Drum editing- using AudioSnap to split clips causes LONG save times

With live drums I like to cut out sections on each track when they're not used. For instance, I remove the material in the kick track when the kick is not playing, which results in cleaner snare and tom tones. I do the same with the toms and snares, generally leaving my overheads and cymbal mics alone as these have sustain in them that I want for a natural sound.

In Sonar one of the quickest ways I've found to do this without using sidechain gates that work most-of-the-time-but-not-all is to use AudioSnap with a 0% threshold, then use it to split clips into transients. Once done splitting I turn off AudioSnap, then use the Eraser tool to delete any unwanted regions.

The only problem with this approach is that it makes for project files that  are 10 TIMES the size of normal ones. This means it takes forever to save, and makes AutoSave ridiculous. WHY is it that the project file bloats so much? I turn off AudioSnap so I don't believe that's involved anymore. Is it really just having that many small clips? If so, that seems pretty ridiculous.

As an example, after doing this to a file that is 3660 KB I'm now at 55,771 KB.

Is there something under the hood that can be done to change the way Sonar handles this? It's almost unworkable for me.

On a different note, if others have suggestions on how to do these edits in a different, faster, more effective way I'm all ears. I don't like using plugins for this as they think of settings as "one size fits all" and never sound quite right to me. Other ideas?

Peace,

Tunes

Another quick update- using Apply Trimming decreases the size of the file as well. Unfortunately this is not a function that you often want to use immediately following Split to Transient, as transients are sometimes detected after the very beginning of the sound has actually occurred. The same file cut down to 27,628 KB with Apply Trimming applied to the two Snare Tracks. I left the 2 Kick tracks with slip editing intact for the sake of this experiment.

It's something that is a byproduct of non destructive editing.  Every time you make a split, you end up with two visible clips that have a lot of hidden data that has to be there in case it is exposed by a slip edit or some other process. 

I've learned to commit to my changes once I have worked out things the way I want.  Commitment isn't a bad thing, you know. 

Thanks guys. Brundlefly I'll try the Remove Silence function again. I've always found it arbitrary and hard to set in a way where I like the results. My main problem is that I don't trust a lot of parameter-based editing. Even with the Split Clips at Transients function I like to listen through and make sure the splits are at the right place. There are always a few in a song that cut off the beginning of the transient and sound awkward. Once I've reviewed I don't have a problem using Apply Trimming and making the edits destructive, and it gets a lot easier after that. It's just pretty ridiculous during that process when it takes 30 seconds to complete a save or autosave.

Thanks for the tips Brundlefly. I think what I would really like would be a multi-track editor for the Kick, Snare, and Toms. It's rare in rock music to have much nuance in these drums as most drummers hit things as hard as they can most of the time. Thus, having an editor that enables me to set a threshold for the kick and mute the Snare and Toms when it hits, then do the same for the Snare and the Toms would be awesome. The best case would be where the automatic settings give you a starting point and it is easy to manually edit from there. The key would be still showing all the waveform data and just muting the parts that aren't needed. That would be killer. This is essentially what I'm doing manually, but it's a bit of a PITA.

I'll give Remove Silence another shot. I've just found it harder to tell where to set it and predict the results than similar functionality in other software (like Strip Silence in Pro Tools, which has a much better interface.)