a scripting language to help me clean up my drives.

An idea would be to change the current “Save File As” feature that comes up for each individual track (wav file) when recording so that all tracks could be named as the same as the SNG file when the recording is first done.
Another feature would be a “flag” that offers to save all of the WAV files to a designated location when the song is saved after editing. In other words, the pop-up box which show the current location of the SNG file of the song and that location could be changed to move all associated files each time the song file is saved or a simple OK would leave the files in the same place.