post ‘net transfer’
Hi, folks. I’m trying to send a packed song file to someone else who has recently got n. The first attempt failed, he only received obscure parts - no wav’s etc. I’ve played around sending myself several different packed sng’s but the results seam variable. Is it me or n?
Which version of n are you using Tony?
Always the latest, Pop.
It should be packing it all in there, but I’ll check it here also…
Pop, now that’s a name I can get into!
This is a save’as function?
Would all the original wav’s, & song files have to be in the same folder to make a PSF? I mean it only seems natural for that.
If I remember right… and it’s been forever… you;
Open the project you want to “pack”. The go…
File > Save As Packed Song File (or similar)
A dialog box will pop up asking for compression settings and such. The destination to write the packed file may on this dialog too. Don’t remember… On this or the next dialog, you can tell n where to write the packed song file. Click the Okay or whatever button and watch n fizz for a while. Done.
Theoretically, you now have one file which contains all the projects audio files, midi files, mixer settings, plugin settings… blah… blah.
You can now shoot the file to another computer, friend via webber-net, mail a CD, transmit it byte by byte via morse code… whatever. Once on the other PC, open n-Track, go File > Open and navigate to wherever the packed file is. Select it and click “Okay” or “Open”… whatever. N will ask you WHERE do you want to unpack. I recommend making a folder and putting it all in there. Watch n fizz for a while. BANG! The project should open with all of it’s former locales glory intact.
Theoretically…
In practice, it was always a PITA.
Join a file share site. If you and a bud or buds wanna collab on some tunes, use the file share and just move the single .wav files around. Designate ONE guy to be the keeper of the settings until you decide at the end which one of you is going to get stuck with mixing. Up to that point make sure you all have the SAME plugins and stuff. Share the .wav’s un-effected though. (IMO) Makes it easier to work with later. i.e. you can slop lots of verb on easy enough but once written to the .wav, you can’t take it off.
Oh for Pete’s sake… USE A CLICK TRACK! This is a must!! I learned the hard way… trust me. You do WANT a click track whether you think you do or not. Make it an audio .wav track of whatever click sound you want. Again, ONE guy needs to make changes to tempo, meter or whatever and issue a new corrected click track. Anything else results in chaos. Long distance collabs are hard enough without three different people trying to change tempos or deciding the bridge or pre-chorus or whatever needs to be 5/4 and then jump back to 4/4 a few measures later. This is the stuff that will make you want to QUIT collaborating. Work smarter, not harder…
D
PS Wow… didn’t realize I had yammered on so long until I hit “Submit Post”… Sorry…
Thanks D. Your memory serves you well. Your description is more or less spot on. But - sadly, at the mo’ so too is your PITA description. I’m having more success with it today but every time I pack a tune away, on opening it, there is always one thing or another missing - apart from my most recent attempt which was only missing pastes of a guit’ on one track:-) I understand and agree with you on swapping single wavs but how cool would it be if we can get it running proper. So the collaberator gets exactly what was sent. We’re busy making sure all the right plugs and such are matched and I’m sure we’ll get there. I’ll post anything that might be of use. But if anyone can help us along? Great!
True tony, this would make a great way to transfer to another drive too. 2462 is available with new features maybe it will give you total pf.
Tony on your packed file with missing parts. Did you try more than one song. Where all the files of the song in the same folder? What came up missing from the songs?
Just the one song. It seams to pack away ok but the friend doesn’t receive the wavs. I’m gonna build a very small test track with simple settings. Just a thought? But - he’s on the trial version at the mo’. Could that pose a problem?
What do you mean ‘It seems to pack away OK …’ If you move your .swg to a new folder and if you close N and just double click on the .swg - does it open N and put your song up as you saved it?
If it does, then I would suspect that the file is being corrupted during transfer across the NET. I remember this used to happen to some files sent across the NET that used embedded control characters. Maybe you could zip the file first before you send it.
I tried making a packed song file last night but nodda, nothing, zilch. Unless they are staged somewhere else too for the net, all I got was a song file in the designated folder.
It does work!
It's a two step process.
At Least to move to another drive.
I don't know about net transfer but I successfully created a packed song file.
Put it in a temp drive, took the temp drive to another computer added it to my nTrack songs.
It's all there, works perfectly!
Flavio, your my hero for this tool at the least!
Thank you!
Cool. I pulled ‘that’ one off, too. But? Try net transfer and let me know.
Quote: (TonyR @ Mar. 29 2009, 4:25 PM)
Cool. I pulled 'that' one off, too. But? Try net transfer and let me know.
If it packed everything properly, just upload the 'myhitsong.sgw' file or whatever you named it... it's the one with the SGW extension... to a file sharing site like MediaFire or similar. Be aware though that most of the 'free' file share sites limit a single upload to 100MB or so... If your SGW is bigger than that you'll need an account somewhere that allows bigger files.
This is another one of those 'gotcha's' I mentioned before. Theoretically, packed song files are a cool idea. In practice, you're better of with a 'free' MediaFire account with a folder where you store all the wave data with the project file. It takes a bit longer to make the individual uplaods/downloads but it's cheap and easy.
D
You know I didn’t look at it that way. I’ll try just moving the psf to a diffrent computer than opening it to see if it’s all there. I was happy just to put it in another drive. Could one put the psf in a zip file too?
Yep - I’ve never had a problem with compressing / zipping .sgw’s
Quote: (Poppa Willis @ Mar. 29 2009, 7:12 PM)
Yep - I've never had a problem with compressing / zipping .sgw's
I didn't give them any compression.
Just put them into a psf.
Do you compress yours?
Are you happy with that compressed process and then bringing them back to full wavs?
So if your zipin a file that contains files that are already compressed, isn't hurting anything?
That would be outstanding!
done it a lot - never a problem
Waves generally don’t compress well with ZIP type compressions because to the type data PCM is. I’ve seen some come out a little larger when zipped than when not compressed at all. That’s not usually the case, but it can happen. Zipping is totally loseless, so it’s good to try it for (usually) some space savigs, if there’s a need.