.wrk or .bun

This question seems to come up every once in awhile - What extension should I use when I save my file, or I saved my file to a cd, now I can't open it on another computer/reformatted hard drive.

MC can save a file in 2 ways, .wrk (or work file) and .bun (or bundle file). You should save to a certain type depending on what you are trying to accomplish. First, though, you should understand how the file types work. So, without further adieu,


When you record a song or songs, each track gets laid down on a hard drive. For simplicity's sake, let's say each clip you record gets laid end to end. Let's say you have 5 tracks to a project and each track has 5 clips - that's 25 clips you used to create the song. OK, if you are like me, you had to record each clip, like, 10 times - making 250 clips total. MC does not delete the clips you recorded but didn't use. All 250 clips are laid end to end.

So, how does MC know how to play your song. You tell it what clips you want to use. MC knows where the clips are on your hard drive, so it goes and gets the clips you want and inserts it into the track.

When you save to a .wrk file, MC does not save the clips in your MC file. MC saves the pointers that tells it where to find the clips on your hard drive. That's why, when you copy a .wrk file to a cd, take it to your buddies house (or open it in a reformatted hard drive) and open it, MC says it can't find the files - the pointers are looking for the clips on the hard drive that stores the original clips.

When you save to a .bun file, MC extracts the clips that you are using and saves them along with the program settings. When you save to a .bun file, you are saving the .wav files that make up your clips. That's why you can open a .bun file on your buddies computer or your reformatted hard drive - yoou have the clips!

OK, so, why not just always save to a .bun? Because .bun files can be huge - every time you save a .bun file, you make a copy of the clips - so if you are working on a project and you save it 3 times as a .bun file, you created each clip three times over. Save to a .bun for backing up your files and for transferring your files to another computer. Otherwise, save to a .wrk.