What seems to have happened is, that all of the drums for a single session (project) that were bounced tracks (they were bounced after some edits), for whatever reason, did not get stored in the Audio directory, even with other bounced tracks from all other projects. I certainly cannot explain this, as I don't recall having to specify where they were going, and all of my other bounced tracks were right where they were expected to be.

However, last week I was rebuilding my system after a motherboard failure rendered the last build unuseable, I backed everything up, and restored from the backup. Those bounced tracks were never on the backup, which really bugs me, because they were obviously somewhere, just not in the folder they should have been. 

I'm not thinking I didn't make a mistake, but I certainly don't recall specifying a folder where these tracks should have been, and I don't believe I would have been in my right mind to change something like that. 

On the new install, I did specify all default locations to be my D drive, which is actually a fairly tedious process. 

My main recommendation is that Sonar X2 tries to be smart about where audio is stored. But sometimes that can get you into trouble, if you don't understand what it's doing and why.

brconflict




On the new install, I did specify all default locations to be my D drive, which is actually a fairly tedious process. 

I don't have X series, so it may be different now, but specifying the default audio path was always just a question of selecting the drive / path in the Global Options and that's where they will go unless you change it, unless you are using an external HD which is not switched on when Sonar starts in which case it will revert to Sonar's default location.
 
I also don't understand why you had to re-track - are you saying that your back-up not only "lost" the edited tracks, but also somehow removed the original un-edited tracks ?

It's still the same, I believe since Sonar 8. What I'm saying is, that everything "seems" to work as expected, but when I backed up all the audio, then later restored, some bounced audio clips were simply missing from the backup. They were not in the folder where I or anyone else would expect them to be. All other bounced clips were there, just not the drums from one session, and a backing vocal from another session. 

Luckily I didn't lose the originally recorded audio, so, although I had to re-edit the drums on that session to re-create the bounced tracks as before, I have no clue what could have happened to the bounced clips from before.  

Summary: I have the same expectations and understanding as everyone else here it seems, but I simply cannot explain the loss of several bounced clips, as I don't recall ever changing the folder where they should have been saved. When I bounce a clip, from now on, I will certainly double-check the Audio source to ensure it makes it in the correct folder. 

Just to clarify something. When you say "Bounce" do you mean "Export"? When you bounce tracks you specify a track where you want the bounced audio to end up but not a physical location on your system - that's one of the main differences between bounce and export.

You do specify a location when you export but that shouldn't remove the original track, but then neither should bounce to track. The only thing that removes originals is "Bounce to clips".

I'm not trying to be pedantic just understand what happened.

 What I see here is some kind of failed backup system. 
As far as I have seen all edits of audio stay within that projects audio folder. 
There is the global folder options where you'll find all your pathways. By default they all go to a Cakewalk sub folder hidden deep within the bowels of your C drive. Notice a pathway for Projects and for Audio. 

Setting the project folder to a new location won't move the audio folder unless you tick the little box we all know about. But, possibly, what might happen ( just a wild guess) is that these bounced clips went to the default location. 

So when you copied the project folders to the backup drive those files did not get copied. 

The other way I can think things being left behind is for back up when you perform a "save as" to a new location, then only the active audio tracks are copied and all old audio is left behind. 

So you are totally correct when you say " pay attention". 

The best way to test a back up is to open it on a second computer and see what it does. I do this before deleting anything. 

FastBikerBoy



I'm not trying to be pedantic just understand what happened.

In a case like this you should be pedantic. When the terminology the OP uses is so inaccurate that the whole question totally loses its logicality, the only way to solve the problem is to find out what exactly the OP is talking about.


Even after reading the confused answers and guesses given by forum members he continues to talk about bouncing when quite likely it's export he's doing, and gives no details that would make things clearer.


And Brconflict, this comment is more than confusing to me:
"When I bounce a clip, from now on, I will certainly double-check the Audio source to ensure it makes it
in the correct folder."  

What on earth has the audio source to do with the target file of the export (assuming it's actually  export you're doing)??  Your workflow and goals remain quite unclear to me.

I'm still unsure whether he's bouncing to clip, bouncing to track or exporting.

FastBikerBoy


Just to clarify something. When you say "Bounce" do you mean "Export"? When you bounce tracks you specify a track where you want the bounced audio to end up but not a physical location on your system - that's one of the main differences between bounce and export.

You do specify a location when you export but that shouldn't remove the original track, but then neither should bounce to track. The only thing that removes originals is "Bounce to clips".

I'm not trying to be pedantic just understand what happened.

Karl, yes, "bounce to clips". In the Audio folder, I could see "bounced" filenames with a number (nnn). I did have many other bounced tracks in the Audio folder, but for some reason, these several didn't make it in there. 

I have mixed feelings about Cactus Music's response in that I agree with much of what he says, but it's easy to assume I'm not doing something right. I try to keep my process as simple and structured/clean as possible. This one threw me for en entire loop. If all my bounced clips made it correctly into the Audio folder as expected, then I'm scratching my head as to why some bounced clips didn't. Maybe it would help to know that I bounced many clips from the one session/project in Sonar, but only some of them made it into the Audio folder. I thought maybe, perhaps the number in parenthesis had somehow changed or been corrupted, but the audio simply wasn't there. This was after two manual backups, one locally, and one off-site of the same folder at different times after the bounces.

Anyway, back to Karl, what you mentioned is the reason I pledge caution: Bounced clips doesn't ask "where", they just do it as designed. 

I won't say I didn't do something wrong--that's still quite possible, but what could that have been for something so simple? I just found this really odd, and I was nearly out some cash to have the band to come back in to re-track what I'd lost. 

All is well now, though. I'm just preaching a little caution when backing up Audio or bouncing to clips. 

That is bizarre...  the only thing I can think of that would be remotely related, is that the project audio folder was temporarily changed when those bounces were performed, therefore getting saved to a different folder, and then reverting back to the original audio folder sometime after.     Weird...

brconflict


 and I was nearly out some cash to have the band to come back in to re-track what I'd lost. 

So your original statement that it "cost you more $$ to re-track than X2" is not correct then ? Not trying to pick a fight or anything, but it might serve you well in future not to start requests for help with misleading information.