So after several days of work, I had my song where I wanted it, when upon saving I got a “DirectX error” and was informed that the song file could not be saved because it was corrupted.
Sure enough, the song file is hosed and will not reopen in N-track.
Other than hitting my head against the wall until I black out, does anyone have any suggestions? Does XP save the previous version somewhere? Is there a file repair utility that does something magical?
Eyup!
I feel your pain, but unfotunately I don’t have anything to suggest that will certainly work.
NTrack does save temporary files (look in Preferences-Paths to see where they are saved) so you may still have a partial file somewhere.
Other than that, if you drop Flavio a note he may be able to edit the .sng file so that it is recoverable.
Please note that the .sng file is a binary file and any attempt to edit it without knowing the correct format will render it completely useless (that’s just in case anyone else reads this and decides to try editing one of theirs!)
You could also be the victim of a plugin error. Try uninstalling the plugins used in the song and then loading up your project. NTrack will certainly complain that it can’t find such and such plug, but should not crash.
Then you can reload one by one until you find the duffer.
Sorry not to be more positive 
Steve
Hi jm67:
That’s frustrating… I’ve been there before… I’ve ended up re-importing the tracks into a new timeline and re-mixing the song… and starting over again… I don’t recall/remember recovering from a corrupt .sng file…
I can’t remember what may have caused the failure…
Bill…
Wish I could help JM, but I can’t, sorry. Been there, done that.
The only thing I can say is do the same thing I’ve done: Print out in the biggest font you have: BACK-UP NOW, and tape that printout on the wall behind your monitor. That way every time you look up from the screen you see it.
I can’t help you with your current issue (I think you’ll have to import the tracks into a new song) but I can give you a technique that should prevent this from happening in the future.
Song files don’t take up much room on your HD. Each time you make a significant change in your mix save it under a new song file name, such as Mysong5, Mysong6, Mysong7, etc. This not only gives you a backup song file but it allows you to go to a previous version in case you screw something up or want to hear how it sounded a couple versions ago. I will typically have upwards of 15 or 20 song files by the time I’m done with a mix.
The only fix I know is re-opening the wave files in a new song. Starting mix over from scratch.
I feel for ya on this one, had it happen several times.
XP does have the Restore Point feature built into it. But you would have had to set these restore points ahead of time. The easiest way, as 8th_note pointed out is to save periodically to different sng files - I use the format “SongName - take n, mix n” which works well for me.
WAIT – THERE’S HOPE!
First, uninstall all your Direct-X plugins.
Then try to open the song. Most likely, just one of your plugins is hosing things. Get rid of them all (or perhaps, just the newest and least tested of them) and most likely your song file will open and you may even be close to where you were before things got hosed. (Hopefully, you’re smart and save often!)
If you remember the last effect you added before hosing, try just uninstalling that one. Otherwise, uninstall them all, and start adding them back in one at a time. DON’T SAVE THE SONG FILE!!!
Copy the song file to back it up first – if you don’t want to lose your FX settings, don’t save the song file even if it opens, until you’ve found all the effects that still work and only the bad apple remains uninstalled.
Chances are very good that it’s just one effect that’s hosed you. It depends on whether the saved song file is still basically OK.
Good luck!
I’m sorry you lost your song but at least you still have the .wav files. I’m glad I saw this post because now I will make it a habit of backing up all my work, especially since I made the jump to 5.x world and leaving my comfy 3.3 release that I used for years.
Been away for a week but am back now…
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I looked at the sng file, and its only 11KB, so I’m pretty sure it’s badly damaged. But the wave files are there and I’ve mostly reconstructed the thing.
But here’s a concrete suggestion for Flavio… it would be nice if MIDI files could be stored externally, like .wav files. I can insert the .wav files into a new song, but I have to re-record the MIDI parts. If they were stored as separate files, I wouldn’t have to do that. I’m not a MIDI expert, so I don’t know if that’s feasible, but it’s an idea.
From the file menu, you can use ‘export midi’ to copy your midi parts to .mid files, which can then be imported to your song, or any other. It isn’t quite automatic, but it only takes a few seconds. I have managed to recover a couple of hosed songs that way, and was glad for the option!
Good luck!
'til next time;
Tony
jm, did you try uninstalling your plugins?
I have had this problem and it solved it. Fortunately, I knew which was the offending plugin (the last one I added to the song, and one I hadn’t used before).
Jeff