Audio folders, Global and per project. Do I just not get it?

It seems to me that my audio always defaults to the C: drive, even though I have the global audio folder set up to separate HD "D". When you use per project audio folders do they not go to the global audio drive? If not, can they? I like the way per project organizes and names your audio data, but I want to reap the benefits of having the audio being read from a separate drive. It is my understanding that having the audio on it's own drive keeps the disk from reading and writing other program data while it is streaming the audio. Am I missing something here? Am I telling Sonar to place the audio on the C drive by checking the per project audio folders option? What's the point of even assigning a Global Audio Drive if that is the case? Is this something simple that I have just overlooked, left checked or unchecked, or simply don't grasp the concept? So ,what I aim to do is have Sonar set up a per project audio folder on the D drive for each project. The other stuff (picture data ,etc. ) can live in C under that same project name. Can someone set me straight here?

so you did set your preference in edit/prefs/file/folder locations?
 

Thanks scook for the step by step. Is there a way to set up project files and project audio into separate locations? I was trying to make my D drive my "audio and ONLY audio" drive. i'm sure it can be accomplished manually, but that's half of my problem to begin with. start recording on the fly, then "woops, where is this all ending up? Or am I missing the point of simultaneous drives? Is it most preferable,from strictly a performance view, to have your audio on one drive and your projects AND programs on another, or just the main program on one and projects and audio on the other? If there is little or almost no benefit from keeping the projects and audio separate, that changes the whole game, cuz if there is no benefit, it certainly is a pain in the ass to manage that way.

orangesporanges
Is there a way to set up project files and project audio into separate locations?
...
Is it most preferable,from strictly a performance view, to have your audio on one drive and your projects AND programs on another, or just the main program on one and projects and audio on the other?

Yes, when the project is created. the New Project dialog provides for different locations for project and audio data. BUT, I have never specified separate paths for project and audio data (except to test the function) and do not recommend it.


No, the performance advantage comes from moving the audio off the system drive. The location of the projects is not a performance issue. Projects are relatively small and written infrequently. I would recommend taking the New Project per-project audio folder defaults (after fixing up your preferences using #4 above as a guide) which keep the project data in a folder immediately above the audio folder for the project.

I wish there was more options for this. Per project wants to keep the project file as well.
 
I keep my projects on a D Drive, my audio on a E Drive, in a "global" audio folder BUT broken out by project inside of it. Prior to X3 all seemed fine, now X3 dumps everything into the global folder. I didn't even realize it until I went looking for something.
 

Exactly, I see a lot of posts where people have been using Sonar for years and still have no idea about the file storage. These people often loose their work when a hard drive fails. 
Sonars default is not the best system as you'll end up with 4,000 wave files all mixed in that global audio folder...:( 
 
As Steve and Bob have said, you WANT your project and Audio within a folder. The same folder. That folder holds everything to do with your song, I even put my lyrics and track sheets , midi files etc,  everything in that songs folder.  
Only difference for me is I also have containment folders for albums. 
 
D drive - Album Name - Song Names - CWP-Audio folder - mid.  Doc. 
 
I'll back that whole album folder up at the end of the day to a 3rd internal drive and an external drive when needed ( often) . I date each folder too. 
 
Album Name 23-06 -2014
 
I'll end up with a bunch of these so I can always go back, I never do. And I only delete these backups when the album is finished and out the door on CD. I then only keep 3 complete copies of the very last mixes. Hard rives are cheap and huge.. 

I was just thinking how hard it must have been back then when hard drives must have been still measured in MB. My first PC was 2001 and had a whopping 10 Gig drive.. That would last us 2 minutes these days. My Atari had a 20 MB that held 100's of Midi files no problem, but when they added audio to sequencing software it must have bee a struggle to work with. Glad I stuck to Digital tape medium through that period. 

Kev999
I sometimes save plugin settings in another sub-folder within the project folder, especially if I have spent a lot of time tweaking something. These saved settings have also come in handy on occasions where I have needed to replace a DX plugin with its VST equivalent.

 

Kev999
I sometimes save plugin settings in another sub-folder within the project folder, especially if I have spent a lot of time tweaking something. These saved settings have also come in handy on occasions where I have needed to replace a DX plugin with its VST equivalent.

 
I thought this tip was well worth repeating 
 
Also while not quite as relevant these days, you can store MIDI sys ex within a Sonar project. Great for keeping external synth and signal processors data where you need it.

It only has to make sense to you - but it sounds like a convoluted mess.
 
It's not about 'control', it's about what makes sense.  
 
When I drive my car to the store, it is shorter to cut through the middle of the lake and a corn field, but that doesn't mean that flooring it and cranking a right turn at the boat ramp is a good choice.
 
I hope you find peace with it all, 
 
Bob Bone
 

robert_e_bone
It only has to make sense to you - but it sounds like a convoluted mess.

 
Really? That's odd because I think the other way is convoluted. When I search my project files I like to see them. Like, all of them. And just them. And if they're grouped by album, or by band, well then that just makes it that much easier. I just about never need to actually go drilling down into the audio folder of a project unless something is wrong. In fact, I shouldn't have to ever go drilling down unless something is wrong. 
 
As per Craig's point: yes, we can store things that way (I described)...I do store that way. But something since X1 has been wonky with the "global" audio folder setting and even though I have my projects still broken out like described, new recorded material gets dumped into the root "audio" folder.
 
And, it seems to play havoc with Cake's Clean Audio Folder command...a process so scary I never run it. In fact, I seem to recall the conventional wisdom is to "save as" and copy all the audio data over, then delete the original. That's why some better default options would be sweet...though I suppose I'm tangenting into better asset mgmt tools too...but hey I had my coffee this morning!:-)

I like to think of it more as not storing the guitars interspersed with the drum kit. Or the digital tapes along with the film lights.

...wicked
As per Craig's point: yes, we can store things that way (I described)...I do store that way. But something since X1 has been wonky with the "global" audio folder setting and even though I have my projects still broken out like described, new recorded material gets dumped into the root "audio" folder.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. I thought by "global" folder you meant the Cakewalk one, not a separate one you've created and named. I haven't had any problem with files being dumped where I don't want them unless I forget to specify where I want them to go.
 

I like to think of it more as not storing the guitars interspersed with the drum kit.

 
So ideally, you would want to be able to store all the guitar tracks for an album in a folder, all the drum track in a folder, etc.? How would that work if you wanted to back up a single project? Or maybe you think only terms of an album, not individual projects? Just trying to wrap my head around this in case I'm missing something that could be universally useful and not just for your workflow of choice.

Sorry, let me explain:
 
I've got 3 hard drives. Drive 1 (C) is my system drive. Drive 2 (D) is for Cake project files, various other project files (Vegas, etc.), annnnd, for my samples and presets for virtual instruments. Drive 3 (E) is for audio for my cakewalk projects and all my other non-virtual instrument samples. The Cakewalk area is broken out into a single "audio" folder, which then has a folder for every Cakewalk project and all the audio "per project" goes in there. 
 
So, I browse and load my project data by looking directly at my project files. Those are saved with the folder specified per its project into the "global" audio folder. It's more or less per project, I just keep the actual project files grouped together for reference.
 
The problem? Well as of X1 I had to select "global audio folder" even though I specify a project folder to save the audio to. But, newly created audio seems to dump into the "audio" folder and not it's specified project folder. I haven't done that much research into it because I honestly don't care that much. I can view the files specifically within SONAR, and I can also see what they belong to just by looking at them since they're named with the project name first anyway. 
 
But, the only two options available by default are "one big audio folder for EVERYTHING", and doing it with each project file in it's own folder with an audio subdirectory for that audio...It's just not as ideal for finding things or looking at a collection of project files (like an album project for example). 
 

I use per project folders. All projects are in a single directory with each project having its own sub folder.
 
Unfortunately I also have very old projects that were created before the per project folder was an option. Thus in that same directory I project that rely on the global audio folder. This is not a problem as long as Sonar can find the audio for those old projects. 
 
With per project folders enabled I have never had a problem loading a project and finding all its component parts excepting no longer use plugins.